Sitka

[Todd2 2,097]

[fppilot 4,371]

Great shots but bad day wx wise.  I was there in Sitka on a clear day back on June 25th.  A stop on an excellent Alaskan cruise.  Please try the flight again when the wx is better.  It is much more worth lo and slo with better VFR conditions. 

Our excursion into Sitka took us to an historic salmon hatchery.  The life cycle of an Alaskan salmon was fascinating.  Never was aware that salmon spawn once, at the end of their life cycle, and return to the place of their birth to spawn, and subsequently die.

Our excursion, "A Taste of Sitka", finished with a stop at a private dining room and a dinner featuring relatively rare White Salmon.  What a treat!

Todd. Fly that area with better wx, and put a live trip to that area on your bucket list.  I'd go back in a heartbeat if this ongoing pandemic had not already robbed two years from trips to other bucket list areas around the world.

End of story is that my wife and I both tested positive for Covid-19 four days after the end of our cruise while we were visiting family and friends in the Pacific northwest.  Everyone on the cruise ship had to provide proof of a physician monitored lab Covid test performed less than 48 hours before boarding the ship.  We believe we were exposed in Seattle after disembarking the ship.

Edited August 8, 2022 by fppilot

[johnbow72 2,722]

Typical August weather in Sitka , anyway looks inviting compared to our severe clear and 100 F days here . 

[Todd2 2,097]

32 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Todd. Fly that area with better wx, and put a live trip to that area on your bucket list.  I'd go back in a heartbeat if this ongoing pandemic had not already robbed two years from trips to other bucket list areas around the world.

Id love to see Ketchikan and Sitka I've been flying there since FSX days! I used to live on Whidbey Island in Washington and love the PNW. Dad was a Marine stationed there on the Navy base. Dad actually got orders to Adak Alaska so we were getting ready to move there but the Marine he was to replace extended so we went to Maryland instead. I always wonder what living on Adak would have been like. Its an earie ghost town now. 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Todd2

[fppilot 4,371]

48 minutes ago, Todd2 said:

Dad actually got orders to Adak Alaska so we were getting ready to move there but the Marine he was to replace extended so we went to Maryland instead.

Seriously?

My only previous real life stop in Alaska was at Adak.  I was on a United 747 noon flight out of NYC Kennedy destined for Tokyo Narita, fall of 1986.  First issue with flight was that the other daily United flight from Kennedy to Narita ingested some birds on takeoff.  That required that flight to return to Kennedy, but not before dumping fuel over the Atlantic to jettison enough weight to land.  Already boarded for two hours, my flight took on as many passengers as possible from the aborted earlier flight.  Every seat was occupied. That became my lifelong definition of a "full flight"!

We cruised for perhaps four hours of a planned 12 hour flight when the captain called on the intercom for any passenger with medical skills.  A passenger in forward 1st class had developed an issue, a day after switching from one heart medication to another.  

We flew up over Canada on likely a determined great circle route.  The pilot then after about 8 hours into a planned 13 hour flight, announced that if we had not noticed, we had just executed a gradual 180 degree turn.  The affected passenger had not improved with treatment and in the interest of that passenger he was returning to the closest available airport, Adak!  Adak was two hours back, but much closer than Japan. 

We returned to Adak and landed.  The United first officer, by company regs, was required to accompany the passenger to medical attention.  So he was gone for almost two hours.  About the time of his return to the aircraft the pilot announced that United in Anchorage was in contact with United headquarters in Chicago who was in contact with the US Navy at Glenvue Naval Air Station, also in the Chicago area, to determine how the US Navy could receive payment from United for the fuel he needed to get our flight to Narita.  That took another two hours.

We lost at least 8 hours.  Two to return from our point over the Pacific to Adak.  Two hours to cut through red tape and convey the ill passenger to the hospital at Adak.  Two additional hours to complete the refuel debacle.  And another two hours just to return to the point in our flight when we had turned around.  

By the time we finally reached Narita we had physically been on that United 747 for 24 real clock hours!

I will never forget Adak.  We were not allowed to deplane.  We also could not get restocked with food and beverage! A look from the 747 to the south showed us north facing mountains that were brilliant white snow  packed.  But a look to the north showed south facing mountains that were vibrantly green.  It seemed like something out of the old Rod Sterling TV series "Twilight Zone".

Edited August 8, 2022 by fppilot

[Todd2 2,097]

That's awesome, what a long flight yuck. I flew into Anchorage in Jan 92 then we flew straight to Tokyo. On my way to Futenma MCAS in Okinawa.

[Malaromane 421]

Nice shots. I really enjoyed seeing the overcast, dreary weather. Made is seem that much more real to me. Thanks for sharing your images with us.

[Todd2 2,097]

8 hours ago, fppilot said:

Seriously?

 

Yes. We were certain we were going there. Dad was a Gunny Sgt and the Gunny in Adak extended there. This was in 1979 I was 14 years old. This happened once before.In around 1074 we were at El Toro MCAS and dad got orders to Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. I did not want to go because we had 2 Pekingese we were going to have to sell because you couldn't just take a dog to Hawaii I think dad said you had to leave them in a place for 6 months to make sure they didn't have diseases I guess. We ended up going to Cherry Pt. MCAS instead. We did live in Hawaii in like 1966 to 1968 when dad was sent to Denang for 14 months. We lived back home in West Virginia while dad was deployed. I only have a few memories of Hawaii but dad was an amateur photographer haha so we have lots of pictures. If I stayed in the Marines I think I could have been sent to Hawaii. I spent a year in Okinawa, minus 3 months in Korea and 2 weeks in Japan where I got to go to Tokyo and climb Mt. Fuji.

[Todd2 2,097]

16 minutes ago, Malaromane said:

Nice shots. I really enjoyed seeing the overcast, dreary weather. Made is seem that much more real to me. Thanks for sharing your images with us.

Thanks so much for viewing.

[Phantom88 3,287]

Incredible Captures!!

[Alaska738 8,407]

Very nice pics! I had a flight yesterday from Juneau but on landing i encountered a crash. For me the crash scene. I tried again from Sitka another CTD. 

[pmplayer 9,459]

Nice shots - bad weather, but that happens some time..

cheers 😉

[Stearmandriver 2,296]

Looks like Sitka!  That's my favorite overnight in the entire Southeast system. 

Adak on the other hand... unless you're a VERY rare individual, you can figure you dodged a bullet there.  😉

[Todd2 2,097]

28 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

Looks like Sitka!  That's my favorite overnight in the entire Southeast system. 

Adak on the other hand... unless you're a VERY rare individual, you can figure you dodged a bullet there.  😉

Ya that would have been something living there I think. I was 14 or 15 at the time. Dad was in crypto that's why they were going to send him there to monitor Russia. They sent us to Fort Meade Maryland instead which I didn't care for compared to Washington state. At the time Seattle was very clean and Baltimore was very dirty or so it seamed to me. 

[P_7878 6,605]

Beautiful series of pictures...! Good tidbits of reminiscence...!

 

On 8/7/2022 at 8:40 PM, fppilot said:

Our excursion into Sitka took us to an historic salmon hatchery.  The life cycle of an Alaskan salmon was fascinating.  Never was aware that salmon spawn once, at the end of their life cycle, and return to the place of their birth to spawn, and subsequently die.

Our excursion, "A Taste of Sitka", finished with a stop at a private dining room and a dinner featuring relatively rare White Salmon.  What a treat!

Glad of your experience, Frank...sounds like great fun...

My exposure to "Sitka", so far, is limited to the silver screen only...the movie "The Proposal"...🙂...that too the real filming location was NOT real Sitka, as I understood later...Oh well...hope to visit one day...