Last Flight - A View from Above

We knew it had to end sometime.  The course complete, and time to move on, Daryl's last lesson was Tuesday of this week.  However, an added bonus is I got to go along as he flew his last lesson.  Now I could see Alaska from the air - one of the best ways to see this huge and awesome land.

The first photo is the plane we flew in.   Daryl had been flying in a Piper Super Cub - one of the most popular planes because of it's short take-off and landing capabilities.  This is critical in a land of mountains and lakes, whether weather can change in a heartbeat.  It wouldn't work for my flight, as it's only a 2-seat aircraft.  So we ended up using the Cessna 172, converted for floats.

Trail Lake was smooth as glass, which looks beautiful but is not easy to fly from.  Landing, in particular, is tricky as you can't see where the surface is.  You have to rely on some sort of frame of reference around you, and most of the instruction has indicated you use the shoreline for your depth of field measure.

Taxiing to get ready to take off.  The milky color of the water is due to glacial silt.

A view of the float-plane base.

Daryl and Evan, one of his instructors.

And the beauty of Alaska is laid out before us. 

Waterfalls...

...glacial grooves...

...and the change from vegetation to rock and glacier.

We landed on Upper Paradise Lake briefly...

...before taking off again for more stellar sites.

All good things must come to an end, and after an hour we turned back to home base.

Thank you to Daryl and Evan for a wonderful experience.

And thank you to all the crew who made this a once-in-a-lifetime experience. (left to right:  Joey, Daniel, Darlene, and Evan)

(We have GoPro and traditional video footage of Daryl's training and flights, but some are rather lengthy.  We will be glad to share when we get home.)