vic syracuse
Well Known Member
Carol and I just got back from our dream vacation to Alaska.?.. To fly ourselves in an airplane we built all the way to Alaska, and hopefully the Arctic Circle. As it turns out, we got within 150 miles of the Arctic Circle, but had to stop at Fairbanks due to weather. The rest of the trip was absolutely awesome! And there are times when we think ?awesome? isn?t even adequate to describe it. We left Olympia, Washington with a group of 10 airplanes, led by Dale Hemman of LetsFlyAlaska.com. From the very first day we rarely flew at an altitude of more than 500? over the ground and a lot of time at 200', and sometimes 50' or less. We didn?t fly TO Alaska. We really FLEW Alaska. We saw Alaska in a way that is rarely seen, and we saw sights ranging from complete double rainbows, to a Black bear running at a full gallop across the surface, and beautiful pairs of swans in lakes in the middle of nowhere. We flew up and down glaciers and saw ice bluer than we would ever have imagined.
We saw Alaska in a way that the average pilot would never do alone. I know if we had gone by ourselves we would never had seen the real beauty. This fact was driven home again to us as we came back across the Rockies at 17,500'! For Alaska we had a very experienced guide (134 trips to Alaska) and 10 airplanes for safety in numbers. We had survival gear and rescue plans if needed. We all carried personal locator beacons and I installed a 406MHZ ELT prior to departure. We did our best to minimize our risk and exposure.
As a matter of fact, you can see our trip at the following link:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=268741
Basically, we all met at Olympia, Washington and then flew up the Trench to Prince George, Whitehorse, Nrothway, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Ketchikan, and back to Olympia.
Prior to the trip I had mounted a Drift HD 170 Stealth camera under the wing. I had experimented with and designed various camera mounts for over 3 months, until I was sure I could get stable HD video without any aircraft interference, as well as capture video that would help us remember the experience when we got older. As it happened I captured the entire trip (55 hours) and it has some of the most stunning scenery ever captured by an under wing camera. Our goal now is to put it together in such a way that we can share it. I will post pictures of the camera mount in another thread, and will probably offer them prebuilt if any of you want them. Basically, I used the outboard inspection plate on the RV-10 so you can use either wing and remove it when completed. I was extremely pleased as there was no vibration and no propeller or airplane parts in the views.
Now our son, Nick, the computer whiz is laboriously editing all of the video into a couple of topics. The first one to be released will highlight the glaciers, and will be about 90 minutes in length in a Blue-ray an HD DVD format. The second one will most likely be about 3 hours of the entire trip. The 30 second promo clip should give you an idea of the stunning quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCO-IYfbg9k
In the Glacier video you will see a number of glaciers in great detail. You will see us go from lush green landscape to scenes that look like the movie set for ?March of the Penguins.? Between Fairbanks and Anchorage we flew up and down the Eldridge and Ruth Glaciers, and right between two mountain peaks that will leave you breathless. From Anchorage we flew up the Portage Glacier to the Harding Ice pack. Leaving Anchorage to Ketchican we flew into Icy Bay to see the Tyndall, Yahtsee, and Guyot Glaciers. We flew across the terminal moraines of the Bering and Malaspina Glaciers. The Sheer width of the Bering Glacier will leave you speechless, realizing how huge it is. It is the largest Glacier in North America, and allegedly it contains more ice than all of the other glaciers combined. We also flew up Shoup Bay and up and over the Shoup Glacier with a dramatic arrival right into Port Valdez, the terminus of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline. We also flew into Taylor Bay to see Brady Glacier.
While the majestic splendor of the glaciers is presented in all of their beauty, it is also very interesting to see the ?mechanics? of the glaciers at works, from the Ice Packs at the top to the terminal moraines, valleys, glacial lakes and icebergs at the bottoms of each one. One cannot help but appreciate the sheer beauty and contrasting desolation.
We got some flack for not blogging and posting pictures along the way. Frankly, the flying was intense and we captured 3-8 hours of video and 300+ pictures everyday. At the end of the day we just wanted to sit with friends and see the local sights. We decided we would put it all together when we got back.
After flying Alaska we thought about just boxing the airplane up when we returned to Olympia and ship it home.
We can't wait to go back.
Vic
We saw Alaska in a way that the average pilot would never do alone. I know if we had gone by ourselves we would never had seen the real beauty. This fact was driven home again to us as we came back across the Rockies at 17,500'! For Alaska we had a very experienced guide (134 trips to Alaska) and 10 airplanes for safety in numbers. We had survival gear and rescue plans if needed. We all carried personal locator beacons and I installed a 406MHZ ELT prior to departure. We did our best to minimize our risk and exposure.
As a matter of fact, you can see our trip at the following link:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=268741
Basically, we all met at Olympia, Washington and then flew up the Trench to Prince George, Whitehorse, Nrothway, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Ketchikan, and back to Olympia.
Prior to the trip I had mounted a Drift HD 170 Stealth camera under the wing. I had experimented with and designed various camera mounts for over 3 months, until I was sure I could get stable HD video without any aircraft interference, as well as capture video that would help us remember the experience when we got older. As it happened I captured the entire trip (55 hours) and it has some of the most stunning scenery ever captured by an under wing camera. Our goal now is to put it together in such a way that we can share it. I will post pictures of the camera mount in another thread, and will probably offer them prebuilt if any of you want them. Basically, I used the outboard inspection plate on the RV-10 so you can use either wing and remove it when completed. I was extremely pleased as there was no vibration and no propeller or airplane parts in the views.
Now our son, Nick, the computer whiz is laboriously editing all of the video into a couple of topics. The first one to be released will highlight the glaciers, and will be about 90 minutes in length in a Blue-ray an HD DVD format. The second one will most likely be about 3 hours of the entire trip. The 30 second promo clip should give you an idea of the stunning quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCO-IYfbg9k
In the Glacier video you will see a number of glaciers in great detail. You will see us go from lush green landscape to scenes that look like the movie set for ?March of the Penguins.? Between Fairbanks and Anchorage we flew up and down the Eldridge and Ruth Glaciers, and right between two mountain peaks that will leave you breathless. From Anchorage we flew up the Portage Glacier to the Harding Ice pack. Leaving Anchorage to Ketchican we flew into Icy Bay to see the Tyndall, Yahtsee, and Guyot Glaciers. We flew across the terminal moraines of the Bering and Malaspina Glaciers. The Sheer width of the Bering Glacier will leave you speechless, realizing how huge it is. It is the largest Glacier in North America, and allegedly it contains more ice than all of the other glaciers combined. We also flew up Shoup Bay and up and over the Shoup Glacier with a dramatic arrival right into Port Valdez, the terminus of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline. We also flew into Taylor Bay to see Brady Glacier.
While the majestic splendor of the glaciers is presented in all of their beauty, it is also very interesting to see the ?mechanics? of the glaciers at works, from the Ice Packs at the top to the terminal moraines, valleys, glacial lakes and icebergs at the bottoms of each one. One cannot help but appreciate the sheer beauty and contrasting desolation.
We got some flack for not blogging and posting pictures along the way. Frankly, the flying was intense and we captured 3-8 hours of video and 300+ pictures everyday. At the end of the day we just wanted to sit with friends and see the local sights. We decided we would put it all together when we got back.
After flying Alaska we thought about just boxing the airplane up when we returned to Olympia and ship it home.
We can't wait to go back.
Vic
Last edited by a moderator:
