2006 July 17 to 23
2006-07-17 Monday
Homer Spit Flight-seeing
Kachemak Bay and Park -
click here for pictures
This morning, there was a bit less traffic on the spit with the weekenders gone.
By 11:00 the weather was clearing quite
a bit and the glaziers on the other side of Kachemak Bay were
beckoning. So I drove to Smokey
Bay Air on Homer Airport and inquired about flight-seeing tours.
Lucky me, they had one opening for one
person at 14:00 to fly to Seldovia, where the pilot would pick up four
more persons and do a half hour of flight-seeing on the way back to
Homer.
Andrei (Tsyganenko) from St.
Petersburg, Russia was my pilot. He came to the US to avoid being
drafted in the Russian Army and he learned to fly in San Diego. My
place was in the co-pilots seat.
The plane was a 1969 Cessna U206D, tail
# N 72067.
At exactly 14:02 we were wheels up on
runway 3 of PAHO (Homer) and at 500 ASL Andrei made a medium left bank
to point out a large moose below us. Climbing to 1800 ft ASL Andrei
made a 160 degree right turn and pointed the nose of the Cessna a bit
north of Seldovia Point. We crossed over the middle of the spit and 8
minutes later we were on final into PASO (Seldovia) and a smooth
landing. Runway 16 is 1850 ft of gravel surface.
Total time of first leg was 12 minutes.
Two elderly couples were waiting at
benches outside a hangar which serves as the terminal in Seldovia.
They had stayed overnight in a B&B and now were ready to go back to
Anchorage. All four were in my weight class, and for luggage they had
two oversized roll- aboards.
Andrei stowed the two bags in the rear
and directed the two ladies into the two rearmost seats, the two
gentlemen in the row behind me. The second row is already behind the
Center of Gravity (CG) of the plane and when the second gentleman
entered his seat, the planes nose went up and the tail hit the ground.
Andrei nonchalantly lifted the tail up
and took his seat. I slid my seat as far forward as possible to help
the big gentleman behind me and to keep the CG within a reasonable
range.
My guesstimate for our take off load
was about 1600# and with the CG that far back, I was a bit
apprehensive. A GOOD thing was that we had less than a quarter of fuel
in one wing tank and only 1/4 in the other, so our all up weight may
have been within the limits.
I do not know what the other four
passengers were thinking, but for me, the take off, procedure turn to
the right, and climb out to 1000 ft ASL incorporated a significant
"pucker factor". For my German readers, pucker factor is "Muffensausen".
It took a long take off roll and then
the climb rate was very low, even at full power, the air speed was
hovering in the low 80's and the stall warning horn was almost
constantly bleeping. I do not know how long it took to reach 1000 ft
and till Andrei could reduce power to elevated cruise, but it seemed a
long time to me.
After reaching stable cruise Andrei
emptied half of his water bottle in a couple of gulps, maybe to
compensate for his adrenalin rush.
The rest of the flight was almost
perfect, only once, after crossing a ridgeline, a sudden downdraft
plunged us about 15 feet and one of the ladies in the rear bumped her
head a bit heavily on the ceiling. There was very mild turbulence
throughout, but not enough to make taking photos a chore.
Overall I would think it was a typical
Alaskan bush pilot flight.
Click here for flight route and photos.
2006-07-18 Tuesday
Homer Spit
Household chores. Walked the spit and
had an Alaskan Amber at the Salty Dog Bar, which is a local
institution. Read "The Glory" by Hermann Wouk all night.
The small boat harbor on the Homer
Spit has one of the prettiest backdrops - the Kachemak Park mountains.
2006-07-19/20 Wednesday and Thursday
Homer Spit
This RV, built on a school bus
chassis, is were the CG host for the municipal beach area camping
resides. Interesting styling, I like it.
Walked around the spit some more and
visited the "fishing hole", where a lot of people were trying their
luck.
I don't think any salmon in its right
mind would swim into this artificial pond ringed by fisherpersons of
all ages and persuasions. What gets caught here are probably former
inmates of salmon-mental-asylums. If this makes a difference in the
taste of the fish I have no clue. Anyway in my half hour on the pond I
did not see anybody land any fish.
This German mini-RV is built on a
front-drive Peugeot platform, with a 2.5 L Diesel.
WAF = Warendorf County in the North of Germany.
The driver did not even get out of his
vehicle. He drove up to the ferry terminal, looked for about five
minutes through his binoculars and then drove off the spit.
But back home in his "Stammkneipe" he
can now boast: "Yes, I was in Alaska, drove all the way to the Homer
Spit".
2006-07-21 Friday
Homer Spit to Moose River CG
Sterling 90 miles - 2.5 hours
Left the spit at about 09:30 after a
leisurely breakfast. On the top of the hill coming out of Homer I
stopped for two nice young lady sisters hitch hiking to Anchorage. I
took them to Sterling and left them at a promising spot for their
ongoing journey. Ultimately they needed to go to Talkeetna. We had a
nice conversation during the two hour ride, but unfortunately I did
not write down their names. I gave them my card and hope they will
email me sometime.
After unhitching in the CG I took the
short ride to Kenai City on the banks of the Cook Inlet.
There is a pretty view across the inlet
to the Mt. Redoubt volcano and some older houses plus the Russian
Orthodox Church. The rest I found pretty unremarkable.
2006-07-22 Saturday
Moose River CG, Sterling
Day trip to Seward - 170 miles roundtrip
From the Escapees forum I knew that
Dave and Connie (DC on the forum) were still in Seward on the city CG,
and as I wanted to day-trip to Seward and not camp there, today seemed
a good day to do it. Weather was ok when I left, but gradually
worsened, when I took the turnoff down to Seward it started raining
and it was raining constantly during my visit there.
Dave and Connie have a nice MH and they
were parked right on the waters edge, so we could view the boats
coming and going on Resurrection Bay. Their cat was peacefully
sleeping just above the Olympian Catalytic heater, that kept the coach
at a comfy temperature. We had a nice visit, thanks Dave and Connie
for inviting me in.
On the way back I stopped at the
Russian River near the ferry to watch the drift boat fishing action.
With so many fisherpersons lining the
banks and with so many boats in the water it is a wonder that any
salmon will reach the spawning grounds - and I have not even seen one
bear fishing, yet.
2006-07-23 Sunday
Sterling
Still a bit on the cold side, so I made
a big pot of chili "to warm the cockles of me heart".
Well, maybe the Henry Weinhard's
Hefeweizen and a shot of Tequila may have done some warming, too
Otherwise a day of rest and relaxation.
<<PREV
NEXT>>
|
