I have been very active in the community including extensive involvement with the
Rotary Club. Below is an article from the Cadillac News that reported
on a solo flight to Alaska to raise money for Cadillac's lakefront
improvements.
Fantasy flight fulfills man's dreams, fills Rotary's coffers
By Daniel LeBlanc, Staff Write, Cadillac News
A man's dreams of what could be have turned into pleasant memories of what was.
Cadillac
adventurer and Rotarian, Keith Johnson, has returned from his
three-week solo flight to Alaska. He now struggles to put into words
all that he has seen and done.
"Trying
to tell you what Alaska is like is like trying to tell you what the
people in Cadillac look like," Johnson said, his feet firmly back on
terra firma. "Alaska has 10,000 faces, and you would almost have to
describe them all to get a sense of what it is like. You go from rain
forest, with its lush swamp, to the vastness of the glaciers. I thought
I might see a few big glaciers, but here are hundreds that are immense.
"I
saw moose, elk, bear, caribou, sheep and goats. I also saw a lot of
grizzlies from the air - which is not a bad way to see them."
Johnson
took off July 22 in his four-seat Cessna from Cadillac to Alaska, to
visit his daughter, raise money for the Rotary Foundation and because
it is something he has always wanted to do, but never had a good enough
reason to do it.
Last
week, Johnson completed his leisurely trip back to Cadillac with 10,000
miles of memories. The trip also netted the Cadillac Rotary Foundation
about $3,000.
About
3,000 of the miles of his trip were just pleasure flying around
Alaska's high peaks and over glaciers and deep coastal gouges, he said.
"The
most spectacular flight was going from Anchorage to Valdez (about 250
miles)," Johnson said. "There is just water and glaciers between the
two. I was glad to see Valdez airport.
"I
was told by the experienced pilots in the area that you don't land in
the water. Plan 'A' is to keep the plane running, but if you run into
trouble you should try landing on the tundra. You'll probably flip, but
it will slow you down. It would even be better to land into the trees -
as long as you don't hit a sizable one head-on, you'll probably do OK."
He said one of his most stimulating times was flying through a famous mountain pass.
"When
I went to White Horse to Juneau, I had to go over the pass at Skagway.
Skagway is at sea level, and it goes up to White Pass, at about 4,000
feet. There were enough clouds above the glaciers in the mountains to
make me pay attention," he said.
Johnson
said he was told by an airline pilot to keep an eye on the road below
as he approached the pass. As long as he could see the road climbing,
he would know he hadn't reached the top of the pass. At the top of the
pass, the road would fall away abruptly.
"When
I approached the pass, I could see the road that cuts through it. I was
under the clouds and a good 150 feet above the road, and turned a
corner, but the road was still coming up slightly," he said.
"I
kept going, and looking off my wing, I could see through the passenger
side of a semi on the road and see the driver. I was 'slightly' above
the truck. But, then I turned the next corner, and the road fell away."
Johnson's
successful jaunt through the pass was a tribute to his airplane, which
he said performed flawlessly until he could almost see Wexford Airport.
"The
biggest problem I had over the 10,000 miles when I was 18 miles out of
Cadillac and all of a sudden the variable speed prop's revolutions go
crazy. That had never happened to me before," Johnson said. "It would
have been embarrassing to go that far without any kind of a problem and
have to land somewhere between Cadillac and Manton.
He said what he enjoyed most about the trip was camping at remote airstrips and fly fishing in spectacular streams.
"I did a lot of fishing," he said. "I caught little grayling fish and caught a 6 to 10 pound chum
salmon on a five weight line. The natives feed the salmon to their dogs, but I think they tasted pretty good."
Johnson said a return trip to Alaska is not out of the question.
"Alaska
is just immense. I thought I saw a lot, but I just saw a small portion
of it," he said. "I will probably need another trip to see it all, I
guess.
"I hate to leave anything unfinished."
Cadillac's
Keith Johnson camps next to his four-seat Cessna at the airstrip in
Jasper National Park in British Columbia, Canada. Johnson recently
completed his 10,0000 mile flying adventure to Alaska, a trip he took
to raise money for the Cadillac Rotary, visit his daughter and because
"he wanted to."