Glacier Flight

On our first day in Anchorage, Saturday, the plan was to do an extended flight around the glaciers of the Kenai Peninsula, stop in Homer and have dinner then fly back 'home.' Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate so the flight was cancelled. To make up for the loss, the flight leader offered to have a brief glacier flight with those planes that wanted to go at 8:00 am this morning. Four 'crews' rolled out of their beds to be at the airfield in time to make the flight, we were one of the four.

Clouds were still 'layered' in the morning with ceilings anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 feet. As the day heats up the clouds tend to dissipate. We took off and headed over the Harding Icefield in our typical formation flight. LIke yesterday's blog, I can't do justice describing the experience, and we will have to rely on Jim's photos. We flew along the valleys, beautiful terrain on either side, layers of wispy clouds above and below us, over these giant frozen rivers. It was difficult to comprehend their size as we flew up the valleys although a remember thinking how unusual it was for us to be flying at 180 miles an hour and it seemed like we were standing still - the planes ahead mere speaks against the backdrop of these enourmous glaciers. Off to our left on the return home we saw Mt. Redoubt.

The flight was too short.

On landing, we taxied back to get fuel and had to go through a construction area at the airport full of cranes, barricades and other equipment. Jim and I reviewed the flight as we taxied and took our attention off the construction 'stuff' around the plane, and before we knew it the right wingtip brushed up against a folding highway barricade with a blinking light on top - we saw bits of glass and debris spray out on the ground - the strobe and nav light on the wingtip had broken off. Crap. We were not going to get stuck in another Alasak town waiting for a part. Although the plane was perfectly safe to fly, we are required to have a functioning strobe light for flight (kind of like headlights on car) which increases the visibility of our plane to others.

I remember from my previous calls down at Prince George that there was a Cirrus Service Center in Anchorage - the only one in Alaska (yeah!). I gave them a call and discovered they had stopped being service center an no longer carried the parts (#@%*). They referred us to a shop on Merrill Field where we were located. We found out these lights are a bit more common and with the help of a great parts guy and A&P mechanic we had made the repair and were set to go again.

Jim and I then headed back to the hotel and some hangar talk with some of the other pilots. Tomorrow we would begin our final leg as a group, Anchorage to Ketchikan. Two of the pilots on the trip, a father and son, soon joined the group. They had stayed in Talkeetna for a couple of days, the Dad getting a Bush Plane endorsement, and son getting a float plane rating. Hmmmm, and idea for the next trip.......