Flying/Photography Hobbies

[mbauer]

June 27 2021
PAYA to PAEN
Yakutat to Kenai

Near Yakutat I could tell that flying over Prince William Sound was a bad idea.

I called on my radio and after a long conversation with Juneau radio, determined that I could fly inland over the glaciers you’re about to see. The weather report was two hours old, but the briefer looked at the webcams we have in Alaska.

It was a good VFR day in Gulkana. Changed my flight plan to Gulkana. Weather near Anchorage was cloudy the same for Kenai. They were both reporting cloud bases at 5500ft, tops above 14000ft.

Not good to fly on top and try to descend, flying under them was a good option as long as you are ready to get bumped around some.

If I can fly to Gulkana, I can fly home the next day, or just maybe I can get under the clouds and make it to Kenai by flying through Anchorage's airspace.

I used to fly helicopters from Anchorage to the surrounding mountains. This became an important piece of how I got to Kenai.

Once near Gulkana, I could see the top of the Knik Glacier Mountain, Mt Marcus Baker. I knew if I could see it that the Knik Glacier itself would be open without clouds covering it.

The problem would be climbing up to 14,500ft and then a quick descent to get under the clouds if it was open. If not, a return to Gulkana for the night was my other option.

The Knik Glacier is lined with really steep mountains on either side. The glacier itself soon turns into a river that feeds the northern most point of the Pacific Ocean. Lake George Glacier is to the south of Knik. They combine to form the Knik river, for a short run before emptying into the Pacific.

Near Lake George on the Lake George Glacier there is a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction Area) in the 1950's a USAF airplane crashed and they have been looking for more of the crew that perished.

Not so long ago a helicopter crashed on the side I will be descending through, The crash about 21 miles southeast of Palmer, on March 28, 2021, killed the Helicopter pilot, two highly respected guides and two Europeans, including a billionaire considered one of the wealthiest men in Europe, they were helicopter skiing.

I stopped taking photos once I could see that the Knik Glacier was in fact open. Had a bit of flying to do, without distractions. I think the path to this point will more than make up for the lack of photos of the actual chore of getting under the clouds.

14,500ft above sea level down to 4000ft takes some time, as I don’t want to hurt my engine by super cooling it. Descending at 2000ft a minute means at least ten minutes of descent, this is too fast, I chose 1000ft per minute to protect the engine. Had a very short distance to do this, as I could end up in the clouds if I didn’t do it right. The clouds could be called rock clouds because mountain tops will be in them....

Lots of photos-most of this area I have not flown before, so I was looking outside at the views. I will make a special trip back for investigating further.

Here are the photos:

Photo 438 is the Malispina Glacier on the far side of Icy Bay.


442 R View


443 R View


445 Glaciers


447 More glaciers, still near Yakutat these are to the right or north east direction

449 nearing Yakutat


452 R view


454 Over Yakutat-notice cloud layer


457 Low clouds on Gulf of Alaska, Malispina to the right


458 YUK!


Mike

[mbauer]

463 Malispina Glacier


467 zoom


468 Glacierville for sure (not really the name)


472 clouds


473 zoomed


479 Cordova is IFR, visibility really bad, Prince William Sound closed by clouds


484 Is that blue sky?


485 zoom lens, yep it is blue sky-good to have a zoom lens!


486 yep blue sky


487 wow


Mike

[mbauer]

489 zoom


490 almost to blue sky


500 cockpit view – GPS shows Glacier is Bagley Ice Valley


503 shows view of Bagley Ice Valley


504 same


508 Heading towards Gulkana


514 zoom


516 zoom


517 blue sky


520 low ceiling


Mike

[mbauer]

522 Prince William Sound view to the left


529 my favorite color of blue this trip


532 zoom


533 zoom2


542 my path


546 Green Valley


551 Left view


554 Interesting clouds


When I was calling Juneau radio for an update, the Cessna Pilot that was flying earlier asked them to ask me to go to a different frequency so we could talk.

We went to a common air to air frequency and he asked about the weather, what did I see for the Prince William Sound, why did I choose to go to Gulkana, etc.. He was flying a Cessna 182 and did not have the same range as I do with my aux tank. Since Yakutat didn't have any avgas available, he was leaving Juneau and was going to try the Prince William Sound as the shortest route to Soldotna, Alaska. Soldotna is about 12-miles from Kenai. He did have IFR radios and Navigation equipment that I don't have. Also he was fuel injected instead of carbureted like me.

This meant he didn't have to worry about carb ice and then the engine quitting if he had to fly through some of the clouds. He chose to fly the Sound. I lost radio contact with him when I went under the clouds near Palmer, Alaska, he made it okay.

He invited me to his place near Denali for coffee sometime. Interesting who you meet sometimes and how the meeting happened.

557 Following valley to Gulkana.


560 Green stuff again


Mike

[mbauer]

562 Near Gulkana


564 Right side


567 Left side


568 12 oclock


571 nice view


577 Tall peak is north side of Knik Glacier Mountain


578 Nice view


582 closer to Mt Marcus Baker


586 Knik Glacier is open you can see clear of clouds, angle doesn’t show much, but I know from experience I can make it!



Here is the above photo marked up to show the opening I'm talking about the open end is towards the west leading to Palmer, Alaska:

Almost at the end of the photos, last ones will be posted next.

Mike

[mbauer]

591 Left view


595 Hole in clouds over Knik Glacier to get to Palmer


597 Right view


600 cockpit view leading up to Mt Marcus Baker, the green valley that goes to the right, where the track ends at the Palmer Airfield, point where it turns from pink to white, shown on the GPS is where I’m heading, the path is open. Time to stop taking photos and get ready to do some serious flying!



Made it to Kenai soon after this. Once clear of the mountains, all I had to do was stay under the clouds, call for flight following through the Anchorage area ( controller on ground calls traffic that I might run into-great way to stop a crash from happening).

Pat a friend of mine was working the Kenai Tower, he welcomed me home. Said he was following me on-line and couldn’t believe I just flew all the way from Orcas Island, WA to Kenai in one day.

Total time flying for June 27, 2021 was 9.9 hours and 1558.8 miles covered.

I went home after tying down. I slept for 13-hours straight. Got up and went for breakfast. Carla had a new sign up in her café: took a photo and I've added it because it explained exactly how I felt!


Hope you enjoyed the photos and stories! It was a vacation to remember. Needed to get to work to relax/rest! Ah' cool Alaskan Weather….

The total for the whole trip to North Carolina and back? 9112.4 miles flown in 62.3 hours. Average airspeed? 146.26645 mph.

Best regards,
Mike Bauer

[yukonjohn]

Thanks Mike. This was a wonderful picture story, with all kinds of bonus details. So sorry to read about your Dad, but glad it did not put you off of your own flying. I don't have my own permit - have to be happy with right seat with others or commercial, but the pictures remind me why a couple of hours in clear air makes up for hundreds, even thousands, on the ground.



With appreciation,
yukonjohn

[at6]

Glad you made it home safely. Some beautiful country up your way. My last flight was 21 years ago when I had one hour in the AT-6. Now, I'm not even supposed to get on a roller coaster because of my coronary artery disease.

[mbauer]

Recent purchase of NCH PhotoPad software came with some bonus capabilities.

There is a panoramic option. I checked it out. It does them full size: found out this means it combines all of the photos into one huge file, if photo is 4 each 5mb photos the end large combined is over 20mb. These were all over 20mb before downsizing to what you see here.

Here are some photos from my summer vacation photos already shown. Now instead of singles you'll see a little more of how I saw them.

I'll also post some photos of my recent, 28Aug.2021 flight to Denali and back.


Here for now are some of the Orcas Island, WA to Kenai, Alaska photos.

Orcas Island, Washington, here are a couple of the Canadian British Columbia Coastal Mountains, on the way to Petersburg, Alaska, the look changed but this is how it looked for over 500-miles of flying:




Here is a clear day view of what it is to be flying from the north to the south near the Petersburg airport. The mountains are Alaska at first, but plenty of Canadian mountain tops in the back ground as well. To the right side is south, camera is looking east:


Flying from Petersburg to Kenai I fly a GPS heading over several islands to get back to the mainland. I'm flying over what's called the inside passage, plenty of cruise ships down below...




Finally the mainland shows up, Mt Crillion and Fairweather in the distance:


Overflew Yakutat, Alaska to head to Gulkana due to bad weather over Prince William Sound. You can see the bad weather in some of these photos on the left side.

Yakutat:


Skies towards, right center, Gulkana have blue patches, the nasty grey clouds to the left and the lower clouds on the left are over Prince William Sound.:


Mike

[Kevin WS]

Mike - thank you very much for posting all these pictures. I do look at all of them regularly and I do look at each one as well (even if I don't post each time). I have been using Google Earth as well to follow your journeys.

Keep them up, and thank you very very much for providing views and stories around something I will never ever see... But wish I could!