Flying in the Wrangell-St. Elias
“Taking a Look” original acrylic painting by Gail Niebrugge. Sold.
After flying as a passenger in the bush U.S. Mail plane, I became so enamored with flying in rural Alaska that I decided to become a pilot and fly my own plane to all the fantastic places I saw in the wilderness of the Wrangell-St. Elias. Click on the painting title link to read my journal about the Mail plane flight that changed my life. This particular scene was painted to show how tiny the single engine aircraft appears against the backdrop of the rugged St. Elias mountains.
During this flight we carefully manuvered our way up a canyon to take a look at the mountain pass, to see if the clouds had cleared enough to continue safely through to deliver mail in Cordova. Most single engine flights in this region thirty years ago were done “VFR” (visual flight reference), equipment and information for instrument flight was not available in these remote locations. All of my flying was VFR and weather conditions could make it quite exciting.
More tomorrow,
Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan Artist
