The last couple of days we’ve fought the weather a bit. It’s a typical Fall season in Alaska and nothing is a “gimme”. Our margins are narrow enough that it does not take much weather to knock us out of the game and send us whining back towards the house. (Pilots are the biggest bunch of whiners you’ve ever met) We spent the first 3 hours of the day fogged in at the house. So we ran up to the Eureka Roadhouse for a greasy breakfast and a weak cup of coffee.
Once we got airborne it was a beautiful morning for about 20 minutes … then we found the wind. We fought moderate turbulence through the Chugach mountains before landing on the strip pictured above. The winds were 15 mph gusting 20 mph. That is a lot of wind when it’s blowing across the strip, and turbulent because of the air tumbling over the glacial moraine. Plus, it was not exactly LAX international, in fact, more like 450′ of glacier cotton and rocks. We dropped of the goat hunter and then headed over to pickup a couple of sheep hunters.
After we got back to the house I headed off through the Talkeetna Mountains to pick up a hunter who had twisted his knee. The weather was moving in fast and I could not get over the mountain pass, so I had to fly all the way around the Talkeetna Mountains. Eventually even that got dicey, so, I tucked tail and ran for our cabin in town without accomplishing the mission. I am currently fogged out of Sheep Mountain, and grounded in Wasilla waiting for better weather to proceed. We will see what tomorrow brings.