“Looking for Alaska”

Or Flight of Fancy Talkeetna Bound

The weather this last week brought some much needed rain along with some flooding on the Kenai Peninsula in the towns of Seward and Soldotna. In Seward the airport runway was underwater for several days and the large town waterfall was so powerful it was crashing down on the bridge about forty feet in front of the waterfall.

Finally on Friday evening the winds died down the clouds parted and Saturday morning dawned with clear skies and warmer temperatures. My breakfast was nice with only Frank, my boss showing up since most everyone was out of town this weekend.

I did not have many chores this morning so it was back home until noon when I went out to Merrill Field one of the local airports a few miles from my house to meet Wayne (one of my coworkers) who keeps his Cessna 177 (Cardinal) tied down there.

The weather was nice with broken clouds so we decided to fly up to Talkeetna, Alaska and have lunch. We did our preflight and taxied over to fuel before we headed north.

We took off on runway 25 and climbed out circling over the city to gain the needed altitude to cross Elmendorf AFB. We did not want an up close encounter with the new F-22 or C-17’s based there as part of the Arctic Warrior Global Defensive Force.

We headed across the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet and made our way past Wasilla and Big Lake. There was a lot of traffic as it was a nice day for flying so many pilots were taking advantage of it for the short trips out of town or getting practice with touch and go landings.

As we approached Talkeetna there were the K2 Aviation flights taking off for Denali (Mt. McKinley) filled with tourists some circling North America’s highest peak while others we getting to experience a glacier landing and a picnic before returning to the airfield.

We passed an Alaska Railroad train heading north and after we landed and walked the two blocks into town it passed the Talkeetna Railroad Depot. There were many people in town this weekend as the weather allowed the motorcyclist to hit the road along with those who wanted to make a weekend road trip.

Wayne and I headed to one of the restaurants and ate lunch enjoying the music next door playing for those walking the streets. People milled about looking into the shops and enjoying a snack every chance they had. We enjoyed a nice bacon hamburger on an outside patio. A nice Beringer would have made this a little better but you cannot drink and fly.

We walked back to the airport and stopped by the FAA Flight Service Station on the field for another check of the weather before heading south back to Anchorage.

We departed the pattern and climbed slowly to 1,500 feet AGL (above ground level. We spotted another Alaskan ‘strange’ dwelling so we wanted to go by again lower so we could take a picture. The saying here about the men in Alaska, “The odds are good . . . but the goods are odd” and this is another example.

We flew over Scott’s cabin on Big Lake to see the new deck he completed several weeks ago and continued back to Anchorage to land at Merrill Field. We called approach and told the controller our location and intentions and were directed to come across Knik Arm to Ship Creek to enter the traffic pattern. This would bring us almost over downtown Anchorage and the Alaska Railroad Depot where we would enter our downwind leg heading east towards the Chugach Mountains.

We turned our base leg and with several planes in the pattern were told to do a quick 360 degree turn to give more time for the two planes in front of us to land.

We made our turn and continued our approach landing on runway 25 heading west with the downtown buildings just past the airport.

The flight made for another great Alaskan Experience in my “Looking for Alaska” trek.

Ice