Day 3, Thusday May 28th

This day would probability be the absolute highlight of our trip. Our chance to see the "real Alaska". What better way than to do this with a Beaver floatplane. We headed to Trail Ridge Air, based at Lake Hood SPB. We started from Lake Hood with two DHC-2' beavers heading west. The scenery changed quickly. After a swamp river delta west of Anchorage our flight continued into the mountains where the scenery changed to winter with lots of snow and ice. Between the mountains we made some Beaver air-to-air shots, great! After flying around a glassier we made a water landing at Beluga lake, which can't be reached by road. After landing, we hiked along the shore of the lake. Later when light rain started we went back to Anchorage.

On our way back we flew over Mt Sustna (4396ft), which took a lot of the beavers engine. Before landing on Lake Hood we made our second water landing on Big Lake. The pilot wanted to show us how the Alaskans life in the weekends. Great houses on the lakebed and a floatplane garage next to it.

This flight was an great experience, 2 and a half hours of flying and our first wildlife spotting, including moose, beluga dolphins and bears!

Kulis ANGB

In the afternoon we went to the ANGB Kulis for a official base visit. There are a few gate guards on the base which can't be seen from the outside. Kulis is the home base of two ANG squadrons. The 144th AS with C-130Hs and the 210th RQS witch HC-130Hs and HH-60Gs. Both part of the 176th Wing AK ANG.

Ted Stevens IAP

After our base visit we quickly stopped at the "hill" next to runway 14/32.

Driving past Air Cargo Express, we were invited to join them on the apron were the C-46 Commander "Maid in Japan" was preparing for another flight.

Day 4, Wednesday May 29th

Our first big move, a trip of 450 miles by car to Fairbanks, the second major city of Alaska. We took the long way, the famous Glenn Highway and Richardson Highway. A great scenic route with beautiful views traveling trough the Alaska Range. On our route we saw lots of small airstrips with not much to see.

Day 5, Thursday May 30th

Fairbanks

A busy day with several fields, not all worth mentioning, around Fairbanks. Our first attempt to visit US Army base Fort Wainwright was not a success, we weren't allowed to access the base to visit the fire bombers also present on this base.

We decided to head back to Fairbanks IAP. Lots of great propliners on this airport including 21 DC-6', 6 Commanders, 4 DC-4's, several convaires, Dakota's and a DC-7! We visited several companies flying the aircraft mentioned above.

The people at Northern Air Cargo and Everts Air Cargo were so kind to show us around, and also let us visit the storage area / dump at the South-west side of the airfield.

The T-28, now privately owned, was seen at the air strip in North Pole, home of Santa Clause.