From: rickf@pmafire.inel.gov (Rick Furniss)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Alaska Trip (long)
Date: 27 Aug 92 21:02:54 GMT
Organization: WINCO


                             Alaska Trip report            July 1992

Rick Furniss & family:

    Left East Idaho to Boise with a forecast for severe clear from Boise on.
Nota.  IFR from Boise to Westport,Wa. our first visiting stop. In and out of
clouds all the way.  Lots of pop up clearances, and refused VFR flight 
following heard enroute.  Seems the weather got em all going double duty.
   Sure glad I was IFR already, I needed the practice. 

   Next leg , Westport to Seattle.  Solid IFR all the way.  Shot approach at
BFI Boeing Field, then special north to Paine Field, closer to parents house.

   Next leg to Abbotsford,BC for customs where we hitched up with netter
Bob Strand.  Weather was marginal to good VFR from Abbotsford to MacKenzie
where we camped the nite.  Skeeters werent too bad so far, and scenery was
improving.  I dont like, and have never liked Canada.  This trip confirmed
my thoughts.  Canada has the best Flight Services around, but their aerodromes
have NO facilities other than fuel.  No food, even Gedunk machines !!

   The only place I found of any interest at all was Whitehorse,Yk. 
   Anyway next stop Ft Nelson, for food (trip to town) and fuel.  Here we
parted with Bob Strand, has he was headed north further than I figured time
allowed us considering the places we wanted to visit.  Ft Nelson to Whitehorse
for the nite. Stayed in a room right on the airport for $50 , three souls.

  Whitehorse is the only place in Canada we hit that had services, and sites
to see.  The old paddle Wheel, and transportation museum are noteworthy.

   Next to Northway Alaska for customs. The customs man here is not nice, and
you better have all your ducks lined up here. 

   From Northway, over a glacier (theres many, didnt keep track of names) to
 Mc carthey.  This is a place most Alaskans would like to visit, but few
do because its such a pain to reach.  The only way there other than flying,
is head to Gulkana way out there in the Copper River Basin, then 60 miles
of pavement, then 40 miles of dirt road, that use to be a railroad , and
still has all the Ties in it!!,  then cross the river via 2 man tram, you
know the one where you pull yourself via a cable, then walk a mile or so.

   Once you reach it, theres a couple of buildings, (old) and no water or
electricity.  The main thing that I liked about, is its all original old
town stuff.  Nothing is made in Taiwan for tourist here.  The Kennicot Copper
mine, the one that made Paul Getty a billionair, is about three miles walk
up the again converted railroad lay.  You can see the rails thrown alongside
the road.  They have an old time bed & breakfast at the mine, with great
diners.  Sorry reservations required, but we just happen by at the exact
time the diner started, and agreed to eat out on the Miranda.  Funny how
things turn out.  I would have thought they would charge extra for eating
out in the fresh air in sight of a glacier, mine, and river scenery.

  One noteworthy item I notice here, they had steam heated wood sidewalks !!
Wish we could get some of that high tech here on the OUTSIDE. (out of Alaska)
  They also had boilers larger than most 3 story homes.

   Any way on to Palmer, Ak where I have relatives for a few days.  The 
weather is getting more serious, and I can see IFR routes a coming.
  As was noted by Bob this year the weather has been just opposite what it
usually is.  The weather down the coast route paste Junuea was CAVU, and
the rest of the trip was marginal VFR or IFR. My relatives stated the good
weather this year was in June, not July as usual.

   Was never able to see Mount Mc kinley, top or bottom , rats, so we headed
for Homer AK to fish for the big Halibut.  Caught about 7 25 pounders, and
gave them all away. I wanted 100 or over, or nothing.  I got nothing.

  Leaving Homer the weather is one of those where you say, well lets go look
around a little.  Sure enough is was bad, but broken all the way till Cordova.

   Here we spent the nite, after driving 40 miles of dirt road to the
Childs Glacier.  This is the only local Glacier you can watch calf from
land, rather than a boat.  It was Awsom.  Just the ice cracking was like the
sound of a thunder storm.  Very humbling.  When a large one would break off
it would cause a title wave across the river , flushing fish up on shore
for the bears to scavenge. It would also flush boulders, people etc near the
bank causing serious concern.  On the way up the dirt road we had to wait
for a black bear to scurry off the road , !!

   From Cordova the next mourning it was serious solid IFR.  Even the scud
runners were having second thoughts today. Ceiling was only about 7-800
but it was constant rain.  After checking with a Dash-8 commercial that just
landed, went ahead and filed IFR to Yakatat.  The weather was going to be this
way for days at least, so no use sitting it out.  The Dash-8 reported solid
to 8500, and clear above. Freezing level was at 10, I filed for 11.  He wasnt
lying, as I nearly got blinded when reaching the tops.  It was just like
the magazines show, mount tops, sunshine, and solid below.

 My error during the IFR parts of the trip was here between Yakatat, and 
Cordova.  This leg is much longer than most lower 48 legs, and therefore I
didnt notice that the (to) and (from) headings from the VOR were about 4-5 
degrees different.  Center reminded me that I was diverging from course about 
half way.  Guess most jet jocks are familiar with this because of the long 
legs, but we dont see much of it on the short hops us little planes usually
fly down south.  Of the whole trip, I had no minimums approaches as usual.
  I have to search all year long for these. Lowest approach was 700 feet at
Seattle.  Anyway broke out at 800 for Yakatat.  Weather is much better from
here on to Skagway , VFR. 

    Almost hit a hoard of eagles near glacier bay, saw several whales, and 
moose.   

   Skaway Northaway Motel, worth a visit !! We stayed the nite here.  
The rooms are all original ANTIQUE !!.  Took the old time original cars, 
train up to the Whitehorse pass.  Got a video of a mountain sheep from the 
train, looking DOWN at it from 500 feet.

   Skagway, to Junuea.  Not worth stopping here, we can have this down home.

  On to Sitka, and the Russian Church, and totem poles.  Over to Ketchican
for a nite, and a visit to the old stilt down town site.  Visited Dollies
house of ill repute, very interesting.   She was from Idaho, and worked
till she was like 65 years old. All her original house, and wears !!.

  Camped out on the airport, then headed out for the long dreaded Charliot
Sound trip to Seattle area.  This is where the weather gets serious and
changes quickly.  Like I said before, all turned around this year, because
it was solid blue till Vancouver area.
   One more nite and out to Crescent City ,Ca, via Westport, coast route. 
 Next mourning was solid IFR,, rain, fog , etc.  Filed IFR, and headed out. 

  Seems another aircraft C185 headed out on a special VFR same time we 
departed and crashed killing the old gentleman aboard.

   My parents thought is might be us and was on the phone to FSS trying to
verify it was not us. They saw the plane depart just before us VFR !!! into
the crap.  I had luckily called in a PIREP from the coast area enroute, so
they confirmed we were fine.  Approach to Crescent City was on the edge of 
good VFR weather so, was a half Visual approach, but I shot it anyway for the
practice.  gassed up and headed for Sacramento. More realitives to visit.

  Next day filed IFR to San Diego to pick up or grandson for a month back
in Idaho with us.  Weather was fine til the Bay area where the normal haze
and low marine layer play.
  Enroute from SAC to MZB I got tired of the constant hand offs.  
Tower enroute would have been not much different.

  Somehow I got a constant 170 knots on the trip with my non-turbo'd 210.
  I flown with several newer non strutted cantilever wing 210's now, and can 
out run them all for some reason. I have a 64 IO520 210D.  Anyway the DME 
always showed between 155-175 knots.  

   VFR out of San Diego to the Grand Canyon for lunch.  Severe TRW;s building.
 Landed in heavy rain.  Had lunch, then headed out of the canyon enroute on
the final leg to home.

   What a pain is the ass the special flite rules for the canyon.
  Charters can get down to 7000, to make money, but I have to stay above 
10500 at all times in the corridors.  This pissed me off more than
anything the whole trip.  Here in our own backyard, we cannot get down to see
the canyon, because they locked it ALL up except to money makers !!!!

    Back home now, after maybe 10000 miles, and enough approaches and 
actual to be current for another 6 months.  The weather was much worse than
I had expected, and much worse than normal for this time of year.

  All in all we saw moose, eagles, whales, marmot, mountain sheep (goat),
bear, 10 billion lakes, rivers and trees, and some very interesting places.

   The places that I thought were worth seeing were,  Whitehorse, YK,
Mc Carthy, AK, Cordova, AK, (glacier), Skagway, AK, Sitka ,AK, and ketchican,
AK.  All others were, well , just boring towns.   Canada is a nice place to
overfly, and customs in Northway is serious business.

    Too many details to cover the complete trip.
  If you want to travel to Alaska, dont go just for the flying experience,
 go on vacation like we did and see the sites.  Allow 1-2 weeks more time 
than you would normally, and take LOTS of money, or its not worth the trip.

  We camped out only two times the whole trip, because we like comfort in 
the wilderness.  The trip probably cost us about 4k, or more, but we didnt 
scrimp either. The cheapest fuel we found was is (believe it or not) Skagway.
 @ 1.96. I probably spent 400 on fishing trips.  Fuel about 1500-1800.
 I also covered the whole west coast too though.

   The main weather concerns up north are icing. Scud runners (VFR only)
pilots will hug the ground to 0 feet if needed , and would even then never
consider on top flying. Well planed and capable IFR flying made the trip a
joy, and possible on some kind of schedule.  Serious IFR would have grounded
me with the VFR flyers, but this type IFR is not real common. ICE takes em
down on the coast of AK, to the tune of 5-10 planes a year. We are talking
full deiced 340's and such too. 

   Respect the nature of weather, and pass with grace. The scud runners,
or bush pilots did pass on one thing of worth to me, that I ether never knew,
or forgot.  lemon Pledge on the windshield improved my visibility by a factor
of at least 2.  Great for IFR, and rain departures/arrivals !!!

so long for now.

***** standard DISKclamer *****
personal views of my person only

Rick Furniss
208-526-3185 @work
CPSMEL/IA
C210 N3877Y
rickf@servprod.inel.gov
rickf@pmafire.inel.gov

-- 

***** standard DISKclamer *****
personal views of my person only
Newsgroups: rec.aviation