Helicopter safety/fear!

[callred]

Hi everyone... We'll be sailing on the Radiance this August -- I know this has been asked before but can anyone give me any insight into the helicopter glacier and dogsledding tours? My teenagers and husband would love to go on this but I am frankly pretty nervous about the safety of the helicopters... Any information or feedback would be tremendously appreciated! Thanks so much! Caroline

[Budget Queen]

They are top picks. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Safe as can be, I believe. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] (have gone 6 times) Haven't made the glacier dog sledding- canceled upon twice. But it always gets raves!!!

[Yukon]

You're safer in the helicopters than you are on the freeway to get to the airport to get to your ship.

Murray

[gloriashelton]

Do you recommend helicopter or plane on a flightseeing trip to McKinley (not even sure there is a helicopter trip....)

[mscloyd]

I asked this same question about a month or so ago and got some scary answers. But, when I actually looked up the crashes (I can't remember the site - maybe the FAA) they are very few and far between.

[Budget Queen]

I greatly prefer a summit flight of McKinley- nothing like looking "down" on that mountain. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] But depending on your flying experience the ski planes with a landing are thrilling too. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[gloriashelton]

When you say summit flights, is that with a helicopter?

[Yukon]

The summit flights can only be done with a pressurized aircraft (the top of Denali is well beyond the point where humans can breathe properly). I'm only aware of one company that does them, with twin-engine planes - [url="http://www.talkeetna-aero.com/"]http://www.talkeetna-aero.com/[/url]

Murray

[kbt2]

We did both a seaplane and helicopter tours on our Alaska cruise and enjoyed both! I will say the heli did scare me more though, especially when he flew into a cloud above a mountain and you couldn't see anything. Whew..a bit scary, but as you can see we made out fine. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Kim
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