Video Looks like the duck flats across the inlet from Anchorage When Wipeline first brought their Beaver to Anchorage to demo the new floats, Beaver Bob their demo pilot let me fly it. Went to the duck flats and landed in a shallow mud lake about 2 inches of water thought he was going to have a heart attack Turned better then I thought it would with the deep vee bottoms.

I took a few pics this weekend of what are most likely water ski ponds, but I like to think of as floatplane ditches.

YOU MAKE THE CALL! [/Madden]

Ditch is pretty big but not very deep.....

One of those guys isn't smiling. Was that you, or the Wipline guy?

Neither .....different A/C dropping off load of Duck Hunters on the Susitna flats. Think he was frowning because he knew he was going to have to pull on the rope to get me turned around and not fall in the mud doing it.

once&futr_alaskaflyer wrote:One of those guys isn't smiling. Was that you, or the Wipline guy?

I don't know where you guys get off thinking all I have to do on a weekday morning is to fly 60 miles one way just to take these pictures for the "ditch" thread, but here ya go!

This first group of ponds is a head scratcher....I guess the float plane pilot has a sense of humor.


These are all within a 1/2 mile of each other and fairly close to the Husky factory; this first one is used for training multiple float pilots all at one time in high speed step turns. It is also used by wheel pilots who want to practice their water skiing skills.


Now this float pond is just too easy, BORING.


Actually.........these are all in a bird refuge, and were dug many years ago (I first noticed them over 20 years ago, they are right on the way to my favorite breakfast spots of Alpine and Afton Wyoming) and they were dug to see which shape would attract the most birds, and what type of birds. This took some detective work on my part, at first I thought they were similar to the giant, and ancient, figures unearthed in Peru. Check it out:http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200504/25710.html. While the actual reason is much more prosaic, someone in the Fish & Wildlife had to dream these up, and it looks like he had a good time doing it!

A better link to the Peru designs, all so big they are only visible from high up, and they date from 600 BC, go figure.http://www.crystalinks.com/nazca.html

Nice ditch.

That looked pretty tight

SE6601KF wrote:This video starts with a ditch then some mud...

Looks like fun to me

You should have heard the original voices before I edit in the music... then Youtube didnt like the use of the music so they turned the sound off.

DonC. that was on the west side but I would not have any knowledge of who the pilot may have been. But I will say that a beaver driver flew over and circled a few times and was in radio contact with a heli just a few miles up the beach slinging out a cub.. The beaver driver told him to head south a few miles when he dropped the cub off cause some dumb ass kitfox driver put the plane down in a spot he would never be able to get out of.. Said kitfox driver proved him wrong about 30 seconds later when he took off and landed a few times in the same lil pond just to prove that the first time was not a fluke.. Damn I love that bird! Word on the street is that the driver of that plane has since dropped about 40 pounds just so he can get better performance when on floats in that lil bird

There is another video of some guy (dont know who but if you look at the other vids that the same guy posted you will find it) in an avid that drives it like a 4X4 over the ice in the inlet too.. Love me them full lotus floats!

Awesome video, among others flying vids at your YouTube channel. I'm a new subscriber