Flying Around Anchorage

Posted by Alex on 23 August 2009

We awoke in Anchorage early on Thursday morning to find a perfectly clear sky and crisp cold air. This being the first clear day in a long time, Ron, our host suggested going for a little flight in his Float plane, a 32 year old Cessna 206, so off we went to the airport, or rather the lake to prepare the plane. After the usual pre flight checks, part of which involved balancing precariously off the end of the floating pontoon, we boarded the plane and taxied to the end of the lake.

Lake Hood is one of the only controlled seaplane airfields in Alaska, mainly due to its proximity to the international airport (over the road), and two military airports. After lining up in a man made canal serving as a runway, the engine roared and we slowly rose out of the water, climbing the hump, as they call it, to become a rather large skimming stone, bouncing down the canal. Finally we were airborne, and as soon as we cleared the airfields’ airspace, I found myself in command of the aircraft, climbing to 1500 feet and flying alongside mountainsides admiring all the waterfalls and dense forest to our side. We turned up a large glacial valley with a wide river bed leading up to a glacial lake, peppered with floating ice.

At the other end, a vast expanse of ice spread out as far as we could see up the valley and onto the mountain pass at the end. Flying over the frozen sheet, it became clear that this was not the most hospitable of landscapes, what looked like a long flat river of ice turned out to be an endless series jagged ridges and deep crevasses. Ron’s very pertinent remark that “this would not be the best place for an engine failure” made the glacial lake at the bottom of the glacier seem much safer than a few minutes prior. So round we turned and headed up another valley, past another glacier and between innumerable high peaks, capped in snow. Flying over a high pass, we slowly descended back towards the lowlands and out of the valley towards Anchorage. After checking in with the tower again and lining up with the canal, we smoothly touched down and floated back to the pontoon.

In the Space of an hour, we had gone from a complete urban setting to one of the most desolate and alien environments I have ever visited and back again, just in time for a cup of coffee. 
Thank you so very much Ron.

10 comments. Tags: glacier, flying, alex. Location: Anchorage, USA