Flying in the Mountains

Dad and I got up today and headed down to the airport.  The sun was shining and we were going flying.  One of the Civil Air Patrol members has a Cesna 172 and he is nice enough to let my dad use it.  He has put a lot of work into this plane and it shows.

We took off and immediately the town of Valdez was below us.

We took off up into the pass following the Richardson highway.  Up through the mountains through the pass on our way to Chitna.

We were going to take a look at a couple of planes that are for sale that were parked at the Chitna airport.  It was a quick flight over numerous glaciers, lakes, and rivers.  It was a gorgeous day to be up in the air.  We landed in Chitna and took a look at the two planes.  One was a Piper Colt and the other was a Cesna 150.  Both are fairly small planes with their only real use being learning how to fly or basic commuting from airport to airport.  These aren’t planes you are going to fly a moose out of the woods in or pus skies on and go land up in the mountains.

While we were at the airport we spotted a fish wheel in action so I ventured down to take a look.  I did get some video, but my camera was in my pocket when a fish was actually caught.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/08/fish_wheel.mov 320 260]

After a little exploring we hopped back in the plane headed back for Valdez.  We took a little different rout home this time following the copper river.  We took a little side trip over to get a closer look at an amazing waterfall.  This video doesn’t do it justice.  The amount of water cascading over the edge was amazing.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/08/waterfall.mov 320 260]

We ended up ducking off the copper river down a side valley that took us right back down the canyon into town.   A very nice trip.

I am now sitting in the Anchorage airport waiting for my midnight flight to Minneapolis.  I will be back up in Cook tomorrow afternoon.