Flying/Photography Hobbies

[mbauer]

As you can see from my Avatar, last year bought a Vans RV-6 airplane. Flew it from California by way of Phoenix, Minden, NV, Idaho and Oregon/Washington to finally get it home to Alaska.

I like to visit the mountains here in Alaska and take photos. I know these are not paper model related, but if you would like to see some of them, I'll post a few here to this thread. Lots of movies as well, but they are to large to upload.

Guess I'll start with my most recent trip first to see if there is interest: April 14, 2018 took a little trip to Denali.

There is a website dedicated to the type of homebuilt airplane I own. I posted over 50+ photos there and did a write-up about the flight.

To give an idea of what it will show here are a couple of photos to see if there is any interest.

Denali (/dɪˈnɑːli/) is the tallest land-basedmountain on Earth—with a vertical rise of about 18,000 feet (5,500 m), as well as the highest mountain peak in North America—with a summit of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above MSL. With a topographic prominence of 20,156 feet (6,144 m) and a topographic isolation of 4,629 miles (7,450 km), Denali is the third most prominent and third most isolated peak, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.

Saturday's flight (4-14-2018) was a 385.2 mile flight to Denali. Lasting 2.9 hours, Screenshot of my GPS:


Maxium altitude for the flight was 17,500 feet MSL. Passing through 8,500 feet I turned my oxygen tank valve on. Since this flight was above 15,000’ decided to use an oxygen mask instead of cannula.

The temp was a balmy 48.2 deg F on the ground when I left. Near Denali it was –14.8 deg F. My RV-6 does not have a cabin heater. I froze!

Running shoes did not keep my feet warm. In the RV’s cargo, part of my survival gear, there was a really nice pair of military style mukluks-Really Warm Mukluks, did I mention they are lined with incredibly warm felt liners?

I did place a polar fleece pull-over around my legs, a jacket was available, but like an idiot, was not wearing it, so draped it over me as best as possible. I did have my winter flying gloves for my hands. Geez-you’d think I knew better than take-off wearing running shoes and just a t-shirt…..

It was warm under the canopy with the sun streaming through-have a slight sunburn on the top of my bald head to prove it!

I will be installing wing root aileron boots this summer!!!! Talk about breezy.

When I started taking pictures near the peak, lost over 1500’ before I was able to get it leveled off. Close-up it was a very beautiful sight to see. Taking photos and gawking-who wants to pay attention to the Altitude?

Oh, that’s right – lots of pointy mountains below….

Had at my disposal two cameras and a video camcorder. My main Nikon has a 18-270mm “super-zoom” lens. Did not bring my spare battery-you guessed it, in the cold the battery died quick when trying to use the auto-zoom with the Vibration Reduction turned on.

Second camera is my little pocket sized Nikon. Most of the following photos were taken with it. A total of 326-photos were snapped. It is very hard to decide which to use for this thread. Have the first ten figured out for the first post, other posting will show up as I figure which to use. There will be a lot to see!

Movies will be awhile before they are uploaded-just don’t have the internet connection to do so.

Time to show some photos:

Climbing out over Cook Inlet, on the right side is Anchorage in the distance, in this photo lower right corner you can see my oxygen hose:


Here is my destination Denali on the right and Mt Foraker on the left:


Another look at Anchorage, you can see the water to the South, that is Turnagin Arm, the water that snakes around to the North side is called Knik Arm. Knik Arm is the northern most part of the Pacific Ocean.


To the West of Anchorage is the Tordrillo Mountains, Mt Spur at the South end is a volcano, it last erupted in the early 1990's. Here is a photo looking out the left side:


This next photo shows that I'm at 16,500ft [5029.2 meters] above sea level. Found a favorable layer here where the headwind was a little less-decided to cruise at this level before climbing higher once closer.


Getting closer:


Here is a photo of the Ruth Glacier, more photos of this one to follow, very long Glacier:


Ruth Glacier with Mt Foraker as background:


I'll post more in the next post.

Mike

[at6]

You certainly live in a very beautiful area.

[mbauer]

More photos:

11 Driving to Fairbanks from Anchorage, the Parks Highway is one way to drive if you don’t use the Richardson Hwy. The Parks Hwy is directly below the wing-you can see a section of it.To the right you can see another dark valley, this is the Denali Hwy.



The Denali Hwy is 135-mile long gravel road. It ties the Richardson Hwy to the Parks.Goes from Paxton, AK to Cantwell, AK.Years past my daughter and I used to camp along it. We always travelled it with our mountain bikes on a car rack. Great bike rides happened at different locations!Lots of wildlife viewing and in early August the best blue berries you’ve ever eaten!

12 Alaska Range looking to the East of Denali (Denali is far left ridge in photo).


13-14-15 These next 3-photos are a series. Heading slightly Northeast, these are taken looking back to the North and ending up to the West. East side of Denali, MT Foraker to the west.






16 Now a slight turn to the North. Denali is much closer now. Plenty of rough terrain below!


17 Steam gauge photo-actually adding more throttle getting ready to climb to 17,500.


18 Between layers, Denali to the right, Mt Foraker to the left. Oh, and soft looking clouds to the left….


19 Another look at some Clouds, Rocks, Snow and Glaciers


20 Turned to the North East. Plan is to head East a little with a 180 deg turn back to the West and fly the South face of Denali. At 17’500 MSL, started to hear a couple of the voices in my head. Feet were complaining about being cold. Notice the soft clouds aren’t doing such a great job of hiding the rugged terrafirma?


More to follow!
Mike

[mbauer]

Getting Much closer.

21 Turning to the North, getting ready to head West.


22 Heading North, a look at the East side of Denali and just in front of wing is the Ruth Glacier.


23 thru 29 Ruth Glacier with Denali and Mt Foraker providing the backdrop. Just a few photos showing different angles while heading North.








The voices are starting to get louder….To share what is being said, “Hey idiot, its cold down here”. The left foot is now talking to the right, “You got any circulation?” The right replies, “Shutup! Its cold over here too.”

More to follow.
Mike

[mbauer]

30 Rivers of Ice. Notice that at peak of Denali you can see some tell-tale rotor clouds blowing my way. Yep, got a little bumpy.Not to serious though. Heading North towards the peak.


31 Looking West. Lots of smooth looking clouds. Aimed straight at Denali now.


32 Heading slightly Northwest. Great view!


33 Looking South, towards warmth and home. Feet picked up on the thought of home.


34 Quick view of the North plenty of low clouds that way.


35 As in the last photo, heading West, right wing is pointing North.


36 Denali and Mt Foraker views


37 My favorite of this trip. Slight zoom added, the Great One! Notice can clearly see the snow blowing my way at the top of the peaks. This photo also leaves no doubt that the South Peak is higher than the North peak. Lost some altitude: down to 16,500 now.


38 Zoom towards the lower part of Denali


39 Zoom of Mt Foraker while looking to the West.


The feet are fairly screaming by this time. Overheard, the left say to the right, “ Wonder if he knows what frostbite is?”, the right answered, “Don’t worry, Frostnip happens first!”.

A few more photos follow in the next post!

Mike

[mbauer]

For this next set of photos, decided to see what it looked like without the zoom! Occasional bump, but few and far between-soft bumps at that. Of course the feet had something to say, it wasn’t good!

40 Lets get closer! Nothing like looking at 12 o’clock at the highest peak on the North American continent.Looks kind’a small from this view at 16,000’ MSL


41 Geez, Mt Foraker doesn’t look so big either!


42 thru 45 How about some more close-ups? East first then looking West through this series:





46 Denali Again!



47-49 Starting to turn towards the South, still taking photos.




Have a few more photos to share. This trip is almost ready to head back, batteries on camera are getting low.

Those little voices are beginning to multiply, stomach is hungry, bladder is involved too.

Next post will have the final photos.

Mike

[mbauer]

50 Denali with plenty of sun.


51 Denali and Mt Foraker


52 Nice view looking North through the saddle between Denali and Mt Foraker-Lots of rocks below


53 Mt Foraker at 12:30


54 Denali South Peak hiding the North Peak


55 Left turn to the South. Time to heed the voices. Mt Foraker


56 One last look at Mt Foraker


57 Good bye Denali. I’ll be back. Still need to photo the North side!


The ride home was cold. With such low oil temp, can’t really pull the throttle and dive for lower altitudes and warmer temps.Setup a shallow decent using 2300-rpm.

At 14,500’ MSL found a very favorable tailwind. Indicating 130 mph, GPS showed 178-182 mph. Decided to level off and use the extra speed to get home fast.Oil temp was staying constant at 110 deg F indicated.

Approx. 20-miles North of Cook Inlet, knew it was time to start descending again. Setup a 500 fpm descent, keeping the engine below redline was a must, didn’t want to cool the engine anymore.

At 10,000 ft outside temp was 25 deg F, this was at mid channel of Cook Inlet, just North of Nikiski, AK where I live. Kenai was showing 34-miles to go.

Oil temp was warming up, decided to take the long way back and flew to the East of Kenai, arriving at Mackey Lakes level at 2500’ MSL. Checking winds, found that the landing would be with an 80-degree x-wind at 9kts. Oh Joy!

Just as I was turning final, the tower asked me to take either the D or E Taxiway, as a Cessna Caravan was simulating an emergency landing. Great, now nervous about the x-wind, have to keep it short. Made the D taxiway after what can only be described as an arrival!Note to self, be sure to check the landing gear when refueling.

Topped the tanks before I left, got a few photos of a DC4 that hauls fuel to the outlying villages. Arriving back at the fuel station, had to add another 18.5 gallons from this flight. Got to parking just in time to see the DC4 make its return landing.

Here is a photo of the DC4 taken just before take-off for this photo flight.


Hope you like seeing the photos!

Best regards,
Mike

[Vinalssergio155]

Fabulous photos and a beautiful landscape. Very similar to the Andes mountain range that we have here in the south
Sergio

[Kevin WS]

These are spot on. I really enjoyed the tour.

So, keep them coming......... I certainly am keen.

And thanks for all your efforts and the accompanying background stories.

And a beautiful DC-4. Nice to see it kept in such nice shape!

[Isaac]

Mike

First, these are stunning pictures. BEAUTIFUL mountains.

Wow, all the way to just under 18k ft ( so you did not have to file IFR ). Oxygen and all..... hopefully with some thermal protection, food and some backup radios and GPS units.

The highest I got with my Grumman Cheetah was 13k ft. The Lycoming O 320 engine became really sluggish at that altitude.


Bravo!!!


Isaac