Burke Mees

Returning home should have been a breeze after 10 days of flying along the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. It was anything but.

A Bering Sea storm that settled over the Iditarod Trail hammered home the old Alaska flying adage, "If you don't like the weather, just wait," while reinforcing how intertwined aviation and "The Last Great Race" have become.

How to tie down an airplane along the Iditarod Trail, on a very windy airstrip and without any tie-down spots? Improvise, Bush Alaska style.

It takes a special kind of thinking to fly an amphibious aircraft, and a survival instinct that might run contrary to the way a pilot was taught to operate.

Mees' full account of his time on the trail.

I was along to make sure nothing bad happened, which basically meant making sure that at no time would this unwieldy skiplane get stuck.

Getting stuck is a nuisance under any circumstances, but it can be especially troublesome in the Alaska wilderness in the dead of winter.

Terry Smith's Grumman Albatross at Marion Lake this September

Probably the Seastar's greatest innovation is its all-composite airframe, which is completely immune to salt-water corrosion.

Terry Smith's Grumman Albatross at Kachemak Bay.

Every so often a glassy water mishap occurs when a pilot fails to treat a surface as glassy.