Traveling to Alaska

[Silverhawk]

Hey All,

Hope your staying warm if your also in the Northeast like me !! Anyhow this maybe a longshot but my friends and I are planning a week long trip up to Alaska around the end of May. Not to go way overboard into the details but here's a basic rundown:

Fly Pittsburgh to Anchorage.. then travel up by train to Denali National Park.. then by train/plane up to Fairbanks.. then keep going to the farthest point north at Barrow, AK :-) then fly back to Fairbanks or Anchorage directly. We want to spend a day or two at each place and of course get in some senic flights, tours, hiking along the way... (maybe even some polar ice swimming.. I'll see how brave I get !!)

Has anyone visited or currently doing any flying in the area that may give us some tips or advice on places to avoid / definately a must see ?? We have a neighbor that did his PhD work with an Eskimo village there for 6 months but the more info we can get the better off we'll be !!

Thanks for any help in advance !!

-Patrick

[Jonnyb9040]

I have never flown in a small plane in Alaska, but I have been there twice. Once in June, another time in December to Delta Junction, a small town (population 105) 2 hours outside of Fairbanks. In June, the temperature was from 50 to 60 degrees with about 21 hours of daylight. In December, the temperature reached as low as -55 degrees (damn that was cold) and there was about 1 hour of sunlight. Since you are going in May, you should be able to enjoy some of the best weather Alaska has to offer, and it puts you in a good mood having that much of daylight.

[Silverhawk]

Cool.. thanks alot for the info !! btw... I like the avatar.. I'm a BIG Simpson's fan !!

[BushPilot]

I'm a newbie here, so I just came across this. Just a thought, but have you thought about getting your seaplane rating? I was up there last July and got my floatplane rating at a place called Scenic Mountain Air in Moose Pass. It's located an the Kenai Peninsula about 30 miles north of Seward.

Let me tell you, flying a Super Cub a couple hundred feet off the ground checking out moose and bear-there's nothing like it. Check it out at their website *link taken out - wrong site, full of popups*

*link taken out to prevent everyone from getting as many popups as I did + SteveC has the right link (look below) - edited by kristie

[mtsu_av8er]

Not a very good link, BUSH!!!!

[SteveC]

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Not a very good link, BUSH!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]
Try this one instead:
http://arctic.net/akfloats/

[BushPilot]

Thanks for the help Steve. If you can't access it there, you can try www.scenicmountainair.com.

The funny thing is, if you go to the original link I typed in, wait for the crap that comes up, and then hit the back button once, the website will come up. Go figure.

If you really want to do this, a bit of advice. The DE owns the business, is fair, but also a hard ass. He's got 15,000 hrs of Alaska float time, so he wants to know that you know your ##### cold. He told me that the difference between an American student, and say a Japanese student, is that the foreign student will study everything before he arrives there, while the American student will do it more on the fly.

Anybody that wants to know more can PM me or respond, I've got all the paperwork.

[Alaskaairlines]

How was your trip? I assuming you probably did the Princess Tour trip? Did you fly on a Convair from ANC to FAI?

[dkozak]

Denali is a must see and the talkeetna airport is a nice little strip.

[Alaskaairlines]

[ QUOTE ]
Denali is a must see and the talkeetna airport is a nice little strip.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very true. Talkeetna is a great little airport to visit. Haven't been there myself in over a year.