Blue Ice Aviation - Blog

These photos were taken a week ago last Sunday.  It was St. Patricks day and we squeezed it in between church and corned beef.  We only had 2.5 hours to work with, but that's the beautiful thing about living in Alaska.  We took off at 1320 and were home by 1530 ... not a bad way to spend the early afternoon.  You may see these photos again because I took some video footage of the flying and it may need to get edited into a sporty little video and then posted on the blog.

Speaking of "sporty" did you notice the Blue Ice Aviation hoodie in the picture above?  Now THAT is sporty, and I think you would probably look awesome wearing one.  Plus, the weather is bad, so I can't fly, and the post office needs our business.  So .... Click Here to get your hoodie today!

All sizes in-stock S-XL.

This photo is only a couple of hours old.  I was heading home over the Chugach Mountains after finishing a job.  We recieved 6-8 inches of snow yesterday and it dawned this morning clear and cold.  Infact it was only 1 degree when I took this picture and I almost frost-bit my pinky by sticking it out the window to get this shot.  Nope, nope, no need to thank me as I risk the very skin on my fingers to bring you images of the Alaskan wilderness.  Meanwhile, you can just sit behind your nice warm desk sipping green tea and enjoying the photos :o)

The airstrip barely revealing itself.

Happy backpackers.

These photos were taken in June of 2012.  A backpacking course had hiked a week to reach this airstrip.  The mountains were more choked than normal because of the heavy snow fall during winter 2011-12.  Even in June, waste deep, and sometimes even chest deep snow was a real problem.  This portion of mountains is in the Eastern Chugach.  Photo #1 shows the only airstrip within 30 miles....so there were no other options.  

These are sticky situations, when the condition of an airstrip is unknown, and we are relying on it to deliver much needed groceries.  It would take an extra $750 of flight time to go check the airstrip beforehand, and that is not always feasable.  We tackle these situations by having a solid "plan b" ... airdrop.  Fortunately, for the hikers pictured above, their airstrip had only just barely, barely, barely, loosed itself from winters grip the day before the ration, and I was able to land with ease.  If we had needed to resort to "plan b", they would have been eating animal crackers in powder form rather than cookie form.

To be honest this is one of our nastier strips.  I think I've talked about it before on the blog, but it is only 450' long and it is at 5500' elevation.  The wind only blows across the airstrip, and it is crowned.  So, on final aproach, I can only see the first 200', and if the high point of the strip is not marked with a backpack or something that I can aim for, I am utterly lost.  The rocks lining both sides of the airstrip are like knife blades and I am certain that any wavering in my control would result in a $3000 flat tire.  And to top it all off, there is a bump right in the middle of the airstrip that is absolutely unbelievable, even with Alpha Omega suspension and 35" bushwheels.  I cringe to even think about it sitting here at my desk ... it makes my back hurt.  Yep, this airstrip is a real beauty.

Sent from my iPhone

I got up yesterday morning to fly from Wasilla down to Homer.  The weather was marginal in Soldotna so I was on weather hold until noon when the radar returns finally started to dry out and an improving trend was in place.  I flew south for 2 hours under sunny skies and calm winds.  I noticed along the way that I was apparently flying in a corridor of good weather that was 20 miles wide.  I thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine, and the view, and even got a couple of nice photos along the way.  When I arrived in Homer there was not enought daylight left to get any work done so I tied down the Cub and donned my wing covers and engine cover as the first snow flake fell.  I crawled in the truck and left the airport with heavy snow falling.  Conditions worstened drastically over the next 30 minutes.  It snowed heavily for three hours and visibility was reduced to less than 2 miles with an undefined cieling. It's always amazing how fast reduced visibilty and precip can form in February, in Alaska, and especially on the coast.  I love Alaska for that attribute, you just never know what it's going to throw at you.  But yesterday afternoon I was happy to be sitting in K-Bay coffee house sipping tea.

 

Crossing Tustumena Lake.

On final approach to Homer.

The Homer Spit sticking out into Kachemak Bay.

I don't post many pictures of my Cessna 185 because I simply don't fly it as much as the Cub.  I took this picture in June last Summer when I was out with a friend testing the effectivness of the 29" bushwheels on soft and lumpy gravel bars.  Everytime I see this photo it makes me wish it was Summer again.

For those of you that don't know the difference between my two planes, the Super Cub weighs about 1240 lbs and grosses at 2000 lbs, has a 160hp Lycoming engine, cruises at 90 mph, is made of metal tubing covered with fabric, is certified to seat 3 people, and operates comfortably at gross weight off of 500' runways.  My Cessna 185 (pictured above) weighs 1800 lbs and grosses at 3200 lbs, has a 260 hp Continental engine, cruises at 140 mph, is made of sheet aluminum, certified to seat 6 people, and operates comfortably at gross weight off of 1100' runways.

There are only a few airstrips that can handle the Cessna 185 in the mountainous terrain that we normally operate.  If the 185 is light, it will easily handle a 500' airstrip.  If there is a steady 15 mph wind blowing it can work a 500' airstrip with ease, and even haul quite a load. People often ask why we don't use the larger Cessna 185's for some of these jobs.  The answer is that while the 185 can handle more than we give them credit for, there is little or no room for error in sub-ideal conditions on these marginal airstrips.  The flexibility of the Super Cub in a variety of winds, lighting, and loading conditions makes it the most sensible tool for most of our jobs, and offers the most amount of margin.  Margin makes me happy.

Here is a video of the 185 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnt5Zqgad5c

I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Homer. I flew the Cub down here to do some work for a few days, and the weather has the upper hand...as always.  We actually got two days of good flying in before getting slammed with winds, rain, slush, and snow and reduced visibility.  In fact, I never got off the ground today.  The cub is parked outside and with all the rain and snow I am hoping it does not get too cold tonight or I will be looking for a heated hangar to thaw the old girl out.

Homer is a coastal town, at the end of the Sterling Highway.  It is one of my favorite towns in Alaska, and I love coming down here to work.  Here are a couple of photos I took the past couple days.

Wednesday Morning February 13th.

This morning Thursday February 14th.

A fishing boat approaching the Homer spit today during the snow storm.

The world re-knowned Salty Dog Saloon on the Homer spit.

This is another one of our airstrips in the Eastern Chugach range.  The little plants littering the ground are called glacier cotton by the locals.  More widely and perhaps accurately known as "cottongrass" from the plantae kingdom, the Cyperaceae family, and the Eriophorum genus.  There are 25 species of of cotton grass in the Cyperaceae hedge family of which I believe this photo shows Eriophorum Callitrix, or "arctic cottongrass".  Even if you learned nothing from the previous sentences, at least I got to look smart for a couple of seconds.  Wikipedia is amazing.  Anyways, glacier cotton is one of my favorite little plants and someday I'm going to make a t-shirt out of it.  

And another photo of glacier cotton, with some nerd doing a headstand.  This photo was taken by my friend Carrie Lambing.

And again this photo was taken by Carrie Lambing, and it is the best one that I have showing this awesome little plant.

This photo was taken in September with the Chugach mountains forming the backdrop.  This was actually taken from our airstrip at Sheep Mountain as Mike Meekin departed with the Cessna 185.  I was up at Sheep Mountain on Tuesday of this week, wow that place is beautiful.  Even though I spend 5 months every year up on the mountain, I somehow forget how awesome it is up there.  I can't wait to start another Summer season!

This photo was also taken in mid-September in the Chugach Mountains while picking up sheep hunters.

I've been out boring some holes in the sky this week and managed to get a couple of cool shots.  The weather has been mild and calm for several days and with the daylight slowly returning to the North there is a distant hope of warmer temperatures in the approaching months.  We spotted a couple of wolves sunning themselves on the summit of a small knoll totally unbothered by the Super Cub.  There was a band of about 12 sheep lingering in the cliffs just 100 yards away, but everybody seemed rather at ease with the situation.  If you look close in the last photo you can see the wolves ontop of the peak with the sheep lingering just above the cliffs below.  We also saw a beautiful lynx from the air yesterday which was an awesome sight!

I hope to be posting photos more regularily in the weeks ahead, I apologize for the long pause in blog activity ... I have a good reason for it, but I am not going to go into the details today ... maybe later.