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I want to post a formal, public thanks to AK Brew, Steve Long, Bob Picard, and a few other AK tribe folks for making my trip to the Anchorage show an outstanding experience!
AK Brew was kind enough to allow me to stay at his house, pet his dogs, and more or less babysit me for the entire five days I was there. He arranged an informal BBQ for me, and TWO incredible local flights.
On Friday, T-craft tribe member Steve Long flew me from Anchorage to Talkeetna in his gorgeous F-21 for lunch. On the way home, Steve arranged for me to fly back with Don DeVoe in his full off-road PA-14, so I could get my first gen-u-wine Alaska river gravel bar landing on big tires. Steve, thanks so much... and thank Don again for me !
The Alaska Airmen's Association show was a big success for me on both a personal and business level.
Then on Monday, Jim took me out for one of the best sightseeing flights I've ever had...
Anchorage/Lake Hood out to fly over Sarah's house at Lake Louise, then to land at Wolf Lake to say hello to Larry (WLAS),
Then out through the Knik river gorge to a gravel riverbed landing at "the picnic table",
Then out over the spectacular Knik glacier and bright blue swimming pools of melted ice,
Then up over the thousands of huge ice spires and crevasses of Lower Knik Glacier
Then up the untouched snowfields of upper Knik Glacier,
Then over the mountain peaks and down to the untouched miles of coastline and black sand beaches of Prince William Sound, past hundreds of small icebergs floating away from a nearby coastal glacier,
Then across the Sound to the town of Whittier where cold water divers are trained,
Then through Portage Pass and into the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet,
Then to the Hope airport, a narrow rectangle gut into 100 foot Spruce trees with a dark dirt/gravel strip at the bottom,
Then a brisk walk into and out of the tiny town of Hope, Alaska (closed until May 15),
And then finally back through Turnagain Arm, across the City of Anchorage, and into Lake Hood airstrip.
All I can say is "Freakin' WOW !!!" I will try to post pictures of this flight soon.
Jim I cannot thank you enough ! I will never be able to repay even a fraction of your generosity and kindness. There's nothing in the lower 48 I could ever show you that could hold a candle to Alaska in Springtime. I'm in your debt,
Bill Berle
AK Brew was kind enough to allow me to stay at his house, pet his dogs, and more or less babysit me for the entire five days I was there. He arranged an informal BBQ for me, and TWO incredible local flights.
On Friday, T-craft tribe member Steve Long flew me from Anchorage to Talkeetna in his gorgeous F-21 for lunch. On the way home, Steve arranged for me to fly back with Don DeVoe in his full off-road PA-14, so I could get my first gen-u-wine Alaska river gravel bar landing on big tires. Steve, thanks so much... and thank Don again for me !
The Alaska Airmen's Association show was a big success for me on both a personal and business level.
Then on Monday, Jim took me out for one of the best sightseeing flights I've ever had...
Anchorage/Lake Hood out to fly over Sarah's house at Lake Louise, then to land at Wolf Lake to say hello to Larry (WLAS),
Then out through the Knik river gorge to a gravel riverbed landing at "the picnic table",
Then out over the spectacular Knik glacier and bright blue swimming pools of melted ice,
Then up over the thousands of huge ice spires and crevasses of Lower Knik Glacier
Then up the untouched snowfields of upper Knik Glacier,
Then over the mountain peaks and down to the untouched miles of coastline and black sand beaches of Prince William Sound, past hundreds of small icebergs floating away from a nearby coastal glacier,
Then across the Sound to the town of Whittier where cold water divers are trained,
Then through Portage Pass and into the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet,
Then to the Hope airport, a narrow rectangle gut into 100 foot Spruce trees with a dark dirt/gravel strip at the bottom,
Then a brisk walk into and out of the tiny town of Hope, Alaska (closed until May 15),
And then finally back through Turnagain Arm, across the City of Anchorage, and into Lake Hood airstrip.
All I can say is "Freakin' WOW !!!" I will try to post pictures of this flight soon.
Jim I cannot thank you enough ! I will never be able to repay even a fraction of your generosity and kindness. There's nothing in the lower 48 I could ever show you that could hold a candle to Alaska in Springtime. I'm in your debt,
Bill Berle
I made sure I sat on the correct side of the airliner at the window going both ways, and although breathtakingly beautiful - the scenery left no doubt that it was absolutely intolerant of any errors or poor judgment. The 100+ foot trees went all the way to the water (that's COLD water BTW), without a trace of human infrastructure for 99% of the flight up and down the coast. 
I've have flown from here to oshkosh and back and it's 40 hours of flight time one way and It took me about one week to get there, with weather and all.
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