Flying in Alaska

Near Juneau, Alaska

 

Who needs an airport? The seaplane on this page was the first single-engine airplane I ever rode in. I took these photos on a sightseeing flight during a stop on an Alaska cruise. We had a day to spend docked in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, so I took this flight for something to do. I liked it so much that I took another sightseeing flight when our ship stopped in Ketchikan, Alaska a couple days later. The experience is what prompted me to begin flying lessons a few months after that.

 

Can anyone name that seaplane? I'm fairly sure it's a DeHavilland Beaver or Otter. Those are Canadian-made airplanes that are pretty popular as bush planes in rugged areas such as Alaska. The seaplane in the photos may look hand-colored since the rest of the picture is so gray, but I haven't done any such photo "enhancements" to these shots.

 

Yes, that's a glacier in the photo above right. A glacier is really a river of ice, as that photo shows, plus rocks and other sediment. Although glaciers look stationary, they actually move due to gravity. A glacier moves anywhere from a few feet to tens of thousands of feet per year.

 

I believe that's our cruise ship in the background above. The area where the seaplanes take off and land is very close to where the cruise ships dock. I imagine a high percentage of seaplane passengers in those cities in Alaska are from the cruise ships. (Although many cities in Alaska are not easily reached by highway.)