Knik 15 Apr

Nice day up the Knik yesterday (and the day before when Jake and I were there). My Aunt & Uncle, wife of an old friend and a couple of my Uncles friends were up there yesterday. At one time there were 8 planes at the picnic strip, and later another guy I know flew over so I hailed him on the radio and he stopped for a bit. He said that the day before he'd seen 2 wolves with an injured moose so we went up to Lake George where I saw one of the wolves but we couldn't find anything else but lots of healthy-appearing moose. I've seen coyotes up there, but never a wolf before. Next time I see a group of moose I'm going to take a closer look and see if wolves are hanging around too.

I stopped at Goose Bay on the way back with my Uncle Don. It was practically moderate turbulence all the way down and I used most of 3000ft before I could keep it level long enough to land. Leaving Palmer in a crosswind I got a little inattentive and crossed up by a gust lifting the wing then coming back it was gusting to 25 at 50 degrees so I had to make 2 tries to get into the gravel strip. The guy with the Husky landed behind me and looked real good - but he said he saw how much I was rolling so he ran it on at 80 mph. There were people parked by the runway watching the 'action' - it pretty much fully taxed my abilities. It was too much pressure - I'm waiting for a calmer day to fly some more!