Everybody, Always

We leveled the wings a few thousand feet over the lake and started the
approach. The entry point was as narrow as it looked from the air. We
were reaching the point where we couldn’t turn around or pull out. I
looked next to me, and Adam had a steely-eyed resolve as he looked
through the windshield. We entered between the mountains and
immediately things got much louder. The engine roar bounced off both
granite walls and flooded the cockpit with noise. I looked out both side
windows to get a visual of my orientation to the rock walls on either side.
The wing was a safe but short distance from the granite wall on the right,
and I was confident as we navigated this part of the approach. Next, we
would descend to the lake.
As soon as we cleared the entrance, I pushed the controls forward.
Before, we were looking at the mountains straight ahead. Now, we were
looking mainly at the water as we flew the length of the lake. I was
stunned by how beautiful it looked but quickly shook that off. No time for
sightseeing. Adam’s eyes were big enough to take it in for the both of us.
Even though we were making a sharp descent, we didn’t have enough
room to land the Beaver straight in. At the end of the lake, there was a
widening of the rock walls just big enough for a final descending turn. It
was a tight area to maneuver but was doable. I got as close as I could to
the rock wall at the end of the lake and rolled the plane’s wing one more
time. We weren’t perpendicular to the water, but it felt like it. I pushed
the yoke all the way forward this time to descend the last four hundred
feet to the lake.
Once you make that last turn, dropping the last few hundred feet
needs to happen in a hurry but with a lot of care. If you land short, you hit
the rocks; if you go too long, you hit the trees. If you’ve ever seen a
pelican dive-bomb to catch a sardine, it was a lot like that but with more
grace and less fish.
After going down the elevator pretty fast, we flattened our descent
just a foot or two over the water, flared, and set the plane down. The
pontoons skimmed across the calm alpine water and settled in. We