Going to Alaska in Alaska First Class with drone videos
Jun 27, 2017, 12:20 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 396
Going to Alaska in Alaska First Class with drone videos
Drone video
Hi everyone, this is both a trip report and a discussion on a photographic tool that has opened up a world of creative possibilities for me: a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone. I concede that the topic of an Alaska Airlines domestic flight may not turn heads around here like a first class around the world jaunt, but if you’ve made it this far, I urge you to check out the video below. Much more so than any other camera I’ve had, I feel that the drone enabled our aesthetic vision for capturing a landscape. If nothing else, see what an average user (you can see my other photos and trip reports by searching my name) with a new drone and about five hours of practice can accomplish to see if a drone is something you’d be interested in adding to your travel photo kit:
I hope that the value of a drone speaks for itself with the video above. Let me add a few comments about the drone (a DJI Phantom 4 Pro) for folks interested in travel :
-Software and documentation from DJI is terrible and buggy
-Object avoidance cannot be relied upon, especially in low light, moving sideways, or when the intelligent tracking modes are enabled
-The drone burns an entire carry-on worth of luggage and it’s difficult to travel light with it. Either you’ll need to check a bag for everything aside from the drone, live just from what’s in your personal item, or travel with a buddy willing to share carry on space. I travel with it in an Eagle Creek back-pack that makes it much less conspicuous than just the Styrofoam case the drone comes in.
-I’ve been pulled aside for extra screening with the drone from TSA PreCheck once in about seven trips through security
-25 minutes of flight time with reserve is a realistic “real world” expectation for battery life and more than sufficient for getting plenty of great videos
-A $14 AC inverter so you can charge the drone in a car is way more valuable than extra batteries. With diligence about plugging the battery back in to charge the moment you return to the car, you’ll be able to drone almost indefinitely with a few minutes driving between sites
-With practice, it takes two people about 120 seconds to get the drone unpacked and ready to fly (GPS tracking acquired) from its case and about 60 seconds to put away. Obviously, not as fast as a digital camera, obviously, but often worth the added possibilities.
If you decide to take up droning, be responsible and fly safely! Read the documentation with your drone thoroughly and read up about the applicable regulations for where you’ll be flying in addition to using plenty of good judgement and common sense.
Flying to Alaska
At that, let me discuss the more typical aspects of a trip report and add some still photos if you are considering a trip to Alaska:
We booked the trip (SFO-PDX-ANC on the outbound and ANC-SEA on the inbound) using a Bank of America companion fare which turned out to be a great deal. I’m an Alaska MVP Gold so I burned two upgrade certs on the outbound but failed to clear the upgrade list on the inbound. The service from Alaska employees throughout was almost unfailingly friendly, professional, and welcoming and remains a major reason for my loyalty to the airline.
This poblano pepper and egg wrap served from SFO-PDX was fantastic, easily the best breakfast I’ve had on a plane:
This scramble from PDX-ANC was very substandard:
Kayaking
We did self-guided kayaking from Seward Alaska with Miller’s Landing and a water-taxi drop-off to Thumb Cove. I thought the sea kayaking here was spectacular and Miller’s Landing was a nice outfitter. The staff here put up a lot of pressure to do a longer water taxi drop-off to Northwestern or Ailiak Bay (about $340 per person versus $45 for the closer drop-off). We didn’t do these paddles so can’t comment directly on them but we had a great time with the paddling just in Resurrection Bay (the bay of Seward, Alaska) and appreciated the convenience of frequent water-taxi departures (three to four daily to spots within Resurrection Bay versus trips every 24-72 hours to the other sites). In the end, we were glad to just stick to Resurrection Bay rather than venture out to Ailiak. Another tip: the spit on Fox Island is a premier camping spot!
Hi everyone, this is both a trip report and a discussion on a photographic tool that has opened up a world of creative possibilities for me: a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone. I concede that the topic of an Alaska Airlines domestic flight may not turn heads around here like a first class around the world jaunt, but if you’ve made it this far, I urge you to check out the video below. Much more so than any other camera I’ve had, I feel that the drone enabled our aesthetic vision for capturing a landscape. If nothing else, see what an average user (you can see my other photos and trip reports by searching my name) with a new drone and about five hours of practice can accomplish to see if a drone is something you’d be interested in adding to your travel photo kit:
I hope that the value of a drone speaks for itself with the video above. Let me add a few comments about the drone (a DJI Phantom 4 Pro) for folks interested in travel :
-Software and documentation from DJI is terrible and buggy
-Object avoidance cannot be relied upon, especially in low light, moving sideways, or when the intelligent tracking modes are enabled
-The drone burns an entire carry-on worth of luggage and it’s difficult to travel light with it. Either you’ll need to check a bag for everything aside from the drone, live just from what’s in your personal item, or travel with a buddy willing to share carry on space. I travel with it in an Eagle Creek back-pack that makes it much less conspicuous than just the Styrofoam case the drone comes in.
-I’ve been pulled aside for extra screening with the drone from TSA PreCheck once in about seven trips through security
-25 minutes of flight time with reserve is a realistic “real world” expectation for battery life and more than sufficient for getting plenty of great videos
-A $14 AC inverter so you can charge the drone in a car is way more valuable than extra batteries. With diligence about plugging the battery back in to charge the moment you return to the car, you’ll be able to drone almost indefinitely with a few minutes driving between sites
-With practice, it takes two people about 120 seconds to get the drone unpacked and ready to fly (GPS tracking acquired) from its case and about 60 seconds to put away. Obviously, not as fast as a digital camera, obviously, but often worth the added possibilities.
If you decide to take up droning, be responsible and fly safely! Read the documentation with your drone thoroughly and read up about the applicable regulations for where you’ll be flying in addition to using plenty of good judgement and common sense.
Flying to Alaska
At that, let me discuss the more typical aspects of a trip report and add some still photos if you are considering a trip to Alaska:
We booked the trip (SFO-PDX-ANC on the outbound and ANC-SEA on the inbound) using a Bank of America companion fare which turned out to be a great deal. I’m an Alaska MVP Gold so I burned two upgrade certs on the outbound but failed to clear the upgrade list on the inbound. The service from Alaska employees throughout was almost unfailingly friendly, professional, and welcoming and remains a major reason for my loyalty to the airline.
This poblano pepper and egg wrap served from SFO-PDX was fantastic, easily the best breakfast I’ve had on a plane:
This scramble from PDX-ANC was very substandard:
Kayaking
We did self-guided kayaking from Seward Alaska with Miller’s Landing and a water-taxi drop-off to Thumb Cove. I thought the sea kayaking here was spectacular and Miller’s Landing was a nice outfitter. The staff here put up a lot of pressure to do a longer water taxi drop-off to Northwestern or Ailiak Bay (about $340 per person versus $45 for the closer drop-off). We didn’t do these paddles so can’t comment directly on them but we had a great time with the paddling just in Resurrection Bay (the bay of Seward, Alaska) and appreciated the convenience of frequent water-taxi departures (three to four daily to spots within Resurrection Bay versus trips every 24-72 hours to the other sites). In the end, we were glad to just stick to Resurrection Bay rather than venture out to Ailiak. Another tip: the spit on Fox Island is a premier camping spot!
Jun 27, 2017, 12:24 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 396
Flightseeing Denali from Talkeetna
Doing a flightseeing trip from Talkeetna was the highlight of the trip. We used Sheldon Air Services and had a fantastic trip, although it seems the other major operators (K2, Talkeetna Air Services) also had solid reputations. We did the basic/shortest of three trip options and felt it was sufficient. Also, although we lucked out and got a “free” glacier landing (the other passengers on our flight chose to pay the upcharge for the glacier landing), we also felt we could have given that a pass for the extra price. If you have the budget by all means do the longer trips with the glacier landings and you’ll stay enthralled for the whole trip, but if a flightseeing trip seems expensive, just stick with the basic flight rather than foregoing it altogether.
Foreign currencies from climbers transported to Denali by Sheldon Air Services:
Doing a flightseeing trip from Talkeetna was the highlight of the trip. We used Sheldon Air Services and had a fantastic trip, although it seems the other major operators (K2, Talkeetna Air Services) also had solid reputations. We did the basic/shortest of three trip options and felt it was sufficient. Also, although we lucked out and got a “free” glacier landing (the other passengers on our flight chose to pay the upcharge for the glacier landing), we also felt we could have given that a pass for the extra price. If you have the budget by all means do the longer trips with the glacier landings and you’ll stay enthralled for the whole trip, but if a flightseeing trip seems expensive, just stick with the basic flight rather than foregoing it altogether.
Foreign currencies from climbers transported to Denali by Sheldon Air Services:
Jun 27, 2017, 12:29 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 396
Cycling the Denali Park Road
Our final major activity for the trip was riding bikes on the Denali Park Road by camping at Savage River, starting our ride in the early morning, and taking the park shuttles back out when we felt exhausted. We’re moderate to strong cyclists and made it from the Savage River Campground to the Toklat River and Eielson Visitor Center respectively after 6-8 hours of riding. I would recommend riding into the park and taking the shuttle back as it gives you the freedom to turn around at any time (a reservation is not required to return with a bike) and there were plenty of spots on buses. One of us was on a cyclocross bike and one of us was on a road bike. The road was generally in good condition and passable on a road bike with good gravel-riding skills, but I think a cyclocross bike was the optimal choice. Of course, research wildlife safety issues before embarking, but my understanding of grizzly bear behavior (from reading, not personal experience) is that if you ride in a group of three or more, the risk of bear attack is virtually nil. We also met with some very professional wildlife control specialists that shut down a ~700 meter section of the road to pedestrian and bike access adjacent to a caribou which had been brought down by wolves (wolves and bears will return to the carcass to strip it), but it’s still a national park and of course they cannot predict every interaction you could have with an animal.
One final photo of the Turnagain Arm on a gorgeous ascent form Anchorage as we headed down to Seattle:
Our final major activity for the trip was riding bikes on the Denali Park Road by camping at Savage River, starting our ride in the early morning, and taking the park shuttles back out when we felt exhausted. We’re moderate to strong cyclists and made it from the Savage River Campground to the Toklat River and Eielson Visitor Center respectively after 6-8 hours of riding. I would recommend riding into the park and taking the shuttle back as it gives you the freedom to turn around at any time (a reservation is not required to return with a bike) and there were plenty of spots on buses. One of us was on a cyclocross bike and one of us was on a road bike. The road was generally in good condition and passable on a road bike with good gravel-riding skills, but I think a cyclocross bike was the optimal choice. Of course, research wildlife safety issues before embarking, but my understanding of grizzly bear behavior (from reading, not personal experience) is that if you ride in a group of three or more, the risk of bear attack is virtually nil. We also met with some very professional wildlife control specialists that shut down a ~700 meter section of the road to pedestrian and bike access adjacent to a caribou which had been brought down by wolves (wolves and bears will return to the carcass to strip it), but it’s still a national park and of course they cannot predict every interaction you could have with an animal.
One final photo of the Turnagain Arm on a gorgeous ascent form Anchorage as we headed down to Seattle:
Jun 27, 2017, 2:32 am
#6
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: London
Programs: BAEC GCH, CXMP Gold, Amex Plat, HH Gold, Accor Plat, SPG Gold, Carlson Gold
Posts: 1,106
Wonderful! Lovely photos and interesting for me as I'm looking to buy a drone!
I can't get your video to play though. I'm on iPhone using safari.
Thanks for posting
I can't get your video to play though. I'm on iPhone using safari.
Thanks for posting
Jun 27, 2017, 5:05 am
#7
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: North of Carlisle
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,538
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Jun 28, 2017, 9:31 am
#10
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP Gold 100K
Posts: 2,993
Thanks for the report and glad you had a good time in our state.
AS is woefully inconsistent in F, but they tend to do better on routes where they actually have to compete. They have to compete on SFO-PDX, but they don't have to compete on PDX-ANC (unless you count non-Mint B6 in the summer). I've had some comically bad food in F on routes like JNU-ANC.
AS is woefully inconsistent in F, but they tend to do better on routes where they actually have to compete. They have to compete on SFO-PDX, but they don't have to compete on PDX-ANC (unless you count non-Mint B6 in the summer). I've had some comically bad food in F on routes like JNU-ANC.
Jun 28, 2017, 6:50 pm
#12
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: ENA
Programs: AS - MVP Gold, Bonvoy - Silver, Star Citizen - Concierge
Posts: 102
Great video and pictures! It is always interesting to see what visitors think when checking out the state. I am considering on getting a DJI Phantom 3 for my trip to Thailand in Nov but a bit unsure as it would be my first drone. I play a lot of video games so I figure I am less apt to crash than the average new user. We will see how that flawed logic works.