Tag Archives: cessna

Flying the Mineral Creek Valley

Im really excited about the next few videos I’ll be sharing with you all. My family and I were able to go home to Valdez Alaska to visit the grandpa and grandma for a week. The weather was very cooperative and we were blessed with blue skies and snow capped mountains. I broke our first flight into three videos as I found it very difficult to cut any of it out during editing. The scenery is just stunning. Growing up here I never truly appreciated the backdrop that surrounds the town of Valdez. I hope you enjoy this first episode. We took off from Valdez Airport PAVD or VDZ and head up the first valley accessible from town. Mineral Creek has some active gold mines and is groomed all winter with some spectacular cross country skiing trails.

The Music in this show.

Intro:
Artist: Dan Tharp
Website: http://dantharpmusic.com
Song: “Kodi”

Show Music

Artist: Justin Gordon
Website: http://justingordon.weebly.com
Song: “Shack Song:

Artist: Dan Tharp
Website: http://dantharpmusic.com
Song: Almost

First time up in N53373

I woke up this morning to a snow globe outside.  The flakes were falling pretty steady, but were light enough to float around through the trees.  There had been some talk a week ago about going out for a flight with Bill Conger today.  The forecast has a big snow storm rolling in around midnight tonight which is supposed to dump 5 -8 inches of snow on us through Monday morning.  Based on this information and the current skies I saw out the window it didn’t look very promising.

I got a call from Bill asking if I wanted to just go and check out the plane even if we couldn’t fly.  I was game and he said he’d swing by and pick me up in about an hour.  During that time the skies parted and the sun took command of the skies.  What was a snow globe turned into a bright blue skied day.  We headed out to the hanger and after a preflight we were up in the air.

Our flight took us North toward Orr and then we looped back by Elbow Lake and then the length of Vermilion to Tower flying over Fortune Bay and then back to the Cook airport.  Along the way we saw many snowmachiners out riding and quite a few people out ice fishing.  It sure was a great day to be outside.  I got a little big of flying in from the right seat.  Bill was patient enough with my turns and difficulties keeping at a steady altitude.  Sure was nice to be up in the air.  I can’t wait until my flight instruction begins and I can start doing some of this from the left seat and start to work on my landings.