Alaska Uncovered Podcast

Helicopter Flightseeing in Alaska with Dawn Campbell from Alaska Helicopter Tours

• Jennie Thwing Flaming • Episode 45

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Jennie Flaming:

Are you curious about helicopters or wondering if a helicopter tour is really worth it? That's what we're talking about today. You Welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me. Your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska, travel and life in Alaska. My guest today is Dawn Campbell, a born and raised, lifelong Alaskan Dawn has worked in Alaska's visitor industry most of her career. During the pandemic, she took the plunge to become a pilot and started working for Alaska helicopters. She is passionate about Alaska and flying, and I am really excited to talk with her about that today. Dawn, welcome to Alaska, uncovered. Thank you for being here.

Dawn:

Hi, Jennie, thanks for having me.

Jennie Flaming:

Wonderful having you. So to start off with, I kind of wrecked it a little bit by saying you were a born and raised Alaskan. But tell me how you got to Alaska.

Dawn:

Well, you know, I was born here, so, yeah, but my family history goes back quite far. Actually, my great grandfather was born in nulata, which is on the northern portion of the Iditarod trail off the Yukon River. He was born here in 1913 so my family goes back quite a ways. My dad wasn't actually born here. He was born in the Seattle area. And then, after he went to Vietnam and came back, he decided to go crabbing in the Bering Sea. And he just, he had always wanted to go to Alaska, knowing that his grandfather had been here, and that his father was born here. And so he eventually decided to, you know, he went down to Seattle, met my mom, they got married, and then they moved to Alaska. So that was in the 70s, which was a whole different time, you know, but basically they came here, and I was born here, and I absolutely love it.

Jennie Flaming:

Awesome. That is so cool. So let's start off with talking a little bit about flying in general. So tell, tell me a bit about how and when you decided to become a pilot yourself. Kind

Dawn:

of a Funny Story. And, you know, I know many people like when the pandemic first hit, and it just shocked people in so many, so many ways. And for me, it was my passion has always been, you know, Alaska travel industry. I've been working in the travel industry since 1996 and I was working for visit anchorage when the pandemic hit, and unfortunately, visit anchorage had to lay off the majority of their entire staff. So from 55 employees, they went down to 15. And unfortunately, I was one that lost my job. And it wasn't that I was, you know, held on to I was actually let go, so there was no guarantee that I would get my job back. Yeah. And as many people you know, experienced during the pandemic, it was, it was depressing. And I had never in my life felt that type of a depression. But, you know, it was the kid, my kids are all grown up and gone, and my husband works, you know, he was in the Air Force, still, at the time, active duty. But I just felt such a, I don't know, a loss, like I just didn't understand what my purpose was anymore, what I was going to be doing, and and I fell into a depression. Well, you know, life went on, and my everyone was at home. So of course, I made really good friends with my neighbor across the street, who was 11. Yeah, and she would come over and spend time with me every day, paint rocks, and we'd ride our bikes and we'd go for walks, and, you know, she had to do her PE, you know, physical education stuff for online school. And so, anyway, I always, I always, refer to Ellie as my 11 year old best friend, but she's in high school now, and so we're not quite best friends anymore. Yeah. Anyway, she she her dad's a pilot, and one day we know we were just doing stuff, and she said, Oh my gosh, my dad took me flying yesterday. We went out to connect glacier, and she's like, it was so cool. And I was like, wow. And she showed me some pictures, and I was like, smiling, and I'm like, wow, that is so cool. Ellie and she went home that afternoon. She went back over to her house across the street, and she said, Dad, I was telling Dawn about, you know, flying yesterday, and she got so excited and she was smiling. And I just haven't seen her that happy in so long, you know, she's been she was so sad. And anyway, her dad then came over and said, Hey, do you want to go flying? And I was like, Oh, yeah. I was like, when? And then he goes, right now. And I said, Oh, okay, you know? I was like, Sure. And my husband was like, yeah, no, that sounds great. And so he took me flying, and we flew out, and he has a Cessna 180 out at Lake hood that's in the summer. It's on floats. And in the winter, which we were still kind of in the winter at that point, you know. The Lake wasn't unfrozen, so he had his bushels on, which are the big, big wheels that can land just about anywhere. And he took me flying, and we were out for a couple hours, and we went out to Eagle River, where I grew up, and the clutna lake, and out to the Connect glacier. And I took so many pictures and videos, and at one point he's like, Here, try to fly the plane. And I was like, wow, you know. And I mean, of course, I wasn't in full control, but he was letting me, you know, make some maneuvers with the the yoke. And anyway, I came back and just said, you know, I came back home and I told my husband, I said, You know what, I think I want to learn how to fly. And my husband goes, good, great. The funny thing about that was he was just, you know, he was sad that I was sad, you know, because he knew that I didn't have, like, really, anything on the horizon. You know, what was I going to do? Not only did I lose my job with visit Anchorage, but I also, I've played for now 30 years with the anchorage symphony orchestra. I play string bass professionally, and that also came to an abrupt stop. You know, there was no live concerts or rehearsals. And so anyway, my husband just thought, oh my gosh, this is something, wow. This would be really cool if my wife was a pilot, right? So at that point, I just kind of started, you know, really looking into what it would take for me to learn how to fly. And never in my adult life had I ever had time on my hands, where I could possibly do something like this, and it was the perfect distraction and the perfect opportunity for me to take advantage of all the extra time that I had on my hands. That's

Jennie Flaming:

so cool, but it's such a great story. So have you been flying now? Has it been three years?

Dawn:

So it'll be four years coming up in May. Awesome. Oh, yeah. So I did my ground school and started learning to fly at the Air Force base here in Anchorage, because my husband was active duty, I was able to, you know, start learning there. But then I came up with another great idea, and and the salesperson in me. Here is what really shown through at this point. I convinced my husband, somehow, without a job, that you know me, without a job, that we should buy an airplane.

Jennie Flaming:

Oh, well done. That is next level skills, right there for sure. Yeah.

Dawn:

So I a friend of ours that's a pilot for FedEx. He said he saw that on my Facebook that I was learning how to fly. And he said, Hey, do you want to buy my airplane? And I was like, maybe. And I just, I had, I mean, I never really thought that I'd ever own an airplane. And so anyway, I said to my husband, hey, you know, this might actually be a really good idea, you know, if we buy an airplane, I don't have to pay to rent one, you know, I know we have to pay for all the other things that go along with having an airplane, but I did my homework and was able to buy a beautiful 1975 Cessna 172 awesome, which is I still own now, and I fly it all the time. Oh,

Jennie Flaming:

that's so cool. Love it. Yeah. So what was the biggest challenge for you when you were learning to fly.

Dawn:

I think in general, like learning to fly in Alaska, the challenges can be, you know, the weather, the mountains. That's not something that most people like in other parts of the country are dealing with mountain mountain flying, which is has a lot to do with like weather and clouds and winds, yep. So I would say that the biggest challenges would be learning weather patterns, like, it's something that I was not really super familiar with. So there was a lot, I think a lot of the challenge would be in the logistical parts of flying. You know what you have to do in planning and all that to make sure that you're flying and safely and know what's coming, yeah, which is hard to predict in Alaska because there aren't weather stations everywhere. There are cameras that are run by the FAA, where you can kind of look at weather in different places where you're not getting, like, real accurate weather reports, but you can look through the camera systems of the FAA cameras and kind of see what's happening with the weather. But I would say that was probably the biggest challenge learning to fly in Alaska would be, you know, weather. And then once you get into the winter time, you know, you have, sorry, my little tongue, once you get into the winter time, you have a lot of darkness. So there's not a lot of populated areas of Alaska. So once you, once you fly in the winter time, in the darkness, you you lose all reference of land, basically when it's dark and there's no lights down below anywhere. So that's a difficult thing about Alaska, is that you don't really have a point of reference, and you have to really, really pay attention when you're learning your instruments, in your in your airplane,

Jennie Flaming:

yeah, yeah, that, yeah, that I that's not something I would have thought of. Would be that. I mean, even though I know that from living there, but the impact of short days on especially learning to fly, yeah,

Dawn:

and it was funny because I, you know, I thought too, also like, wow, it's going to be weird when, like, how do you land in the winter? You land on ice and you land on snow. And, you know, yeah, you do, you just don't use your brakes as much as you do in the summer. Yeah, I mean, as long as you have a long enough runway, you you can just get a long rollout. But, yeah, it was quite different, like being in the in the winter, you know, you have to plug your airplane in, like you do cars here in Alaska, and you have to make sure that engine heats up beforehand and stuff. So ideally, you should, if you can, you should fly year round in Alaska, because the winter is something special.

Jennie Flaming:

Yeah, it sure is. That's so cool. Okay, what's your favorite thing about flying?

Dawn:

Oh my gosh, just being able to get to places that you cannot reach by road. And you know this, in Alaska, there are so many places that road accessible, yes, and having that freedom to just, you know, spend to fly out for the day and go have lunch at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere, or, you know, fly to a remote location land. You know, there's runways all over Alaska, believe it or not, and, and I would say my favorite part is just being able to access places that you just simply can't get to any other way than usually by boat or by air. Most places are accessible by boat, but that could take some doing as well, like depending on what type of boat you have and how many rivers you have to take to get to the river that that village is located on, or, you know, whatever location you're going to. But that would be my favorite part. Is just the freedom that you feel when you're flying is just absolutely incredible in the scenery and what you see from above is is is so different than what you see when you're driving on the road.

Jennie Flaming:

Yeah, that is so true. Yeah. So dawn. What advice do you have for other women who might be thinking about becoming pilots, especially, say, in the middle of their career.

Dawn:

Yeah, well, you know, one of the things I would say, that, I would suggest, is, like, if you have the time to do that, do it. It's such a male dominated profession. You know, flying, there's so many male pilots. And I think that, you know, it's interesting that women tend to kind of shy away from it, just because they feel like it's something that is typically more of a male, you know, position of being a pilot. But if you're doing it for yourself, you'd be surprised when you're learning how many other women you hear on the radio, you know, making calls to the tower and, you know, things like that. So I would say, as long as you have the time that you need to dedicate to it, do it and don't make it just be a, you know, a dream that you have forever and ever. Because as long as you have the time to dedicate to it, you should go for it. That would be another thing is like the time, if you don't have a lot of time, it's very difficult to learn how to fly because the repetition you really need to fly. You can't just do be a weekend warrior. You can't just go on the weekends, because you you gain, you know, some ability, and then you just go back, you go forward, you go backwards, you know, right? If you're nodding it constantly, yeah, absolutely, yeah. So it's, it's really one of those things that you really, almost just have to dedicate so much time to, and you really, really have to have the time to dedicate to it, otherwise, so many other things in life will get in the way, and you simply will just keep it will take a very long time and a lot of money to learn if you don't give yourself the

Jennie Flaming:

time to do it. Yeah, that's really good advice.

Dawn:

But I would say just being a woman, in some cases, people are like, Oh, that's a man's job, you know. And it isn't in any way. I think there's plenty of women out there that, you know, that fly. And for me, I've always kind of wanted to do the things that the guys are doing, yeah, in Alaska, you know, hunt, and I always did those things with my dad, you know, so I think that that's kind of, I don't know some there's a lot of women out there that are like that, and I would absolutely encourage them to follow their their gut instinct. If they want to learn how to fly, they should do it, because women are really good at multitasking. They're very, very good at, you know, taking on lots of different things at a time. And I would say that probably, in many cases, better pilots than men because they're they take lower risk, hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't say better pilots. I'd say maybe sometimes safer pilots because they're, yeah, more risk aware,

Jennie Flaming:

yeah, yeah. That's a really good point. Cool. Okay, so Dawn, so far, we have been talking about your experience flying small fixed wing planes, and we're going to transition a little bit here into talking about helicopters, since you work with helicopters, and to start that, I would love to have you share for folks a little bit about what is different between a fixed wing plane and a helicopter. And I think people probably know like you have a picture in your head of an airplane, you have a picture in your head of a helicopter. You know what they look like, but I'm thinking more about if someone is. Is considering doing flight scenes say, while they're in Alaska, like, what are some things to think about in deciding between doing fixed wing versus a helicopter? Absolutely.

Dawn:

That's a great question, and I get asked it a lot me too. Yeah, absolutely. And in my time at visit Anchorage, I was fortunate because I would train travel agents and tour operators, and I got to go on a lot of familiarization tours with them and fixed wings before I was a pilot, you know, fixed wing planes, and also in helicopters. And really the major, major difference is where they can land. A helicopter can literally land anywhere big enough for the footprint of the helicopter, you know, so it's just absolutely mind boggling, where they can land safely and let you get out of the helicopter. And that's a huge part about, like, you know, the company that I work for, what, where we land? We'll talk about that here in a little bit. Yeah, um, but flight seeing, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say one is better than the other, because I've had some, like, just incredible experiences in fixed wing flight scene in Alaska. You know, going, taking off and landing on water is just, just something that everyone in their in life should experience, or on pontoons and landing in those beautiful lakes and, you know, rivers and ocean, you know, all these places that you can land, but flight, seeing up to Denali is, you know, incredible in a fixed wing airplane, you know, from Calcutta, yep. So, you know, that's a totally different experience. But when you're really focused on landing in a small landing zone or somewhere very unreachable, or somewhere that you would not be able to land in an airplane, that's where the helicopters come in. And, you know, depending on the helicopter that they're flying, sometimes they can be a little bit faster than an airplane, but they also burn a lot more fuel. So when you're thinking about the cost of flight scene, typically, a helicopter flight scene trip is going to be a little bit more expensive based on the amount of flight time that you have. Yep, yes. So those are some of the differences. You know. I love that no matter if you're in an airplane or a helicopter, typically, most of the tour companies, you're always guaranteed a great view, you know. So, yeah, I wouldn't say that there's much of a better view, because all of our fixed wing pilots up here, most of them are in high wing aircraft, which are you know, you're not ever sitting where you can't see down, because you're not sitting above the wing, right? So typically, in both helicopters and airplanes, you have great views. Yep,

Jennie Flaming:

that's totally true. And if you can't see anything, you're probably not flying that day. Absolutely.

Dawn:

That's the other thing. Airplanes do actually require quite a bit more clearance. You know, as far as weather helicopters, can they fly a lot lower so they can fly very low to the ground, and they don't necessarily need the ceiling to be as high as a fixed wing airplane, yeah. So a lot of times people will think, Well, gosh, it's kind of cloudy today, but we can fly under the clouds and never, ever get into the clouds, yeah, in a helicopter and and still have an amazing experience. So a lot of times, if people are afraid of heights, a helicopter might be a better experience for them. Yeah. The other thing I would say is really different about helicopters is the turbulence that you feel. You really it's a much, much smoother ride. So if anyone has ever been in a small airplane, I am very, very lucky that I never get any kind of motion sickness ever of any kind, yeah, in the water or in the air. But the people that do get a little bit of motion sickness, if they've been in a small plane, it might make them feel discouraged to ever try a helicopter, but I will say that a helicopter is definitely smoother, and it's how the air hits the rotors. It's just very, very different than how an airplane flies through the air and how they glide. A helicopter is just a very different aerodynamics. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

yeah, that's interesting. I often tell people, you know, because if you go in a small, fixed wing plane flightseeing, it, it's going to be different than like flying in a jet, but it's still an airplane, right? It has wings, and, you know, you kind of could see, you know, if you're if you've flown anything before, it's a little more familiar. And, and I sometimes describe a helicopter. I don't know if you'd agree with this, but I feel like it's sort of like a glass elevator that kind of moves in all directions, like it doesn't really feel, it feels very different from an airplane to me, absolutely

Dawn:

moving forward. So he'll straight up. They can go, kind of go backwards. They can spin around in a circle. You know? I mean, there's, there's

Jennie Flaming:

never a time or, yeah, they're just hanging there, yeah?

Dawn:

I mean, they can hover, yeah, they can hover. Like, it's amazing what we do, hovering above things, where they're just sitting above something and looking down, and they're not even moving, you know, they're just hovering, yeah? So, I mean, I meant

Jennie Flaming:

the fixer and plane can't, oh, right, just to keep moving forward, yeah. Yeah, or it's bad

Unknown:

they have to keep moving forward,

Jennie Flaming:

yeah? Or in a circle, or some, some variation of forward, yes, yeah, cool, I

Dawn:

know. And I wouldn't say that one's better than the other. I just think that they're very different. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

I agree with that. Um, for folks who listen to the podcast regularly, and you know my husband, Jay, who's often on the pod, he has done a lot of he's been in helicopters quite a bit in Alaska, professionally, like as an archeologist, but also as a doing search and rescue. And one of the reasons is, like, what you were saying Dawn, you can kind of go anywhere, and you can also sort of stop and look at something below you for a minute, which obviously, airplane can't do that. But, you know, they use a lot of fixed wing planes too, so I think it does just kind of depend on the situation. Yeah, right. Cool. Okay, we're going to take a short break, and when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about the types of helicopter tours that you can do with Alaska helicopter tours, where Dawn works. So we'll be right back. Hi everyone. Jenny, here. I just wanted to drop in and let you know other ways that I can help you plan your trip to Alaska beyond just this podcast and the articles on my website. So there are three ways that I can help you, if you would like more help from me getting your trip off the ground. And since January is planning month here at the Alaska uncovered podcast, it's a great time to take advantage of these. So the first thing is, I have three planners. So it's a digital planner in workbook. You can also print it out. And one of them is called the Alaska adventure planner, and that is the one for you. If you're planning to trip on your own to different places in Alaska, then I also have one for folks planning cruises, and I also have one for folks planning the awesome drive all the way from the lower 48 up to Alaska. So that's the first way is my planners. The second way is I do one on one travel planning with folks. It's super fun. We just hop on Zoom, and you ask me all your questions, and I answer them, and those are 30 minute sessions, and you can book them directly online. The link to that is in the show notes, along with the link to the planner. And then finally, if you want me to just do the whole thing for you, everything from figuring out the best activities for you and your travel crew, where to stay, where to go, how much is too much? What to leave out, all of that stuff. I do that too. I do full custom Alaska itinerary planning, both for cruises as well as independent trips. And I would love to work with you on that in the show notes as a link to the page with more information, and you can hop over there if you would like me to plan your trip for you. So we are back. We are back with Dawn Campbell from Alaska helicopters, and we've been talking quite a bit about her experience with learning to fly herself and a fixed wing plane, and then we're kind of transitioning into talking a little bit more about helicopters. So I will just break in here and say, if you are visiting Alaska, there are quite a few places where you can do helicopter tours, and one of them is Alaska helicopter tours, which is located in Palmer, fairly close to Anchorage, and you can get there from Anchorage. I know Dawn's going to talk about that, so don tell everybody a little bit about the types of helicopter experiences people can have with Alaska helicopters. Yeah, absolutely.

Dawn:

Well, our the highest on our list, I would say, and our main base of operations, where our helicopter tours depart from with Alaska helicopter tours is the Alaska glacier Lodge, which is out in the Kinnick River Valley. Formal, formally, it is in the city of Palmer, or that's where the location, the address is located, but it's at the very end of the Kinnick River Road. And from Anchorage, it's about an hour to get out to the Alaska glacier lodge on the Connect River Road. You go north on the Glen highway. And of course, you know you could drive yourself, or you could use our shuttle service that I'll talk a little bit more about, but most of our tours depart from there, and there's a really great reason we are the very end of the road, so past our lodge, there's nothing else. You can't see any homes or buildings or no you can't see anything from the lodge, except for nature. You're overlooking the Connect River Valley. Well, right around the corner from our lodge is the terminus of the Connect glacier, which is, I would say, the high point. Point of it's kind of the focal point of all of our tours, all of our tours that depart from the lodge land on a glacier. So there's a glacier landing involved. Whether you do a one hour connect glacier landing tour or you do a two hour grand connect tour. Basically you just the more time you have, and the more money you spend, the more you can see. So I would say the the highlight of Alaska glacier tour, I'm sorry, Alaska helicopter tours, is that you get to land on a glacier. Now, it's not just any glacier, because the Connect glacier is very special. It has these incredible blue, Azure like melt pools. They're absolutely stunning. They're that turquoise, gorgeous color. A lot of times you'll see them when you're flight seeing, like if you go up to Denali and go Denali and go flight scene, you'll see these blue pools below. But those planes can't land down there where those pools are, so the helicopters will land people right next, right on the shore of that glacial pool, which is on the glacier. And then you get to get out and walk on the glacier, and you can take a water bottle with you and drink pure, fresh glacial water. So it's really our focus is really about the glaciers. I would say that that's not, I would say that's one of our best selling tours, the glacier landing, just the general one hour tour. I love the grand connect tour, because it's a two hour tour, and you get to land in three different locations. So of course, you get that highlight of that glacier pool, which is like everyone wants to do that once they see a picture of that blue water, they always want to, you know, land there. But the other two locations are kind of to the pilot's discretion. It could be over on the shores of Lake George with this stunning view of Colony glacier. It could be up on a high mountain ridge overlooking the entire glacier Valley. There's, there's so many different places. Sometimes they land at this beautiful waterfall. I mean, there's just so many places to land. And the crazy thing is, once you're out there, you're not seeing other helicopters. The area is quite large, so even though there's other tours out and about during the same time frame, you're not you're not seeing them because they're not all going to the same place. The other really, really popular thing that we sell is glacier dog sledding, yeah. So we take you, yeah, via helicopter, up to what we call it's called cataract glacier, like cataract like an eye. Cataract glacier is a hanging glacier in the knick River Valley, and it's up above 4000 feet. So you go up a little bit higher on that tour, and that's where there's a snow field sitting on top of the glacier. So when you're when you're going dog sledding, you're not going to be next to one of those beautiful melt pools, because that happens where there's, you know, crevasses and melting going on in pools. The dog sledding tours are absolutely phenomenal, and by far our best seller. We actually work with Dallas CD, who's a five time Iditarod champion. His kennel, they set up a summer camp up there. So we have dog sledding from May through September, which is longer than anyone else in Alaska that does like a summertime dog sledding tour. Yeah, and it is really, really phenomenal, because you get up there and not only are the views absolutely incredible, but you're working with like real Iditarod dogs. You know, they've either been in an Iditarod Race already, or they're training for one, and so they have a camp set up there, a base camp, and mushers and handlers that are up there all summer. That kind of trade in and out as the helicopters come and go. But it's an absolutely phenomenal experience. You get the helicopter sightseeing and the dog mushing, and there's an option to add a lower glacier landing, which most people do, because if you once you do your dog sledding, then you can land at a glacier melt pool on your way back to the lodge. That makes that tour again. That makes it a two hour tour. Yeah, so

Jennie Flaming:

that's really cool because, like, you were just saying Dawn, that gives people two really different glacier experiences in one tour, like one with the we're on the snow, and one with, like, the cool blue pools. And it's really hard to get both of I can't really think of another place where you can get both of

Dawn:

those, yeah, and it's, it's hard, because a lot of travelers will see, like their friends pictures, and they'll say, Oh my gosh. You know, in fact, I had a woman that came up this this year, and her husband had been here on her they were travel agents, and her husband had been here a couple years ago, and we took him up and landed on the Knik glacier next to one of the pools. When she came up, she was going on a fam and she did the Denali flight scene and landed up on the Ruth glacier. And she was like, Oh, I'm going to land on a glacier. So her thought was, I'm going to see these blue melt pools. Well, she was in an airplane and landing on a glacial, like a snow field on top of a glacier. Yeah. So totally, totally different experience. And that's the thing, you know, you really have to set your clients expectations, or, you know, you know, with what, where they're actually, what they're going to see when they get to the glacier. Yeah, and helicopters are really the way to see those melt pools. So, yes, yeah. And then we have, from there, we have some incredible adventure itineraries. So, I mean. I could go on all day about these. So with those glacier melt pools, we do stand up paddleboarding tours, where the helicopter takes you out with your guide and the paddleboards and everything, and you paddleboard, and they put you in full dry suits. They give you these grippy shoes so you get to actually get in the water and float in that glacial melt pool, so that you know, they prepare you so that if you do fall off the paddleboard, you know what, you know how it feels, and you're not scared. So the the paddleboarding is like, blows your mind. I mean, honestly, the pictures I see and the people that do it, they they come back and they just go, wow, wow. And they just can't really say anything else other than Wow, for like, an hour, they just sit there and go, I don't even know how to explain it, so that's one of them. We work with Alaska sundog guiding. There are partners with our adventure tours. We do the stand up paddleboarding. If someone's not comfortable with the paddleboard, they also have pack rafts. So you can pack raft on the glacial melt pool. They involve, like, a little hike with that too. So you're not, you know, it's a four hour tour, and they include lunch, so you're not out on the water the entire time. That could sound very exhausting, but they do it to whatever ability level the group is, and they have cool guides out there with you. They also do our ice climbing and ice now, paddleboarding is something you can only do in the summer. Those pools freeze over, and then it's a totally different experience in the winter. I should have mentioned that Alaska helicopter tours operates year round, so there's not a day of the year that you couldn't go on a helicopter tour if you wanted to. I know we're talking about year round travel to Alaska, and some people think I'm crazy when I say come to Alaska in the winter,

Jennie Flaming:

but Oh, it's so awesome. Amazing folks.

Unknown:

My favorite times of the year.

Jennie Flaming:

Yeah, folks who listen to this podcast already know that I'm a pretty big fan of winter travel to Alaska, yeah, but

Dawn:

I especially this region of Alaska, because we're very much a maritime climate. We're very mild as far as winter temperatures go. Now that doesn't mean that, you know, we had a very cold November this year, yeah, but that's, you know, not always normal. And we also have, you know, plenty of places where you can rent gear. And you know, if you have dressed properly, you're going to stay warm. And it's, it's going to be amazing. So it is going to be amazing, um, other than the paddle boarding, and we do ice climbing, like I said, with that company as well, Alaska Sun dog guiding their adventure partners and ice climbing. In the summer, they actually climb down into glacial mulans, which is just blow your mind, blue ice caves that you go into from on top of the glacier. And in the winter, they climb either on the icebergs or on the ice falls that come down the Connect gorge. So there's just some incredible adventure activities to do with them. We just also launched heli mountain biking. So we do like a e biking electric assist mountain bikes. We take you out to Lake George and drop you off with your guide and the bikes. We actually have racks on the helicopters that carry the bikes. And you get out, and you get to bike around the glacial lake with the iceberg floating in the summer and in the winter, you actually, I You go right on the ice and through the iceberg. So just an incredible experience. If you have anyone that's interested in bicycling, we do provide the year and everything for that. So it's a really, really unique, unique experience that can be offered year round, which is also really, really cool. And people ride their bikes to the Knik glacier, but you have to ride many, many miles to get back to the glacier. This is where we actually take you via helicopter, and then you get to bike, so you're not expelling all your energy just getting to the glacier. We also just launched heli ice skating.

Jennie Flaming:

That is super rad. That's got to be winter only, right? Absolutely. Yeah,

Dawn:

winter only. So those glacial melt pools, like we said, you know, they freeze over. And the good thing about that valley is that sometimes we get some good winds in the evening, they'll clear off those glacial pools. Or the lake, once it's frozen over, is a great place. They'll take you out and you can skate, ice skate among the icebergs, which is really, really cool. So so these are some unique adventure activities. You know, of course, it's going to be a little bit higher price point for those folks looking on a tour. But when you're coming to Alaska and you're saving up your pennies to, like, do all the incredible things, really, really, you should consider saving up enough to do the adventure tours and the helicopter tours, because if you're only coming once, and you're really saving up. I mean, you can do some really incredible activities, yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

that is so true. And so I have not been on any of your, like, big, you know, like the paddle boarding, ice skating stuff like that, yeah, however you up there that would, yeah, I would love it. It would be so fun. I had a client a couple years ago, and this was shortly after I found out that you guys offered the paddle boarding. And somehow that wasn't on my radar before. Maybe it was new, I'm not sure. But, um, I was like, okay, someday I'm going to have a client that this is going to be perfect for, right? And I had a. Um, this guy who was like, um, oh, he was really fun to work with, and was planning a really fun trip with his family. And was like, you know, we want to do some big, like crazy adventures that not very many people do. And I was like, Okay, this is the guy, and they did it, and they absolutely loved it. They were like, that was so fun. So yeah, I Well,

Dawn:

and some people kind of shy away because they're like, oh, I don't know if I have the ability to do that, you know, but we have other tours that you know are, are more for, like, less adventurous, but they still want to get out and see that area. Yeah, you could do just a hiking tour with Alaska sundot guiding our partners, where they take you up, they drop you off, and you just do a hike. And we do that in the summer and the winter, because on in the winter, you do it on snowshoes, which, yep, I have some pictures I could share with you that are just absolutely incredible. So they really have a little bit something for everybody, including photography tours. We have a lot of photographers that want to go up and do those hiking tours so that they can get pictures of those glacier landscapes. It's absolutely stunning. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

that's awesome. So a couple logistics questions. Dawn so specifically for Alaska helicopter tours, for getting to Palmer, what are people's options? You know, if you have a rental car, of course, you can just drive there. But for folks who might be, say, staying in the anchorage area and they don't want to rent a car, they can't, or maybe they're in Anchorage for a few days before after a cruise, like, what are some I know that you have a shuttle that takes people out there. So could you talk a little bit about what you offer? And you know, how people do that?

Unknown:

Absolutely. Yeah, rental car is, is, we see a lot of folks that self drive, but that's another thing. I mean, that could be a whole nother podcast about driving in Alaska. Yeah, it really is a lot easier than people would assume, and maybe because we just don't have that many roads. But the one thing that growing up here that I took kind of, I didn't realize that roads in the rest of America are very straight, and in Alaska, the roads are sometimes very curvy. So I think that could be a little intimidating to people, but in general, we have quite a few people that, like, even if you're in Anchorage for a day, if you're a group of like, say, say, a family group of five or six, you know that want to go on a helicopter tour. It might be less expensive to rent a rental van, like a minivan, and rent it for the day. And a lot of people worry about, you know, the availability of rental cars, or the price of rental cars, but sometimes that rental car for the day, you might be not be able to get it for a whole week long span, but you might just be able to get a car for a day. Yeah, and that could be less expensive, but when you take the whole need to drive and the responsibility of driving off of someone, it's really nice to be able to take a shuttle. And we offer a shuttle service that is starts very, very early in the morning. We we do multiple pickups all over at different midtown and downtown Anchorage locations. So cool, no matter where you are, we can come get you, and that is scheduled at the time when you schedule your tour. It's inexpensive, really, compared to, you know, other shuttle services, but it's $69 per person round trip to get, yeah, Lodge and back. And it's a great deal, kind of a tour in itself. I mean, you get the history of, you know, when you're driving from Anchorage and you pass Eagle River, where is where I grew up, a small town outside of Anchorage. You pass by Eklutna, which is where our water comes from, a gluten lake for all of the anchorage municipality. And then you drive out into the Matanuska Susitna Valley, which absolutely gorgeous. And the old Glen highway is just a windy, you know, highway that's just so stunningly beautiful right along the Kinnick river. So the scenery that you see along the way, and the animal wildlife sightings that are possible on your way there are really stunning, and it's nice to have a guide telling you a little bit about the area and maybe a little bit about the native peoples of this area. So it's really a great opportunity to not have to have someone focus on driving. Yeah, maybe you want to stop in at the lodge and have a have a glass of beer or wine after your to celebrate. So anyway, it can be a very, very good option. And we offer that year round. We have shuttle service year round cool and same goes. They could use that shuttle service if they want to stay at the lodge. They could use that to get there and to get back to Anchorage. But in that case, they would charge you $69 each time because you're taking out a round trip

Jennie Flaming:

seat, right? Yeah, that makes Yes,

Unknown:

yeah, yeah. So it's in. I would tell people also that if you just have a day in Anchorage, like, say, you get in at one o'clock in the morning, which is very common when flying to Alaska, yeah, really weird time of day. And, yeah, we're always super concerned that there's not going to be a rental or that there's not going to be a taxi. There's not gonna be a taxi. There's so many taxis at the airport at one o'clock in the morning,

Jennie Flaming:

the airport is crazy at one o'clock in the morning, yeah, I know, like, you know,

Dawn:

landing in Anchorage and going to your hotel and then say you have like, a one day in Anchorage. No problem, you could, 100% take a helicopter. After tour, yep, um, and you know, same goes with pre or post cruise. You know, if you come back in on a cruise and you take the train into Anchorage, or take a shuttle service from Seward or Whittier up to Anchorage, we could totally pick you up, and our shuttle will take you out to the lodge, and you can do a helicopter tour and back to Anchorage before you have to get on your flight. That leaves anchorage at, let's say, 10, between 10pm and 2am so, you know, lots and lots of opportunities for people, even if you're not spending a whole lot of time on land, yep,

Jennie Flaming:

Yes, awesome, great. Thanks for talking about that. All right, so going to one more question about like, flight scene in general, before we move into our wrap up questions. What advice do you have for someone who's never been in a helicopter before and they're getting in a helicopter for the first time? Whatever

Dawn:

I would just say to try, just, you know, if you're nervous about it, just just try to relax and and and realize that you're probably going to be really sad if you don't give it a try. Because I've had people that were very nervous and, yeah, I just don't think I can do it. And when they came back from the tour, they said, Wow, I don't know. I can't imagine not having taken that opportunity to do that, yeah, even people that have had big fears you know about it, I would say that, you know, being a commercial operator, you know, we value safety, and you know, maintenance of our helicopters as one of our highest standards. So know that when you're going out with our company that, you know, we take that very, very seriously. And I think that just to know that you're not going to be going very far, you're only going to be in the helicopter for a short period of time. Typically, you're never in the helicopter for more than about 15 minutes at a time, yeah, at the most, before you actually land and get out. Yep. And when you get out, I forgot to tell you, they give you crampons. They the pilots put crampons on your feet, and so you can walk all over on the ice without worrying about falling. So that's really cool. Yeah, that is really cool. Yeah. So just, you know, try to relax, um, and and realize that it's not going to be as turbulent as you thought, and you're not going to go as high as you would imagine. You're going to stay fairly low, where you're always going to be able to see the ground at a very, you know, close distance,

Jennie Flaming:

yep. Okay, so Dawn, is there any chance that you might start flying helicopters someday, or is it always going to be, or do you think it's going to be fixed wing for you? You

Dawn:

know, the funny thing is that when I decided to leave visit Anchorage, it was because I got this great opportunity to work in aviation with Alaska helicopter tours and still be doing similar to what I was doing, where I get to talk about all things fun in Alaska. And one of the things that they mentioned when they offered me the job was they they would allow me to add my rotor onto my fixed wing license, and I haven't started yet, but it's still kind of there, you know, it's kind of, I'm kind of thinking about it, yeah, but one of the advice I have is, like, if you don't have the time to really commit to it, then, you know, it makes it very difficult. So, yeah, I'm just kind of waiting for that right opportunity, you know, now that I've been at Alaska helicopter tours since April. You know, I'm really hoping that once I have my job fully under my belt, and I'm able to, like, put a little bit more devotion into the time it would take to get my rotor, you know, helicopter license as well. I think I will. I think I'll learn, and we'll see how it goes. My friend at work, the GM, actually told me he's like, there's people you can either hover or you can't. And so I think when you're first learning how to, like, fly a helicopter, the very first, one of the first things you learn is how to hover, and it's a technique that you know you either kind of have a knack for it or you don't. And yeah, probably aren't going to be a helicopter pilot. Yeah. So I'm happy being a fixed wing pilot, and I absolutely love it. And another thing is, I know I I'd never be able to afford my own helicopter. I don't want to fly commercially, just because I enjoy flying on my own. And I don't know that I got it to be my job, yeah, but there is, there is, there is some opportunity out there, and I haven't closed the door on it. I just, I'm just not sure yet.

Jennie Flaming:

Okay, well, it'll be fun to see what happens. Yeah, cool. Okay, so Dawn, to finish up, I have three questions for you that are the same questions that I ask all of my guests on the podcast. And since we have quite a few episodes about anchorage now, we're getting a little body of restaurants and things to do recommendations, which is pretty fun. So the first question is, what is your favorite restaurant in Anchorage? Oh,

Dawn:

gosh, that's a really hard one. One of my favorite restaurants just they just sold to a new. Owner, and I haven't been until so now, since the new owner's taken over. So I'm not going to mention that one, okay, but one of one of my favorite restaurants that's kind of off the beaten path and not as well known to like visitors, because it's not in their your daily viewing like downtown, yeah, is the Kincaid grill, and it's over off of raspberry it is absolutely phenomenal. So Kincaid grill is, is one of my very top recommendations. If you're staying downtown, of course, you'd have to take, like, an Uber or cab or drive over there, but, yeah, it is 100% worth the drive. It's amazing. And it's not that far.

Jennie Flaming:

What? Yeah, what kind of, what kind of food is it best for? Is it like a dinner spot?

Dawn:

Yeah, definitely dinner. Okay, it's, it's more, I would say it's more, sort of fine dining than most other places. But it's kind of, it's interesting when you pull up, because it's the location is in, like, this kind of a strip mall, and also in that mall is where tasty freezes. So you drive up and you're like, Is this really the place that she suggested? When you walk in and you see their wine list and their seafood and their, I mean, they're just absolutely phenomenal. Love it. In fact, Jenny, next time you're here, we'll have to go eat there so you can see yourself. Um, so

Jennie Flaming:

fun. I would love that. I haven't that is not a place I've been, because I'm always looking for new ideas. So

Unknown:

yeah, so let's, let's make a date. Next time you're here.

Jennie Flaming:

Okay, let's do it. I'd love that. Okay, what is your favorite month in Anchorage? Oh,

Unknown:

this is a very loaded question.

Jennie Flaming:

I know it is. I That's why it's so fun to ask people.

Dawn:

It's so hard. I think I would say, I think my favorite month is probably September. And I say that, you know, because I really have a hard time figuring out. I think it's September. It might be July, because my birthday is in July, but yeah, I would say September, just because of the massive amount of things that you can still do. The wildlife is still out. The colors start turning beautiful, yep, um, the weather is just, you know, kind of a little bit unpredictable, but also still pretty mild. We really haven't gotten into those winter temperatures, you know, we're, it's starting to get cool at night, which I love that, and also that you can totally see the Northern Lights in September, yeah. So it's kind of like the best of all things are in September, you know, the wildlife, their antlers are as big as they're going to get. They're, you know, I mean, they're just, it's just, it's just a very magical time of year, I think, yeah, and oftentimes people think that they need to come in June, July or August, yeah, you know, like in the what they would consider summer, but September is probably my favorite month of the year. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

yeah. I know it's kind of a loaded question, but I think part of it too is like, it is a little bit different if you're a visitor versus if you live somewhere, yeah, you know, like, like, well, the last time I saw you in person was in October in Fairbanks. And Jay and I used to live in Fairbanks, and when we were there, we were like, oh, October's such a great month. And I don't remember thinking that when I that, it was great when I lived there, but we were talking about how, if you if it lands a bit differently when it's getting it's starting to get legit cold and legit dark, and that's the next six months of your life is a little bit different from when you're absolutely but I think September is kind of a crowd pleaser forever for everybody.

Dawn:

Yeah, I think it's just, you know, a little less busy than some of the peak summer season, and there's still so much to see. And, you know, I mean, there's definitely benefits to early summer too. I have a hard time figuring out, you know, yeah, when I tell people to come like, either may or September, I'm kind of like, well, there's advantages to May with the young wildlife. You know, the babies are all being born, yep. And that's something special too, you know. And plus, the foliage isn't as thick on the tree, so you can see wildlife better, yep. But, I mean, there's just so many benefits to so many different types of times of the year. I mean, if, if the question was, What's your favorite month between this month and this month? Yeah, you know, I mean, and then my favorite winter month, I think would be March. It's, yeah, definitely stunning. I mean, the snow and the daylight and the Northern Lights and, you know, so many winter activities, so just depends on you agree with that, what people are looking for, yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

and what part of the state too. I mean, you know, we're talking specifically about anchorage for this, but like, September is not as great of a month in southeast Alaska, right? It's

Unknown:

pretty rainy, yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

yeah, and it doesn't have, you know it, yeah, it's just different. So anyway,

Unknown:

absolutely it is very different, depending on where you go,

Jennie Flaming:

yes. Okay, so finally Dawn, what is your favorite thing to do in Anchorage, in

Unknown:

Anchorage specifically,

Jennie Flaming:

well, the anchorage area, yeah. Well, I

Unknown:

mean, my favorite thing to do is fly, yeah. So, I

Jennie Flaming:

mean, great answer.

Dawn:

If you don't come to Alaska and get in the air somewhere, you're missing out. I mean, that is by far my favorite thing. But if it was a land based thing that you. Could do from Anchorage. I would say probably riding bike on the coastal trail is, yeah, favorite things to do, not only for the possible wildlife sightings, the views, the exercise, the fresh air. Yep, it is just a really beautiful trail that is so accessible from downtown. Yep, and it's just, it's it's very easy. You know, people get intimidated. They're like, well, what if there's a bunch of hills? And, I mean, even if you get an electric assist bike, it is such a cool ride. So yeah, I would say that's probably one of my very favorite things to do. Yeah, and the hiking trails that we have right in the Chugach Mountains, in the foot of in the foothills of the Chugach Mountains are probably way up there in my top favorite things to do as well, because you literally drive to a parking lot and then you're you feel like you're in the middle of absolutely nowhere within just minutes of being in Anchorage, you know? And I think that that's really special, and it's not something that you can get in a lot of other places. So yep, yeah, Glenn helps hiking area that is by far one of my top top things to do. Yeah, yeah.

Jennie Flaming:

Totally agree with that one too. Yeah. Well, Dawn, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing all of this fun stuff about helicopters and your story about flying yourself. Thank you so much. Yes, thanks

Unknown:

Jennie for having me. I really, really enjoyed it, and you know, I hope people will consider, you know, getting up in the air when they're here in Alaska, because it's a totally different viewpoint.

Jennie Flaming:

I hope so too. Well, thanks to all of you who are listening for joining us for this episode of Alaska uncovered. Make sure to check out the show notes, to get on my email list, to get my Alaska travel tips every Wednesday. You don't want to miss those in written form. And I've also got links to Alaska helicopter tours so you can learn more about the tours they offer, offer and book if you want to book one for your trip. And I've also got links to my Alaska adventure travel planner and my travel planning services down in the show notes. So check all of those out, and we'll See you next week. Bye for now, you

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

Host
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Jay Flaming

Co-host