Phil's Plane

Phil Squires bought this 152 from Mike last fall and the group has been working on getting it flyable recently. A couple days ago I was coming back across the inlet and Mike and Bill happened to be out test flying it. Ended up with some great photo's of a classic trainer. The 152 is the plane that almost every pilot starts their license process in. Safe and reliable, the 152 has a great safety record and is really docile. As you can see it's not really a bush plane but it serves it's purpose. The photo of my plane is during an afternoon of load hauling over to the cabin, and there is also one of Wally, White Knuckled, flying me home from the right seat. hope all is well,
josh

Gregg and Steve stop by

Gregg and Steve stopped by on the 20th for a visit at the cabin. Took the opportunity to get a few photo's of Gregg's cub. After being around all these cubs lately i'm starting to get the itch to own one. Cub's have a very different feel than my 150 does, it's not necessarily better or worse, it's just different. People say you put on a cub rather than get into one, it feels as if you have an engine strapped to your chest. Enjoy the photo's
josh

The Lucky Ones

As I was flying home today from the cabin I thought back to when owning a plane and flying the Alaska back country seemed like it was years away. Every time I get into my plane I am living a dream that I have had since childhood, and I will never take it for granted. I spent the afternoon at the cabin shoveling the outbuilding roofs and catching up on a bit of reading. Gregg Motonaga (OPZ), Pete Ross(92H) and Peter Grunwaldt(47Z) stopped by on their way up north for a bit of hot chocolate. All fly pristine fabric(mostly) Pipers that photograph really well. Gregg's Cub shoots well in a variety of conditions but white airplanes like Peter's are difficult to shoot in the winter for the obvious reason. More posts to follow from the previous days,

cheers,

josh

Kustatan Overnight

Mike and I are now on the exact same work schedule and we had planned to head out sunday, monday or tuesday and sunday seemed to work out best so off we went. My plane is grounded with some radio issues so we took his. It was supposed to be a day trip, but turned into a 20 mile snowmachine trip in 20 below temperatures, a little frostbite, and a few good photos. The photographs are of the mountain that Jordan and I hope to climb this spring. Mike and I scouted the route and he roughed in the landing strip that we will probably use. I landed at the strip a couple of times this summer, but have never landed there during the winter. The landing area is to the west of the mountain and we will leave my plane there while we traverse across the south face, spend the night, climb the south east ridge and return to plane the following day if all goes well. You can see the tracks that mike left in the third picture, and the route is the left ridge in the fourth photo. There is also a photo of mike and a shot of another range further east in first two shots.
cheers,
josh

Sunburst Mt. Overnight 2

Here are the rest of the photos. The night ones are a little on the grainy side, but they turned out great, no editing on these, just a little sharpening. The moon was so bright it was nearly daylight. The others are a few of Jordan on our trip down the front side on Sunburst back to the car. There was some great fog laying in the valley floor, but when we got to it the temperature dropped about 10 degrees, or at least it felt like it did.
hope everyone is well.

Sunburst Mt. Overnight

Jordan and I scooted up to the Sunburst Mt. area on friday for a quick overnight trip. We got lucky with spectacular weather and a super bright moon that made for some great night shots. We skinned up the valley to the right of sunburst, up to the foot of Pastoral Mt., hung a left and camped on the Sunburst ridge. The ridge afforded a great view of the turnagain valley and a great sunset. Jordan has a weird obsession with building great outdoor kitchens and this one was no exception.
this will be a two post ordeal.
cheers,
josh

Birds about town

I like to think of our local birds as opportunists. The birds in these photos were perusing town today, taking advantage of untended dumpsters and dead cats while the bipeds were hold up inside watching the super bowl. Ravens (about 4 times larger than a crow, and curved beak) are pretty interesting critters. They have a keen sense for garbage, and the spare time to spread it all over town if it's not edible. They really like open bedded pickups, and street lights. I spent a summer working on the north slope of Alaska for BP and while I was up there I met a woman working on her PHD. She was studying the Ravens that apparently followed the oil industry up to the north coast of Alaska. Ravens are non native to the slope and UAF is funding research on them and how they have adapted to their new environment. We had a nesting family at the facility i worked at and trust me, you didn't want to get too close or you might lose a limb. You can learn more about the north slope raven project HERE.

The eagles were right in the middle of town which is not abnormal, but i usually don't see them there so i took a few photos. Clear and cold today, everyone is waiting on Redoubt.

cheers,

josh