Flying Home in a Bush Plane

We charter a plane about twice a year to go into town for groceries, supplies and mail. Last summer I wrote a post about our upcoming shopping trip (Click here if you'd like to read about how we shop for 6 months to a year at a time). Here are a few pictures of my trip with the boys, starting at the air taxi at Lake Hood in Anchorage, and ending when the boys and I arrived home. Our shopping trips usually last about two or three days, so we're always more than ready to get out of the city.

I've read that Lake Hood is the busiest float plane lake in the world. I don't like busy places, so I'm not sure why it's my favorite place in Anchorage. Maybe because it's our connection to home and the way out of town. Even with all those small planes coming and going, it seems peaceful to me. After several days in the city, I breathe a sigh of relief as soon as I drive through the gate and around the lake toward the air taxi. 



I always get a kick out of this sign at Lake Hood in Anchorage

 We don't have a car or truck of our own because we don't need one very often. When we go into town, we usually stay with friends and borrow their car to do our shopping. We try not to stay with the same folks more than once a year so we don't wear out our welcome.

When the car we're borrowing is full, we come to the air taxi and store everything in their shed until we're ready to fly home. We usually fly in a Cessna 185. I knew I was cutting it mighty close on the weight limit this time and was going to have to leave some of our groceries in town. What a surprise when the owner told me that the 185 wasn't available and we were going home in the Beaver, and at no extra charge. Hooray! ! ! If I'd known we were flying in a Beaver, I'd have done more shopping! A Beaver can haul about half again as much as a 185.

Loading the plane at the air taxi in Anchorage.

This is the view of planes parked at Lake Hood as we were taking off.

Taking off. Float planes parked on the lake.

There's a strip for wheel planes, too. This is one of the "Parking Lots" for wheel planes.

Wheel planes parked at Lake Hood

Leaving Anchorage and heading over the water toward home.

Leaving Anchorage

The boys were excited to be heading home. All of our stuff is packed behind the seats. As you can see, we had plenty of extra room this time. Usually it's packed full. They even load things in the floats.

Ready to get home!

After about 10 minutes in the plane, the engine lulls the boys to sleep.

A good time for a nap.

This is one of my favorite views in the world. As soon as we come around the mountain, we get our first glimpse of the lake we live on. Actually, we're about 3/4 mile back in the woods off the lake, but this is close enough for me!

First glimpse of home --- my favorite view in the world!

Getting ready to land on the lake.

Chuck and our dog met us at the lake and began unloading.




Unloading the plane.

 
The plane is almost unloaded. Jed had plenty of energy after that 45 minute flight. Once the plane leaves, we load up our backpacks, haul everything up the hill, and then head down the trail toward home. If our old 4-wheeler is working, we load up the cart, too (or the snow machine in the winter) and Chuck makes a few trips with that. But, I think it finally bit the dust this last fall. Next summer we'll be hauling everything on our backs again like we used to do.

The plane is almost unloaded.

The pilot's heading back to Anchorage. We say our good-byes. Probably won't see him again for another 6 or 8 months. I used to look forward to trips into town and getting things we've been out of for a long time. Now, I put off those trips as long as I can. I'm content to stay home, even if we don't have everything we want. We have everything we really need right here. This life is such a blessing.

Good-bye. See ya in 6 months.