Winter flying

[Richard Flanders]

I briefly knew/met Lowell Thomas Jr and Sr. I met Sr at an evening bonfire/BBQ party on a beach in Juneau in '73 I think, and Jr when he and his young son flew into the glacier research camp I was working/studying at just to do some skiing around on the glacier. I never encountered either of them after that. I've been in Talkeetna many times but never saw Jr there, but knew he had an active air service and often flew out of there.

I've never been to the STOL competition since they moved it from Gulkana to Valdez. You risk getting stuck for days/weeks in Valdez if you fly there from here, and it's a long flite. It's gotten a bit too techy too with all those custom featherweight souped up planes. It isn't only Cubs and such that compete; they have classes that go up into the Single Otter class. My neighbor did a short field takeoff demo there with his C-1, which was designed as a supply plane for our aircraft carriers and would take off in less then 200ft empty and with low fuel. That was fun to watch and popular with the crowd. He flew that C-1 down to Oshkosh one summer when I was there also. I watched a friend compete with a S Otter that managed a takeoff in 88ft! My mechanic here pretty regularly wins or places high in the C-170 class; his is pretty amped up with a giganto engine with almost 2x the HP of the original O-300. It used to be mostly unmodified planes too, so the local hunting guides would all compete, and they would, using the good headwinds that ruled in Gulkana, get stock Supercubs in as little as 22ft. I watched a guy who had showed up with his family in their C-206; he was watching the competition and pacing all over and clearly fretting and wanting to get into the game. He finally gathered up his family and they started stripping the seats out and anything else they could remove and draining the fuel down to a minimum, after which he signed up and competed. He grunted that 206 off in, I think, 85ft and got more cheers than anyone else, especially from his enthusiastic family! The whole thing was more like a small town county fair than it is now. People come from all over the country for it these days. I'm sure you've seen some of the videos of how they go out of town, generally after the competition is over, and land on river bars in the area. There are good vids of guys hovering modified Cubs in just like a helicopter in strong winds and just setting them down with no rollout. There are also some idiots who push it too far and trash their planes. I think one guy 2-3 yrs back landed on a bar near a glacier face and a pc of ice calved off and and the wave it created hit his bar and rolled his plane up into a little unrecognizable ball of scrap metal and fabric. No thanks.

[Tom Flanigan]

I love the Otters. My favorite jump plane was a twin Otter. It got us to jump altitude quickly. I enjoy free fall skydiving, among the best things I have done. I am AFFM (advanced free fall method) certifed. I haven't jumped in a couple of years. Unfortunately, I misplaced my log book in the move up from Maryland. When I finally find it, I'll start jumping again.

This is a picture of me and one of my jump partners Randy. We like to link in the air. In this photo I've just waved him off and engaged the chute. You can see it start to come out.

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Richard Flanders

They have classes that go up into the Single Otter class. My neighbor did a short field takeoff demo there with his C-1, which was designed as a supply plane for our aircraft carriers and would take off in less then 200ft empty and with low fuel. That was fun to watch and popular with the crowd. He flew that C-1 down to Oshkosh one summer when I was there also. I watched a friend compete with a S Otter that managed a takeoff in 88ft! .

An Otter taking off in 88 ft. sounds pretty exceptional to me. I would love to see it. They are great airplanes but I’ll bet there is lot more use for a Beaver DHC-2 up there if there isn’t a need for transporting more than 1,500 pounds of cargo.

The Twin Otter was my favorite jump airplane. It got you up to 18,000 ft. jump altitude quickly. I’ve seen Cessna 182’s with a front seat removed as jump airplanes. Not for me. I don’t like having to climb out on the wing to jump.