The mountains stood before us, towering like stone Gods. They were covered in a smooth and creamy layer of bright white powdery snow. The sun shone brightly, creating a brilliant contrast between the soft blue of the sky and the virginal white of the craggy horizon.

We stood outside the motor home, Sergey Zozulya , Phil Wolynski, the girls (Sergey's 11 year old daughter Katia and my 10 year old daughter Victoria), and I. We were just taking it all in, and except for the occasional snow machine that could be heard in the distance, it was almost alarmingly quiet. It was cold, about ten degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was blowing. We had left Anchorage the morning of the previous day and had just arrived at Arctic Man. It's a combination snow machine and down hill ski race put on every year in Alaska. Most people travel to this desolate and isolated spot near Paxton on the Richardson highway to compete in or watch the race, but we went there to fly. We hauled the trikes up from Anchorage in my Haulmark covered trailer. Three Antares trikes, fuel, wings, tools, and other related equipment fit nicely in the 20 ft. trailer.

We took some time to relax, then pulled out the trikes and put them together. It was quite a sight. Three brand new Antares trikes lined up in row just outside our motor home. Almost every color of the rainbow was reflected by our aircraft. I stood back. Thinking about how lucky I was to be able to fly trikes in Alaska with my friends, and share the experience with new students. We had come to Arctic Man hoping to stir some interest in triking. Sergey wanted to show off the MA-33 trikes, and I wanted to give some intro flights. I think Phil just wanted to buzz some of his old snow machine buddies. The girls just wanted to play.

We put the girls to work. Katia and Victoria were stationed out on the road drumming up business, handing out flyers like a couple of circus barkers. Before long, people started showing up at the campsite asking questions about the planes and looking for intro rides.

The snow was not very deep, only about 10-12 inches or so. It was packed really well from snow machines running back and forth on it too. Due to the higher elevation the trikes were taking longer to get airborne. The combination of the icy conditions and thinner air made for some challenging take offs and landings! The snow machine traffic had worn very nice grooves and moguls in everything everywhere and our trikes bounced and skipped all over the place!

I was very quickly overwhelmed with requests for intro flights. The girls had worked their magic well. A sweet smile and a short "you should come over and check it out, ultralights are really fun" from the girls had a lot of folks stopping by to ask questions. That was fine with me. I have always loved sharing something with people when I'm excited about it, and I'm very excited about my Antares trike! That's probably why I was so disappointed when I realized that I was not going to be able to fly my own trike because of a "SNAFU" on my part. I had forgotten to bring one small part, and that was enough to keep her on the ground. Thankfully, Phil was nice enough to let me fly his trike, a beautiful MA-33 Antares with a yellow, red, and white Stranger II wing and 582 Rotax. I really owe Phil a great debt of thanks for saving my life. If I had not been able to give intro rides over the course of those three days, I'm sure I would have been lynched by a mob of angry (if not some what drunken) snow machiners!

The plane flew great and the folks just kept coming. I stayed busy and flew a lot. I went to bed tired every night, but not so tired that I couldn't take the time to laugh, joke, and tell scary stories to the girls before bedtime. The motor home was cozy , like a little winter retreat on wheels. It was bitter cold outside, but we were having a blast inside. For about an hour every night we would laugh and carry on until our sides were splitting. Andy Kmak showed up late and joined us. Between Andy, Sergey and Phil's lunacy, I was in constant stitches! It felt great. It had been a long time since I had been able have so much fun. Spending time with people I like, and laughing and playing so much on one trip.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was when I had a chance to really test the capabilities of the Antares trike. A potential student approached me requesting a demo flight. One look at this guy told me this was going to be tricky. He was a VERY LARGE MAN, and very tall. I am an extra large type myself, so I asked my brave friend how much he weighed. We did the math, and it didn't look good. I told the guy "no soap", there was no way I was going to try to take off at that altitude , on that icy and rough surface, with that much weight in the aircraft. The look of disappointment on his face told it all. He was looking at his feet, hands in his pockets, kicking at the snow. "Every one always tells me I'm too big to do stuff" He said. Wow! Did I feel bad about that! I had been told the same thing when I first wanted to start flying trikes. He had chosen the right words. I was motivated to get this guy in the air! I talked to Sergey about it. I figured that since he designed the airplane he would know if we could do it or not. I told him how much weight I would be trying to fly with and asked him what he thought about it. "you will fly with this man, you can do it" he said with smooth confidence in his cool sounding Russian accent. He had his always-present toothy smile on his face. I was inspired. I would try it.

Our take off run was very long. We ended up going very fast to get off the ground. I was just about to abort the take off run when the trike leaped into the air! We were flying! And my new friend was euphoric. He was so thrilled with the experience that he could not contain himself. I had to turn down the volume on my headset to squelch out his "whoops" and "yahoos". I had really made the guy's day, probably his whole year.

The landing was a bit scary, but I pulled it off. The ground speed when we touched down was the alarming part for me. We were really moving. When we finally came to a stop it was all "high fives" and words like "awesome". I had accomplished the impossible, and it felt good to be able to do that for a person that really wanted to fly. Every one had smiles on their faces, especially Sergey.

All in all it was a trip to remember. We took a lot of photos and got a lot of flying in. We saw some very beautiful country, and some powered parachute guys even showed up (Bud Gish and gang). It was a lot of work and we came back to town tired but in a good way, in a way that makes you feel like you're alive!

I will go back to Arctic Man, and I hope the same group goes with me again this spring. The only thing that could make this year better than last will be if more pilots and planes show up. The more the merrier I always say.