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| It was a guy in a supercub that flew threw the river valley. He wagged the wings when he saw us and we waved back. There are so many stories about these trips we made in those ten years we were there. The friend who flew us in was really doing us a favor. We were in a Helio-Courior. Huge wings that even had leading edges that flopped down at low speed for additional lift. I just looked, and there are videos of this plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXoWf94wNDA
Of course, in the video the plane was empty. When we went in, the load, including us, was about a thousand pounds. We touched down on the gravel bar, bounced along for a bit, and roared back into the air. We did this a dozen times. My wife was in the rear and she had no idea what the pilot was doing. She was wide-eyed when we stopped on the river bar. He was marking the "strip" - on the lookout for big boulders that would take out a landing gear. When he finally sat the plane down, I looked over at him with a smile. It was a warm day, and he was sweating when he said that he wouldn't do that for just anyone. The picture is when he took off and headed back to Fairbanks.
I loved Alaska. When I first went up there, the road was bad - but only for about 1500 miles. (G). One of the things that made it so good was the people up there. Working up on the "north slope" in the late 60s and through the 70s was interesting too. The guys were interesting - to say the least. Difficult is a word that could be used too. But, I never worked with a bunch of guys that I enjoyed more. Now, getting old, I realize just how much I learned up there.
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All the talk about fish
