As we usher in 2016, it's time to share some of the recent adventures with my job!
Before the Holiday Season, I had the opportunity to visit some new places!
I had the opportunity to visit Anchorage, Alaska for a couple of days. We visited the aviation museum, which was amazing. The collection there is very "Alaska Specific" meaning everything in the collection had some connection to Alaska's Aviation History at some point.
The Mountains of Alaska near Juneau
Here are some shots from the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum
The Museum
The Original Reeve Airways Shack
Eventually Became Reeve Aleutian Airlines
Man am I ever glad we don't have to keep the jet warm like this!
A Ski Collection from various aircraft.
The Fairchild Pilgrim
An Alaska Airlines 737-200
(Canadian North operates similar aircraft as well)
The Vortex Dissipator Probe
This probe shoots compressed bleed air from the engines to the ground in front of the intake to prevent the engine from creating a vortex and sucking up gravel and dirt from the ground.
The Grumman Goose
(This was part of the exhibit on the invasion of the USA by Japan during WWII)
The museum is located on the shore of Lake Hood. In the winter time this becomes an active ski-plane base with several ice runways. In the summer it is an active float base as well. The tower at Anchorage controls traffic on the lake as well. As you can see, it's extremely close to the airport.
The Mountains near Anchorage
After Anchorage we crossed the continent, and an ocean, to end up in Frankfurt Germany.
On the way, I encountered an interesting aircraft.
The Grob 520T is an airborne platform for long endurance operations. It's ideally suited for things like survey, surveillance, atmospheric testing. It's a 2 seat aircraft with a 14 hour endurance. And I thought we had it bad with no toilet for 4 hours!
Had a bit of an icy day one day in Moncton as well! The airplane sat outside in a blizzard, and got COATED!
Thankfully Voyageur Airways let us into their hangar to defrost for a while. We got the plane cleaned up and departed without incident.
Frankfurt at Christmas time holds an outdoor market in the town square. Christmas is a pretty big deal in Germany, and they love to celebrate. Germany celebrates Christmas Night on the evening of the 24th, as opposed to our Christmas Day. Here are some photos from the Christmas Market! It was a beautiful evening, a couple of degrees above zero.
Giant Pretzels
Huge Pots of Chocolate Fondue
This Christmas Tree had to be about 100 feet high!
I got to head home and spend time with my family over the Christmas Holidays returning to Toronto on the 27th.
Then when I got back, it was straight back to work!
The following images are of St. Stephen's Church in Downtown Vienna
It is the Mother Church of the Archdiocese of Vienna
The current church lies over an original structure built in 1147.
The tall steeple at centre is over 440 ft high!
Now how could one go to Austria and not eat one of the most famous foods to come from that country... SCHNITZEL! Well we ate schnitzel alright!
The Table as we Dug In!
Look at the size of that thing!!!!! It hangs over the sides of the plate!
The restaurant we ate at was also actually where the Schnitzel is claimed to have originated. Feel free to check out their website and read more about this dish now enjoyed around the world!
On the way home from Austria, we ended up down low over the Atlantic and got some spectacular views of Greenland. Enjoy!
The areas between the mountain ranges may appear to be clouds. But that is actually ICE. THOUSANDS of FEET THICK!
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