First part of AK summer flying

[zkelley2]

Figure I'd make a post with some of the flying I've done with my 4 place so far this summer around Alaska, mostly south central. Going back to early May.

First up is one of my favorite little strips in the vicinity of the Knik Glacier. The Knik valley gets a dumb amount of traffic on a weekend, but this one usually remains quiet, and just a 20-25min flight from home. I also drew a Moose tag for this area for this fall, so this'll be base camp. It's roughly 900ft long, so plenty to get a mgtow bearhawk out of.

 

[zkelley2]

Here's a couple from a day I took a friend out to the Mud strip and then up to Talkeetna for lunch.

Knik Glacier in the background

Above the clouds, Foraker and Denali poking out.

 

[zkelley2]

Found a new spot near the entrance to Lake Clark Pass, new strip for me. Nice and long at about 1000ft, at little soft, but nothing the 8.00x6 can't handle.



Stopped on the way back for a 5 gallon bucket of hooligan, which takes all of 30 seconds to catch on the banks of the big su.


Fresh alaskan fish sticks.

 

[zkelley2]

Next we put 3 people, everything we could think of and fuel for a 500nm round trip to Tolovana Hot Springs(83AK). Bad weather just south of Windy Pass held us up most of the first day and we didn't land until 10pm. No issue with the midnight sun. A nice soak and all the beer we brought kept us up until nobody knows since you can't tell time this time of year.

This is when we finally made it through. It was -1C and snowing a bit, but nothing was sticking and there's a lot of airports along this route to divert to. I was happy I remembered to RainX my windshield before we left.



Made it and my buddy with his Citabria showed up to make 4.


There was no stale coffee, popcorn or cookies at this FBO.




One of the Tubs. There's hot water coming out of the side of the hill and they pipe it into these tubs along with cold water from the creek. You mix them to the desired temperature.


This is packed to leave. All the stuff, trash plus 3 adults. Fits fine. Was much lighter going out, having left many gallons of used beer behind.

 

[zkelley2]

The following trip was out to Bear Glacier, near Seward for some paddle boarding and kayaking. I had a beautiful evening to head down. Clear enough to get above all the terrain, was rocking 135ktas at about 11GPH at 8.5k. Very happy with that.

Kenai Mountains, Harding Ice field in the distance.


I hand delivered a Mooses tooth pizza to everyone. Bunch of friends, 3 airplanes(C185, PA18 and me) for this outing.



Some seals watching us eat breakfast the next morning.



A great drone shot of some kayaking around the glacial lake by one of the drone pilot's that came with. The glacier just had a major calving event before we got there.




Weather always likes to turn at some point. In this case on the way home, above Kenai Lake.

 

[zkelley2]

Next was a trip to Flat(FLT), a Gold Mining Ghost town with a very large BLM maintained runway. There's still active claims in the area.

First a stop at Tatina(8KA) and a night at the Rohn cabin on our way. We even have a dog along this time.


On the banks of the Kuskokwim river, at the beginning of the airstrip. Good place to eat dinner.



Rohn cabin. A stop on the Iditarod.


Next is a bunch of photos from the ghost town.

3 Airplanes again, a cub, a C180 and the Bearhawk. The 207 was parked the whole time we were there.


Wiley Post memorial. He crashed here, fixed the plane and continued on his round the world flight.

 

[zkelley2]

Route structure when this place had scheduled service.







Above the Alaska Range on the way home, getting that free speed.

 

[John Bickham]

Thanks. Appreciate

 

[robcaldwell]

Inspiring!

 

[Nev]

Outstanding !

 

[johnb]

Thanks for the write-up!

 

[Pbruce]

Fantastic pictures, Z! Thanks for sharing. You must be having a blast. Boy does that ever make you want to get moving and get’er done!

 

[svyolo]

Hopefully I will see you up there next year. I will be in a yellow one. Thanks for the pics

 

[jetdriver]

Great pictures and story, thanks for sharing! Been to Anchorage a few times, looking forward to hitting the back country soon.

 

[jaredyates]

Love the posts, thank you!

 

[nborer]

Awesome! Alaska is definitely on my list of places to fly in my Bearhawk someday...

 

[Bcone1381]

When I first saw the fish I thought it looked like Bacon!!! Bacon with a net!!!!

 

[zkelley2]

Here's some more summer photos showing what the bearhawk can do. Haul a load! Had two successful hunts in one week. Caribou and Moose.

First was the caribou, scouted for herds the week prior, the bearhawk with extended range tanks carries enough fuel for the endurance to go do this. Then it has the payload to take fuel to the hunting area, a camp plus supplies for a week, then put a caribou in the back and fuel to still fly home. All while operating off airport. This is why you get a bearhawk. All those little toy(STOL) airplanes can't even make it to these locations because the fuel is too far and they don't have the payload to bring anything out.

Here's some pics of that.

Got the cow opening morning at about 230yards.

 

[zkelley2]

Second up was the Moose a week later. Again, payload to fly out with a week's camp plus stuff an entire moose in the back and fly home in one trip , again operating off airport. Got this cow(I was lucky to draw an anterless tag for this year, normally you only get 50" or bigger bulls.) after 3 days about about 100 yards.

On our way out we ran into 2 guys on the same tag, they needed 2 cubs and 2 trips each to achieve the same thing.. or one and 4 trips. At least staying legal with the w&b and not flying wildly overweight like a lot of people do.

 

[Bissetg]

Great pics! I see you have bigger feet now too. I’m interested in your choice not to cover your undercarriage legs. I’m considering doing the same and would appreciate any advice you have. A local fellow is running a Maule M7 with uncovered legs, you certainly get to keep a good eye out for corrosion and good wash downs after beach landings.

 

[zkelley2]

The only advantage is corrosion inspection. This winter the gear is going to come off and floats go on and I think I'm going to cover them then and put an inspection panel of some sort in so that whenever the gear goes back on it'll be covered. Originally I thought I'd get the fly off done and go straight to floats, but that didn't happen. The extra drag is significant and not worth it. If this were a 50 year old cub with suspect corrosion that might be a different story, but I'd say you should replace the gear every 20 years before you should run it uncovered.
Honestly it's been pure laziness(or lack of time? Ya, we'll say that.) that they're not covered.

 

[svyolo]

Awesome pics

 

[Bissetg]

Thanks Zach, if you get the chance I’d be interested to know how much speed difference there is between uncovered and covered. I really like the idea of good visibility over the complete leg on preflight and maintenance given the mix of beach and riverbed flying here but I don’t like unnecessary drag either.

 

[whee]

Awesome adventures and pics!

About the aux tanks, I realize your situation is quite different than mine but I do find the ability to tanker fuel to be handy. Do you think some sort would wing locker that would fit a 10 gallon gas bag would be a reasonable substitute for actual aux tanks?

 

[Nev]

Very inspiring pics!

 

[zkelley2]

I also find tankering fuel handy even on shorter trips. The cost savings is enormous. Avgas in the bush is usually north of $8.00/gal.

I'm not sure how a wing locker of any sort would be less weight than the aux tanks. And I'm not sure what it'd look like. We don't have engines on the wings. Though it'd be really cool if we did.

 

[N942VT]

Thanks for this, great to see the Bearhawk used as intended. I'd rather see this than another STOL competition.

 

[whee]

It's not really about weight. I'm lazy and don't want to tear into my wings to install aux tanks but I'm finding 50 gallons isn't enough. It would be pretty easy to put a locker where the aux tank goes or to make extended tips that work like a locker. The ideal solution would be 30-35 gallon main tanks.

 

[svyolo]

No kidding.

 

[zkelley2]

Took a friend and his dog fishing to a spot that has always produced silver salmon in the past. Unfortunately it was dead. We suspect the water level in the creek was too low. Only a couple inches of water, usually it's waist to chest high.

Some pics from the evening though. Dog's first ride, you have to wonder what he's thinking. We had some mutt muffs for him but he didn't like them at all.

Outbound. Don't mind the dirty windshield.

He has to inspect the entire strip after landing.



Landing at lake hood at sunset.

 

[zkelley2]