I was sitting in my office today when our pilot showed up. It was too windy for a low level flight but he wanted to take me up, along with two other rookies for a observational flight of the park. Be at the dock by 10. It was 9. I was excited and nervous as I have never been in a small aircraft or a float plane. I won the choice of copilot in a numbers draw. Lucky me. We had our preflight safety brief and some training on things we could help the pilot with before flight. I put on my gear. Climbed in. Plugged in my headset, buckle my seat belt and prepared myself for the ride. I am claustrophobic so I have always been nervous about being in something with so little space. I was worried that I would panic. But so far so good.
We took off down the Naknek river and were soon airborne. I watched a flock of swans fly under the plane. It was like being in a BBC earth episode. It was beautiful too watch. 20 minutes into the flight and I was feeling great. I was ready to tell my husband to get his pilots license updated so we could fly together. The pilot was giving us a great tour then we went over the mountains. Coming down on the other side we hit turbulence. I began to feel a little queasy. Our fist stop was brooks camp with the days mail. Brooks camp is so different from King Salmon. King Salmon has some trees but is mostly Tundra. Brooks camp had lots of trees. It was beautiful. After a 10 minute stop I was feeling better. I had the choice of getting out but I decided to tough it out as this was a part of my job. The take off was great and the scenery was beautiful. We saw a brown bear on the point. I got to see the board walks along the river for people to watch the bears from. We started up the Valley of Ten Thousands Smokes but the winds became too strong and we started to rock and roll but I was feeling fine. The pilot though turned us around because it was not a good situation. We continued to fly over the park around four of the states biggest lakes. Then it was time to head back and as we turned the plane really started to bounce around and I was not feeling very good. I bet I was turning green.
While I was trying my best to hold down my stomach the plane dropped, rocked and bounced all over the place. The pilot tried to fly higher, we had been flying at 800 feet, to get out of the turbulence but nothing seemed to help. While I was getting sicker he was eating a sandwich. Then in front of everyone I lost my lunch, over and over and over and over until I had nothing left in it. But yet I dry heaved for another five minutes till we landed. Not a good first flight and not a good impression. A lot of my work is done in the plane. I was planning to take Dramamine on my first flight but I wasn't prepared for today's surprise. I sure hope it helps because not only do I have to fly from place to place, I have to gps eagle nests and moose sightings from the plane on my computer.
I did however, learn a few things. Brown bears will stand on beaver dams and jump on them until they break to try to get to the beavers inside. Though once the bear breaks through the beavers swim out and watch the activities from a safe distance. I learned that the Naknek river tomorrow will actually flow backwards because high tide tomorrow is at 31 feet. When that much water is forced up the river the flow reverses. The tide is suppose to come in at 7am so I might go watch before work. I learned that the rivers are too low for the big boats until the mountain snow starts to melt. We flew for 2 1/2 hours and only saw a quarter of the park. At altitudes higher than 3000 feet the lakes are still frozen and there is snow on the ground. We actually flew through a upper level snow storm. The last thing I learned is that leaf out on the trees doesn't happen until the first week of June. I probably could have learned more if my stomach would have cooperated.
I still felt drained by the time I came home but seven packages arrived for us today. It was like Christmas. One of them was the box of pictures of my family. It was great to come home to them.
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