I took these pictures this morning.  It was an absolutely beautiful sunrise, but a little-bit windier than I would have preferred. The winds in Palmer we’re not supposed to pick up until 4 PM this afternoon but by 9 o’clock this morning it was already gusting to 20 knots.  I took the sunrise picture enroute to the Palmer Airport this morning and I took the other photo while sitting on the ramp at Palmer just before departure.

You might notice that the ground looks a little slippery. It was.  The Alaskan Bushwheel is probably the finest modification available for Bush aircraft.  But I am pretty sure that an AKBushwheel on snow or ice is literally the most slippery thing in the world (with the exception of wearing crocs on wet polished concrete…but that’s just dangerous).  I think braking with Bushwheels on snow might actually make you go faster.  I eagerly await the day they introduce the studded, or even siped version of AK Bushwheel, better yet, how about a set of chains.  That would be awesome.

But anyways, I was not too concerned about the braking action on my 185 with 6000′ of Palmer Municipal in front of me.  It was not concerning until I needed to exit the runway on glare ice.  Here’s the point, maneuvering a Bushwheel equipped, Cessna 185 on ice, in a 20 knot wind is totally humiliating.  The vertical stabilizer is the size of barn door and once the wind has control of that beast, you are hooped.  More than once I’ve had to shut down on the runway and turn the thing by hand.  And that is not as easy as it sounds.  Just about the time I’d get some traction under my feet, and the old-girl would start to move, my feet would shoot-out and my chin would contact the empanage.  It’s infuriating and hopeless.

This is where blog writers are supposed to have a brilliant solution.  I don’t.

I did think this morning how cool I would have felt with a set of those stretchy rubber ice cleats.  The only thing better would have been a passenger with ice cleats.  Then you can kick their butt out to “hang on a strut” while you power around.  Truth is I exited the runway with no issues this morning, but it brought back several memories I had tried to bury.  After I successfully taxied off the runway and shutdown, I began contemplating a straight ahead ramp departure.  But those are not things we are allowed to discuss on a blog.  So, I turned the airplane around by hand before starting the engine and taxiing for departure.  The problem with turning your back to the wind before climbing in, is making sure you don’t get your door ripped off it’s hinges in the process.  I made a mistake like that once down on Unimak Island.  That was very stressful, and relatively expensive, and frustrating.  But that is a story for another time.  I hope you get out and do some winter flying.  It is full of odd challenges, and good times.

Preparing to depart Sheep Mountain for Valdez.

Friday evening in Valdez … us “Valley Trash” type always carry a blue tarp.

Heading out for dinner.

My girls and I.  I carried Mae for about 10 miles like that this weekend, no wonder so many dad’s have neck problems.

My friend recommended bringing razor scooters for the girls … BRILLIANT!

Airplane camping is pretty cushy.  We even brought a generator and an electric heater incase the girls got cold.    We had old N9808x packed to the gills.

The girls LOVE sleeping in tents.  I think we might upgrade the size next time.  This was getting tight.

Don’t leave home without Winnie the Pooh.

Saturday was beautiful.

Enjoying lunch in Cordova at Baja Taco with friends.  This is a must do destination.  Never disappointing.

I just installed some new AVEO Ultra Galactica wingtip nav/strobes.  I got them at Merrill Field Instruments in Anchorage.  They had them in-stock and gave a good price. These LEDs are TSO’d so they are legit, even on my airplane!  Super bright, and really easy to install with just 4 wires.

Paul Claus Turbine Otter Demo.

Paul is seriously amazing to watch fly this thing.  Total distance for take-off plus distance for landing was less than 400 feet!

This little SuperSTOL ripped off the ground and was really impressive on the climb-out.  I was so distracted by his angle of attack that I forgot to listen for his take-off distance.  I know it was short.

Many rows of tail draggers and bushwheels this weekend.

Bobby Breeden preparing for his first take-off.  He did a great job and won the experimental bush class … again.  Good job dude!

My neighbor buddy @cubspanker in his SQ2 competing in the experimental bush class.  He did awesome, taking second place.

Glacier Cub on final.  Valdez has an awesome backdrop for a flight competition.  Fun stuff.

This was the winning landing by Bobby Breeden in the glacier cub for the experimental bush class.

Getting ready to leave Valdez last night.  Beautiful evening.

We went direct to our place at Sheep Mountain and it only took 32 minutes.  We went up the Valdez Glacier to the Tazlina, then Nelchina, Powell, Home.  Always a fun flight.

This is how I measure success.  They were trashed!!!!  I am so thankful for a good fun weekend with the family.

From the top of Tazlina Glacier looking South into Prince William Sound.  THE END.

16Bravo landing at the Picnic Strip.

The man himself … late to his own fly-in.

My daughter strutting her stuff.  She only had one glove because her sister was using the other one.

A small portion of the line up.

It’s hard to take a bad picture in Alaska.  So I just keep clicking the shutter.

Playing at the lake.

Family picture.  Notice the shared gloves.  Good problem solving.

We had to leave early, but it was a good turnout.  Good job 16bravo, good idea, thank you.

Heading for Cold Bay Alaska in less than ideal conditions.  It’s 350 miles from King Salmon to Cold Bay.  Most of the trip was awesome … but there always seems to be a little bit of this along the way.

There are a lot of things I have never seen … I had never seen a rain-shower rainbow hovering off shore.

On the beach on Unimak Island at the mouth of the Pogromni River.  It’s a rare day when Pogromni Volcano (in the back ground) is visible.

We call it the “Thunder Dome” but it’s an old building on Unimak Island at Cape Sarichef.  The link will tell you a little bit about this area.  This structure was a military building from the WWII era.

This is Scotch Cap.  This is the first Costal Alaskan lighthouse, build in 1903.  Here is a bit of the history of Scotch Cap.  There was massive tsunami in 1946 that killed 5 men here.

In the foreground is the arch on Unimak Island.  Across the water (Unimak Pass) is Ugamak Island.

The south end of Unimak Island.

Fisher Caldera on Unimak Island.

Fisher Caldera.  There are three lakes in the Fisher Caldera area, I don’t know their individual names.

A poor picture of a beautiful wolf on Unimak.

Happy to be on the ground in Cold Bay on a beautiful evening.  Using generators and electric heaters to keep the engines warm overnight.

This picture shows Pavlof volcano on April 7th 2016.  Visit my post from April 1st here to see a photo of Pavlof Volcano blowing it’s top on March 27th 2016.  I was fortunate enough to be down here working near Pavlof in June of 2014 when Pavlof erupted last time.  You can see those pictures from 2 years ago here  

This is flying around the base of Pavlof’s sister you can see the obvious line where fresh snow has covered a fairly thick layer of ash. 

Another picture showing the contrast of fresh snow and ash.

Looking out across Pavlof bay.

Ash blowing in the wind at the base of Pavlof volcano.

A thin ash cloud kicked up by the prop wash off Mike’s cub on the Sapsuck River.

Old N7580Y headed for friendly skies, with Mike Meekin.

A few legends who would probably rather not be named on a silly flying blog :o)

Departing Black Hills airstrip.

Looking down into Surprise Lake in the Aniakchak crater.

Surprise Lake, Aniakchak crater.

Port Moller.

Ernie departing Port Moller.

Mike Meekin departing Port Moller.

The gang.

Topping off in Port Moller on a beautiful afternoon.

Landing at Port Moller. 

If you look close near the bottom of the picture you can see Mike’s cub over the water headed for Deer Island.  This is the crossing at Port Moller looking North East.

Leaving Deer Island for the mud flats during the Port Moller crossing.  We landed down there once just for grins.  It’s good solid ground.  This crossing is totally comfortable, legal, and safe … if the weather is good.

A beautiful morning in Cold Bay with Frosty Peak in the background.

  Refueling at Frosty’s in Cold Bay.

This is Cold Bay from the air.  Bering Sea on the horizon and the Pacific ocean on the right.

Leaving Black Hills airstrip.

I had to post a picture of my new seats.  They were built by Sport Aircraft Seats and installed one day before this job.  Fair price, beautiful workmanship, extremely comfortable, and ZERO DOWN TIME!  Oh ya, and in the back ground is Becharof Lake and the mouth of the Kejulik River…it was blowing 55mph down there.

That feeling you get when you reach the West end of Lake Iliamna and you realize the pass is going to be rough…

…And then you get to the East end of Lake Clark, near Current Creek, and see the dust rolling off the sand bar.  Then you suck down your seat belt and slouch in your seat a little to give your head more clearance to the ceiling, proceed with caution.

The End.  It was a great trip.  New adventures with good friends.

If you enjoyed the pictures and want some Blue Ice Aviation swag, we ship all over the world.  You can visit our store if you would like right here.  Our Classic Hoodies and our New BIA T’s are our most popular items.

 We were dodging around in the precip and found this knob to refuel on in the Goodnews drainage.

Sunshine, clouds, precip and ash.

My buddy Neil, gotta watch out for this guy.

Running the coast between Cape Newenham and Togiak.

And then Pavlof Volcano Blew.  I did not take this picture, but this is the eruption on March 27th.  It sent an ash cloud 37000 feet high.  We were 281 miles away in Dillingham and the ash plume nailed us.

All that grey stuff on the snow is ash.

My buddy Nick waiting on weather in the hangar.  We’ve done a lot of this over the past two weeks.

Mike Meekin on final to land on a knob on the Kweethluk River.

Lots of Caribou around here.

Refueling on the Kweethluk.

Mike Meekin on the role for departure off the Kweethluk knob.

Old N7580Y with Mike Meekin at the controls.  He has more than 20,000 hours in the serial number cub.

Nick and I enjoying the view on a beautiful afternoon south of Bethel.

The Tikchik Mountains enroute from Eek Lake to Dillingham.

This is some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever had the pleasure of flying over … on a nice day.  We did not get off the ground until 1230 pm and this was taken at 7pm on the nicest evening of flight we’ve had in weeks.

It got breezy yesterday.  I was in the Cessna 185 and the above photo shows my ground speed.  201 mph downwind and 48 mph on the upwind.

My ol’ girl strapped down on the ramp waiting to play when the weather clears.

This is the view out the window right now as we wait for better weather.

Taking a break on the Kanektok River.  It was 11 degrees when we landed and you can see the remnant ice on the river.

Kanektok River.

The Middle Fork of the Goodnews River.

Middle Fork Goodnews River.

An old dredge at the platinum mine near Platinum Alaska.  Approximately 540,000 ounces of platinum have been mined here since the 1920’s!  At $1480 per ounce that’s quite a sum.

Tailing piles at the platinum mine.  For more information on this platinum mine you can check out this link to a wikipedia description.

The village of Platinum.

The village of Twin Hills.

Round Island off the coast near Togiak.

Ualik Lake with a skim coat of ice and snow.  Uncertain to the season just like the rest of us.

Refueling in Lime Village.

Nearing the village of New Stuyahok.

Mike landing on the Shore of Togiak Lake for a break.

Togiak Lake.

Togiak Lake.

Togiak Lake.

Togiak Lake.

Another weather day hanging out in the bunkhouse telling lies to each other.

Taking a break and discussing the weather in the Goodnews Drainage yesterday as a cold front moved in.

Taking a break on the Togiak River.

Refueling in Togiak.  I needed to taxi behind this DC6 to fuel.  I decided that would be a poor choice.  So I shut down my cub and waited for the 4 engine beast to move out of the way.  Love that sound!

This is the DC6 departing Togiak.

The R44 coming in for landing on the Togiak.

I’ll post more pictures as I am able.  We have had some time off because of the weather and even though I hate not flying, it was really nice to have Easter off.  Happy Easter everybody.  I wish I could have been home to go to church with my family.  Jesus is risen, I do believe that, not because it’s convenient, or fits my world view or culture perfectly, but because I believe it is actually true.  I mention it because … if you’ve never considered that the story of Christ, as told in the Bible, is true… you might consider it. At least consider why do not believe.  If it’s from what you’ve heard, but you’ve never investigated, it might be time.  Find a Bible and read the Gospel of John, it might just tweak your mind.

We had a weather day (The weather was good in Dillingham but not at our destination) so I went out stomping around town with my camera and tried to act like a photographer.  These are many of the 32′ commercial drift boats in winter storage.

While acting like a photographer I took a picture of a motor grader…

And an aptly named boat.

…Then we went flying.  This was taken in the village of Goodnews Bay.

The next day we landed on this gravel bar on the Goodnews River.

Yesterday we landed at this little spot on the Kulukak and ate some crackers and cheese.  We were thankful to have such a pretty spot to stretch our legs, I love this country.

Attempting to run project logistics out of Goodnews Bay.

Goodnews bay this morning 3-14-16.

This afternoon I landed alongside the Goodnews river and saw this little red fox checking us out.  You can also see an eagle’s nest in that tree.

She was really brave, and came right up to the plane.

After many hours of sitting in the plane we let energy out by daring each other to cross thin ice.  I lost $5 bucks on this one when Andy made it across!

Cook Inlet on my way to Dillingham in the cub.

15 minutes later … the weather changes fast.

A quick break in Lake Clark Pass.

Dillingham is just to the right of the rain shower.

Approaching the village of Eek for a quick fuel stop.

Turbulence in the Tikchik Mountains upset the cargo, it was not comfortable.

The Cub and R44 refueling in a dry lake bed.

The Sunrise one morning from Dillingham.

Meeting up to refuel the birds in the Kilbuck Mountains.

A new landing zone I name “white rock”, this is a new one for me.

Kisaralik Lake, absolutely beautiful.

Changing oil in the hangar in Dillingham.

Meeting the Cub in a dry lake bed on the Stuyahok River.

Quick break on the Togiak River.

The legends in their element.

Taking off from Togiak on our way home.

A rain squall moving in on the village of Togiak.

Lake Clark Pass on the way back to Wasilla in the Cub.

I love those patterns in the sand and water.

A good arial shot of the village of Dillingham with the Tikchiks in the background.

Awesome cloud formations from the wind in the Aleutian Range. 

Refueling the helicopter on a gravel bar.

Fueling up on a chilly morning in King Salmon.

Winds that lift the water off the surface of Becharof Lake are merely a light breeze in this country :o)

Almost home!  Passing Lake Clark, and headed for the pass, on a beautiful day to go home.

NICE TO BE HOME!!  Thankful for sure!

Ok, I’ll be honest, the other reason that I have not been posting on the blog as much is because my nephew got me going on instagram … sorry about that.  But it’s pretty fun, you may want to check out the BlueIceAviation account if you like Alaska pics.  It’s easier for me to share the day to day stuff there and save the blog for the big trips around Alaska.  I may even link my Instagram account to the blog so the photos get shared here too.  But for now here are the photos from early June when I was down in Cold Bay.

Refueling in Port Heiden.

Unimak Island with 55 mph winds.  That’s water being torn off the top of the lake and lifted hundreds of feet into the air.  Pretty scary actually.

Trying to cross over to Unimak Island from the main land but not loving the cloud cover.

The standard view.

The Crew in the Cold Bay bunkhouse

Back on da’ beach.

This photo is out of order, it’s returning to Wasilla with a red sun from the Sockeye fire.

Crossing back to Port Heiden as the temperature dew point meet.

This is my desk when I am at work.

Download IMG_3091.MOV

Flying by Shishaldin Volcano at 9600′

The Caldera on Unimak Island.

Ernie cruising along in the cub with Shishaldin in the back ground.

Refueling on the beach.

Huge waves on the Pacific side of Unimak on a not very nice weather day.  That was the first blue patch I had seen in days!

Where the ocean meets the sky.

This poor whale got too close to the shore I guess.  He was huge!

Oil change on the ramp.

Little foxy checking us out.

Good pic of buddy Nick.

This is that poor whale the day it washed up.

A couple of cubs of the year with momma.

Powow on the beach.

The 185 with the arch in the background.

The brown bear (high center) had no luck with dinner (five caribou).  The bou just hung around to torment him.  He was old and slow.

High on Unimak.

Picking up bouy balls.

Hmmm where should we go next?

Fueling in Port Moller before crossing the water.

Another bear with a cub on the tundra.

Waiting on weather in King Salmon.