Day 10 Monday (June 14, 2010)
Homer -- Kenai -- Moose Pass -- landed at Lawing gravel airport
I Still plan to go west, crossing the channel (Cook Inlet) to Lake Clark National Park, but the Wx has been deteriorated from the west, so I decide to head toward Moose Pass to the east, I'll land at Kenai airport for fuel, then turn east to Moose pass and land at Lawing gravel strip (9Z9). A charter Cessna-206 took off at 8AM for bear watching flight, they returning to Homer due to the Wx, they saved me a trip trying to head west.
Jeff, the flight service operator/airport controller at Homer airport, he gave me weather briefing early this morning, a dedicated and professioal briefer, enjoy his work every day. He owns an experimental airplane "Glastar", infact I was just checking his airplane early this morning.
Another shot of Homer Spit while departing Homer Airport
Departing Homer
C-46 Radial engine at Kenai Airport
Ross has flown this C-46 Air tanker for 11 years, deliver 2000 gallons of Diesel, mobil Gas or Aviation Fuel all over Alaska. I asked him how he cleans the diesel off the tank before loading the Av Gas, he said, he deliver mobil gas in between. Well, I'm not very satisfied with the answer but Hey! this is Alaska, a lot of places the Av Gas is as valuable as gold. I saw a picture of DC-3 on ski, that airplane is based at Palmer airport. This country is wild, people will do anything for everything. They have a lot of freedom to test their creativity, to experiment and to get job accomplished. I think I can fit into this environment very well except the "COLD".
Two 1000 Gal tanks installed in the C-46
Future Co-pilot of C-46, that's a huge cockpit and big wheel, the flight controls are stick-and-rudder, no hydraulic, need big arm to turn the wheel.
C-46 is testing its right engine, it back-fired a couple times, big flame shot out of the exhaust 
From Kenai to Moose Pass
Lawing airport, gravel strip, 6 miles south of Moose Pass
Lower trail lake, Moose Pass, where I took my float rating 4 years ago
I flew with Darlene today, she is a very good instructor, I wish I had flown with her 4 years ago when getting my float rating. Experience really counts. She has logged more than 1500 hours of float time already. Her teaching is very precise, patient and professional.
A guy live next to Lawing gravel strip, loaned me his stick-shift pickup truck, so I was able to drive to float school in Moose Pass 6 miles away, it's quite a distance if paddling the bike. I have learned that at Homer, no wonder some people put motorized motor on their bike. But if it's not windy and not in a hurry, paddling the bike in Alaska is a great joy.
I will follow the highway to Turnagain bay tomorrow, the bay divides Anchorage and Kenai. The Scenery coming to Moose Pass was magnificent, the pictures I took really couldn't reveal the three dimensional beauty of Alaska.
I have been travelled for 11 days, really rich in learning and enjoying exploring the State of Alaska, I have four more places to visit before leaving to Juneau, they are Wrangell St. Elias, Denali, Lake Clark National forest and Valdez, I carefully check the route which I flew to Valdez the other day, I almost made it to Valdez, the place I returned was Thompson Pass, with a sharp S-turn, because I couldn't see the other side of the pass and the clouds were moving in, I got scared and turn back to Gulkana. After talking to pilot Ron (a school principle, building a 4 person cub at Gulkana), he said it's pretty easy to fly through Thompson Pass. I just didn't have the guts to challenge the unknown and rather be safe. Next time I'll make it up there.
Lake Clark National Forest is west of Kenai, acorss Cook Inlet. So, I'll come back to Kenai airport again and fly west to cross the ocean, that's the shortest distance over water, 5 miles or so, all other places are 25 miles wide over the water, more like from Long Beach to Catalina Island.
I'm not going to visit Seward and Whittier, too many tourist according to local pilot Mark Muhio at Homer airport, he has a fishing boat at Egegik Airport (ID: PAII), he invited me to sleep in his boat if I do fly-in.
Lake Clark National forest is on the upper chain of Aleutian Island, can only be reached by small airplane, get to see the real Alaskan culture, fishing, hunting, bear viewing and all other stuff.
This is the damage on my horizontal stablizer during touch down at Lawing airport, I picked up a rock during landing flare (the wheel first touches the ground), it was a slow approach, nose high, carry power, perfect flare and perfect 3-point short field touch down, I wonder, if I should touch down with higher speed and keep the tail up. I'll call Bob Breeden to ask his opinon and talk to Vern Kingsford at the flight school here.
I asked Darlene this morning, she said, should keep the tail high, and I talked to Bob Breeden who I turst and excellent bush pilot, he said, he do Alaskan wheel landing, flare like 3-point then turn into wheel landing, with minimum airspeed possible, means land slow and short, another bush pilot Terry Carter I met at Fairbanks, mention don't use the brake, the brake will pick up rocks, I didn't use brake when landed at Lawing.
My Rebel really looks like a real bush plane now, I have mud and grass on the wheel and brakes, dirt on structs and underneath the wings and bugs everywhere. now with this dent to prove I have reached Alaska. I'll fix it when I return to Torrance, I have assessed the structure and how it was assembled, it's not hard to replace the leading edge skin of the horizontal stablizer, everything can be fixed. I didn't feel bad at all when I see this. I did hear a "Konk" though, when the rock hits the tail even with my headset on.
Another charter pilot Don who I met at McCarthy has a brand new Horizontal stablizer installed in his Cessna 185 recently, he has been flyiing in Alaska for 30 years, still picked up a golf ball size rock and hit his horizontal stablizer, more servere than mine.
Wrangell Mountain air, Cessna 185, horizontal stablizer damager by a golf ball size rock
I have come up with a new axiom --- " Trees are your friends not your enemy". When approaching a short runway with tall trees on either end of the runway, you really need to clear the tree top within one inch (just joking, a couple feet might be reasonable), you really need to think they are your friends not your enemy, otherwise, the runway may not be long enough for you to land. if you come in 1 foot high, it will take you 10 feet of runway distance to disapate the energy, every foot counts. A 50 feet tall tree will eat you 500 feet of runway distance.