Bob Breeden
Registered User
Alaska
I have been thinking of sharing these photos with SuperCub.org since last August, when my son Bobby and I finished an epic adventure together. Harder times mean I have been working at a number of projects in the "new economy", pretty hard since last fall, and it took time to get these photos organized. The link to the photos, in Phanfare, is below.
Family expectations for both of us had to be adjusted for us to have the time to make this trip. We are thankful for all of our accommodating family. As it was, we had about 2 weeks of flying in Alaska, and another week flying to our home in Virginia. Here are photos of the trip that my son Bobby and I were fortunate enough to take.
Bobby is 14. I bought this Cub in 1994, the same summer he was born. He grew up in it. One year when taking down corn shocks and jack-o-lanterns that were our fall harvest ornaments, we hit on the idea of dropping the pumpkins into our pond from a couple of hundred feet. Bobby and his older sister Brittany would fill the baggage area with pumpkins, and then take turns hurling them out the windows. In later years, when we ran out of pumpkins, we'd use firewood.
So, having some good memories of the Cub, he spoke up back in the Spring '08 of wanting to bring it back to Virginia. It had been in Alaska since 2006.
A chunk of history: I had tried to start to move to Alaska in 1987, at the age of 25, but that was not to be. To this day, I feel some angst over that not working out. But the flying trips I have taken and friends I have made are a satisfying just the same. That year, 1987, I bought a Cessna 170 on May 24th, from a friend in Pennsylvania. That afternoon when I got home, I loaded in my best camping gear, an empty 5 gallon fuel can, water bottles, sectional charts, and 10 days of food. The next day, May 25th, I left for Alaska. I returned to Virginia exactly 6 weeks later, indelibly filled with memories. Visions of the hanging glaciers in Lake Clark Pass, the deep green beauty of Prince William Sound, the more stark beauty north of Fairbanks. The only real bush landing I did on that trip was landing on black sand beach filled with rolling washes on the Alaska Peninsula. But the silence after shutdown, and the spectacular beauty of the surrounding mountains, gushing with late winter snowmelt cascading over rock faces, just did it.
But work in Alaska was hard to find then, in the post-oil bust, and I had a small construction company going in Virginia. That summer, the 170 was sold. Because of the influence of an exceptional private grass strip owner in rural Virginia, who loved Mooneys, I bought an old one. With the Mooney, I made 2 more trips to Alaska, in 1989, when I flew as far as cold and windy Dutch Harbor (but was too tired to protect my wife in the Elbow Room, so we stayed in the tiny hotel room, one of our few nights not to camp), and in 1991 when I explored north around Fairbanks, but as for a job or starting a business, no dice.
So I kept up with my construction and small development business in Virginia. But it is wicked hot in Virginia in the summer, and while I couldn't afford to go every year, after I got the Cub I got into a habit of going whenever I could, taking a family member along for the trip. In 1995, I took my father to the Brooks, where we camped on gravel bars.Then in 1998, I took my mother from Ohio to Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula and back to Ohio in 136 hours/25 days. Flying my mother around, who appreciates the beauty of blue sky on lakes and mountains -and don't forget waterfalls - was just perfect. From the back seat of the Cub, she cried real tears when we rounded the last mountain coming into McCarthy, seeing the sunlight blaze off of the Stairway Icefall of the Root Glacier. And on the whole trip, she prefered the view from an altitude as if she was riding in the car with my Dad, so that was icing on the cake! :lol: A little writeup about that trip was published in the April 2000 AOPA Pilot Magazine.
Always and every time when flying in Alaska, I have crossed over the Kenai Peninsula, through the Sterling/Soldotna area. Perhaps I am trying to avoid the busy airspace around Anchorage, 35 miles north. Or perhaps it was because it is a straight shot towards Lake Clark Pass. Over time I made friends there, and pilots were hospitable to me, when I needed a break from the long treks across the continent, and after explorations somewhere in the Alaska Peninsula or in the Chugach or Alaska Ranges. We always enjoyed taking a breather from constant daily flying in or near Sterling, on the Kenai Peninsula.
So, in this last boom we have been able to build a cabin "portal-to-the-wilderness" in Sterling, and, in an effort to "share the love" have opened the Alaska Airpark, which has given 11 pilots to date an "air-basecamp".
So here we come back to our story. The Cub has been based there for 2 years, and Bobby wanted to bring it back, to learn to fly, to explore his friends homes from above in the Cub. So that is what this photo story is about.
This trip included some of the most fascinating flying of all the trips yet, ....sometimes enriched by flying with friends, sometimes experienced by just Bobby and I .... while finding grizzly bears eating a dead whale on the beach, flying just above dust storms at 2500 feet, landing for the night on a river bar at 2000 msl, and then in the morning landing on the top of the adjacent mountains at 7,000 feet less than 4 miles away, camping listening to ice crash from glacier faces all night, and mostly, seeing all this through the eyes of my son!
The photographs don't do justice to this awesome country, but they are our best attempt to document our experiences. I tried to make this a direct link to phanfare, but it didn't work. My wife, Anne Michael, beloved and essential IT person says that the only way to connect to the photos is through the Alaska Airpark website. Something about her having other photos on her phanfare account. So, www.AlaskaAirpark.com then Photo Gallery, then schroll down to "Father and Son, 2008 Adventures", and "Bobby Flew Us From Montana to Virginia". It views smoothest, it seems, with the Slideshow.
I am forever thankful for the friends in Alaska, friends met through SuperCub.org, and family in Virginia who have made it possible to have these adventures.
Sincerely,
Bob Breeden
Family expectations for both of us had to be adjusted for us to have the time to make this trip. We are thankful for all of our accommodating family. As it was, we had about 2 weeks of flying in Alaska, and another week flying to our home in Virginia. Here are photos of the trip that my son Bobby and I were fortunate enough to take.
Bobby is 14. I bought this Cub in 1994, the same summer he was born. He grew up in it. One year when taking down corn shocks and jack-o-lanterns that were our fall harvest ornaments, we hit on the idea of dropping the pumpkins into our pond from a couple of hundred feet. Bobby and his older sister Brittany would fill the baggage area with pumpkins, and then take turns hurling them out the windows. In later years, when we ran out of pumpkins, we'd use firewood.
So, having some good memories of the Cub, he spoke up back in the Spring '08 of wanting to bring it back to Virginia. It had been in Alaska since 2006.
A chunk of history: I had tried to start to move to Alaska in 1987, at the age of 25, but that was not to be. To this day, I feel some angst over that not working out. But the flying trips I have taken and friends I have made are a satisfying just the same. That year, 1987, I bought a Cessna 170 on May 24th, from a friend in Pennsylvania. That afternoon when I got home, I loaded in my best camping gear, an empty 5 gallon fuel can, water bottles, sectional charts, and 10 days of food. The next day, May 25th, I left for Alaska. I returned to Virginia exactly 6 weeks later, indelibly filled with memories. Visions of the hanging glaciers in Lake Clark Pass, the deep green beauty of Prince William Sound, the more stark beauty north of Fairbanks. The only real bush landing I did on that trip was landing on black sand beach filled with rolling washes on the Alaska Peninsula. But the silence after shutdown, and the spectacular beauty of the surrounding mountains, gushing with late winter snowmelt cascading over rock faces, just did it.
But work in Alaska was hard to find then, in the post-oil bust, and I had a small construction company going in Virginia. That summer, the 170 was sold. Because of the influence of an exceptional private grass strip owner in rural Virginia, who loved Mooneys, I bought an old one. With the Mooney, I made 2 more trips to Alaska, in 1989, when I flew as far as cold and windy Dutch Harbor (but was too tired to protect my wife in the Elbow Room, so we stayed in the tiny hotel room, one of our few nights not to camp), and in 1991 when I explored north around Fairbanks, but as for a job or starting a business, no dice.
So I kept up with my construction and small development business in Virginia. But it is wicked hot in Virginia in the summer, and while I couldn't afford to go every year, after I got the Cub I got into a habit of going whenever I could, taking a family member along for the trip. In 1995, I took my father to the Brooks, where we camped on gravel bars.Then in 1998, I took my mother from Ohio to Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula and back to Ohio in 136 hours/25 days. Flying my mother around, who appreciates the beauty of blue sky on lakes and mountains -and don't forget waterfalls - was just perfect. From the back seat of the Cub, she cried real tears when we rounded the last mountain coming into McCarthy, seeing the sunlight blaze off of the Stairway Icefall of the Root Glacier. And on the whole trip, she prefered the view from an altitude as if she was riding in the car with my Dad, so that was icing on the cake! :lol: A little writeup about that trip was published in the April 2000 AOPA Pilot Magazine.
Always and every time when flying in Alaska, I have crossed over the Kenai Peninsula, through the Sterling/Soldotna area. Perhaps I am trying to avoid the busy airspace around Anchorage, 35 miles north. Or perhaps it was because it is a straight shot towards Lake Clark Pass. Over time I made friends there, and pilots were hospitable to me, when I needed a break from the long treks across the continent, and after explorations somewhere in the Alaska Peninsula or in the Chugach or Alaska Ranges. We always enjoyed taking a breather from constant daily flying in or near Sterling, on the Kenai Peninsula.
So, in this last boom we have been able to build a cabin "portal-to-the-wilderness" in Sterling, and, in an effort to "share the love" have opened the Alaska Airpark, which has given 11 pilots to date an "air-basecamp".
So here we come back to our story. The Cub has been based there for 2 years, and Bobby wanted to bring it back, to learn to fly, to explore his friends homes from above in the Cub. So that is what this photo story is about.
This trip included some of the most fascinating flying of all the trips yet, ....sometimes enriched by flying with friends, sometimes experienced by just Bobby and I .... while finding grizzly bears eating a dead whale on the beach, flying just above dust storms at 2500 feet, landing for the night on a river bar at 2000 msl, and then in the morning landing on the top of the adjacent mountains at 7,000 feet less than 4 miles away, camping listening to ice crash from glacier faces all night, and mostly, seeing all this through the eyes of my son!
The photographs don't do justice to this awesome country, but they are our best attempt to document our experiences. I tried to make this a direct link to phanfare, but it didn't work. My wife, Anne Michael, beloved and essential IT person says that the only way to connect to the photos is through the Alaska Airpark website. Something about her having other photos on her phanfare account. So, www.AlaskaAirpark.com then Photo Gallery, then schroll down to "Father and Son, 2008 Adventures", and "Bobby Flew Us From Montana to Virginia". It views smoothest, it seems, with the Slideshow.
I am forever thankful for the friends in Alaska, friends met through SuperCub.org, and family in Virginia who have made it possible to have these adventures.
Sincerely,
Bob Breeden
A real standout in an AMAZING group of wonderful people that you ALL are. 
