From: markc@netcom.com (Mark Conover)
Subject: Arctic Cruisin Part 2 <long>
Summary: Trip report of flight to NWT and NW AK
Keywords: arctic alaska flight
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 17:20:34 GMT



Arctic Cruisin'    Part 2 (last in a series)----->
{The intrepid pilot adventurers find themselves back at the plane
following a flight from the San Francisco Bay Area up the
MacKenzie and along the Arctic coast, and a three day backpack
into the Gates of the Arctic Park, Alaska}

We returned to Bettles the next day for fuel (flying through some
heavy rain on the way down) and then flew north by the Arrigetch
peaks later in the day when the weather cleared.  That area in
the Brooks is comprised of Yosemite like walls and is incredibly
scenic.  We proceeded west along the Noatuk river, through the
"Grand Canyon" (which wasn't), over Cape Krusenstern NP where we
glimpsed the ice remaining on the Bering Sea, and landed on the
gravel strip at the native town of Kotzebue.  Local children
riding 3 wheelers on the runway played chicken with us during
final. Kids stay up (and out) all "night" it seems.  We pitched
our tent next to the plane and went for a walking tour of the
city.  Great weather! ...  and the sun remained up all night.

The Kotzebue FSS indicated that a high was right off of the SE AK
coast and that the fog in the area was minimal.  We opted to make
a run down the coast to get a scenic tour of the glaciers (a
relatively rare opportunity).  The next day we flew (as filed)
south over Kotzebue Sound to Serpentine hot spring. The spring is
located in a eerie looking treeless valley with ghost like rocks
protruding all around.  There is a windsock in the valley next to
the runway, but the condition of the strip looked inappropriate
for the small tires on our RG.  We proceeded SW and probably got
a glimpse of Big Diomede Island in Siberia!  We continued south
along the Bering Sea, over Nome, Unalakleet, over the Yukon
Delta, and East into the flat interior at McGrath.

The weather continued to hold!  We refueled and departed to the
East that evening, crossing over the Alaskan range with great
views of Mt McKinley.  We noticed the glaciers getting darker and
looked up to find our friend, Mt. Spurr.  It was very quiet, and
just a small neck ... hard to believe it had spewed all that ash
just a few days prior.  We flew just south of Anchorage, over to
Prince William Sound, by the incredibly huge Columbia ice field
and landed at the large Cordova airport at midnight.  It was a
wonderful sight as we came around through the valley behind
Cordova to spot the red VASI lights of the runway.  A nice home
after a long day of sea and ice.

But "nice" did not last all night. We camped in the gravel by the
plane (300 ft from the runway).  About 3AM, an Alaska airlines
737 look off.  The tent shuddered and we thought that the jet's
landing gear was going to snare the tent. Quite a loud wakeup
call!  There is no avgas at the large Cordova field.  The small
gravel town strip has fuel.  We opted for a short flight over the
mountains to the ultra scenic town of Valdez for fuel. The
weather remained cloud free but slightly hazy (the state was
drying up and turning to dust). We flew down the Copper River and
along the Miles Glacier that touches the river.  South along the
West coast we viewed the Malaspina Ice Field. It's "larger than
the state of Rhode Island" and is difficult to photograph from
5000 ft.  The most incredible glacial scenery was over Icy Bay,
40 miles N of Yakatat.  A half dozen glaciers have ground the
granite walls smooth. The glaciers "flow" into the sea in three
bays.  The area jewel is a 300 foot waterfall that spouts from
one of the glaciers into the ocean.  We spent 20 minutes and
three rolls of film photographing the area. (Last year we toured
Glacier Bay from the air. It's quite a fantastic area, but it
contains nothing quite as scenic as Icy Bay.)  Our flight
continued over the reddish volcanic cone of Mt Edgecumbe and on
into the island airstrip at Sitka.

The usual fog shrouded the area the next morning but was
predicted to burn off shortly.  The terminal forecast for Prince
Rupert (300 miles south along the coast) however, was not as
good.  Visibility was reported at near 0 at some locations and
forecast to remain that way all day. (Yes, typical SE Alaska
weather.)  Studying the charts, we rerouted ourselves to the
other Prince (George).  This involved crossing the Inland Passage
to Wrangle, up the scenic Stikine river, and south following
somewhat our flight up the interior.  Thunderstorms were building
around Prince George but we were able to remain clear.

We arrived within 5 minutes of the time submitted on our border
crossing flight plan and customs phone call.  [You are required
to notify customs of your arrival time 1/2 to 2 hours ahead of
your actual (depending on the airport). They are supposed to be
there when you arrive. The ADCUS advise customs remark in the
flight plan does "not guarantee customs notification" and to
avoid the several thousand dollar fine, we phone custom directly
before departing and adjust our flight speed to match our arrival
time.] We waited about 15 minutes for the agent.  She arrived
exclaiming "I'm so glad you're safe".  She (somehow) had gotten
the word that we were arriving 2 hour earlier and after waiting
for half of an hour, checked with the tower who mentioned reports
of a ELT transmission along our route. After a brief scare, they
finally got it figured out.  So ADCUS AND a phone call didn't
work correctly!  A new campground next to (but not on) the
airport awaited our arrival.  On three occasions Canadians
stopped by to see if everything was OK and offer us a ride into
town!

Our FSS briefing the next morn at Prince G (almost all of the
airports we stopped at had FSS) indicated a weak front along the
US border and the possibility  of thunderstorms elsewhere later
in the day.  Upon initial contact with  Prince George tower, they
informed us that FSS wanted to talk with us. FSS just issued a
convective SIGMET for a line of thunderstorms that had developed
across our flight path.  A quick glance at the charts revealed
that there were quite a few strips along our route and we decided
to go for it.  We managed to avoid all but a few raindrops, but
other aircraft in our vicinity were encountering worse.

We cleared US customs in Oroville in Eastern Washington.  Its  a
nice, small field. Customs was just a matter of the officer
filling out his form, although we waited 40 minutes for his
arrival.  There's now fuel on the field which makes it a good
customs stop as the weather is frequently better than that in the
Seattle area.

Moderate rain had developed at the field.  The Seattle FSS was
reporting scattered rain throughout the region.  As the storm
passed to the north, we violated one of the rules of flying:
"Plan Your Flight and Fly Your Plan".  We set the LORAN to our
home field and departed direct with no predetermined place to
land that evening.  It wasn't clear how much diverting we would
be doing or if we could even get 10 miles south.  The weather did
improve remarkably 20 miles south.  All clouds disappeared!  As
the sun set, we perused the charts for a suitable spot to pass
the newly encountered darkness (first darkness in about two
weeks!).  Redmond airport was closed due to 4 July festivities
(it's fun seeing the fireworks from above).  Sunriver seemed like
a quiet place (no big town around) in the Deschutes National
Forest.  We set our tent a few hundred feet from the plane on the
banks above the Deschutes River.  We were surprised to find in
the morning that we were camped in an expensive resort!

The clear morning turned cloudy as we refueled the plane and
ourselves, turned to light rain as we called the FSS, and became
heavy rain as we prepared for the flight.  Soon the small airport
terminal was filled with anxious pilots and disgruntled passenger
waiting for their return flight after the holiday weekend.  The
heavier rain moved north.  The FSS was reporting clear about 40
miles to the east.  We took off and ran under and around the scud
(clouds were scattered at 500 ft).  It was the worst weather we
flew in during the entire trip.  Twenty minutes later we were in
clear skies and when we landed in Minden Nevada 3 hours later, it
seemed like a week had passed since our rainy departure.

Our destination had changed from the Bay Area to LA (that's
what's so nice about running your own airline) and we headed down
the East side of the Sierras.  Oakland center had issued an
advisory for moderate to severe turbulence in the Owens valley
(our flight route). The flight had been bumpy most of the way
down, but the sight of THREE (!) sets of standing lenticular
cloud formations over the Owens valley made us reconsider. I
called the FSS on the Mammoth RCO to obtain the winds aloft over
the Sierras.  (It's not a good idea to cross the range if the
winds exceed 25-30 mph.)  I was filing a pilot report "Occasional
moderate turbulence" when we hit the biggest downdraft of our
flying career. The engine RPM dropped off for a second and we
both kind of screamed (into the still keyed mike).  "Make that
severe turbulence" was the next thing that came out of my mouth.
The people at the Riverside FSS must have gotten a chuckle out of
that.  We crossed the Sierra crest at the pass at Mammoth
mountains and the turbulence immediately cessated. No more bumps
all the way down (over Kings Canyon and Sequoia Parks, and
Lancaster) to Riverside.

An areal tour of the brand new Landers Fault and a wonderful
flight up the clear (!) West Coast brought an end to this
wonderful adventure.
-- 

###############   Mark D Conover    ################################
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