Talkeetna Air Taxi WIP

R

rsgunner

Guest
Here is something I have been grinding on today.

I think it is almost done. Needs to be reviewed by my beta tester to get the OK.

TAT_1.jpg


Russ
 
Actually.........

My daughter who is a Denali Climbing Guide and pilot, is currently at the Mountain House doing rescue training with the NPS folks, to be picked up Staurday by TAT.... Probably by a Turbine Otter in their red and white scheme.

She's been hinting I should buy it when Paul retires in a couple of years. Of course their is a truism that the way to make a small fortune in aviation... is to start with a large one.

Nice paint! T
 
Wish there is a scenery of the Don Sheldon "hut" at the top end of Ruth Glacier or the base camp at Kahiltna Glacier at 7,200 feet. A proper scenery would be ................just a hint to a reader, lol.

Come to that, the entire McKinley massif would be nice as a scenery. Rather big area. Rather big for mountain flying.

fliger747 ----
Your daughter is doing some unusual training and work. Hope all goes well. That's a tough job. It's the climbing season starting about now.
 
The Denali climbing season is now underway. Last week the Nat Guard Chinooks ferried the NPS camps into basecamp and the 14,000' camp. Friends are now on the mountain with clients for the West Butress.

I landed my cub next to Sheldon's Mountain House in the Winter of 1975, ferrying a party (which I led) for the first Winter Ascent of nearby Mt Dickey. We had good weather for the climb, but the week afterward was spent on the glacier in a whitout/snow storm. Daily tasks mostly digging out the plane and snowshoeing the runway.

Yes that would be anice addon scenery, especially if someone could fix the ski lack of friction issue. MS modeled ski friction as basically packed snow/ice and getting the plane to stop and stay stopped is an issue on a slope. In reality snow provides a serious static friction requiring a lot of power to break loose/taxi. As you gather speed it reduces significantly, not unlike being on floats.

Cheers: T
 
Russ, now I gotta check out that Cessna, looks nice.

A bit off the topic----That Cessna paint needs some scenery projects. Still keep wishing Denali scenery could be like Tongass.............hint, lol.

Several years ago there was a freeware small scenery of the Hut for FS9 which I used. I don't think there was anything else. For FSX there is a freeware Talkeetna airport scenery but not the strip. Needs many trees nearby in my opinion for both the strip and the airport.

In real life in late June or early July of 1989 I flew--as a passenger--- up the Ruth Glacier and back to Talkeetna strip in a taildragger Cessna. Probably a 185 but I can't remember. I sat in the copilot seat. It was a sunny day. I think it was a Hudson company aircraft. Snow was too mushy for landing, basically too late in the season and too late in the day as it was about 3pm, I guess.

The strip is where the bush and climber taxi flight operators were based.
 
Hudson's 185 is still there on the Talkeetna Airport, but sadly Cliff Hudson's son Jay who had run the air taxi for many years died recently and rather sudenly of Pancreatic Cancer.

Cheers: T
 
fliger747 said:
Hudson's 185 is still there on the Talkeetna Airport, but sadly Cliff Hudson's son Jay who had run the air taxi for many years died recently and rather sudenly of Pancreatic Cancer.
Cheers: T
Click to expand...
Yes, I know a little about Jay. Maybe you don't know of Cliff passing. I'm pretty sure Jay was my pilot but maybe not.
The somewhat tiny shack-shed served as office and candy bar store with a couple of old worn chairs for a rest. The bathroom was in the shed attached to the main part. It had a 55 gallon barrel upright with a board seat on it. Getting up on it was an event in itself, stood on a crate, or something like it, and jumped into place, sort of.

I should guess it is a big fancy building now or maybe my memories are not accurate.

I kept chewing on the headset mike and the pilot kept telling me to move it away from my beak. It was obvious he knew the way and the engine purred all the way from smooth takeoff to the same smooth landing. I seem to recall it had wheel-skiis, hope I'm right. The paint was old.

Gotta find those old photos, they're somewhere hereabouts. A'course, a flight up the Ruth Gorge over the glacier stays firm in the memory.

Read about it in the local snoozepaper. Here's more. A small sample.
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=12128620
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGXX3t-Dk4M
http://backwoodslawyer.blogspot.com/2010/03/passing-of-cliff-hudson-talkeetna-bush.html
http://www.hudsonmovie.com/ check this
http://jukebox.uaf.edu/denali/html/clhu.htm
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/adn/obituary.aspx?n=clifford-hudson&pid=140534705
"In 1996, Cliff was honored with the U.S. Air Force's highest civilian award, the Exceptional Service Award, the equivalent of the military's Distinguished Service Medal for his heroic actions that helped save the lives of six airmen in February 1954."
http://www.adn.com/2010/03/09/1176236/bush-pilot-hudson-inexorably-linked.html
"Just two years later he was involved in a rescue for which he later received a U.S. Air Force medal. Sixteen airmen were flying in a C-47 from Elmendorf Air Force Base to Fairbanks in February 1954 when their plane disintegrated in midair and crashed near Kesugi Ridge, killing 10 airmen. Six men parachuted out of the plane and survived.
Hudson was the first pilot out looking for the men after hearing about the crash but was unable to land. He and rival pilot Don Sheldon went back the next day to pick up the men, who had spent the night outside in minus-35- degree temperatures. Hudson received the U.S. Air Force's Exceptional Service Award, the civilian equivalent of the military's Distinguished Service Medal, in 2000.
Then came the climbing days that put Talkeetna on the map. Hudson and Sheldon figured out how to land on the mountain in part to satisfy the clamor of people wanting to go there, said Chuck Hudson, Cliff's son.
"In the early days, people were trying to hike in," Hudson said. "Trying to take off from Talkeetna to go to the mountain was really difficult."
http://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=64773
"Cliff Hudson flew out of Talkeetna day in and day out, without making any noise about it, without any hoopla, and without media coverage. Yet, on a day to day basis, he did some absolutely amazing things with those airplanes. He did in fact conduct a large number of rescues, yet rarely if ever was recognized for his efforts.
Cliff was one of the true heroes of a generation of Alaska pilots. His son Jay was a keeper as well, and also a great pilot. It's truly unfortunate that Cliff's life wasn't better documented--there were some amazing stories there, but Cliff never sought the lime light. He was very self effacing."

That was what I saw on that day now long ago.
http://www.hudsonair.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfV6c1GSzlI ski planes on the Ruth, links to more videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb8VIzgK3dk short video, Supercub landing on the Ruth
http://www.talkeetnaroadhouse.com/flightseeing.htm
Google away, you can't lose, lots of articles.

Having gone this far I failed to find a photo of Hudson's 185 that a painter might consider.
 
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