If you have a great story idea for an Aviation Link, I would love to hear from you. E-mail me. mford@youralaskalink.com

Is this the coldest winter you can remember? I would love to hear your story and maybe some pictures? Send them to mford@youralaskalink.com and perhaps we can add them to the weather segment or share them here on our web page. Happy Holidays!

Happy National Aviation Day! I saw this article on the "Jet Blue"
website and wanted to share it with you.

Today is National Aviation Day, a time in the United States when we celebrate the progress of the aviation industry and all that air travel has contributed. Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the holiday back in 1939, chosen on this day in honor of Orville Wright’s birthday (who was still alive when the holiday was named).

We’ve certainly come a long way since 1939! The earliest passenger planes carried fewer than 20 people and did not have adequate heating or cooling systems, or even air circulation of any kind! Planes also flew at very low altitudes, which meant passengers felt every bump and breeze. The smell of fuel was also overwhelming and people had to open their windows to get relief!

Commercial air travel was also very exclusive when it first started, with business and upper class customers as the main clientele. Tickets prices were much higher than the alternative transportation options like railroad and only those who were wealthy could afford to fly.

Times sure have changed! Today we see people from all walks of life taking advantage of more affordable air travel. We have comfortable amenities and our planes can fly upwards of 35,000 feet, soaring high above the turbulent airs that planes of yesteryear weathered.

We take this time to salute our fellow aviation buffs and wish everyone a very happy National Aviation Day!

Do you have a Favorite out door thing to do? I am looking for ideas that might interest my soon to be 15 year old son. We can both be athletic at times (yes we have done flat top)

I think I have lived here so long I forget about some of the awesome things we have right here in our own back yard.

Feel free to e-mail me at mford@youralaskalink.com

Trips so far to Homer, Seward and Fairbanks(most recent). Meeting lots of great people and seeing parts of Alaska I haven't seen in a while. I had forgotten how beautiful the Chena River is on a summer night in Fairbanks. My Brother arrives this week, my son in two weeks. You gotta love Summer in Alaska! Fish on!