Near the Knik Glacier on Sunday
Sheep Mountain on October 28th. 23 degrees and ice fog.
Some of my favorite hills in the Chugach.
Yep, well, it’s been too long since I’ve been on here. Sorry for the lack of posts, I’m not going to make excuses. We finished the bulk of our 2011 flying season with the close of the hunting season on September 20th. I departed Alaska on October 1st for some training in Florida, and then flew from Florida to Hawaii for a vacation with family. We had an awesome time on the island enjoying the sand, sun, family and friends. Ali is a natural beach kid. I was out of the state for two and a half weeks, and I tried not to do anything work related in Hawaii. As soon as we got back from the island I went to work on building a hangar for the planes. I was racing the clock as the ground was freezing at night and I was trying to pour concrete. We were blessed with a warm spell and I got my mud in the ground last Saturday. It will be a bare-bones, dirt floor hangar for now, but I hope to have a roof over my birds by Thanksgiving. That’s my month in a nut-shell. I really wanted to post some Hawaii pictures on here, but I figured this blog is mostly for flying stuff … not family vacations, but dang I love those beaches. I may give-in and do it anyway, Hawaii rocks. Anybody wanna go halves on house over there?
I’ve done a little bit of flying this week, and I took these photos while I was out. On Sunday, I picked up a couple of bear hunters. They said it had been 10 degrees at night, and they were happy to leave the mountains for warmer climates. On Monday I did some flying in the 185 for “The Frozen Ground” a movie with Nicolas Cage, and John Cusak. It was not much of a scene, but I hope the plane makes it in the movie. I forgot my camera of course so I did not get any photos. The wind was blowing 30-ish and the poor camera man was turning green as I circled over John Cusak about 20 times while they tried to get “the right angle”. I asked the camera guy how much his camera was worth and he told me $100K plus lenses. I told him his camera was worth more than my plane. Yesterday I went out and radio tracked Sheep all day and the weather was absolutely perfect! Calm, clear, and beautiful, just the way it always is up here in Alaska.
I’m glad to be home, and I’m looking forward to the long winter. But first, I’ve got to get started on the 2012 Blue Ice Aviation calendars. I should mention as well that I now have fancy new Blue Ice Aviation hats, and kiddo sized Blue Ice Aviation t-shirts. I will get them up on the website for purchase soon!