We had a great trip to Alaska last 10 days taking in Cal Pappas Double Shoot in Palmer...what a BLAST, and great lunch on Musk Ox Stew by Frostbit n wonderful spouse!!...The Great Alaska Aviation Gathering at the Fed-ex Hangar at ANC International...focus on Bush Flying...and down to Valdez for the annual Short Take Off and Landing Competition.
Here is a link to AOPA report-
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-...istances-get-shorter

First YouTube presentation on Valdez 2018 STOL Competition-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63W5mpFRrbE

Everets Fueling Service C-46 'COMMANDO"- Impressive performance by these folks in flight demo...and only using 55" on Takeoff...per Bosses orders, and they still made a 500 foot light weight take off!!. The tanks installed inside look like rocket science!!Pretty standard panel, no glass!!The crew flew an impressive low level performance in the valley with chilling radial rumbles reverberating on the walls of the valley...2000hp per side!!
There were two contestants flying SuperCubs all the way from Florida.
The weather prevented many planes from getting in either over Thompson pass which was 0-0 when we drove over in heavy rain, 33 degrees, on Thursday, and Friday was a bit worse...and sadly one contestant flying from Anchorage Merrill Field via Whittier down the coast...did not make it at all...wreckage was found and reported on Monday in ANC paper.
Weather dawned beautiful and sunny on Saturday with light breeze right down the runway for the Event...
This a very fun event for pilots and enthusiastically attended by non-pilots and many families...lots of hoots and hollering going on from the sidelines...which are really quite close by airshow standards...say 200 feet in front of the crowd...
The two aerobatics presentations were spectacular and up against the mountains and the valley, lots of weird noise, echoes and smoke drifting around...
We had a surprise high fly over of 4 F-22 Raptor fighters who were headed for Cordova...and promised a mini-show enroute back...mechanical duffed that surprise visit!!
It was a well done for all involved...and there was certainly lots to eat including Reindeer and Bison hot dogs, and smoked Turkey wings by the USCG NCO club...and many, many others...BBQ incredibly popular.
Lots of fun...More YouTube as it is posted. I hear that a CHINOOK Light Sport Experimental took the prize this year...it really just levitated off the ground with full power- 10 feet on takeoff...and down like an elevator on the white line....11 feet landing...UNOFFICIAL.
Cheers,

Fellow Pilots- I am falling all over my sword and I have modified my first post on the STOL event...most specifically on the identity of the C-46!!
Today I attended a Flying day at Paine Field, Everett where our Cascade Warbirds did a flight presentation along with the two museums...flying a P-47, Spitfire and B-25...
At lunch with our demo pilots I was discussing the STOL event...and was properly corrected on the identity of the Everets C-46!!
The C-45 is the Twin Beech 18, next came the DC-3...C-47!!...and then the mysteriously numbered Curtis-Wright Commando- C-46...the beast that has an empty weight more than a DC-3 and was the star of Flying the Hump...and many cargo operations all over the world...still today!! Sorry for the confusion!!
Cheers,

That PanAm DC-3 at Paine field was delivered initially by Peter Goutiere. He was a good friend of my uncle. After Pan Am school in Miami, Pete flew the Hump while my uncle Harry flew the route in africa from Accra to Cairo.

Pete’s book is called Himalayan Rogue and is good for all the details he includes. I have my uncles copy that Pete signed to him.

Good stuff!

Bax- those boys flying the DC-3 were really sacheting around the patch with it after the Cascades Warbirds and Museum fly bys...doubt they had passengers onboard?? Later they were offering rides in the DC-3 and B-25...fun day.

The Valdez STOL website still does not post the official winners. The AOPA article says the LilCub took overall again this year with the Chinook experimental from the Yukon setting a new landing record of 9.5 feet....but NOT the winner!!

Obviously there is a formula for defining the winners overall vs in each class...

Regardless, some pretty amazing flying, and Fun was had by all.

Update on the missing plane....was NOT a contestant...it was reported as a contestant in the Anchorage paper on Monday flying a PA-28-180 "Super-Cub"...well, a PA-28 is a Cherokee but he was headed for Valdez...sad ending to a good outing....

Cheers,