Bush Pilot Training for Sport Pilot

[newamiga]

Guys,
I just got back from an incredible training experience up in Alaska. I had watched National Geographic's Alaska Wingmen and saw a guy named Don Lee who runs a really nice flight school in Talkeetna AK. His speciality is teaching those of us from down here how to fly like bush pilots in Alaska do. He also offers float plane training to ratings as well as ski plane training in the spring. I chose the bush pilot course in order to gain the experience as well as my tailwheel endorsement. I did both over the last week. It was a tremendous experience. Don is an outstanding instructor and the area up there can't be beat. I learned how to assess off airport landing strips, unimproved strips, even landing on gravel bars in rivers. I was Don's first Sport Pilot to come up for the training. It took me a little bit to get used to his Piper PA20/22 converted Tri-Pacer to tailwheel. The controls were quite twitchy and the rudder was king in this plane.
I got to fly with my wife in the back seat up towards Mt McKinley and over several glaciers. Subsequent flights had Don showing me strips of varying length, width and difficulty around the area. The biggest challenges would be learning to land on the gravel bar in the river. It was very challenging and incredibly fun. I also got a chance to take a lesson in the float plane with 9 landings on 4 different lakes around the area.
I cannot recommend Don's school enough. I learned a ton about off airport ops, mountain flying, float plane ops and of course tailwheel flying.

Here is a link to Don's school for those interested: http://www.alaskafloats.com/adventures/ ... ourses.php

Here is a video I put together of my experience: http://youtu.be/9l1-o_sBcfg

Carl

[drseti]

Sounds like a wonderful experience, Carl. Wish I could do that myself!