>the busiest floatplane base in the world. And no, it's not in
>Washington
I think what the Seattle Post Intelligencer, which I quoted, meant was what
the Seattle Times printed: "Kenmore Air has become the largest flyer of
floatplanes in the United States." I don't know how big their fleet is at the
moment, but it's somewhere in the range of 20+ airplanes, and includes Beavers
both
piston & turbine, 6 turbine Otters, Cessna 180s, and at least one Cessna
Caravan (turbine). They bought L. Union Air's fleet of Beavers & Otters, and
between scheduled flights, tourist flights, and visiting floatplanes, the
action
is pretty much non-stop at both L. Union and L. WA bases.
But sure, Anchorage has more total seaplanes at L. Hood.
Kenmore's pilots do "real working bush" flying here in the Pacific Northwest.
Witness this takeoff down the glacier on Mt. Olympus in the Olympic Mts:
<A
HREF="http://www.kenmoreair.com/history.html";>http://www.kenmoreair.com/history.html</A>
And from S. Cascade Lake & Glacier:
<A
HREF="http://www.hymet.com/scglacierexp.htm";>http://www.hymet.com/scglacierexp.htm</A>
(note story of rescue from that lake in
50 mph winds)
Notice in this aerial shot how small that lake is and how much the glacier
has retreated from '68 (when it was right at the lake's edge) to '99.
SOMETHING
is going on, climate-wise:
http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/download.php?id=635&;
sid=59837112e6f74ef81161136d53e18682
Rich
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