Words cannot describe the day I have had. When I woke up this morning I never would have imagined what I was about to experience or the airplanes I would fly in. I took the people mover (Anchorage’s Bus) to the airport and got on a De Havilland Dash-8 to Kodiak. It was a beautiful flight along the Alaskan Mountain Range and arrived at State Airport in Kodiak. When I arrived I was in awe of the beauty that this little island holds and the huge mountain known as Barometer that sits at the end of the primary arrival runway. Bill and Angie met me at the airport and immediately took me to a seaplane base to see a few Beavers. Before I knew it I was in one of those Beavers with Josh flying to Katmai. It was an amazing flight. We had cargo on board and when we got to our destination we unloaded and took on passengers to go back to Kodiak.
Upon arriving back in Kodiak, Bill was waiting to sweep me away to State Airport again for a ride in a Steerman. Chris, a long time Kodiak pilot owns three aircraft: a Steerman, a Cessna 180 and a Luscombe on floats. He has thousands of hours flying in Alaska and has knowledge of weather and mountain flying that I hope someday to gain. Bill, Chris and I pulled up to his wooden hanger on State Airport and inside was a beautiful yellow Steerman. Bill and I felt like little kids on Christmas morning, it was so exciting. We pulled the Steerman out of the hanger and Chris pre-flighted and after doing a little work on one of the starters (that he pulled out of the airplane), Chris and I climbed in. Aviators cap, goggles and all we took off in the beautiful 1942 Steerman. We flew right over Pyramid Mountain and over the town of Kodiak; we even did a few loops. It was amazing to be in an open cockpit bi-plane. Like all good things the flight came to an end and Bill was up next. I watched them take off and head towards Barometer Mountain. Chris and Bill circled the mountain a few times at the top and came back in to State Airport. We all pushed the Steerman back into its wooden hanger and called it a night for our wings.
Bill and I returned to Paul (Bill’s son) and Angie’s house to help them bait hooks in preparation for the big halibut fishing trip Bill, Paul, Cole and Hyrum would be going on tomorrow. Although this was a very fishy, and at first very disgusting job, I had fun putting octopi, haring, salmon and other bait on hooks to help get the job done.
What an amazing day. I have fallen in love with Kodiak. Of all my travels this just may be the most beautiful. But I suppose that I am biased because of my love affair with aviation. I cannot imagine what tomorrow may bring, regardless my trip to Alaska has already been worth it a hundred times over, even if I don’t get to fly again.
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