Our small group separated for today. Mike and Lou flew to Anchorage to re supply while I flew to a small strip near Palmer where I met Jay Baldwin who is a very well known flight instructor who teaches a bush flying course that I wanted to investigate. Jay is very experienced, a great communicator and a lot of fun. He spent the day teaching a client while I sat in on the briefings and followed along in my airplane as we practiced landing on river gravel bars below the Knik glacier.
After a couple of hours, we stopped for a light lunch of wonderful smoked salmon and some further discussion before heading out again for some mountain flying. We soar along the steep mountainsides, searching for lift from rising air while practicing “canyon turns” and other escape maneuvers that are sometimes necessary.
We return to the airport, put the planes away and share a meal and more stories before retiring for the night. Tomorrow, I plan to rejoin Mike and Lou as we plan to fly out and camp on the Knic glacier. It should be fun.
Ken Wittekiend is an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner, professional flight instructor, aircraft owner and founder of ProMark Aviation Services, a flight training company based in Burnet, Texas.
Ken is a commercial pilot with over 11,000 hours of experience in a wide variety of general aviation aircraft. He began flying in 1970 while attending the University of Texas at Austin.