Since 2003, Arctic Air Walkers and Midnight Sun Paragliding, LLC. have teamed up to host an extraordinary ten days of organized events during Alaska's true midnight sun summer solstice.

The event grows in popularity every year as visiting pilots from all over the world come to sample Alaska's beauty and spectacular flying.

This year the Arctic Air Walkers are taking the reigns for what's sure to be the best fly-in ever. Midnight Sun will still organize the final 3 days of the safety clinic over Horseshoe lake with Chris Santacroce.

If you are interested in attending this years fly-in, see the current Arctic Air Walkers website for schedule and registration information. For Safety Clinic information contact Phil Smith of Midnight Sun Paragliding, LLC.

The following article by Kay Toucher was featured in Paragliding Magazine after the first Ten Days of Solstice Fly-In.

Flying Under the Midnight Sun
By Kay Tauscher

Let’s daydream for a minute. Imagine this…flying at least 2000 vertical feet just above sea level with a view of the most gorgeous mountains, glaciers and body of water that you have ever seen. Imagine doing this from late morning until late evening every day. Place a tram into this scene that can take you to the top of the mountain in a matter of minutes. Let’s say the tram is within a 5-minute walk of the LZ, which by the way is a beautiful tundra meadow. Let’s further imagine that the tram runs every 10 or 15 minutes, allowing you almost a dozen flights a day. Sounds like every pilot’s dream, doesn’t it? Well, that dream can come true and did for many paragliding pilots over the Summer Solstice in Alaska. Midnight Sun Paragliding LLC of Anchorage offered the “First Annual 10 Days of Summer Solstice Fly-In” at Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood, Alaska, which made this dream come true.

The Faces: Phil Smith, owner of Midnight Sun Paragliding, graciously hosted the event, with the support of Chris Santacroce (Super Fly Inc.), Nick Greece (Torrey Pines Gliderport), and Enleau and Ann O’Connor (Safety in Flight Training). The event was co-sponsored by Super Fly Inc. and Torrey Pines Gliderport. Phil and these great folks did one heck of job creating an awesome Fly-In atmosphere. The weather cooperated and spirits ran high throughout the long week’s events. Forty pilots participated, 12 from outside of Alaska. Pilots arrived from all over the country, including San Diego, Boulder, Texas and as far away as Washington DC.

The Beginning: The Fly-In kicked off on a beautiful, sunny Friday in Girdwood after a quick registration and orientation. Girdwood is just a 40-minute drive from Anchorage International Airport, the arrival point from the “Lower 48” (The Alaskan term for the contiguous United States). Though flying would continue until nearly midnight, no one wasted time getting through the formalities and into the air. Seven hanging glaciers surrounding the Girdwood Valley, and the shimmering Turnagain Arm rewarded the visited pilots for their first glimpse of this spectacular scenery. A fortunate few would head to Horseshoe Lake to enjoy the sunset and silhouette of the 20,000’ Denali (Mt McKinley) to kick off the next three days of over-the-water safety training.

The Lake: While others stayed at Alyeska over the weekend for some friendly piloting competition Ann, Enleau and Chris hosted the first of two, 3-day maneuvers clinics at Horseshoe Lake, about an hour’s drive north of Anchorage. With Anchorage and the Cook Inlet to the south and McKinley to the north a more picturesque setting for payout towing would be hard to imagine. Pilots worked on perfecting their asymmetric spirals, spins, stalls, SATs, 180’s, wingovers and other exciting maneuvers with coaching from the team of experts. Phil’s new boat and Towmeup payout winch allowed pilots to tow quickly up to 2000 feet and more over the water to conduct the maneuvers. The long days afforded a record number of 60 tows in one day for Enleau and Ann, who do these safety clinics frequently. Sixteen pilots took advantage of the clinics, including a dozen Arctic Air Walkers (the local paragliding club) who had never had the opportunity to tow over the water in Alaska before this event.

The Landing: Flying at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood was a real treat. Moose Meadow (yes, its real name) provided an excellent LZ, at an altitude of approximately 250 feet mean sea level (msl). The soft, spongy tundra surface allowed for incredibly gentle landings. For the flaring-impaired, it is most forgiving. A series of concentric circles were made using flagging on the LZ floor to provide a spot landing target. This provided a lot of friendly competition and personal practice. A few mosquitoes in the LZ encouraged a quick and tidy pack-up prior to heading back to the tram.
The Ride: The Alyeska Resort tram is run by friendly locals, eager to give you interesting facts and tidbits about the area like, “five percent of Alaska’s terrain is covered with glaciers…” They are also quick to point out resident black bear, moose, and eagles often in view during the ride. The tram ran every 10 to 15 minutes beginning at 9 am until 11:00 in the evening. Alyeska Resort made paraglider season passes available for a mere $90 (or $13/day) after a thorough site orientation, and sign-up with the local club. A five-minute tram ride to approximately 2300 feet msl, provides a quick vertical gain of just over 2000 feet. To their credit, the local club, school and pilots have clearly fostered an excellent relationship with the ski resort. The resort so values the presence of the paragliders at the mountain, that they continue to upload pilots on the tram long after they stop transporting the general public to the top each day.

The Launch: A few gray days and some drizzling rain (not what we Lower 48-types think of as good flying weather) didn’t even slow the pace of flying. The conditions within this valley, which is nestled below mountains on three sides and Turnagain Arm on the other, generally allow for some wonderful soaring flights. Turnagain Arm is a bay of water with the second largest tidal flux in the world. (Yes, another tidbit shared by Eric, our tram guide.) The eastwardly prevailing wind creates a surprisingly consistent leeside thermal site and 270∞ of launchable direction. Find a streamer pointing upslope and you’ll see a pilot preparing to launch. A little residual snow, uneven footing, and zero wind during earlier day flights created an environment for forward inflations. The low altitude helped and dense air helped, however, even for those pilots with rusty forward inflation and launching skills. The obvious challenges to launching were the two chairlifts that run down the mountain near launch and parallel one another.

The Flying: Thermal flying throughout the day with ascent rates well over 1000 fpm allowed pilots to climb to over 6000’ msl. While the locals worked house thermals and boated around their valley playground, it took visiting pilot Tony Lang from Las Vegas to set the XC record for the week by flying over 12 miles back toward Anchorage. Flying would often begin around 11:00 in the morning and continue until at least 10:00 at night. Occasionally midday conditions became rowdy enough to encourage even the more experienced locals down to the LZ, but on most days giddy pilots flew ALL DAY LONG.

The Climax: This magnificent week of flying was capped off with the best two flights of my life. The first was the helicopter ride to the Eagle Glacier, and the second was the paragliding flight from the glacier into town. This perfect event was ended with the perfect flight. What better way could you ask for this dream to end? Prepared as a separate “inset” for the article

The Glacier Flight
The day after the summer solstice (the longest day of daylight in the year) was the last day of the Fly-in. You need to understand that Alaska lies so far north in latitude, that during the summer solstice it doesn’t get “dark” until 1 or 2 in the morning, and it is light again by 4 or 5 am. The last day of the Fly-in, 15 pilots took a helicopter from Girdwood to the Eagle Glacier, one of the seven hanging glaciers of the Girdwood Valley a few miles north of Alyeska Resort. The helicopter ride was the “first” amazing flight. Keith, our pilot, kept the chopper low over the terrain until we needed to climb. Then he lifted us straight up as we approached a headwall that began the mountainous climb.

As we reached the top, we again penetrated forward over the vast snowfield that lay below us at approximately 6000 feet msl. It felt like we were in the middle of an IMAX film. The sensations and excitement we experienced were overwhelming. I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise as we flew over the snowfield and prepared to land. The adrenaline was rushing as we climbed out of the chopper and onto the glacier. I was one of the first two individuals to be delivered, as Keith dropped us off two by two. The round trip took about 20 minutes. Neil (a tandem passenger and friend of Phil Smith's) and I arrived at the glacier at 8 pm. Keith had already dropped off our gear onto the glacier at the designated helicopter-landing site before he began to transport the pilots. We waited in this location as the other pilots arrived and assisted unloading each chopper load. At 9:00 PM hours of daylight remain on June 22nd and the Chugach mountains, the most glaciated range in the world, stretched out as far as you could see. As the last of the pilots were dropped off, we made a 25-minute hike up one side of the glacier to a location with sufficient slope to launch.

As each person arrived at the designated launch site, they stomped out their own spot to lay their glider (so it didn’t’ slide downhill on the snow) and their own “runway”. The snow was deep enough that if you didn’t flatten a runway, you would have trouble running fast enough to keep up with the glider. Everyone laid out simultaneously so we could launch one after another. We began the mass exodus at around 10 pm since a down-slope drain had already begun. A lot whooping and hollering occurred just after launching as each pilot made the turn over the glacier toward town. The exuberance felt by each of us cannot fully be described. It was truly an amazing night. The view from town of 14 paragliders heading into Girdwood at this time must have looked like a bizarre James Bond movie scene.

The approximate 6000 foot vertical sled ride took nearly a half hour, though a couple of pilots managed to extend their flight time with lift valley air. Because it was late and there was little other air traffic, we were allowed to land at the Girdwood Airport on the runway, near the helicopter pad. Spirits flew high long after that last pilot landed; only the pizza and beer waiting for us at Alpine Air could stifle the giggling. My memories of this flight will never fade. They are imprinted upon my psyche forever.

Front row (L to R): L.E. Herrick, Rick Young, Renee Romsland, Rachel David, Brad Smith, Kay Tauscher, Casey Tauscher. Back Row (L to R): Will Brown, Phil Smith, Adrian Beebee, Andrew Holdgraf; Nick Greece; Mark Gilliam. Not Pictured: Carter Brown (who left quickly to catch a flight back to Denver), and Neil Rome (Phil's Tandem Passenger)