Southwest Alaska flight photos [Archive]

Troy Hamon

10-29-2012, 04:09 PM

Took a trip yesterday to give some stick time to a guy that is interested in learning to fly. We took the scenic route to visit Tikchik Narrows Lodge by flying over to Ekwok, New Stuyahok, and Koliganek on our way up. Was a bit windy at those three, so he got to see some crosswind landings, plus we were bucking a major headwind so the flight there took quite a while. The strip at the lodge is just a narrow track, maybe 1700 feet long (maybe shorter, not sure). Here we are, parked at the far end of the strip after landing, with my copilot walking up the strip to the lodge.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/559365_185843004886406_2039041694_n.jpg

One of our local flyers was here to visit a mutual friend who is the winter caretaker, and his recently acquired spam can was parked at the other end of the strip as we got to the lodge.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/66268_185842878219752_1826484176_n.jpg

The lodge setting is pretty nice...as was the weather...not sure I've ever seen better flying weather, even with the headwind on the way up it was smooth and beautiful, and dead calm around the lodge.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403396_185842741553099_609321212_n.jpg

When we got ready to go again, my copilot lost his head...
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/579026_185842521553121_1447186043_n.jpg

We pulled the airplane forward in the gravelly grass at the end of the strip, then set it ready to roll forward. After we got in and ready, we got everything ready, fired it up, and blasted out of there. It was lovely. Quite an amazing little spot for a lodge, which has been there a long time.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/254318_185842371553136_1967037914_n.jpg

On the way home we went looking for caribou, and we turned up a group of around 10 at one point but none other than that. We will have to work a little harder to find some when we get ready to go hunt this winter. On the way back home we crossed the Mulchatna River near its confluence with the Nushagak.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/28854_185842284886478_568209327_n.jpg

Copilot in training.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/377395_185842091553164_623964710_n.jpg

And some dude that needs a shave.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/549004_185842018219838_356667360_n.jpg

Moonrise over the Alagnak River was pretty awesome.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/554032_185841898219850_837789207_n.jpg

Sunset over Bristol Bay.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/487349_185841708219869_713437348_n.jpg

And finally, the moon just a few minutes after the Alagnak moonrise photo, as the sky color was deepening, was getting really impressive...pretty cool.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/155324_185841551553218_992797160_n.jpg

Good flights all.

jmgross

10-30-2012, 07:50 AM

Love those pictures, thanks for sharing.

Steve Pierce

11-02-2012, 12:53 PM

Awesome spot on the peninsula.

Troy Hamon

11-08-2012, 12:20 PM

Had a brief window of completely mild winds and sunny weather, one day only, so I blasted off to take a look at Mount Martin and points nearby. It's been pretty cold, it was -2F this morning and had only warmed to positive single digits by the time we launched in early afternoon. But there was an inversion, and as we climbed up we found some comfortably warm air. Which is good since my plane leaks air into the cabin like a sieve.

After all the cold weather, the small lakes are all well frozen, but the big lakes are a different dynamic. Naknek Lake was well frozen on the western 10 miles or so, then some open water. By Brooks Camp, actually by Mortuary Cove, there was a strange scattering of pieces of ice sheets, will be interesting to see what it looks like after the warmup that is arriving tomorrow comes with snow, rain, wind, and temps rising to the 40s by Friday.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/374105_189386241198749_1401121354_n.jpg

After a couple passes around Brooks Camp, we flew on to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. A few days back, the valley had no snow on the surface, and some high winds were picking up ash and carrying it to Kodiak. Usually our high winds seem to go the other direction, and nobody notices except us. But when the ash starts dropping in Kodiak, the volcano observatory usually gets some calls asking when the eruption happened.

"Oh, about 100 years ago..."

Now there is a nice thin blanket of snow, but the ash is visible where the watercourses have carved down through it.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/536332_189386351198738_641097178_n.jpg

The eruption actually came out of Novarupta, which is the little lava plug in the middle of the photo. The largest eruption since Tambora, and it didn't even come out of a proper mountain...which wasn't known for a while afterward.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/302749_189386444532062_1252917784_n.jpg

We climbed up, then swung down to Mount Martin to get a photo of the steaming summit caldera. On a nice clear day with the right atmospheric conditions, we can see it from King Salmon and Naknek by the steam plume above the horizon. It was visible even yesterday. Today, it was steaming away in there. As we flew past, the smell of rotten eggs was overpowering. I assured my passenger that I didn't do it.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/21257_189386547865385_568577176_n.jpg

As we flew on across the upper end of the Valley, Mount Griggs was standing tall above the valley.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/480689_189386637865376_1302103174_n.jpg

From there, we continued over Mount Katmai. I've been meaning to get up to get a look at it, but there is always somewhere else to fly that I'd like to see, but today everything worked out. An amazing day. Mount Katmai was originally thought to be the source of the 1912 eruption before they discovered that the ash sheet was thickest around the Novarupta vent. They thought it came from Katmai because it was the highest mountain in the area, and then it was gone, the summit had collapsed. In fact, it appears that the eruption at Novarupta drained the magma chamber beneath Katmai, and it then collapsed in on itself.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/552388_189386717865368_910701607_n.jpg

Grabbed a shot of a pretty fabulous little canyon on the back side of Snowy Mountain with the sun lighting it up just right...
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/249354_189386857865354_623713078_n.jpg

We flew on for quite a trip, but the light got a little more subdued as a cloud layer moved in and the light got pretty flat. But we flew past Hallo Bay, then turned west and went down Kulik and Nonvianuk Lakes, then down the Alagnak River. As we descended, we were back in the inversion and the mountains began taking on odd shapes. I've tried to explain how it looks to people, but I never seem to get a good photo. I need to remember to take a telephoto lens along. In the meantime, here's a shot...those mountains in the distance aren't really shaped like that...and they aren't really that tall...
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/530926_189386927865347_1843460978_n.jpg

As we got back home, I was descending when all of a sudden it felt like we were flying through a bowl of mush. Looked around, and the instruments all claimed everything was fine, but it just felt totally WRONG. Looked outside again, then scanned the instruments...and realized we were flying down through the inversion. I looked out and picked a mountain and pulled power to descend through the layer. As we went through, I saw the mountain mirage effect transition from one in which we were above the reflecting layer to where we were below it...and all of a sudden we were flying smooth again. Funny.

Good flights everyone.

tnowak

11-09-2012, 03:42 AM

Steve Pierce

11-09-2012, 07:18 AM

Brrrrr. I am wearing shorts.

Troy Hamon

11-09-2012, 10:26 AM

Truly spectacular photographs! How do you manage to get such high quality pics when taken from inside your aircraft? I always find canopies/perspex/propellers/struts etc. always seem to get in the way when I try taking photos from my Vagabond.
What camera are you using?
TonyN

I am very fortunate to have TriPacer serial number 27...which has sliding windows on both sides. Makes it very easy to get a photo without the glare off the windshield or the distortion of the low quality optical surface of the windshield itself. To avoid struts and the wing, the angle of view is the important thing. I bought a camera with a large image sensor like DSLR's, but without the big pentaprism. The camera is an NX100 from Samsung. I then bought a lens that is a single focal length with a large maximum aperture and has a 'normal' perspective, similar to 45mm on a full-frame 35mm dslr or on a 35 mm film camera. In the case of the camera I got, that lens is a 30 mm lens with maximum aperture F2. There are newer and slightly better options, but the NX100 is dirt cheap right now. I've had mine since they first came out and it has done what I wanted out of it. If I was feeling like throwing some more money at the camera, I'd upgrade to a NX200. But what I really want is a camera with a Nikon D800E sensor that is without the pentaprism, but I don't expect that to be available from anybody at an affordable price for a while...

And Steve...

You should know better by now than to open one of my posts while wearing shorts...

smcnutt

11-09-2012, 11:26 AM

Dear Troy, you suck:whinging: (I couldn't find a green envy smiley so this will have to do)

That is all. Please resume posting your pictures.;)

Troy Hamon

11-09-2012, 11:41 AM

Ouch!

Okay, I'm over it.

Got to save some dollars and wait for better weather though...no flying today...

Steve Pierce

11-10-2012, 08:23 AM

And Steve...

You should know better by now than to open one of my posts while wearing shorts...

Sounds like I might get a good taste of Alaska winter this Feb, I have been invited to speak in Fairbanks.
http://dechionsplace.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/cold_person2.jpg

Troy Hamon

11-10-2012, 12:49 PM

That should definitely bring out a few shivers. But though it is cold there, the wind rarely blows, so it is a comparatively lovely cold. Our cold is almost always accompanied by a stiff north wind...so if Fairbanks doesn't chill you down enough, come out and visit...

rocket

11-10-2012, 03:36 PM

Steve,
Fairbanks in February? Well, at least there will be no bugs! I tried to get up there in MArch a few years ago but the limited daylight was a problem, that and the cold.

Troy and myself are having an unspoken battle of who can fly the most hours this year. I might have him beat but he certainly takes better fotos! My flying was off significantly this summer do to the weather but I am hoping to make up for it as soon as it is winter: 40s and raining the last few days; WTF.

I bet Troy could put together a nice Western Alaska Flying picture book. I have seen some of these home made on line books that look vary professional. I am placing my order right now!

Rocket

Troy Hamon

11-10-2012, 04:17 PM

Rocket, I just totaled up my hours, and I am only at 119 for the year...I think you will likely win, but maybe you've been a bit low on hours this year too? I'm working on another book, got ideas for a few more, and I am definitely working on a photo book. Not sure how soon any of them will be ready...

Curly

11-10-2012, 06:07 PM

Went out to dinner last night with a group and one couple had just returned from 6 weeks in Canada and Alaska. Just looking at some of the pictures (together with Steve's mate Tal Erickson's superb shots of Alaska) have almost convinced us to buy a set of winter woolies and "do Alaska". Awesome scenery and the autumn colours were just spectacular.

Troy Hamon

11-10-2012, 06:10 PM

Curly, come on up.

Troy Hamon

11-12-2012, 03:52 AM

A friend of mine wanted some hood time today. We are in the middle of a warm-up phase, but the ceilings were forecast to be high, the visibility was forecast to be good, and the wind was forecast to be almost calm. Usually when it gets warm in the winter, one of these factors is more in the realm of unpleasant...but not today.

We got ourselves over to the airplane and launched as they were reporting clouds at 1100 feet...which is quite a bit lower than forecast. But I was already paying special attention to the weather, as the low hills to the north of the field had a low band of clouds moving across in front of them that was visible as I was driving down the road.

When I go flying in the winter I have a bunch of survival gear in the plane. In this case, it was pretty warm out, above freezing anyway, but I threw in my super-warm parka and bibs just in case...

On climb out, we found ourselves bumping against a thin layer at 400 feet...then as we ducked back under we could see up through it right to blue sky. So we went up through a hole and off we went. From above, it was super-thin, and localized to King Salmon, with more low clouds down toward Naknek. Since Josh was under the hood, it was up to me to keep an eye on conditions, and since both King Salmon and Naknek were flyable, I figured we'd just stay close and take whichever was still open if one of them closed down. And if all else failed, I have a friend with a private strip up on slightly higher ground that was completely out of the fog layer to the east.

Josh flew a bunch of turns, descents, climbs, and combinations. I had him go to climbing and descending turns, he flew a couple stalls, and we did some unusual attitudes. Finally, he had had enough and pulled off the hood. At that point, the lake was totally open, clear, and beautiful.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/643969_190783631059010_819202494_n.jpg

But the layer over King Salmon had solidified and was no longer something you could look down through. Hmm. The last 20 minutes of Josh's hood time I had asked him to dial in the ATIS and while it was low, it was still fine for getting in to the field via a SVFR clearance, with good visibility reported at 10 miles and a ceiling of 400 feet.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396662_190783717725668_623023796_n.jpg

Now that he was done hood flying, it might be time to head in?

No, in our brilliance, we decided to take a quick swing up to where we had gone moose hunting...

After a run up to the Alagnak River and back, the weather was still the same on the ATIS, but the low layer as we dropped down and approached was looking pretty unfavorable... We could still see out to the east fairly well, but it was getting pretty low. After making contact with the tower, they asked us to report 5 north, but at 6 north we couldn't see 5 north...so we swung east and told tower we were headed around. They cleared us into the surface area anyway, and asked us to report 1 mile out. We flew until we reached King Salmon Creek, then started heading down the creek. As we turned toward the field again, the visibility got poorer and poorer. But there was a little sliver of better visibility right down along Pike Ridge, which looked like we could perhaps all the way to the Naknek River. So we headed down along the ridge.

The tower called up to ask our location, and to tell us that their best visibility from the tower was toward Pike Ridge...right where we were...and sure enough the visibility to the west went from crummy to awesome right then, and we had a clear view of the field. They asked us our choice of runway and cleared us to land, and in we went. After shutting down and getting ourselves halfway through the process of putting the plane to bed we looked around and the clouds had completely descended on the field...we couldn't see the tower 1/4 mile away. I've gone into the field in low ceiling and visibility conditions before. But that's the first time I have flown in with about 10 minutes to spare separating me from a night somewhere else...

And I very much doubt that the field in Naknek would have been any better. And my friend's field looked like it was likely completely fogged in as well on Pike Ridge. So we would have been spending the night in Levelock, or Igiugig, or maybe Kokhanok. Which might have been its own adventure, but I'm happy enough to save that for another time.

Meantime...next time it is sounding marginal below I think we might do less dawdling...

Troy Hamon

05-06-2013, 01:31 AM

Yesterday a friend and I went to Bethel and back. Neither of us had ever been there and we had been talking about making the flight sometime so off we went. We had a pretty solid headwind on the way, and since we wanted to know our fueling options, we stopped in Dillingham to make sure the self-serve fuel was open and functional. The landing was a bit sporty, as the winds were at 260 at 11 gusting 17, so the landing was as close to a direct crosswind as you can get. The Tri-Pacer actually handles that pretty well. But at 20 gusting 30 I might have been landing straight across the runway onto the taxiway...

Had to taxi behind an Everts jet to get fuel, so I took a taxi route that had me taxiing toward the rear of the jet in order to see how much wind was coming off the idle generator turbine you can always hear from those things on the ground. Ended up being none...but I didn't want to be the subject of a youtube special.

From DLG, we climbed up and went over the mountains between Lake Nunavaugaluk (maybe my favorite place name in all of Alaska...I'm always suggesting it to parents looking to name their newborns...everybody thinks I'm joking...) and Lake Aleknagik.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/428387_270779226392783_572318731_n.jpg

Josh is actually taller than I am...he's 6'5" and I'm 6'4"...luckily the Island Girl is a little bigger inside than our other PA-22 was. We are still crammed in there, but the last one was even tighter.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/320840_270778949726144_1007255076_n.jpg

The mountains between Dillingham and Bethel are for the most part not very high, but they are a beautiful mix of rounded tops and jagged ridges.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/21288_270778766392829_988341238_n.jpg

With the headwind all the way to Bethel, we were looking at our fuel burn and calculating our options. We had been flying entirely on the right tank. I told Josh I would be switching when we were five miles out, and we should have about 2 gallons left in the right tank by then. With the wind at our back, we should be arriving back at Dillingham with 45 minutes of fuel...if the wind dropped maybe closer to 30 minutes...both of us have 1 hour minimums...so we decided we really may as well stop and ask for fuel.

The wind was 290 at 12, so we got cleared straight in on 30. I was looking at the airport diagram, and it looked like it might be hard surface for the first little section, with the overall runway length at 1875 ft. I couldn't remember a landing with substantial wind that was angled right down the runway, so I was interested to see if I could get it down and stopped on the pavement...

As we approached, Josh was looking ahead...

"I thought it was a gravel runway, but they have the runway end numbers painted on...I think it is paved!"

"Yeah, I was noticing that the runway had sections that looked hard surfaced in the diagram, if I read it correctly, the first little section is paved, then gravel."

"Okay, that makes sense."

As we came in, the wind was steady and smooth, so I stuck it right on the numbers, pulled power, pulled on the brake, and was stopped in time to taxi off before the gravel. Google satellite imagery suggests the entire paved portion is 475 feet or so. Aiming at the numbers, stopped where I did, I was probably down and stopped in about 400 feet. I don't think I'll bother to enter the short field competition at Valdez. But I think I could have done that landing every time...felt pretty good. In fact, it feels like I have fully transferred my skills to this airplane, similar as it is.

The tower directed us to Crowley when we asked for fuel, but it was after 6 pm and we didn't find anybody there. At the Yute Air terminal another pilot walked over and asked us if we needed fuel, then he called a number and a few minutes later a truck pulled up to fuel us.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/947067_270778469726192_1558325186_n.jpg

We headed back in short order, our very abbreviated visit to Bethel complete. It is really only around 40 or 50 miles of complete flat country between Bethel and the first hills, and in some ways it isn't that different from the Bristol Bay lowlands. But it does seem a lot flatter.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/11745_270777859726253_1519460256_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/481001_270777179726321_2076013803_n.jpg

The mountains were beautiful on the way home.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/321490_270776859726353_1953353208_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/62668_270776663059706_120402342_n.jpg

We flew a couple laps around the Muklung Hills looking for wreckage from the Ace B1900 crash this winter, but didn't turn up anything. We kept thinking we were looking at it, but then when we got a better look it was always rocks.

Winds had died down to numbers more like we had in Bethel by the time we landed at King Salmon, a lovely end to a lovely flight.

alaskadrifter

05-06-2013, 03:54 AM

Im missing Dlg a lot right now! Great pics. Locally we call Lake Nunavaugaluk Snake Lake. If you flew over Shannon's Pond you likely flew right past my house. Say hey to Josh for me.
Ward

Troy Hamon

06-02-2013, 08:39 PM

Ward...Josh is off in Kenya meeting the future in-laws...he left middle of May and I don't expect to see him for quite some time...

Been awful busy, I have a few photos I need to get developed so I can post...but yesterday I had a quick flightsee tour with some co-workers. I let them take the photos, so all I have are images from a quick landing at Levelock and another at Kulik. Had a great day, smooth air but with a bit of rain and some low clouds in places. Have to take the family to Kulik, you can walk right down to the lake from the end of the strip.

Levelock break.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/602297_282680668535972_705987431_n.jpg

Hiding from the rain at Kulik. We were parked in the middle of the strip because I hadn't walked the sides and a good friend found a really soft spot last year that sort of ruined his day...
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/179714_282680281869344_763574179_n.jpg

alaskadrifter

06-02-2013, 09:41 PM

Well the wife beat me home this year. I'm still stuck in Texas, trying to finish up commercial multi before fishing. Looks like it finally stopped snowing :)

Troy Hamon

06-02-2013, 11:50 PM

Been nice out here. Last week was a better summer all by itself than we've had in three years.

Troy Hamon

06-03-2013, 01:21 AM

Took a friend for a flight a few weeks back to look at the volcanoes in the park. The weather was great on our side of the mountains, but clouds were hanging around right along the divide, so we didn't get to see some of what we went looking for...but we still had a great trip.

On the way, we got a look at Savonoski River, in all its braided, multi-channeled-ness.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/970731_278196578984381_1335308746_n.jpg

Ash covered glacier near Katmai Volcano.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/941611_278196435651062_1137920291_n.jpg

Mt Griggs standing tall.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/922832_278196515651054_728305559_n.jpg

The southwest corner of Katmai has some lovely country that is hardly noticed my most, as it isn't very accessible. But it is quite lovely.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/943016_278196708984368_11216287_n.jpg

The Kejuliks don't look like the rest of our mountains. Even though we have lots of active volcanoes, our mountains don't have particularly jagged tops...except for the little spine of the Kejuliks.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/969617_278196725651033_150198742_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

06-03-2013, 01:32 AM

Flew to Anchorage and back a couple weeks ago also. The weather was lovely both directions, at least on the days I flew. On the way, Iliamna was steaming, but it was also holding a cloud bank that had pushed in from the other side...made it look like it was really puffing away.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/268896_278196832317689_2079240456_n.jpg

The white mountains stood out against the dark waters of Cook Inlet, as did Chisik Island.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/942030_278197062317666_1706018647_n.jpg

I crossed right next to the vent of Redoubt at 9,500 feet, and it was steaming away. This is the closest view I've had.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/983922_278197195650986_131616101_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/293731_278197352317637_558460771_n.jpg

The Drift River Valley was snowed in all the way to the bottom, but a pretty good avalanche field was at the bottom of one of the ravines.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/316121_278197275650978_1631301927_n.jpg

There was a layer of cloud over Cook Inlet, but the mountains to the west were in the bright sunlight.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/580318_278197515650954_1201561241_n.jpg

Yes, that's right, the price of AvGas in Anchorage is less than the price of car gas in King Salmon. By more than a dollar. And nearly four dollars cheaper than AvGas in King Salmon. So I topped off. Too bad I don't have bigger tanks so I could top off higher...
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/431880_278197562317616_106866795_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

06-03-2013, 01:49 AM

The trip home was nice too. I really like the knife edge ridges.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/295005_278197692317603_1317477254_n.jpg

Another look at Chisik Island.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/575737_278197868984252_1226347618_n.jpg

Woody Island in Lake Iliamna was lovely in the sunlight.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/254192_278197938984245_1715625568_n.jpg

Took a quick bladder break in Kokhanok.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/969328_278198232317549_154282647_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/970498_278198242317548_2070050674_n.jpg

Steve Pierce

06-03-2013, 06:33 AM

Glad you are getting good use out of 76D. Great pics.

rocket

06-03-2013, 01:42 PM

Troy is trying really hard to brake my annual flying record!

What he doesn't know is I take an after dinner nap and then fly the dusky hours.

He seems to have found better looking passengers then me.

At least the last gal I had on board was both big and strong...strong enough to get my 182 out of the mud hole I found at Nakeen. Look for a humorous post over at BCP some time in the future. I went back in the Batplane the other day and landed in the slue on floats; more my style.

Too many hours of daylight and not enough blue gas! Daughter started masters program so I have officially placed myself on a avgas ration.

Some of us chase the dream while a few of us live it!

Rocket

PeterL

06-06-2013, 12:37 PM

76D looks like it is fitting in great up there.

Peter

Troy Hamon

06-10-2013, 02:49 AM

Yesterday we had a rare convergence of good weather and a day off for me. We usually try to get out and take a boat ride, but this time we decided to have a picnic with air support, something we've never done before. With our friend that lives with us, we make a five person crew, so no way to do a single load. I dropped off my wife and son, then headed back for daughter + 1. On the ground to load them, I left the strobe on and the master on, and then couldn't get the plane started. Starter stuck engaged when I tried to turn it over...so no hand prop either. So we ran home for the generator and the charger and got it all back ready...then launched the second flight. Apparently son was just deciding they might have a problem. The weather was great, but bumpy. Best air was finally when I stuck near the ground for the final return flight. Apparently the day was a success, as wife is talking about making another visit to the same spot to camp...

Every place is a good place to knit.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1000436_286121828191856_599442357_n.jpg

Maybe it was also a good place to run...
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/995039_286121571525215_1111659658_n.jpg

Daughter the budding artist.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/944126_286122338191805_177307697_n.jpg

Our household photo.
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Lichen.
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Lichen, Labrador tea, dwarf birch, and crowberry.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/947067_286122681525104_1943568624_n.jpg

Shallow bay on Nonvianuk Lake.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/996848_286122881525084_431470439_n.jpg

The east end of the strip is public, the west end is private. I landed and stopped in the first few hundred feet, then lifted off in the next 1000 so I didn't have to back-taxi but was not using the private end.
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King Salmon Creek on the way home.
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tnowak

06-11-2013, 02:19 AM

How does an airstrip work when one end is public and the other end private? Fence across the strip in the middle?
Reminds me of a small grass airfield in UK. The two owners fell out and, if I recall correctly, they put a fence right down the middle. If you wanted to get from one side to the other you hade to take off, do a circuit, and land on the other half. I think fuel was on one side and hangars on the other...
TonyN

Troy Hamon

06-11-2013, 03:05 AM

Well, as I understand it, the owners of the private end built the whole thing, but their property isn't that big. The half that is off their property is federal land, as it was when the airstrip was built. There is no fence, but the Alaska Supplement makes it pretty clear that the east 2,000 feet are open and public, and the west 2,000 feet are not. The supplement also says there is no maintenance on the eastern half, but it is obvious that the private lodge is maintaining the whole thing, which makes sense since I saw a Navajo taking off. The write-up in the supplement is likely to discourage visitors from deciding to drop in.

Troy Hamon

07-29-2013, 02:46 AM

Out here in southwest Alaska, we've been having a California summer. It has been crazy...clear, light winds, temperatures hitting near 80 repeatedly. We're confused. Our skin is tan, we have been digging through our clothes bins for that pair of shorts we were pretty sure we brought back from Hawaii last time we went, and we have been buying sunscreen, not just carrying around the 15-year-old bottle we have always had in our pack. We were carrying that at the beginning of the summer, but we used it up and had to buy more.

During this bout of tremendous weather, I hadn't flown since getting back from the Shortwing Piper Convention. Not because I didn't want to, but, well, I've been busy. And broke. But especially busy. Last week, as I saw the potential for a day off in my future, I started looking at the weather forecast, and it continued to look like good weather into the foreseeable future. A friend of ours has been wanting to see Aniakchak, so we started talking about making a visit...

Then a couple days before the possible day off, Cedric told me he really wanted to camp in Aniakchak sometime...

I told him that I really thought we should plan on a trip like that sometime...maybe next year...and then I thought a little more carefully. Here we were, in the middle of the best run of weather I've seen in my life, and it was forecast to continue...why not now?

Keep in mind, this is the same person that was out on a moose hunt, was packing it in, and saw a hare. A really big hare. I thought to myself, "I should come hunting for hare sometime, it would be great to have that beautiful white pelt." Then I stopped myself. I was hunting. Hares were open season. I had a gun. There was a hare. So I shot it. But the point is, sometimes I need a little push to get my mind off the prior plan...

So I asked our friend if she minded getting bumped...and she didn't. Or she said she didn't. So we started planning. For a one night stay, which of course might turn into a multi-night stay, depending on the weather.

We were going to have adequate food, adequate shelter, and blast out of there as soon as the weather allowed after spending a night. That was the plan.

Friday, the putative day off, was looming, but I still had work I hadn't finished. So I decided I'd go in and finish it up in the morning, then we'd have plenty of time to take the trip anyway. When I got up, my neck was a bit stiff, but after a cup of coffee I headed off to work to get my day underway. At work, I had to run off to the airport to pick up some folks, but then they didn't come in when expected, and I had a couple more surprises cross my desk. Pretty soon, it was 2 pm and I was in the middle of helping the arriving folks move their stuff. Every time I got in and out of the car, my neck was complaining, a little more loudly now. Finally, at 3:30 pm I headed home to round up the stuff, get the plane loaded, and head off for a little volcano camping.

But my neck was really bothering me. I asked my wife to massage my neck a bit, and she complied for a few seconds, until she hit something just perfectly...

I found myself on my knees, holding my neck, and Becky was exclaiming, "You should have warned me!"

The problem was, I don't know what I would have warned her of...but she really touched the heart of the matter. We tried again, and again I fell over when she touched the side of my neck in the wrong place.

"I don't know whether you really ought to be flying into that volcano when you can't even hold your head up straight and you totally fall over in pain if I touch it. "

Of course, being the fool, or perhaps just an optimist, I figured some ibuprofen would solve the problem. So I took some, and then prepared to lay down to wait for my neck to relax. After all, sundown isn't until almost 11, so it wasn't like I was really pressed for time.

But when I went to lay down, I couldn't. I couldn't get my neck to relax enough to keep it from spazzing out on me no matter which side I tried to lower myself down onto, or even straight back, and boy did it hurt. Now I was starting to get really concerned.

"Cedric, the weather looks really good, and I really appreciate you getting everything ready, but right now I am having a lot of trouble with my neck, so we really need to wait for it to get better before we leave. So we'll have to wait a little while to see if the painkillers I took will help."

"Okay, Dad."

He brought our computers down and we waged some mean battles on AQWorlds waiting for pharmacy to overcome biology. And it did, at least a little bit, but it became obvious that it wasn't really the best time to do this adventure, as I didn't want to be wondering. So we agreed to postpone for another day. But I had to work part of Sunday, so Saturday night wasn't really a good plan. We were going to have to hope the weather held out until at least Tuesday to have our volcano camping adventure. That seemed like a lot to ask, but then again, you just never know with the way this summer has gone.

I was still hopeful about being able to fly Saturday, but there was a lot of hot compresses, ibuprofen, and propping my neck with carefully arranged pillows to get me through the evening. Medical incapacitation. Bummer. Missed a great adventure. And my neck hurt.

Troy Hamon

07-29-2013, 03:30 AM

Saturday dawned and I got up cautiously...but without undue issues. Well, if I had actually awakened at dawn that would have been an issue, but I didn't. I missed dawn by a number of hours, but I'm okay with that. I carried myself cautiously and continued with the pain pills, but the neck was a lot better. Since I was at home, there were a lot of things to do, so I focused on getting those done while I evaluated my options. Cedric said he'd rather wait for a chance to spend the night. So I checked with our friend Linda to see if she still wanted to go see Aniakchak...and she did. But Port Heiden was LIFR. As was Pilot Point. As was Egegik. Of course, King Salmon started like that as well, but it cleared up pretty quick, as it had for most of the previous couple weeks. The warm days were followed by cold nights, which generally result in fog when you are surrounded by water. But the afternoons are glorious.

As the day progressed, however, the peninsula remained IFR. The initial forecasts for clearing were still there, but it was not clear yet. And the other side, Chignik, was low and ominous. Hmmm.

The GFS model started to change its mind, and pretty soon the best forecast was for a ceiling of 3000 feet or less. Still enough to get in, but at that point it would be a little different as a sightseeing trip, as most of the caldera wall would be in cloud. I explained to Linda that we could likely go see it, but she wouldn't have the view she was hoping for.

"What about that other flight to see the lakes over by Dillingham?"

"We can do that, and the weather is pretty fantastic everywhere over there already."

So off we went.

The wind was 11 gusting 17 from 270, so tower sent us to runway 30 for departure. But as we were approaching taxiway Charlie, they asked us to hold short of Charlie and cancelled our taxi clearance, as they were waiting to see what the landing 737 did... He blew past taxiway Echo before getting stopped, so they changed our taxi clearance to send us down to Echo for departure, while the 737 got off on 18, then Charlie. But as we taxied down Charlie, a Saab 340 was calling in on a right base for 30, so ground asked us if we would be ready for departure when we got to the intersection. We had already done our runup before taxiing, so we were ready to launch. He told the Saab he was going to launch us before landing them, then came back to us.

"Tri-Pacer Seven Six Delta, switch to tower for clearance."

"Switching to tower, Seven Six Delta."

A few seconds later, "Tower, Seven Six Delta is ready to depart three zero at Echo."

"Seven Six Delta, cleared to depart three zero at Echo, right turnout approved."

"Cleared to depart three zero, Seven Six Delta."

We rolled out, poured on the coals, and lifted off. We got a little bit in the air, then I pushed forward to try to hold ground effect and build speed. I still haven't figured out what to think about flying when it is 80 degrees out, but I don't like being slow at those temperatures, so I've been emphasizing speed over climb. We got to 110 mph in short order, and made 1000 feet as we headed across the tundra to check out the other side of the bay. The first thing we saw was the fog rolling around the bay down by Naknek.
https://sphotos-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/536892_309888039148568_56649431_n.jpg

But the fog was low, and the tongue creeping up the Kvichak River was right next to our line of travel, so we flew along and enjoyed the view of it as it thinned and diminished.
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After passing Diamond J, we aimed for New Stuyahok, where we were intending to intersect the Nushagak River. But we had a lot of tundra to cross before we got there. The tundra looked lush and green, despite the dry, hot weather we'd been having.
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We spotted a moose when we were nearly to the Nushagak, then the river was in front of us, with New Stuyahok on the other bank.
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The Nushagak is a pretty impressive river. And although I've landed at the airport a few times, I've actually never been to New Stu itself. This time, since we weren't landing, I got a great view of the village.
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We flew on upriver, passing Koliganek, then headed up the Nuyakuk River toward the Tikchik Lakes. As we were coming into the upper Nuyakuk River, a DeHavilland Beaver called in from 5 miles north inbound for Royal Coachman. I didn't know where Royal Coachman was, but gave my position, and then we settled what his destination was in relation to my position. As it turned out, we had a great view of him flying the pattern, turning base and final beneath us, as he set up to land upriver right in front of the lodge. As we arrived at Tikchik Lake, we flew along the south shore, headed to Tikchik Narrows for a view of the lodge and spit before we headed south. But the south shore of Tikchik Lake is a stunning place. Huge monoliths tower over the shoreline. Very cool indeed...
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https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/559997_309888449148527_532640504_n.jpg

The lodge is situated out in the middle of the lake, on the narrow isthmus of land we visited last fall. But now, in the middle of summer, I wouldn't land unless I had specific permission. My impression is the lodges like to manage the experience of their guests, and aren't looking for random drop-in visitors. I suspect if it was Harrison Ford they wouldn't mind, but I didn't want to make anybody mad, so we turned south from there and headed to the Wood River Lakes.
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Troy Hamon

07-29-2013, 04:48 AM

Flying down the Wood River Lakes is like homecoming. My introduction to Alaska was as a graduate student in these lakes north of Dillingham, where I spent the better part of five summers. After 20 summers, I've still barely covered 1/4 of the state from the air, and feel on familiar terms with about 1/8 of it. That leaves a lot of the state for me to explore when I can. But the Wood River system is a beauty. We started by flying down Grant River and looking at Grant Falls.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1004648_309888619148510_1594723873_n.jpg

From there, we turned and headed down Kulik Lake toward Mount Waskey. Kulik Lake is one of two lakes in southwest Alaska with the same name. The other is northeast of King Salmon, and is a lovely place as well. But in the Wood River Lakes, Kulik appears, at least to the level of inspection I gave it Saturday, to be still completely undeveloped. I was amazed to see some small glacier hanging on up on Mt. Waskey, but with a summer like we are having this year it won't last too long. Near the west end of Kulik Lake, the Wind River drains the lake down through another glacial valley. In the middle of the valley is Lake Mikchalk, which drains into the Peace River, which in turn drains into Lake Beverly. Lake Mikchalk has a lodge on it, which was known as the Golden Horn Lodge back when I was familiar with it. I had heard that it passed into private ownership, but don't know more than that. There was an airplane parked there when we went by, so hopefully someone is enjoying it. It sits in a magnificent location...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/16573_309888579148514_544371983_n.jpg

Like many lodges, it is not named for its actual location. Down on Lake Beverly, there are two glacial horns at the upper end of the lake. One is the Golden Horn, but that's not where the lodge is. The other is the Silver Horn. We flew into the Silver Horn for a little look-see because I wanted to get a look at the rock wall at the upper end of the arm, as I remembered it being pretty impressive.
https://sphotos-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/1002155_309888599148512_1084464571_n.jpg

But there is another thing that sticks in my mind about the Silver Horn. Near the entrance, there is a large island. We called it Blueberry Island.
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It is the place where I learned to love blueberries. I'm about to offend blueberry farmers everywhere, and probably a bunch of gardeners too...so be warned. I didn't like blueberries. They were lots of blue, bland, sweet, mushiness. When I got to Alaska and people talked about picking blueberries, I didn't know why everybody got so excited. But we ended up on this island during blueberry season.

Wow.

These were blueberries with some zip! And they were ridiculously abundant. Like walking in a sea of blue. At least, that's how I remember it. I became a wild Alaska blueberry lover then. And I still am.

We flew on around the mountains to get a look at Lake Nerka, the nomenclatural home of the sockeye salmon, and certainly the real home to many of them. We marveled at how it is carved around a couple mountain ranges. Glaciers are amazing things. It would have been interesting to see how these flowed when they were laid out. But some of them are pretty straightforward, such as the Amakuk Arm feeding down into the main body of the lake.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/62416_309888669148505_1605484605_n.jpg

We flew on down Nerka, then Aleknagik, and set up for a quick touch and go on the Aleknagik runway. I like doing a landing at Aleknagik whenever I am flying over, as the strip is 2,000 feet long, and it helps to drop into a shorter strip occasionally to keep the sight picture. Especially since most of the strips in the state have been improved such that even the village strips are often near 4,000 feet or more. And of course at King Salmon we are dealing with a 4,000 foot strip and another that is 8,900 feet. Definitely a little different.

From Aleknagik, we headed home. Once again, we were crossing the tundra. Mountains have a lot of visual drama. But I've come to appreciate the fine beauty of the tundra lowlands as well...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/992829_309888712481834_1106437577_n.jpg

As we approached Nakeen, I decided to set up for a good image. I have flown over Nakeen a bunch of times, but never got a photo I liked.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/992827_309888775815161_880158720_n.jpg

Many of the canneries up the rivers have been abandoned, and I'm not necessarily sure why. They were operational in the era when Bristol Bay salmon fishing was done from sailboats, and motorized vessels were not allowed. Whether the greater range of the motorized vessels is an issue, or whether the turbo pace of the fishing scene has resulted in boats not taking time to go upriver to places like this to offload their catch, I don't exactly know. But I do know that Nakeen has a special extra challenge...the channel has completely deserted it. If you wanted to get your fish to Nakeen now, you'd need something other than a boat to get them there...the photo above is at flood stage of high tide...and there is the meagerest little channel that goes by. The main channel is well away from the cannery. Not a good arrangement.

Going back into King Salmon, we were given a right downwind entry to 30, wind now was 9 kts at 240. When we announced on the right downwind, tower came back on...

"Troy-Pacer Seven Six Delta, clear to land three zero, base turn pilot's discretion."

"Clear to land three zero, Seven Six Delta."

Then, "Oh boy, Linda, this one will be fun. Buckle up, we are going to make this a turning descent to a spot landing just in time to get off on Echo."

Now we certainly didn't need to do that. We could have flown out the standard pattern, and I usually do. But the Troy-Pacer is a wonderfully responsive beast, and I enjoy flying it. So we were slowing up, reconfiguring, running the prelanding checklist, initiating our continuous base/final turn, setting power for descent and landing, getting in flaps when the speed bled down sufficiently, and then there was the runway in the windscreen. The windsock showed a fairly direct crosswind, but we touched down near Echo and taxied off to end our day. What a great flight. Now we're watching the weather forecasts for Aniakchak again...but it looks like the weather is turning on us...

Time will tell...

Troy Hamon

09-14-2013, 04:12 AM

This has been quite the period for Alaska flying. The start of hunting season every year is an aviation horror show, and this year has been no different, perhaps a little worse. There are a few possible reasons why this time of year is so chock-full of bent metal. The one that people often bring up in discussion is the infrequent flyer that does very little flying, then takes off for a hunt in an aircraft that is fully capable of going places the pilot is not tuned up enough to go. Certainly that is a possibility. But it does also neglect the simple mathematics of the season. Even if everybody is practicing throughout the year, this is the event they are practicing for. So while there are pilots flying all the time, they are all flying at this time...

So there might be a question of proficiency. And there are certainly more airplanes flying now. And people have been planting airplanes into lakes, meadows, streambeds, and who knows what else in the past couple weeks. Some of those people have been walking away. But not all of them.

Scouting for animals from the air can be fun and educational. But it can also be fatal. We have had what appear to be moose stall fatalities already this month. And guess what I decided to go do today? Actually, I've been looking for my opportunity for a few days...to fly around and look for moose. I had work assignments that precluded any hunting opportunities up until today, so today was a bit hectic. Worked for most of the day, ran off to get a hunting license (hadn't actually been hunting yet this year) and a registration permit along with my son (but no, we aren't going to shoot two moose...), then we put some gas in the Island Girl and headed out to look for Bullwinkle.

Now there are a bunch of reasons why people kill themselves looking at moose. Most of them can boil down to everyone in the plane being transformed by the sight of a moose into a passenger, with nobody diligently taking care to ensure that the airplane is fully piloted. In an attempt to facilitate viewing, instead of flying, the airplane can be put into an attitude that leads to a stall, unfortunately a low-altitude, uncoordinated stall. Not a good story.

I have a few rules about looking at animals. One is that I don't make a hard circle over an animal when I see it. If I do circle, it is after an approach where the circle is planned. But anytime I see an animal beneath the plane, I fly past, then turn and come back if I am going to try to help somebody else get a look at it.

But here is where the animal spotting and the hunting don't add up to me...

I don't circle back to look at any animals during hunting season, regardless of who in the airplane wants to see it. Flying loops over an animal during hunting season is like erecting a huge sign in the willows..."MOOSE HERE! COME AND GET HIM!!!"

Of all times to be circumspect about such things, it is when there are other people around hunting.

So Cedric and I were heading out to look for moose. But really, we were just looking for some reassurance that there were moose somewhere out there. I haven't been seeing moose around. The pilots I visit with have not been seeing them either. I know they are out there. I saw a lot in some places last winter. I have seen a few this fall, just not many. But there is something reassuring about seeing a moose from the air before you commit hundreds of dollars of boat or airplane gas to go chasing them. At least you know there is a moose in the general vicinity, so it shouldn't be a total waste of time.

But the reality is that I haven't ever actually shot a moose that I saw from the air. Last year we never even made it up the river to the point where my daughter and I saw the bulls we flew over. But it was certainly encouraging to have seen them.

Cedric removed the tie-downs while I fueled the plane and did the pre-flight inspection. Everything looked fine other than the cloud of black flies swirling around my head. Which was a very good sign...it was nearly calm.

I had arranged flight following with my wife..."Do you want me to file with Kenai Radio?"

"No, I can follow you from here."

"We're just going to fly Big Creek. It really shouldn't take us long, the farthest I can see us going is to Contact Creek to land, but I'm not sure I want to do that, depends on how things go."

Cedric and I were loaded in the plane, and we had the spot tracker on to allow her to keep track of our progress. Whenever I first turn it on, I send an OK message to alert her that we are on and ready to go, it sends a text message to her phone. There were all sorts of aircraft in the air, a float plane crossing the end of the runway, then we were cleared to depart and turn the opposite direction. Right as we lifted off, another plane was cleared to land behind us, then as we crossed the end of the long main runway after turning south, an airplane was cleared to take off right toward us. Lots of planes, lots of fun. We kept an eye on the Caravan that was taking off as it was going to be turning south as well, so we wanted to make sure we weren't in the way.

But we soon were up Big Creek far enough that it was obvious we wouldn't be getting in anybody's way unless they were flying the creek like we were. Cedric started looking hard out the window, and I started looking hard out the window, then forward, then at the gauges, then back out the window...it is hard work scanning and looking for animals. You really have to plan for the workload. I had decided I wanted to go ahead and try to scan on the way upriver, then I was going to put the creek out Cedric's window for the trip downriver and let him have the best view.

"Look for swans."

"Okay. Why?"

"Well, sometimes if you find two swans together in the brush it will turn out they are moose antlers..."

"Oh! Okay!"

But we did in fact find swans, but not any that would turn into moose antlers. Pretty soon we passed the end of the boatable areas of the creek, and knew that we didn't have any way to get any further.

"Well, Cedric, here's the deal. We haven't found any moose. We can fly back down the river and go home, which will make this a pretty short flight, and that's find. Or we can fly over to Contact Creek and land, or down to the outlet of Becharof Lake to land if you want to get out and stretch our legs."

"Mmmm...okay. That sounds good."

"Which one sounds good?"

"I dunno, they sound fine."

"Okay, well, if it doesn't matter to you we could just head back downstream."

"I mean, landing somewhere sounds good."

"Okay...well it looks like we are probably closest to Contact Creek, so let's go there."

Troy Hamon

09-14-2013, 04:13 AM

I had landed at Contact Creek before, but not for some time. In fact, the Island Girl had never been there. And my daughter is the only family member that had been there with me. It is just a little strip in the tundra created by landing aircraft. And it is just about, almost exactly in fact...1200 feet long. That is long enough for me to operate out of just fine. Barely. The surface is a little on the bumpy side for my little tires, and a little soft, and slopes up a bit one way. It isn't bad, but it is challenging enough that I figure it is not a full load strip for me in a PA-22 probably ever. Perhaps if I had VG's it would be different. The landing is not the challenge, it is pretty short for departure...

"Cedric, I really do want to make sure I am on top of my game if I'm going to take you into this strip, so on the way there, we're going to climb up and fly some stalls. Have you heard about stalls before?"

"Yeah."

"What have you heard?"

"They are, like, dangerous."

"Well, that's somewhat true. They are dangerous down low, and they are dangerous if they are flown uncoordinated. But every pilot has to learn to fly them, to recognize them, and to recover from them. That's how you learn to land well and safely while still making use of short strips, and we're going to a short strip. So we're going to fly a couple stalls now. Are you ready?"

"Okay..."

"This first one is a departure stall. We are plenty high now to make sure we can recover in time to make sure we have well over 1500 feet below us even after recovery. The important thing is that we maintain perfect coordination throughout this maneuver, so watch this ball, we're going to keep it right in the center as we climb with full power so steep that we can't make the airplane keep climbing."

We pulled the nose up slowly into an improbably high pitch angle. Then a little more. The airspeed bled off to 70, then 60, then was nearing 50...there was a small buffet, then I pushed the nose forward a tiny bit and right as the stall was getting ready to break the plane dipped forward enough to maintain flight attitude, while losing some altitude.

"Okay, the next one is an approach to landing stall. You ready? We're going to pull the power almost all the way off, slow down, all the flaps, then I'm going to pull up again until it breaks again..."

But this time it wouldn't break. With the yoke fully back, we were descending in a mush, the stall buffet playing with the tailfeathers, but refusing to progress to a full stall.

"Okay, looks like we can't get it to stall on a descent to landing stall, we'll have to put something heavy in the back next time so I can show that to you. How was that?"

"It was okay. Sort of steep. I was realizing it was like totally steep, then I was also realizing it was exactly what you described, but I wasn't expecting it to be so steep."

At this point, I was ready to go see what the strip looked like, and we were almost there. As I peered ahead, I could make out a pair of tents just off the end of the runway. Hmm...

"I don't know how I feel about that, Cedric. I hate to bug them and make a mess of their camping trip."

Cedric was silent, and we flew over the strip, looking around. I didn't see anybody around, which surprised me. I figured they would be fishing in the creek, but nobody obvious. I had noticed as we approached the area that a slight tailwind was blowing through the notch in the hills that we had come through. That put us with a slight headwind in the downhill direction...

One of the pilots that I know had told me he always tries to land uphill on this strip and take off downhill unless the wind is pretty convincingly strong. I looked at it, though about it, and decided that I wanted to try an approach from the downhill side first, and if it looked like it was going to be too fast I would go the other way. But a downhill landing would have me buzzing in right over the tents, so I decided to try the other way first.

On downwind, Cedric made a comment that didn't make any sense to me...I gave him a blank look...

He tried to explain, but I had to cut him off.

"Not now, Cedric. I'm sorry, but you'll have to tell me later, right now I need to fully concentrate on landing."

I lined up on final, looking great, stable as a rock, coming in right on target. My groundspeed on medium final was 76, about 8 mph higher than it should have been, but not bad, and I was steadily slowing.

As I dropped in lower, it was obvious that the landing was no problem to do safely.

"Okay Cedric, we're going to go ahead and land it."

We touched down in soft field fashion, and the chatter was definitely more than I had been into with the Island Girl. She squawked a bit. As we taxied up to the end of the strip, one of the tents was open, and a lady was looking directly at us through binoculars.

Hey, wait a minute...I recognize that person!

It was one of the NPS rangers I know from work!

"Hey Cedric, these are people I work with! How'd you like that landing, a little bumpy?"

"Yeah, bumpy, is right!"

The strip is mostly rocks about half the size of a fist. Not bad, but a little more than normal for sure. We taxied in, hopped out, and greeted the rangers.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1236899_329442853859753_238588885_n.jpg

They invited us to stay for some cocoa, and who can say no to that? So our landing turned into a gabfest, and we chatted for a while. This corner of our country is so little visited, yet shockingly beautiful. And the night was so nice that we were not feeling pressed for time. Perhaps we should have felt some time pressure, as Gwenyth's birthday party was going to be happening soon, but it is really hard to feel like running off when you are greeted with such hospitality.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1230084_329442757193096_2005090532_n.jpg

I looked up as we were drinking our cocoa, and there was a rainbow right behind the camp.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1175563_329442703859768_1644767507_n.jpg

I had to take advantage of that...

"Hey, can you take a photo of Cedric and me?"
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1237131_329442603859778_2013540838_n.jpg

It turned out that one of them was a pilot, which I hadn't realized. So I had a good long talk with him about the plane, and they were both asking me about the book and the new plane. But eventually, we figured we really should put in an appearance at a party held in our own house for our own family member...so we loaded back in and blasted off.

This time, Cedric was the designated spotter. I put the stream out his window and we flew all the way down Big Creek from the absolute top. Most of that is totally inaccessible to us. But we were looking anyway.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1044425_329442510526454_110847232_n.jpg

Cedric was holding his mic to keep the vent air from making it squawk, and looking for moose.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1187011_329442423859796_1473098911_n.jpg

And looking.

And looking.

But lo and behold, we found one. Now it wasn't where it is convenient to hunt. And since I haven't really started packing, and there's a lot of work to get done, I don't expect to get on the water before 2 pm. Probably more like 5 pm. So honestly, we aren't even going to have a chance to call it until two days after seeing it. And they can cover a lot of country. But I feel just a little more optimistic about our hunt...

Couldn't have had a better flight.

Troy Hamon

09-29-2013, 05:21 PM

Been busy...haven't finished writing up the tale of the moose hunt adventure, so that one will have to wait...

But I did fly to town and back this last week, so here are a few photos.

Kontrashibuna Lake, with Lake Clark off in the distance.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1208941_335311439939561_1649294445_n.jpg

Peak of Mt. Redoubt.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1381445_335311543272884_1892441818_n.jpg

Powerline transition leaving Anchorage on the north side of Cook Inlet.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/970533_335312086606163_1263560879_n.jpg

Flying down Cook Inlet, oil platforms visible on the inlet and Mounts Iliamna and Redoubt poking their heads up into the clouds.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1208632_335312006606171_1383916229_n.jpg

MacArthur River coming out of the mountains.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1374127_335312039939501_742739265_n.jpg

Cloudscape.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1380792_335312099939495_1411513394_n.jpg

Moody Mt. Redoubt, steaming away.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1383159_335312166606155_947624107_n.jpg

Another view of Redoubt.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1234382_335312183272820_1199166100_n.jpg

PeterL

09-29-2013, 07:33 PM

Great pictures of Redoubt. Cann't wait to make the trip.

Peter

Troy Hamon

09-29-2013, 09:45 PM

We are keeping the house warm for you! But you need to get your bird in the air...!!!

Steve Pierce

10-06-2013, 09:08 AM

As usual, great shots Troy.

Troy Hamon

10-21-2013, 11:16 AM

Didn't have my camera yesterday...but the cell phone managed to capture these...

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1380441_344179462386092_1571485614_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1376564_344179435719428_2050957668_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1395436_344179385719433_678769514_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1378719_344179335719438_655082613_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

12-14-2013, 12:03 AM

Been flying, but not taking a lot of photos. Busy. Excuses, excuses.

But last week I had a real flight mission. Our two kids are on a swim team, and they had a swim meet in Anchorage. I had flown to Anchorage and back Tuesday to pick up a couple friends. Actually, I hadn't been to Anchorage. When I took off, the forecast was for beautiful weather, and I headed in on a dawn patrol flight, with an amazing view of the Naknek River immediately after takeoff.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1450847_361770773960294_1510291848_n.jpg

Followed by an amazing view of the Kvichak River.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/1424391_361770703960301_2043396715_n.jpg

Then Lake Iliamna. And it obviously wasn't going to be a fast ride with that kind of wind on the nose...

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1464003_361770783960293_1298613887_n.jpg

Sunrise on the Pebble deposit was pretty nice.

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1461831_361770860626952_1086416468_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1425649_361770877293617_28124951_n.jpg

It was a tad bumpy in Lake Clark Pass, but not bad, though the 35 kt headwind made the pass a little slow going. Emerging from the pass over the west side of Cook Inlet, it was beautiful still, but I called in to Kenai Radio to give a position update and to request information about Merrill Field weather. Mostly just as a formality, since it was so beautiful, but it's an old habit to get information when I can.

The answer surprised me. The conditions were still fine, but the forecast was now calling for fog and less than one mile visibility. Now there were two things about that I found disconcerting. One is that I had recently put on a new cylinder to replace one that had a crack in the exhaust housing area, and was still running at pretty high power settings. Settings I hadn't fully dialed in mentally as to the fuel burn. So while I knew I had enough fuel to make it safely, I really didn't relish getting to Anchorage and having any question about fuel on my mind as I was looking around at fog and trying to figure out how far I was going to need to divert. No thanks.

I diverted to Kenai, landed, and fueled. Now, with lots of fuel on board, I called flight service again and asked about the Merrill weather. Because the second problem was that I was wanting to take back off, so if I just squeaked in and the fogged settled over me, that wouldn't be particularly helpful. The briefer said they were still showing clear skies and good visibility, but that the forecast continued to say they were calling for fog. I asked him whether he felt the conditions were likely to hold, and asked also for the current conditions at other local airports, and then took off. He had suggested that it looked like Merrill conditions would hold, so I was headed there, but by the time I was in the air 20 minutes I could pick up the Merrill ATIS and...1/4 mile in freezing fog. Oops. Now what. A few minutes later I got into range to receive text messages and asked my friends if they could meet me at Birchwood, and I flew on there instead. It was totally lovely, they came and off we went to head back through the pass. It was smoother on the way home and we had a lovely flight. So that was Tuesday.

Thursday was supposed to be warmer, which usually means crummy weather in the winter, but the forecasts had been for VFR conditions. But the warm mess arrived Wednesday and apparently Anchorage was a bit of a mess. Thursday ended up looking about the same, though the conditions out our way were spectacular. But the Anchorage bowl was covered with freezing rain, and while I might have been able to find another place to go down by Soldotna, Friday was forecast to be okay so we just opted to wait and launch the following day.

But Friday didn't end up looking so grand after all. Still lovely out our way. Still fine in the pass. But Anchorage had this low crud, sporadic freezing rain, and wasn't very appetizing. But there was a higher layer around 4,000 feet that went from Palmer down to Kenai, and the conditions over in Kenai and Soldotna seemed okay. So we finally launched, mentally prepared to turn around, but thinking the most likely destination was Soldotna, then rent a car and drive to Anchorage. A bit of a trek, but I have no interest in freezing rain.

The flight was fine all the way to the east entrance of Lake Clark Pass. Knowing that we would be having decisions to make, I had stopped and fueled up in Port Alsworth, so we had enough fuel to fly all the way to Anchorage and turn around and go back to Port Alsworth. Fuel equates to options in this case. On the way through the pass we climbed up until we arrived at the east entrance at 3,500 feet. And there, snaking up the narrows below, was a cloud that looked to have a ceiling of around 1,000 feet beneath it. Above us was another layer that was all the way up near the tops of the peaks around the mouth of the pass. And peering out toward Soldotna...I could see something...something bright...sort of...

But I really didn't like what I was seeing. Bright, yes, but a steady cloud layer below, not the scattered or even broken layer that most of the inlet had been advertised as having down low. And a steady cloud layer above. And in between, diffuse, gray, muted light that looked very indistinct and disconcerting. Hmmm.

"Okay guys, I don't like what I'm seeing here. I don't know quite yet, but right now, I would say the most likely result is we are going to turn around and go home, but we'll see if there is a safe way to get to somewhere on the road system first. So the first thing I'm going to do is climb up and see if we get any better view from a little higher."

So we flew a couple zigzags across the narrows, climbing up, then a 360, until we were at 4,300 feet and starting to feel like we were close enough to the upper cloud layer. Still nothing I could see that convinced me it was wise to head across there, though.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't like the way that looks. We're going to look one more time. This time we're going to drop down underneath this cloud layer and see whether it looks like we can see well enough to fly beneath it."

We started into a flying-brick descent, flying back up the narrows, making a turn, and dropping back down underneath the layer. The visibility was not terrible. But it certainly wasn't good. In summer, I would have been perfectly happy with the 3 mile visibility where the pass ended. But I don't feel that way about winter flying. The OAT gauge claimed it was 33 degrees out, but I was looking at the condensation forming on the windshield, and didn't see it moving...

"It looks like that water isn't moving...going to have to turn around."

But right after I said that, as I banked into a turn, one of the drops got big enough to move and started running up and off to the side.

"Okay, it looks like it is not frozen, just too small to move much..."

We flew down Big River looking at the windshield, watching drops form into bigger drops then move off occasionally, and emerged near the Cook Inlet coast.

"Okay, I need you guys to sit tight and be quiet, I'm going to be on the radio."

I started a slow lazy 360 and called up Kenai Radio on the Nikishka repeater frequency.

"Kenai Radio, Tri-Pacer 9976 delta."

"9976 delta, Kenai Radio, go ahead."

"We just came out of Lake Clark Pass on our VFR flight plan, and we are over Big River along the coast at 1,000 feet. Flight visibility is around 8 miles at the moment. We would like to get current conditions for the west side of Cook Inlet, the Anchorage bowl, and the Kenai/Soldotna area."

"Roger, 76 delta, here we go. Anchorage is currently showing a scattered layer at 500 feet and overcast at 4,000, visibility 10 miles, light wind. On the west side of the inlet, the Beluga cams are showing visibility underneath a ceiling, though I can't tell the height. The Nikiski cam is solidly socked in fog, so the Kenai side does not look like a better option for you. Kenai has low clouds at 500, but Soldotna is 2700 overcast."

I had to think over that a minute. Then I asked, "any forecasts for freezing rain, or pilot reports?"

"Negative on freezing rain at the moment, and no pilot reports. Based on the conditions, it looks like the west side is the better side. Appreciate any updates on conditions as you fly."

"Roger that. Based on that, we'll be flying up the west side and evaluating the conditions as we go."

I briefed the passengers..."Okay everybody, here's the deal. The better weather over in Soldotna is not accessible to us because we are stuck under this cloud layer and I won't cross the water without having more altitude that we have available to us under this cloud deck. But from the sounds of it, we might actually be able to fly up this side, so we are going to head up the inlet and see what the conditions are like. It is possible that we could end up needing to land at one of these middle-of-nowhere airfields and be pretty much stuck camping. But we'll see what it looks like. Okay?"

Troy Hamon

12-14-2013, 12:04 AM

Whether they were shell-shocked or I just can't remember their response...either way it seemed pretty muted or resigned or both. So we headed toward Trading Bay and parts northward. Immediately after passing the Trading Bay airport, we could see all the way up past Nicolai Creek toward Tyonek, so I called in a pilot report to Kenai Radio since I was surprised at how good the conditions were. But around Tyonek it got a little skunky again. And then as we neared Beluga I was starting to think about landing. Visibility got down to 3 miles, then it was starting to be 3 miles to the side and 2 miles in front, then maybe not even that...

"West Side traffic, Cessna 123 passing Tyonek. If that Tri-Pacer pilot is still on this frequency, could you give me an update on the conditions up north? Does it get better up by Beluga?"

"Negative, right now we are passing Beluga, and Tyonek is better than Beluga at present."

"Roger, I think we're going to turn and head back toward Kenai."

I turned and flew inland a little to see if it got any better, but that wasn't looking good, so we turned and were headed toward the mouth of the Big Su when the Cessna pilot called again, "Hey, just thought you might want to know, we are five miles offshore and the visibility is really good out here. You might want to come out here, we can see all the way to the Big Su."

"Roger, thanks."

Everybody has to have their own way of analyzing risks. Mine doesn't allow me to go beyond glide distance from shore. And five miles out, that was going to put me up well over 3,000 feet. And right now I was having trouble maintaining 500 feet without bumping into clouds. But we were headed roughly toward the water at an angle anyway, so I turned and headed straight for the shoreline. The weather wasn't any better, but we turned along shoreline, flew a couple miles, and it opened up nicely before us. The cloud layer was now, for the first time, obviously scattered above us as we crossed Figure 8 Lake and headed for the powerline transition to Merrill Field. When I called in, the tower controller approved a part 93 deviation, so I thought about climbing up, but the layer just didn't look quite scattered enough for my comfort doing that, and I really just wanted to get there, so we flew on at 500 feet along the powerlines. As we neared the inlet, the scattered layer disappeared, so I started a climb, but midway over the inlet it was obvious that the 500 foot layer over the airport was not scattered over the city like they were reporting over Merrill proper.

"Merrill Tower, 76 delta, this scattered layer is looking pretty dense out here, request permission to enter the pattern by flying up Ship Creek at 500 feet."

"76 delta, Merrill Tower, you still intending left traffic for 34?"

"Affirmative, 76 delta would like to fly Ship Creek to enter left downwind for 34."

"76 delta, approved as requested."

Landing on 34, we rolled to a halt, and that's probably a good thing, too. Because if we had needed to brake...we couldn't have. Wow was it slick. The tower called and requested a pilot report, so we told them the conditions from Beluga to the Big Su were the worst of the journey. But most important of all, the entire way up the inlet the OAT gauge showed 34 degrees F. Looking around after we fueled and parked, the conditions did not look great. I was pretty amazed that we had flown in. I wouldn't likely have launched if I had known it would be that way. I was expecting to get to Soldotna fairly comfortably, and instead we had done a winter low level scud run, which would not have worked if it had been two degrees colder. Wow. Luckily, the forecast for Saturday and Sunday were really good, so we were planning to leave Sunday after the meet and launch home. What could be more simple?

But in the meantime, the kids churned up the Bartlett High pool for a couple days.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/999899_365382340265804_1111788042_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

12-14-2013, 12:33 AM

But on Saturday, which was supposed to be nice, the weather was good for nothing other than swimming. And of course, it goes without saying, on a winter day in Alaska, that I'm talking about indoor swimming. We drove through the fog and freezing drizzle to the pool, spent the day there, and emerged to fog and freezing drizzle. The weather report was sounding a little suspicious now. The forecast discussion suggested that the conditions that led to the fog and freezing drizzle were trapped in place, but the fog was forecast to end in the morning. But Sunday looked like Saturday. Fog, fog, fog.

The meet ended, and we didn't go anywhere. I called to check the weather, it didn't sound like it should improve the next day, but the forecast said it would, so we arranged to meet at the plane the next day. When we got there, it wasn't really very good weather, and the plane was coated with ice. I tried some windshield de-icer we had in the car, but it really didn't make much progress very fast, so I called and arranged a hangar and pulled it in.

But as we watched the ice melt, we were also watching the weather. It really was not very good. It was almost okay, but not quite, and we were running short on daylight, and then it just didn't make sense to launch into uncertain conditions without being sure of the pass conditions when I would have failing light for getting back to Anchorage if the east end of the pass wasn't open. The wonderful FAA weather cams are almost worthless at times this winter, there are so many of them that are failing, including most of the Lake Clark Pass cams. So we left the plane in the hangar and headed off to watch a movie.

But the next day...more of the same. We were starting to feel like we were re-living some old episode of Gilligan's Island. We have friends in Anchorage. Well, we used to. Somewhere along here, as we came back yet again after an entire day of them thinking we were gone for good, they really might have been ready for us not to straggle back in. But Tuesday night was different. The forecast was for actual change, temperatures were dropping, the sky was clearing before our eyes, and we knew we would have a good day the following day.

Luckily I had a work commitment in the morning that prevented us from launching at first light. As it turned out, 747's were reporting moderate turbulence and low-level wind shear during the early part of the day. I'm not real fond of flying when those guys are getting beat up. No thanks. But by the time we launched at 2 pm, it was still windy but we had managed to miss all the crummy stuff.

It was beautifully clear up high, and we went up to 8,500 feet to stay above the bumps in the pass and avoid the clouds snaking through the pass down low. The cameras and the weather on the west side were a little uncertain, with low clouds showing throughout. She made a point to emphasize that VFR flight was not recommended. Which is true most of the time whenever I talk to them. So I decided to get up high where I had a good view and some options. The low clouds were in the pass all the way through, spilling out the east entrance. We stayed up above them and another plane entered the pass the same time we were flying over. He ducked below, said the visibility was okay, but partway down the pass he started picking up rime ice. When he got over Lake Clark itself, he climbed up through a big hole and off he went. We had a nice view of the mountains from up where we were, and had lots of emergency options even places to descend under the layer, as it had gaps along the north edge.

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1454644_365382293599142_793357437_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1462960_365382353599136_1261811809_n.jpg

All along the way, we had views to the north of cloudless landscape, so we held a little north of our normal track, and called in to report our progress. Some of the flight service staff are pretty helpful, but some of them don't seem to have any real idea of the nature of options available if you, as a pilot, are willing to look for them. I report in all the time. Gives them some opportunity to connect real world operations to what they are seeing on their screens. And I do love being able to check on conditions by calling in and asking.

Now, we were going to be flying into the setting sun, and landing near civil twilight. I don't mind flying the end of the flight in the dark. If the weather is particularly wonderful with a full moon on snow, I don't mind flying at night in any sense. But full on night flying out our way is total black hole flying, so anytime the weather is less than stellar, I very much want to be down before dark. This winter, though, my desire to be down by dark is newly strengthened by the fact that my airplane is living in Naknek for the winter. And they don't have working runway lights there. And haven't had in, like, forever. The FSS briefer even remarked on that fact when we talked. Just about the time we passed Iliamna and the sun went down, I thought we'd be ending up in King Salmon, with the big, lighted runway.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/575436_365382350265803_1791879545_n.jpg

But a few minutes later, we picked up a pretty hefty tailwind, and all of a sudden we were picking up the ten minutes of light we needed in the form of free airspeed. When we arrived, I had enough visibility to verify the wind direction on the sock, so we went ahead and turned final for 32, as that was the favored runway. But on short final, maybe even short, short, short final, I saw a guy in Carhartts on the runway, then he looked up, and dashed off. I offset to the side, made sure we missed him, then landed. He helped us put the plane away, and allowed as how he thought he had looked up, but apparently hadn't really noticed us, as he had to have looked right at us. Then he looked up again, and there we were. I had the light I needed to see him. But real runway lights would have been nice. I love the huge, tower-controlled runway in King Salmon, but the hangar I have access to is in Naknek, so for now that is where we are.

Romulus

12-14-2013, 02:13 AM

Thanks for taking the time to make these posts. Definitely good motivation to go out and work the airplane. Great photos too.

Troy Hamon

12-14-2013, 01:12 PM

Around the time I took that photo of the sun low on the horizon...I took a photo of the cockpit...not a lot of activity going on in the other seats...

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1471075_365960523541319_666544416_n.jpg

Steve Pierce

12-15-2013, 09:30 AM

You know how to put them to slepp. ;) Looks cold.

Troy Hamon

12-15-2013, 01:37 PM

Spent some time sealing around the door a couple weeks back. Amazing how much warmer it is in there now than it was...

Troy Hamon

12-27-2013, 02:46 AM

WARNING!!!

STEVE PIERCE! These photos will make you cold!!!!!

Took a couple friends for a tour of the area. Most of the time we head north or west when I take people for a look-see. But the weather looked pretty nice out toward the mountains, so we headed up Big Creek, gawking at moose, then past the Contact Creek strip. The Kejuliks were visible from a long way away, and as we passed Contact Creek I could see the steam from the top of Mount Martin, which was in the sunshine. I didn't really want to climb that much since it is cold, and that makes for a temperature management challenge descending back down...but I had to do it. What a day.

Mount Martin in the distance is the cause of the steam...Pacific to the right, Bristol Bay to the left.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1011523_371319103005461_1444077651_n.jpg

The Kejuliks, shrouded in clouds moving in from the Pacific (we were circling to gain altitude for our look at Mt Martin).
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/t1/1505477_371319149672123_841004092_n.jpg

Mount Martin caldera.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/933933_371319136338791_1122200175_n.jpg

Smelled like rotten eggs around there.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1538952_371319196338785_1887858154_n.jpg

Katmai Caldera was out of the clouds as well. It is ice-free still, which suggests to me that it is likely getting some thermal input as well.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1526349_371319226338782_176156296_n.jpg

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1505048_371319286338776_430948713_n.jpg

VTTS surface is like artwork.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1535474_371319356338769_622459934_n.jpg

Curly

12-27-2013, 05:35 AM

Troy - simply stunning!

Steve Pierce

12-27-2013, 07:52 AM

Very much so. Reminds me of the trip from Watson Lake to Beaver Creek across the snow capped mountains. In the 20s here now and gonna be in the low 60s this afternoon.

PeterL

12-27-2013, 10:14 AM

Great pictures Troy, got to get up there...

Peter

PeterL

12-27-2013, 10:16 AM

PS, what are you using to cover your oil cooler, and air intake.

Troy Hamon

12-27-2013, 12:28 PM

I have a winter cover for the oil cooler...here is a photo from Atlee Dodge of what they look like...
http://www.fadodge.com/images/djcatalog/14793-000%20winter%20front%20750x450.jpg

I don't have any other restriction on the air, nothing on the cowl inlets. Yesterday it was 5F on the ground, but it was 30F at 1000 feet, which is all the higher I was going to go. But when I saw that Martin was clear, I climbed up there, temperature dropped down to 15F at 6200 feet, then we descended with power in pretty far to keep the engine warm as we came down, and took a long while to do it. Passing through the 30 degree band both directions felt pretty warm, but boy when we got down into the surface temperature zone it felt cold again.

I'm trying to minimize my low power time to keep the cylinders from getting mistreated in the cold air.

rocket

12-27-2013, 05:31 PM

Troy,
where did you find that ugly picture? Be proud and show everyone that fine example of an owner produced part! With little instruction Troy fabricated his own cover, dimpled flush rivets and all, and an extra one in exchange for materials, that came out really nice; airworthy even!

About one hundred miles north of Troy we were out flying at 0degF. I was seeing 175 degF temps with my cover on at AGL and at about 1K the oil would climb up to 190 degF but then get progressively cooler as our altitude increased.

Snow moved in last night but first coating everything with a fine layer of freezing rain ice. could get some snow now!

Rocket

Troy Hamon

12-27-2013, 06:18 PM

I was looking for a photo, but I haven't taken one, so I pulled that up off the FADodge site. And while I did make two serviceable covers, Rocket is the reason I was able to do it as he showed me the right way to do a few things I was doing wrong...

Need to take a couple photos, but haven't managed to remember when the plane is sitting outside.

Sleet now in King Salmon...

PeterL

12-27-2013, 10:29 PM

I purchased the same cover on ebay a few years ago for my first Pacer, now that I moved the Oil Cooler behind the #4 cyl., I don't need it.
I picked up a piece of felt,(4"x6") with a sticky backside, cut it to the right size to fit and went flying. OT hit 220f, so I landed and cut out 2 holes, 1"x2"s and the OT stayed at 190, which is good. The OAT was -5 c. I'm planning to carry various sizes according to the OAT.

Peter

kloudking1

12-28-2013, 09:58 AM

Troy,

Love the pictures! I sure hope you carry plenty of survival gear, a gps EPIRB, 406 Mhz ELT, and S&W 500 for bears.

Tony

Troy Hamon

12-28-2013, 12:51 PM

Tony, I do carry a lot of survival gear. Although it is a philosophical disconnect with many folks, I carry a spot rather than an EPIRB, and haven't upgraded my ELT yet. I value a tracking device that continually sends location updates more than the emergency only beacons, especially the one in the plane which has been shown through the passage of time to be one of the least effective ways to send a distress message or even turn on when needed. I'm sure I'll need a flame suit for offending somebody with that one. I will eventually get a 406 ELT, but not because I really think it is worth the money compared to the Spot device.

I don't carry a bear gun specifically very often, but I will if I am going camping during the bear active season. Right now they are hibernating, so I only carry a firearm for whatever game I'm after. -20 sleeping bags, 4-season tent, snowshoes, lots of firestarter stuff, etc. Makes for some good aft baggage weight.

Troy Hamon

01-04-2014, 02:04 AM

Couple random photos. First is from a walk I took on King Salmon Creek. It's been a schizophrenic winter up here, cold, then warm, rinse, repeat. We have good ice on the small ponds, but the way it has been it seems like we are really only a couple days away from questionable ice even on the small ponds. When I started my winter flying adventures, I only knew of two ways to check the ice. One is to drop rocks, and the other is to follow somebody else down...let them be the guinea pig. Last winter a pilot told me that the Naknek float plane lake, which is deeper than many of the small ponds, freezes later and so is usually a good indicator lake for all the small lakes. Once it is well frozen, the little lakes are generally good to go. And with that in mind, I've started to take ice walks on the creek next to the house. Creeks are a bit more prone to crummy ice, so it gives me an indicator when the weather tips into the melting too much regime. I'm trying to evaluate the options for the final moose chase of the winter, in my case the only moose chase of the winter, so I took the dog and walked the creek yesterday. It held.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1560639_375186129285425_520706380_n.jpg

Today I went flying with a friend, looking for that elusive bull that still has headware. We eventually found one, might have a 38" rack, but that is all we need if we can get to him. While we were looking, we had some ooohhh, aaahhhh moments...
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1148941_375186065952098_293673395_n.jpg

Now we have to wait and see if the weather gives us a window to make a play at him, if so we have to see if he is still around, and finally whether we can find him at all. Winter hunts are fun, but I'm still a rank amateur...this time I'm taking my son, so it could be quite the party...

Troy Hamon

01-08-2014, 01:15 AM

Got a call the other day..."Wanna go to Platinum with me?"

Took me a while to respond..."Sure. When?"

The answer was whenever weather and schedules permitted...turned out to be today. So we went up so Rocket could look over Mark's shortwing and discuss potential repair solutions. And I got to see Platinum in the deal.

Here is the myth, the man, the legend...Rocket, with his noble 182 steed on the ramp at none other than Platinum, Alaska. I was thinking about this photo...here is Rocket, the Tri-Pacer master with floats, skis, and fat tires, running around with another girl from the Cessna clan. Then there is Mr. Pierce, our site host, who I have on good authority (I think his dad might have mentioned this...) that he is maybe a little more attached to cubs than to short-wing pipers... And of course our own rwdurham who has been recently Mauled...we're hemorrhaging shortwing pilots here! Oh well.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1526496_377156489088389_286758811_n.jpg

When they rebuilt this runway, they had the incredible foresight to disable the cross runway that actually faced into the prevailing wind. But the ramp area works fairly well in a pinch. The wind was pretty stiff, and nicely diagonal to the ramp...
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1601232_377156515755053_1502587985_n.jpg

So we may have used the ramp for departure...possibly in pretty much the alignment of the plane in the following photo...
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1546056_377156542421717_1172862294_n.jpg

From the air, Platinum is a nice little strip on the beach berm between the Bering Sea and Goodnews Bay.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1520773_377156579088380_212579269_n.jpg

There are some more buildings up by the mouth of the bay, but not a lot. Our pal Mark, who we went to visit, suggested that the total winter population is around 75. We didn't ask if that included the pet caribou or not. Just kidding. I'm not aware of any pet caribou.

The flight to Platinum was pretty quick, with a hefty tailwind, and apparently it was really quick because I never even had time to pull out the camera even though I was just the passenger. But on the way back, we had lots of time, as the smoking tailwind was now an obnoxious headwind. As we passed Togiak, I looked down, and there it was. I had heard stories a while back about this huge ship in the middle of the tundra. We have some good boats out in the tundra near Naknek I like to take people to see...but check this out. This is no boat...it's a bona fide ship, completely ashore. Way ashore. End of the line for that one.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1551560_377156615755043_150571138_n.jpg

It's amazing what a south or west wind accompanied by a high tide can do in country where the tide range is more than 20 feet.

The weather was not bad at all today, but it was dynamic. On the way to Platinum, I couldn't have taken this photo, as we couldn't see out around the islands and had a better view inland. On the way home, the opposite was the case...great view south and the hills onshore had some crud around them.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1520773_377156629088375_699318682_n.jpg

But we found a good place to duck across the hills at the north end of the Nushagak Peninsula.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1016368_377156712421700_462188978_n.jpg

Then cruised home along the beach.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1508013_377156735755031_202248140_n.jpg

PeterL

01-08-2014, 01:29 AM

That would be cool to go down and checkout that boat/ship. Rick was that your parking job???

Steve Pierce

01-08-2014, 07:32 AM

Then there is Mr. Pierce, our site host, who I have on good authority (I think his dad might have mentioned this...) that he is maybe a little more attached to cubs than to short-wing pipers...

Ha, I love flying Cubs but I also like the Short Wings. Gotta haul the Super Cubs gear and let them know what lies ahead of them. ;)

Gilbert Pierce

01-08-2014, 12:45 PM

Gotta haul the Super Cubs gear and let them know what lies ahead of them. ;)

i.e. He's faster and can carry more.

Steve Pierce

01-08-2014, 01:46 PM

I flew the Clipper pictured here between the two Super Cubs. I hauled the stuff and picked out the sand bar to eat lunch on. Had plenty of time to check out the LZ before they got there.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1452050_10153446406430374_2099892308_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

01-08-2014, 02:14 PM

i.e. He's faster and can carry more.

I flew a moose spotting mission Monday, and took a friend along who had not ridden with me before. After we got back he was asking how many trips I'd have to make to bring back a moose, and was fairly shocked when I told him probably just one trip for the meat, the other to get us and our stuff out of the field... He turned and looked at the plane, and we talked about useful load, moose weights...he couldn't believe a little PA-22 could have that much hauling capacity. But he then told me he was most familiar with T-crates and how people had to leave out fuel to carry a second person.

Troy Hamon

01-14-2014, 01:03 PM

Was intending to take my son to Anchorage for a swim meet last weekend, but the weather in the Cook Inlet basin was a problem, as were the passes...so I didn't. Usually in the summer I can get to town in a three day window. Winter is more chancy, and the best forecast weather ended up being completely wrong...so I waited for the forecast good weather and then we got completely shut down by low clouds everywhere in place of the partly cloudy skies forecast. I think this winter is proving a bit of an extra challenge because it has been just warm enough that the bay and the large deep lakes are not frozen, so we are still generating fog and I don't think the forecast models are handling that well at all.

So Cedric and I went flying local instead, and took turns taking photos on a brief tour of Naknek, South Naknek, and King Salmon. Fog was just west of Naknek when we took off, just at the end of the runway in King Salmon when we did some patterns there, and was just behind the runway when we got back to Naknek.

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/t1/1601575_378377235632981_1345992659_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1601407_378377228966315_50758990_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1497671_378377252299646_972111485_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1530476_378377428966295_1328613208_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/482473_378377482299623_701306571_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/76890_378377522299619_962495466_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1509157_378377542299617_1011053318_n.jpg

And...the drive home...good thing we landed when we did.

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1017146_378377555632949_757337238_n.jpg

Riverking

01-14-2014, 04:51 PM

Looks like you cut that pretty close with the fog and wind on the road.

Troy Hamon

01-14-2014, 05:45 PM

Wind was not enough to be an issue, but the fog definitely shut down Naknek. King Salmon was flyable for most of the evening, so we had an easy out there if we had been a few minutes later getting home...

Definitely can get you though. Never take off in winter unless you are fully equipped to camp, no matter how local your flight. We have the full set of stuff on board...including 4 season humongo tent, -20 sleeping bags, and enough clothes to get by without the bags. And a lot of other stuff.

Troy Hamon

01-21-2014, 09:02 PM

Somebody had asked me for photos of the Island Girl with 850's on, but I can't recall where the question was, so I'll post one here, as I finally remembered to snap one in the hangar this weekend.

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/76035_383077335162971_1648777586_n.jpg

Steve Pierce

01-22-2014, 08:47 AM

We had one here like that, nose strut all the way up and 8.50s works well. Vortex Generators?

kloudking1

01-22-2014, 08:51 AM

Troy,
Looks pretty good with those 8.50's on her!

Sent from my LGL86C using Tapatalk

Troy Hamon

01-22-2014, 01:32 PM

No VG's. Maybe someday, but right now it does more than I ask of it whenever I tell it to, so I haven't seen much need for any different flight characteristics. But I really did see a need for a little more landing footprint, and it is sooooo nice to land this thing now. Amazing difference.

Troy Hamon

02-17-2014, 03:41 AM

Winter flying is my favorite. Takes more work, often involves a lot less daylight to play with, and the weather is more precious...many days are simply not flying days. But when the conditions line up, oh boy. When the ponds are frozen and the weather is nice, the wheels need some work.

January was tough. All the cold was shipped elsewhere, so we barely had flying weather and when we did it was too warm to trust the ice. But now we've been sitting in zero degree weather for a week, the ice has recommitted itself, and today was a day to play. In theory we were looking for caribou, but we didn't find much so we will probably have to look a little harder tomorrow.

In the meantime, we had a fly-in of the Bristol Bay section of SWPO at Nakeen.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t1/1012554_394992020638169_1665488570_n.jpg

We're pretty open, we welcome longwingers also.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1/71493_394992467304791_453088624_n.jpg

Another fly-in! This time on an unnamed pond. With rough ice. Really rough ice. Oh baby, was I glad to have 850's on my mains for this one. Rocket, on the other hand, is on skis at the moment...and we have absolutely no snow...and that had to have damaged some of his dental work...
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1932203_394986653972039_795461806_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1/1620951_394971667306871_1226300884_n.jpg

danP

02-17-2014, 11:47 AM

troy, is there an stc for larger tires on a tripacer or is that done with a field approval. I've seen a bunch of folks with those.

Troy Hamon

02-17-2014, 01:41 PM

No STC in the system, unfortunately. These were applied in fall with a field approval through Eddie Trimmer. He applied for the FA and got approval within a week or two. Took me longer to get there for the install than it took him to get approval.

However, even though some IA's (including Eddie) are pretty adept at getting these kinds of things done, even Eddie continues to say he doesn't know how long it will still be possible to get something like this done via FA. The word from on high seems to continually be that FA's are going to get harder. And on some things they have. Eddie dug through the tailwheel 850 approvals to identify data for his 337 that would make it more likely successful. If you are looking to get something like this done, I suspect the FSDO, and probably more important the relationship between your IA and his PMI will be the most important thing. But if there are no outright barriers, Eddie is an incredible resource, and would likely be able to at least help identify what works for him up here on something like this.

rocket

02-17-2014, 06:24 PM

Damaged dental work? Lets just say if there were any loose fittings I would have known. Might have been smoother if I had not landed down wind. I mentioned on the radio that I needed a five gallon bucket of Navel Jelly. To remove the rust from my posterior if you need know. Almost four weeks of not flying with the weather and the lung filling crud I have been fighting and it showed!

If you want the big tires or think you might need them in the future I would try to get your IA on the ball. I am sure there will be a day in the near future where it will become impossible regardless of your PMI.

Rocket

Troy Hamon

02-18-2014, 03:01 AM

Yesterday we flew around and didn't find many caribou. Today we found more, not tons, but at least enough that it might be worth setting up a hunt plan...

In the meantime, I'm loving this cold weather with all the frozen lakes around southwest Alaska. I landed a bunch of places today that I've wanted to but just hadn't done yet. Lots of fun. The ice is hard, but then with the last 10 days at zero and colder, it should be. Have lost my main flying partner to the major crud, despite the brief remission yesterday. Rocket...get better soon...please...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t1/1012557_395413850595986_1679054730_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1902010_395413893929315_1315750478_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1620845_395414003929304_441980420_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1798463_395414057262632_985106629_n.jpg

andya

02-19-2014, 04:07 PM

Nice pictures as always. Since retiring I just don't do ice, snow and cold

mmoyle

02-19-2014, 06:28 PM

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/20/tuha7y8a.jpg[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/20/6ujuba2a.jpg

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

mmoyle

02-19-2014, 06:30 PM

Platinum Ak. Summer 2013 daughter with orphaned coastal brown bear (grizzly bear if inland more than 50 miles)

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

Nathan Hiebert

02-19-2014, 07:36 PM

Where's momma bear?

mmoyle

02-19-2014, 07:46 PM

Some dumb arse shot momma for no good reason. This poor thing was sent to Bethel. My daughter tried to send the cub to a baby bear care facility. Once in Bethel some dip weed shot the cub! They didn't want males...only females. This makes the third orphan cub one of my children have tried to rescue after an idiot has kill the mother. My son tackled a 100 pound cub from the back of an ATV. He didn't get bit until he started playing with its upper lip.....

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

rocket

02-21-2014, 02:20 AM

M,
About the middle of last summer there was a photo of a cub sitting on a wave runner with his paws on the handle bars that went viral. I was about thirty feet away doing the compression on a Beaver when one of the dockhands says to me, hay look. I turn around and think to myself, aww damn. I had seen this show before and knew its unpleasant outcome.

Later that night after all the pilots and dockboys had gone home I was replacing a DG in another float Beaver and as I hop down to the dock and lean over my tool box I hear the telltale huff of a pissed off sow. I lift my head and mom and cub are about twenty feet away. Oops! Without looking away I reach into my toolbox, felt for something big, pulled out a ford wrench, then rang my hand cart like a dinner bell for all it was worth! Not sure why but it scared them both enough to send them running. I am sure I was much more frightened.

About twenty minutes later sow is in a boat two docks up so I make a bunch of racket and again scare them off of dock. The next morning boat seats and other fishing guide stuff is strewn up and down the river bank.

The next night the cub is alone as the sow had most likely been dispatched by pissed off fishing guide and probably the same idiot guide that was too lazy to dump his clients fish guts into the river mid channel. Cute bear.

Cub was gone the next day most likely in the same fashion. Cute cub.

This is a really sore subject with me...just in case you couldn't tell.

I really believe the wild animals should be hazzed so as to not become habituated to human environments. At the same time we need to refrain from creating conditions where our response is to destroy them for no reason. Our Brown Bears are not stupid and in fact are really awesome creatures.

I have mixed feelings about hunting them for sport as no one eats brown bear meat. I do have some really really tasty black bear sausage in my freezer though!

Rocket

mmoyle

02-21-2014, 03:01 AM

Good story Rocket R. Feeling better? Have a couple of the large bear pepper spays. I've tried to get close enough when a bear is in town a few times. Suppose I need a salmon filet necklace to get close enough?
Mark M.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Steve Pierce

02-23-2014, 11:32 AM

Some good calendar shots.

Troy Hamon

02-23-2014, 09:13 PM

Well, we really did go chase some caribou. After finding them on Monday, Tuesday was beautiful and would have been the day to go. But I had a work commitment and wanted to make sure I got it done early. That way I would not be out camping stressing about getting back in time to turn in my assignment. So I spent the day at work getting things wrapped up, then took off Wednesday. On Wednesday, the weather was not so great. Wind was nothing remarkable, but the visibility was poor. Hmmm. We sat around a while, spent a little extra time going over our gear, and considered whether we should launch. I had two fools, I mean friends, that wanted to go on this trip with me. But the Island Girl is a nice two person winter camper. It is not a nice three person winter camp hauler. So I was going to need to run back and pick up a second load. Instead, my buddy Rocket agreed to load up with the second fool and bring him after I got out far enough to indicate that the weather was acceptable.

So I launched with my friend Carissa, whose name has not been changed, as we do not protect the innocent or guilty around these parts. She and I headed off runway 26 in Naknek, and the visibility was between 3 and 5 miles. Not my favorite. Not terrible either. It was around zero out, plenty cold, and we held a track for our caribou country while keeping track of the visibility in front of us. Mostly it was five miles or better, sometimes quite a bit better. But sometimes it was dropping down under five miles, and I would pick a lake on the horizon and start timing how long it took us to get there flying at 100 mph. The visibility never got below 4 miles while I was timing it, but I sure don't like flying in restricted visibility in the winter. I also was trying to be mindful that Rocket was following me, and I didn't want to stick him in conditions where he would not want to be out there. I was relieved as I got up near the destination to have the visibility improve dramatically, and blue sky above.

Carissa and I flew around and found the caribou, pretty much right where they had been two days prior. But in looking around, I wasn't sure I wanted to set up camp right there. The lakes they were around had no vegetation and no terrain, so our ability to actually put a hunt plan together seemed a little tenuous. On the other hand, a few miles south we had a couple lakes adjacent to some terrain that had a bit of vegetation cover. That cover would provide opportunity for a stalk, and the hills would give us a place to look for caribou. But it was a few miles from the majority of the animals. On the other hand, we found around 20 animals scattered around near the hills, so it seemed like maybe that would still provide a better opportunity than being totally exposed.

Decision made, we landed and waited for Rocket to arrive with Jay, our other fool, I mean friend.

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/l/t1/16624_397614043709300_1172749755_n.jpg

Rocket didn't hang around, as the weather on the 45 minute journey from King Salmon was just the sort of weather you don't want to find has changed for the worse while you were dallying. So he skedaddled home and we started working on putting up the tent.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1898126_397614087042629_557100603_n.jpg

I've gotten attached to big tents for winter camping. We had a nice 8 person tent for the three of us. It was just about right. The bottom line is that when it is below zero, you will cook in your tent. No matter what the warning labels say. I've learned that a nice big, oversized tent helps make sure you have the ability to set up a secure, stable kitchen in the tent. So that's how I organize my winter camps. And the two-burner Coleman stove is not prone to tipping, so it makes a better, safer option than the backpacker stoves. We carry water, in this case in a pair of five gallon water containers. You can keep getting liquid water out of the jug for a long time even when it is cold, and it is a lot better than trying to make ice into water. And unless you carry an auger and make sure to camp on a deep lake, getting water out of the lake is not an option...

After we got the tent up, we went up to scout the last look at caribou before morning. They were still out north of us, but we had a beautiful sunset brewing.

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1920274_397614173709287_384963019_n.jpg

The cold starts in earnest when the sun goes down. As we settled in for the night I took some photos of the camp and tried to think of what I had forgotten. Jay had earned his place by bringing a huge pile of ice screws, which made for a great installation of the airplane tiedowns and the tent. I use regular old eyed lag bolts, which also work, but are a little more energy and time to install. The temperature as we buttoned up the tent was minus 4 F. Cold enough, but not bad.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1/1920457_397614277042610_1018214866_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1908250_397614280375943_2060589398_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/t1/1912472_397614340375937_1073385642_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/t1/1506030_397614513709253_93300991_n.jpg

By morning, the OAT gauge in the plane claimed minus 6 F. Also not bad. And it wouldn't have seemed bad at all except when I had to get up to relieve my bladder in the middle of the night...took me a while to warm up after that. But I've been a lot colder.

Troy Hamon

02-23-2014, 09:14 PM

The next morning I got the heaters going to warm up the plane, and we left to chase caribou.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1897010_397614553709249_352393825_n.jpg

When we climbed the hill, there were still caribou mostly north of us, but some of them were within a couple miles. We wanted to make sure we checked out the area around the hill where the caribou closer in had been the day before, so we started by heading away from the animals we could see in order to look around the back side.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1800421_397614693709235_885978041_n.jpg

We covered a fair bit of country, and were just about to the end of the south side of the hill, when a lone caribou stood up out of the brush, close to where one had been laying down the previous day in our initial fly over. It was a little distance off, but I motioned Jay to catch up to me. The caribou circled away, but kept stopping to look, and eventually gave Jay a good shot and he hit it. I waited a bit and it didn't drop, so I dropped it for him. I was thinking that we had shot about 300 yards, as it had been a pretty small target. Well, it was a small target. We paced off our approach, and it was a touch over 200 yards, and it was the smallest caribou in Alaska history. It was larger than my dog. But probably not by much. Jay was pumped, as it was his first caribou, no matter how small. I started in cleaning it, and had my hands bloody so no photos. Jay has a couple of photos, but those are his to share, sorry. But trust me when I say...unbelievably small. Probably the size of a deer. Everything is relative, I guess.

I started in quartering and dressing the little bugger and realized I was applying a moose-sized solution to a deer-sized problem. Too late now...but I should have just headed, gutted, and pulled the forelimbs off rather than rendering it into its component parts. We headed back to camp and dropped the game bags off before climbing back up the hill to check on the location of our other caribou options. They had been headed north, and were a little further away. We thought about it, but decided we better start walking and we would decide when we got up there a ways whether it was in the cards or not.

We came to a frozen lake that was between us and the caribou, and the surface was torn up from the snow, rain, wind, refreeze cycle from last month.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1/1622211_397614940375877_809032312_n.jpg

It wasn't long after that we realized we weren't going to be able to get to the caribou unless we were willing to return to camp by hiking in the dark. So we aborted the mission and headed back.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/1779668_397614980375873_179092253_n.jpg

The next day we got up early, made a quick run at getting out to where we could get to some caribou, but they had moved on. In fact, there were hardly any in sight, and those were over 4 miles away. So we headed back, broke camp, and got ready to head out. The wind had picked up and was 18-22 according to my handy anemometer. It was rushing in from the northeast, and though the PA-22 is a pretty good little wind plane, I moved it up close to shore to load and start. Rather than back taxi and deal with the ground handling risks, I taxied with Carissa down the eastern shoreline, right in the shadow of the lake berm. We turned and took off right up the shoreline crosswind, and headed for Naknek.

As we climbed out, I dialed in the weather at Koliganek, which was 16 gusting 24, visibility and ceiling good. I dialed in New Stuyahok, and the visibility was 3/4 mile...uh oh. I called a plane that was headed for Koliganek and asked about the visibility to the south...he said it was better than advertised at New Stuyahok...

Still, it would have to be a lot better to be anywhere near acceptable. We just veered a ways east to give it good clearance, and watched the visibility out the windshield go from 8 to 5 to 4, then 3 miles. But by then we were passing Levelock, and I had dialed in the South Naknek weather. Which was reporting 1 mile. I am just really not a fan of one mile visibility. I texted my wife, asking her to get a bit of information from me. About the time I started getting info back from her, I was also getting the King Salmon ATIS, which was reporting 5 miles, with wind 070 at 22 gusting 32. Definitely a lot more acceptable, so we turned and headed to King Salmon. Sure enough, as we approached we popped out into an area that was more like 8 mile visibility or better.

We landed runway 12 in King Salmon, with a lovely, smooth, straight landing, an incredibly short ground roll, and a very careful taxi to the ramp. While my wife came to get Carissa, I got fuel and was headed back out right away. I was very unimpressed with the weather. I was so unimpressed I didn't really think I would make it back a second time. But I figured if a storm was coming in, it would be better if both Jay and I were camped together so he at least knew what had happened. My takeoff roll was probably about 200 feet. Pretty short, and I wasn't even trying to make it short. I headed back into the murk, and it was worse. I was going past Levelock with 3 mile visibility, and it was probably about that for a full 1/3 of the flight back up. On landing at the lake, I came in directly into the wind. I should have planned to measure my ground roll. Boy was it short. I taxied right up next to the tent, and hopped out.

"I didn't expect to see you again. The wind has been picking up, I just figured no way you were coming back."

"Well, I thought about leaving you here, but I knew based on how it was when I came, that I should be able to get back. But I'm not sure you and I are going to make it back home. We can probably camp here or pack up and camp closer wherever we feel we need to stop. I figure we may as well pack up and see how far we get. That way if we do end up camped out, we won't have as much weather to negotiate when we get a window to fly home."

"Sounds good to me."

So we pulled everything out of the tent, all of which Jay had already packed up. Then I packed the tent while he retrieved all his ice screws. I looked the pile over, loaded it up, and then had Jay help me turn the airplane so we could again start up, taxi along the eastern shoreline, and we hopped in. Another crosswind departure and we said goodbye to the area and headed south. New Stuyahok had been reporting 3 mile visibility on my way north, but now it was back down to 3/4 of a mile. Koliganek was reporting 1 and 1/2 miles, with wind gusting in the 30's, so neither of those sound like places we were going to end up. The wind is manageable, but I really don't like flying in those kinds of visibility. So we headed on south, watching the visibility out the front. The timer indicated three miles, occasionally almost down to two miles. I kept wondering if the next lake was going to be the one we would land on. But we kept seeing the next lake on ahead, and kept flying. Pretty soon, we were past Levelock, and I figured I could either land at one of the cabins I know of in the area, or we could stop in at Katmai Lodge on the Alagnak River. I finally pulled up the scratchy weather for both King Salmon and South Naknek, and they were both reporting better than five mile visibility.

And just like that, we popped out into 50 mile visibility, the kind we like up here. The wind was howling, but it was right down runway 8 in Naknek at 20-ish knots, which is where we had started, so where the truck was parked waiting for us. This time I made a conscious effort to pay attention to our ground roll. But I didn't go back and measure it. It was short.

We parked, tied down, and called Carissa for the celebratory dinner arrangements. We all had huge burgers and called it an early evening.

And let me tell you how fortunate I feel to have made it home. We would just be launching right now to come home if we had stayed out there...as it blew 50 most of yesterday. The plane handles 30's just fine, but I am not anxious to find out exactly what the limit is...and yesterday was a no-fly kind of day.

Time to plan the next adventure.

mmoyle

02-23-2014, 09:40 PM

Yesh! The wind has howled here for four days. I'm reading along expecting a story about tents blowing away and a tripacer in the weeds at the down wind end of the lake! We peaked at 72 knots last night. Just over 20 knots right now....
Mark. M.
Platinum, Ak.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Curly

02-23-2014, 10:57 PM

Mark - you blokes deserve a medal for living where you do! 72 knots is plain bloody scary.:new_shocked:

halestorm

04-04-2014, 11:00 PM

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/05/ybahege7.jpg

Not southwest Alaska but very northern instead, found this poor pacer on Barter Island yesterday. The white in the background is arctic sea ice.

Apparently the airplane's been there for a long time, polar bears have been pushing/chewing on the tail

Steve Pierce

04-09-2014, 06:44 AM

What a bummer.

kloudking1

04-09-2014, 07:40 AM

Got some nice wheels on it.

Sent from my LGL86C using Tapatalk

j_w_Bruce

04-09-2014, 10:04 AM

Hope no one is in it...

Troy Hamon

04-09-2014, 12:13 PM

Hope no one is in it...

Agree...

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

Steve Pierce

04-09-2014, 12:22 PM

Been deregistered. Early Pacer 20-285.

Troy Hamon

05-15-2014, 09:25 PM

Got a bit behind. I went to California for a vacation that was turned into a flight training trip. Went in with the kids to Anchorage, met the wife there and then we all went south in the big tube. They headed home without me and I stayed down there, so on the way home I left Anchorage solo in the Island Girl for a beautiful flight home over the top.

On the way down Cook Inlet I had one of those epic cloud/sun kind of views. My wife says these photos look like religious posters.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/10246679_432791023524935_3604009130797126848_n.jpg

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/10311734_432790953524942_7212198072012707771_n.jpg

After the end of the overcast layer, I climbed up for a direct shot over the mountains. Still a bit of snow in late April, but there never was much snow since we shipped winter down to the east coast this year.
https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10367185_432791086858262_7116904558116644308_n.jpg

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/t1.0-9/1236988_432791196858251_4331930081395017085_n.jpg

The sun went down as I crossed the Alagnak River on a beautiful evening.
https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/t1.0-9/10172824_432791260191578_7283190833505829947_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

05-16-2014, 12:27 AM

Since I've been home, we've been too broke from the big trip to fly as much as I'd like. But a friend of mine, Brett, is up for the summer, has a pilot license, and no plane. So I've been letting him get hours while I get to see the countryside. He needs the hours more than me, so it's all good. After a few flights here and there, we had a Saturday with nothing going on, and I was feeling sorry for myself because I wasn't at Valdez. So I asked him if he'd like to go to Platinum.

He replied..."sure...where's that?"

An overwhelmingly positive response. So I contacted my friend Mark, owner of two airplane projects in the one and only village of Platinum, and gave him time to either be too busy or suspiciously absent...but he said come on over, so off we went.

Brett flew me past Clark's Point and Manokotak on the way to Platinum, and the entire world looked like that Alaska pre-spring mottled brown watercolor that has its own fascination, but is really just not scenic in the way that winter and summer and fall are...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/10369229_432791646858206_1811523629240993193_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/10262058_432791623524875_6471667219100739945_n.jpg

It was a lovely couple hour flight, and Goodnews Bay was visible in the distance.

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10371689_432791610191543_7792882266827286932_n.jpg

I guess Mark really didn't mind the visit, he marshalled us in and we went in and parked right in front of his hangar and his house.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/10259754_432791816858189_7583297729275656664_n.jpg

Mark has lived and worked at Platinum for a long time, so he knows the whole story. I asked him a question about the history of the mine, and got it from the day of birth. The reason I asked is because last time I visited him I looked it up online and what I read didn't seem like it made sense. Now I know the real story...the mine wasn't closed in the distant past. In fact, it was operational from the 1920's up to the past few years. The story made me interested, so on the way out we flew over to check it out. It certainly has rearranged the valley floor.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/10382450_432791913524846_7464578581341816286_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10269597_432792056858165_8067022986708467723_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/10334389_432792336858137_6994944172707058221_n.jpg

I was imagining a return trip where we stopped at every strip and landed just because we could. But Brett was ready to head home, so we blasted past all of them. But on the way we saw my favorite ship again. Love that thing. Must be a good story, but I haven't turned it up yet.

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10363551_432792323524805_368683292362334220_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

05-16-2014, 12:28 AM

mmoyle

05-16-2014, 12:43 AM

Excellent pictures Troy! Saved all of them. You and your friends...any short wing or Bearhawk person can make Platinum a destination spot any time I'm here. Have lodging, four wheelers to cruise the beach and mountain trails......to other kick arse fishing spots...like arctic grayling on the kaniganak...how ever you spell it? Let's see blue gas and sober unleaded. Play up the Goodnews River, middle and north fork with a Wooldridge jet boat sporting a 200 hp outboard jet....Etech.
Mark M....no time to flatten my butt.....

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

mmoyle

05-16-2014, 01:11 PM

The ship inland between Togiak and Twin Hills washed inland from a wind driven tidal surge in 1964. Twin hills was established on higher ground due to the destruction of Togiak caused by that flood.

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CamTom12

05-16-2014, 06:06 PM

Was that part of the earthquake?

Troy Hamon

05-16-2014, 07:59 PM

The tides in Bristol Bay range from 20 to 30 feet depending on the bay for the high tide of the month. Time a monthly high tide with a west or southwest wind and the storm surge does incredible things. We have boats parked in the tundra around our area, but none of them as big as that one...

mmoyle

05-16-2014, 08:03 PM

Nope. In November of 2011 we had the perfect storm in Goodnews Bay. Wind pushed the tide to an extreme height. All of the ice covering the bay was pushed onto the village of Goodnews. The pictures attached are 30 feet above sea largely. Platinum was in lee of the storm so to speak. We had 4 feet of water in town.http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/17/upuqamym.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/17/gerede4y.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/17/june6avy.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/17/yqa8a2ep.jpg

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Troy Hamon

06-13-2014, 04:56 AM

Had a busy few days last weekend. Here are a few photos from a trip home through Lake Clark pass Friday night.

First image is from looking northwest into the evening sun over the Alaska Range as I flew down Cook Inlet.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/10441322_443386132465424_5322456274394520817_n.jpg

Next is an image of late evening sunset colors under a hard overcast within Lake Clark Pass.

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10440820_443386449132059_7841860358615009419_n.jpg

Finally, an image of some of the mountain tops northwest of Lake Clark Pass with alpenglow.

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10369206_443386275798743_4910610567121017839_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

06-13-2014, 12:58 PM

A couple days later, we had those fascinating low clouds that have fragments hanging around under the broken/overcast layer, with shafts of rain sticking down and sun shining through. But the pass cams showed blue sky in Lake Clark and Merrill passes...so off we went to sample the sunshine.

From the air, at least.

Had a nice tailwind on the way out, including as we crossed the Alagnak River at the Braids.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10344762_443387929131911_9194196341584982230_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10402441_443388219131882_6728667474631248824_n.jpg

We stopped to fill up in Port Alsworth at Lake and Pen Air, then launched north along the lake district of 'T' lakes...Twin, Turquoise, Telaquana, and Two Lakes...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10404486_443388449131859_7334881153307038310_n.jpg

The weather was pretty similar all along the western side, low clouds with character and energy, but light winds and lovely smooth air. Approaching Two Lakes for the entry to Merrill Pass, it still didn't look any different, though we saw a sneak preview of some blue sky.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t1.0-9/10441467_443388492465188_1545444387873748395_n.jpg

Merrill Pass is a pretty fantastic spot. It is pretty tight compared to Lake Clark Pass, higher elevation, and in general much less forgiving. I've only flown through Merrill a few times, while I've been through Lake Clark over 70 times last time I counted. I fly through Merrill when the weather is so good that it is either just to check it out, like this trip, or when the weather in Merrill has clouds near or above the mountaintops and light winds, visibility good, no reported issues, and Lake Clark Pass is fog on the deck. But if it gets into questionable weather, at least in Lake Clark there is room to turn around...

Turning into Merrill from the west, this is the view that lay before us.

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/10456772_443388519131852_527726910472234940_n.jpg

The pass continues up around that dogleg in the distance, and the elevation is somewhere 3,000 feet or above. I don't go through less than 4,000 feet. There are a bunch of airplanes parked in here. A few places on the internet have collections of photos of wreckage from Merrill. I haven't ever been low enough to notice them, wherever they are, but I suspect they are in the dogleg somewhere...

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10308394_443388642465173_2008458778904227870_n.jpg

The other side of the pass is a little different...not quite so narrow and rocky appearing on the valley floor.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10375943_443388742465163_7728747887198016651_n.jpg

But the mountains on either side are still pretty impressive.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10451733_443388779131826_6713778703600740873_n.jpg

Riverking

06-13-2014, 03:10 PM

Troy, very nice pictures. I give you guys a lot of credit flying in the mountains and passes. You really have to not only know your limitations but also have a lot of faith in your airplane. By now you must be pretty comfortable with Island Girl. Of course this is coming from a flat lander like me who is use to flying over corn fields. Any how I really admire your challenge's. Be safe as always. Jon

Troy Hamon

06-13-2014, 10:38 PM

Looking south from Merrill Pass we could see the Tusk.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10416996_443388929131811_7440006010481515061_n.jpg

A few minutes later, the Neacola River came into view.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10442541_443389045798466_3719657822145886974_n.jpg

Snowy Mountain was hiding in the clouds above Lake Chakachamna as Cook Inlet appeared in the distance.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1524680_443389115798459_9127738819027907900_n.jpg

Off the flanks of Snowy is a pretty odd glacier, wending its way down the mountain at the outlet of the lake.

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10432969_443389155798455_1482333125869057085_n.jpg

We turned and headed down along the mountains to the entrance to Lake Clark Pass, and as we passed the upper end of the McArthur River drainage, the Blockade Lake glacier terminus was below us, with the glacier stretching up into the mountains to the west.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10411355_443389205798450_1624619059212408802_n.jpg ?oh=836b7874e51d54ba73d294f0698d8243&oe=541274A0

Out the pilot side window, I saw a place I need to visit. Not sure who owns it or whether it is public...but I think I may need to pay a visit. Hopefully they will be okay with that...maybe I better check the ownership on BLM's mapping site...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10357255_443389322465105_1834255653249352745_n.jpg

Mountains and clouds greeted us as we looked west on our way to the pass entrance.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/l/t1.0-9/10438348_443389589131745_2173980096533577144_n.jpg

Finally, we turned into Lake Clark Pass and were greeted by a long view of the pass stretching out before us.

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10463927_443389859131718_8130566244487988122_n.jpg

Troy Hamon

06-13-2014, 10:50 PM

The North Fork is the wrong canyon...not the pass...

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/10343045_443389905798380_4814743374939064136_n.jpg

But the main canyon looks pretty similar if you aren't pretty familiar...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10464115_443389932465044_6757695299628840815_n.jpg

The pass walls are pretty awesome. The place feels completely different up high than it does down low. We were getting the high look at jagged peaks, rock patterns, and snow streaks.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10404435_443390249131679_5396153247810449282_n.jpg

At the pass exit, the Tlikikila River fans all the way across the lake valley, separating Little Lake Clark from Lake Clark.

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/1395152_443390262465011_7923685391123642788_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10404435_443390325798338_5193200789914189526_n.jpg

Back on the ground in Port Alsworth, the Island Girl stared down Lake and Pen's caravan.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10374928_443390472464990_5313590209776577376_n.jpg

On the way home, we were back in cloud country. The Nondalton gap was a bit skinny. Good class G conditions...visibility was great underneath...

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/1962610_443390535798317_7377372669507939495_n.jpg

As we neared King Salmon, we were bucking a headwind that had us at 70 mph. I tried a bunch of altitudes. 200 feet had us going 80 but was actually a bit rough. 500 feet had us going 70 but smooth. 600 feet had us down to around 60. 900 feet was back to about 70. Funny.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10352786_443390655798305_1370963508856040122_n.jpg

Jim Hann

06-17-2014, 09:33 AM

Beautiful as always Troy. I miss spending time in Alaska, even if it was primarily Anchorage! :-)

j_w_Bruce

07-16-2014, 11:33 AM

These aren't technically from 'southwest Alaska' but I thought I would upload a few of the pictures my wife took when we were in Alaska in June. We started the morning eating breakfast in a parking lot near Lake Hood, snapping some pictures as the seaplanes came and went, then spent the middle part of the day flying East and North of Palmer. We wrapped up the day at one of the state parks walking out to get up close to some falls. By the end of this particular day, my wife had snapped some 900 pictures. They weren't all keepers, but there were a lot of good ones.

Our many thanks to Troy and Logan for making the flight out to the Knik Glacier happen!

JB

Troy Hamon

07-16-2014, 11:42 AM

Nice! Come back for more!

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

Steve Pierce

07-16-2014, 12:40 PM

That is awesome. Looks like y'all had a hoot.

j_w_Bruce

07-16-2014, 01:37 PM

Indeed, I highly recommend it for anyone...

rocket

10-24-2014, 12:17 AM

I know Troy has been too busy flying to post any SW Alaskan photos lately so, I thought I would share one from my last, I think, float flight of the season this afternoon.

Can not tell you where but if my spot unit had worked you would all know!

7063

Troy Hamon

10-24-2014, 02:19 AM

It's true...bird was down part of the summer getting a bit of Rocket's attentioin, but when it wasn't I flew a lot, and now it's been back in the air I've been flying lots again. I do have some photos. But since I am not on floats, I can't get to that little hidey hole when the rocks are accessible...

But I did find some fun places...a few photos since I've been shamed into posting...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/1902928_507731266030910_3173118897358171827_n.jpg? oh=d10786f802a9d5beab460cb205acf5a4&oe=54F590E3&__gda__=1425329053_ef3e1b2f37195d9ce708e6dc444851e 0

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https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10690356_503898263080877_6927749066647335581_n.jpg ?oh=b3dce8a3615832a25190b5059c821ee2&oe=54E6267F

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Steve Pierce

10-24-2014, 05:37 AM

As usual you both take great shots.

j_w_Bruce

10-24-2014, 10:19 AM

I saw a PIREP yesterday for light icing at FL180 slightly North West of Little Rock (AR) and I wondered what you guys had been up to lately...

rocket

10-27-2014, 07:15 PM

Probably could have posted this under, My other airplane is, but seeing as the shot is from SW Alaska figured it belonged here regardless of the structural nature and wing length of the aircraft used for said mission.

I took The Bigwheel, my beater 182-B, up for a high altitude volcano and glacier tour on Saturday and my copilot took a couple hundred photos until her camera battery was dead. This was one of the most amazing flights and while I could say it was all planed I was really lured to an altitude I seldom visit by the wisp of steam climbing from one of our local volcanoes.

Ill post a few more photos later but this on is just a teaser to keep our resident photographer, Troy, on his toes!

This one is really cool and unusual because of the coloration induced by the dust which blows around and accumulates an the ice.

7082

Troy Hamon

10-27-2014, 09:27 PM

That is awesome.

PeterL

10-28-2014, 07:54 AM

Troy Hamon

10-28-2014, 10:14 AM

Most of my recent photos are just off my phone. I am waiting for new batteries to arrive for my camera...then I will start using it again. My camera is a Samsung NX100 with a 30mm f2.0 lens. I bought it specifically for flying...has worked great.

rocket

10-28-2014, 05:03 PM

Until recently my copilot was shooting with a Cannon Rebel but it just did not seem practical for the airplane for various reasons. Watching her fiddle around with the Cannon made me realize a more appropriate tool was necessary. I have always used a small point and shoot cannon but they just sucked. Decided a Leica D6 was the tool for the job: simple, rugged, great german glass, and a through the window setting to keep it from focusing on my scratchy windshield. About one AMU with a viewfinder attachment, a few extra batteries, and extra 12v charger. This camera will do just about everything except guide you through Adobe's torturous light room and photo shop software. Myself I just export them into iPhoto and call it good.

I really am in love with the browns in this and the above photo and while it might not make sense to you they are my favorite. I will be posting some other more typical yet spectacular glacier and volcano shots as soon as my copilot, working on medical photography degree, gets done with more of them.

Rocket

7111

Troy Hamon

11-02-2014, 01:07 PM

Rocket, been meaning to look at those on a bigger screen, finally got to it this morning. Love that last one especially. Marvelous.

Troy Hamon

11-02-2014, 01:34 PM

Not going to be able to catch up fully, but here are a few photos from yesterday.

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
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Trident
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Katmai Caldera
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Trident again
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Mount Martin
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Pacerfgoe

11-02-2014, 03:10 PM

Those are some really stunning photos....

rocket

11-02-2014, 05:41 PM

Jezz Troy,

setting the bar awfully high!

I like the volcano steam through the cloud.

Troy Hamon

11-02-2014, 05:58 PM

Fun stuff. Looking forward to your next post as well...

Steve Pierce

11-03-2014, 07:19 AM

Amazing shots Troy.

PeterL

11-03-2014, 09:45 AM

rocket

12-20-2014, 06:43 PM

Once again our resident western AK photographer Troy has been slacking. I had to go out and take up the slack this week so the rest of the world out there could get their snow free tundra fix. Psst, don't tell anyone but I was bombing around under the long wings my Bigwheel…the Batplane is still on floats.

Shooting with the iPhone so not as flashy a photos

Rocket

Hmmm. When I click on the button on the bottom of the insert image photos box I get a Adobi flash error message. I had seen this before but it went away. ???

Manche59

12-21-2014, 09:26 AM

Truly excellent pics.

Troy Hamon

12-22-2014, 04:41 AM

I have been a bit slow to get things posted...but here are a few photos from earlier this month. Warning for Steve...it looks cold...

On the way to Anchorage to take swimmers to a swim meet and to fly a Cessna 182 with the Civil Air Patrol...

Flying north out of Port Alsworth toward Telaquana Pass and the Neacola River.
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Flying down the Neacola River Valley.
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Chakachamna Lake ahead.
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Ice and rocks.
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Outlet of Chakachamna Lake, start of the Chakachatna River.
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Down low to keep out of the precip, saw a couple miniature drops of water hit the windshield and stop moving...we immediately dropped down and that was the end of it. Which is good. Didn't want to turn around and go back to Port Alsworth since we had already made it all the way through the mountains by this point.
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