Alaska2010 day19 diary

Day 19, June 23 (Wednesday)

Talkeetna, glacier flying

If you go to Talkeetna, you must visit Don Sheldon's Hangar, it's on the D steet in town. Don lived and worked in Talkeetna for decades, he pioneered glacier landing and take Mountain climbers to the base camp of Mt Mckinley, he drop mails and supplies to remote villiage, he also contracted by geological suryors for aerial photography, taking pictures and documenting Mt. Mckinley at the first time in the history, the best contribution of all, he was a search and rescure volunteer bush pilot, he saved lots of lives and found lost airplanes. He was Mt. Mckinley climber's guardian angel, if they encounter any emergency during ascent or descent, they know Don Sheldon is the man they can trust to land on the Glacier and bring them back safe.

I was very fortunate to talk to Jim Okonet -- the founder of K2 Aviation at Talkeetna airport. He sold the business years ago. After visited Don Sheldon's hangar, I walked across the street and met Jim in front of his friend's house, he is about 10 years younger than Don Sheldon.

I love to hear Don Sheldon's story, so every older man I met in the town, my first question was always "Do you know Don Sheldon ?" "Have you ever worked with him ?" and natually I asked Jim Okonet the same question. He said, Don Sheldon is a man bigger than the book says. Jim actualy flew with him quite oftern and worked with him on some projects. Then Jim start talking about his flying career as a fighter pilot, commercial pilot and become a bush pilot to run a flight service and live in this town.

Jim gave me tips to fly the Ruth Glacier, Kahiltna Glacier and Tokositna Glacier, the three major Glaciers dominate the southern part of Mt. Mckinley. He told me how to pick a spot on the Glacier to land in case of an emergency, which part of glacier you don't want to land on, how to fly in-and-out of the Glacier to avoid the local traffic, how to make position report. He even teach me how to make emergency landing if I do fly the coast line to Juneau. He said, the only survival equipment you can count on is the stuff in your pocket, and ditching the water is always better than flying toward dense trees, especially those trees in the SE Alaska. They are big trees, you don't want to smash into it.

The traffic may get quite intense among these glaciers, due to many mountain climbers trying to get in-and-out of the base camp, and many Charter flights flying tourist around the Glaciers.

Picture with Jim Okonet, thank you for sharing your experience with me!

Picture with Don Sheldon's daughter "Holly"

Holly Sheldon (Don Sheldon's oldest daughter) now owns Sheldon Air Service at Talkeetna airpot, she waited for 15 years for this business opportunity to come up and bought it. Her business was just established last month here at Talkeetna Airport, so I come to the town at the right time to learn from her about her Dad. She took me to Don's Super Cub (recently restored) and told me the story about how Don tied her legs on the seat and open the door to let her drop mails to the villiage, so she doesn't fall out of the sky, she was only 5 years old at the time. You got to read the book "Wager with the Wind" the story of Don Sheldon how he pioneered the mountain flying at Mt. Mckinley, invented unique glacier landing technique and saving many lost airplane and lives. Don is the legend of Bush flying.

Ruth Glacier

These are mile high rocks

The Great Gorge. Ruth Glacier, Denali National Park

Ruth Amphitheater, Don Sheldon's mountain house

This is the Hut and out-house Don Sheldon built, sitting on top of the rocks, compare with the picture above, it's the little rock in the snow that you see. I didn't dare to fly too low, becaue I don't have enough experience to judge the height on top of the glacier.

Make you feel so humble flying in this breathtaking Ruth Glascier, the most beautiful scenery on the planet. These pictures can't even reveal 1% of the beauty of Ruth Glacier, you must come here to experience yourself. And this is just a small part of the Glascier system, I'll experience more tomorrow.

Don Sheldon's Mountain House (click the link and read more)

Look carefully, do you see an orange airplane over the ice ? It's a Beaver

Each water spot down there probably as big as a foot ball field

Do you see a Cessna 185 right in front of my upper wing struct ? (the picture below) the color is blue and white. A female pilot in command, taking tourist to Ruth Glacier, she violated the glacier traffic rule, cut a corner and flew stright at me, she shouldn't be on my right wing. My last radio conversation to her was "You are aimming straight at me" and she kept silent. After I landed at Talkeetna, I went to her office to look for her, she appoligized to me saying she didn't see me coming.

There is a specific traffic rule setup for these glaciers, you can find it at FSS bulletin board and get a pamphlet there. You always fly on the right side of the Glacier, you always making counter clockwise turn, and at 747 pass, the traffic is only allow to go east bound. You report your position and altitude as clear as possible. The whole area divided into two frequency, one covers north, and the other covers south of Mt. Mckinley.

The following pictures are Kahiltna Glacier, you will see where climbers begin their ascent of Mt. Mckinley

Mt. Mckinley has finally show her face to me, 20320 feet (6194 meter) in height.

Can you see base camp of McKinley ?

Mt. Mckinley Base Camp

Do You See ? climbers begin their ascent of Mckinley

Mt. McKinley Base Camp

Do you see them ? this is the 2nd climber team of Mt. McKinley, 4 in the front and 4 in the back.

Base Camp

Base camp closer view

Another view of the Base camp, I was looking at the west (SE fork), taking the picture from the high side, Glacier was behind me.

A Cessna 185 (N4642) has just landed, now turning around facing the base camp, I followed him in from behind at 7500 feet MSL. The base camp may be around 5000' MSL.