Nice picture of the NW fork of the Ruth glacier and Mt Huntington CW!

A couple of the places I landed today while testing out the new T3 Dual Coil-over Suspension.

CamTom12 wrote:Your pictures are helping me convince the wife that we need to buy a cabin up there. Even if it costs me some of my recreational flying budget for a while. I need to get back again this year!

Standing invitation to stop by and visit. If no one else is in the downstairs room it's yours. Otherwise pitch a tent or stay in the hotel across the street.

Barnstormer wrote:

CamTom12 wrote:Your pictures are helping me convince the wife that we need to buy a cabin up there. Even if it costs me some of my recreational flying budget for a while. I need to get back again this year!

Standing invitation to stop by and visit. If no one else is in the downstairs room it's yours. Otherwise pitch a tent or stay in the hotel across the street.

Thanks for the invite!

I do actually work you know. I'm sure no one believes it, but it's true. I just manage to find time to fly as well.



https://vimeo.com/175493111

AK_Logan invited me to join him and his father-in-law for an afternoon of silver salmon fishing. I've been skunked with my flyrod so I headed to Sportsmans Warehouse and bought a spinning rod, reel, line, terminal tackle and lures. By the time I got back to the cabin I was late so I threw everything in the plane and took off. Landed next to the river. Got my gear out ready to go fishing. The reel's handle was still in the box back at the cabin. Lucky for me AK_Logan took pity on me and loaned me one of his. None of us caught any fish but it was a beautiful day and we had a good time anyway


A picture from my 40 mile beach running,


Bob Breedon and I took off today with no destination in mind other then adventure. This is one of many places we landed. Another beautiful day.

The last three or four days have been mostly rain. Got a break so headed out to find some new areas.

Good to see those "tundra tires" on some actual tundra!

So a few days ago robw56 contacted me to let me know he’d be in Anchorage with his C5 for “Arctic Thunder” and said if I was in ANC to stop by. He then told me he’d have Friday off so I suggested we meet up at Lake Hood and go flying in the SQ2, which is exactly what we did.

After picking Rob up the first stop was at Alaska Airframes to meet with Abe and pick up my beefed up 2-spring T3 prototype rear suspension. I had planned on taking Rob to the Knik and then to Talkeetna but the Wx looked like it might not cooperate so I switched to heading back to the Kenai then on to Seward and the Kenai Fjords.

At Birchwood, where Alaska Airframes is located, the wind was out of the North. By the time we reached the Turnagain Arm the wind was 25-30 and gusty out of the south. The Wx was definitely better on the Kenai Peninsula so it was looking like we’d made the right choice. We dropped down on the river bottom and followed it towards Seward, landing on this gravel bar for a short break. That’s Rob in the picture for those who don’t know him or who might think I look pretty damned good for a senior citizen.



Looking at the picture, to the right is Seward to the left is Kenai. We launched and poked our head around the corner at Seward and knew that destination was out as the sea fog obscured the ocean and the mountains.

So we turned around and headed to my place to go grab lunch. Afterwards I thought I’d run us over to the beach, then down to some Tundra hills for a little play. But first we needed fuel and so headed to the Kenai Airport. By now the wind was 30+ from the south. If this was an uncontrolled airport I’d have landed at the fuel pump and taken off from the fuel pump, but it wasn’t so I landed on 20L Gravel.

Now we were faced with a couple thousand foot taxi into a wind that is more then ample to fly the SQ2. The airspeed indicator showed 40+ mph as we slow taxied. In fact early on in our taxi an even stronger gust lifted us off the taxiway. So I slowed the taxi up to less then walking speed and the entire time we could feel the SQ2 very light on her feet as I worked to hold her on the ground.

At one point Kenai Ground radioed us to alert us to a fuel tanker that was going to taxi in front of us, then mid sentence, with a hint of laughter, she said “never mind, at your speed he’ll be long gone”.

We finally made it to fuel and Rob held down the upwind wing while I fueled. Now we had a new challenge. How to get to the runway for take off which would necessitate a 90 degree taxi to the wind, not something I was looking forward to as the wind speed had picked up even more. As I wandered around, trying to decide the best course of action, Rob suggested I call Ground and ask for a parallel taxiway takeoff- we could get to that taxiway at a 45 degree angle. A good idea indeed, now I just needed to convince the controller to let us do it.

At first he wasn’t sure what I was asking, then he hesitantly said he could probably make that happen but it would be a bit as he had traffic coming in. So Rob and I sat and waited as we watched aircraft come and go. Finally it was our turn and he cleared us to takeoff on the taxiway, after warning us we were doing so at our own risk, to which Rob commented “isn’t every takeoff at our own risk?”.

Boy it was nice to be back in the air. We flew south along the beach, over the combat fishermen, and on towards the tundra benches. But as cars passed us below (with Rob snickering in the back seat) it was evident to me it would take forever to get there so I turned us east towards the Kenai Mountains where we went Caribou sightseeing. After which we headed back towards Lake Hood where I dropped Rob off.

Because of the Wx and the wind we didn’t get to do much other then sight see, but it was good seeing and flying with Rob again, and we had a good time anyway.

In closing I must thank the Kenai controller for understanding our concern and accommodating us. Without a doubt the Alaska controllers are the best, most helpful, and friendliest controllers in the country. They are truly partners in our flying up here. Not so in the lower 48 where more often then not they are exactly the opposite and at times nothing more then obstacles at best. The FAA would do well to rotate lower 48 controller management up to Alaska (as observers only so their behavior doesn’t rub off on the Alaska controllers) to see how much better the system works when there is a partnership between us and ATC and both are helping each other. But alas that would make sense and be productive so it will never happen. My experiences with Alaska ATC have been nothing but helpful and positive, a huge kudos to them.

Great write up Phil. Looks like the two of you had a good time.

Reminds of comments by an Idaho controller. I told him I was landing Parallel to the runway in the grass due to x-winds. Either he didn't hear or understand me.

"What the..., 28M did you just..., aw heck forget it, taxi Bravo to parking"

What a day.



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[quote="Barnstormer"]What a day.



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No invite? [emoji19]

AK_Logan wrote:No invite? [emoji19]

I was on my way to Hood to help a friend pick up and ferry family members back to his place. If the weather holds I call you in the next day or two and we'll go play.

Barnstormer wrote:

AK_Logan wrote:No invite? [emoji19]

I was on my way to Hood to help a friend pick up and ferry family members back to his place. If the weather holds I call you in the next day or two and we'll go play.

[emoji106]

On our way to a new area of Alaska for me, the Gulkana Valley.



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Along the Chitina River


The most amazing glacier I've landed on so far, and steeper then it looks. A friend commented that the SQ2 was happy to be back home (the SQ2 and the mountain were the same color). Great observation.

As always, truly INSPIRING pictures Phil. Again, a hearty THANK YOU for posting your adventure pictures!

tedwaltman wrote:As always, truly INSPIRING pictures Phil. Again, a hearty THANK YOU for posting your adventure pictures!

Thanks Ted, nice to know they are being enjoyed.

More photos from our Wrangel Mountains trip. I named this place Blueberry Strip.


These little guys grow right on the ground with the tundra, usually amid sheep or goat poop. They taste great.


I named this place Nail Bench cause there was a pile of nails right in front of where Bob stopped.


This is one reason we land these places, for views like this.


I really need to find a book (or an app?) on tundra plants, there are so many different types and each is so beautiful.

I have a few of the pocket books for Alaska flowers, berries, and birds we got at river city books at the Y in soldotna. Pretty good little books

Barnstormer wrote:I really need to find a book (or an app?) on tundra plants, there are so many different types and each is so beautiful.

Dwarf fireweed, aka Broad-leafed Fireweed, aka River Beauty, aka Chamerion latifolium, formerly Epilobium latifolium.
If you don't have a starting knowledge of plant families, the Verna Pratt pocket guide is pretty handy since it groups flowering plants by color. For apps, the Audubon bird/ wildflower/ mammal/ tree app is solid.
Cheers,
-DP