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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The first (& last) time I had the pleasure of
visiting Alaska was in the early seventies when my then boss bought a new Buick
station wagon right off the showroom for his wife & disconnected the
speedometer before he, his son & I headed out to tackle the Alaskan Highway.
When we arrived at the beginning of the highway we were told it was closed due
to rock slides so we had to detour to Prince Rupert & take the inland ferry
up to Juneau. Among our month long adventures we hired a guide & small plane
to fly us out on the Aleutian Islands for some big time fishing. Man, I'll never
forget the most rugged, beautiful & isolated terrain I've ever
seen in my life below us during that flight & wondering how anyone could
ever find us if we went down. Remember, I was young & not used to flying
that much in a small aircraft & this was before ( I think?) all the now
present avionics, GPS, etc. were available. As far as I knew, the radio was
about the only way to let a search party know approximately where you might be
if you went down - a scary thought in my mind at the time & what would
happen if the radio was damaged if you did go down?? SOL came to my mind!
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>When we flew out of Achorage to begin this trip I
distinctly remember looking down @ all the small planes on the ground & in
the bay & noticed that the large majority of them were painted WHITE. I
began to wonder why any pilot would choose white as a color for his
aircraft (ours included) in an envirornment like this where it seemed like 95%
of the terrain beneath you was WHITE!! Seemed to me that I'd definitely prefer
BLACK of some other dark color that would be easier to spot from the air in case
of a mishap?? And you know, I was never able to get a good answer from anyone I
spoke to after our flight concerning my question - go figure??</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Bob</FONT> </DIV>
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