Rookie trip report here...relatively short trip, really just an excuse to post a few neat pictures .

General plan: leave Anchorage around midday, mosey on into Nome in the evening. Piece of cake!

Weather: Anchorage was absolutely stunning, calm and not a cloud in the sky. I looked up TAFs in McGrath, Unalakleet, & Nome: they were calling calm blue sky from Anchorage to McGrath, lower (2000-3000) ceilings but still good visibility between McGrath and Unalakleet, then MVFR from Unalakleet to Nome.

Plan of attack: Anchorage to Unalakleet direct, fuel up in Unalakleet, eat a snack, check the wx between Unalakleet & Nome and sally out if it looked doable.

It was basically absolutely beautiful, the only interesting thing happened in Unalakleet. After checking METARS and TAF's, I decided to head out to Nome, knowing that if the wx got beyond my comfort level I could either park it in any number of villages along the way, or turn around (Unalakleet was great, and called to get better). Before leaving, I gave a call to a feller in Nome I'd been trying to get ahold of to figure out a parking spot, and he gives me the low down on transient parking & what not. Then he says, "are you coming up tonight?"...."yup"..."uh, are you vfr?"..."yeah, I was planning to village hop, and either park or turn around if I got uncomfortable"...."Uhhh...we just went IFR, it came down really quick, a DC-6 just missed a few minutes ago..."

So I decided to enjoy some quality time in Unalakleet .

Big eye opener on the importance of talking with someone on the ground & staying updated on weather! I do believe I would've parked it or turned around at some point along the way, had I tried to get into Nome. But it was way, way nicer to simply hang out in Unalakleet.

The next day, beautiful flight in, Nome had lots of blue sky and it was broken over Unalakleet, so I poked through a few holes and meandered on in to Nome. Hopefully soon I'll have more interesting Seward Peninsula trip reports to post...


Heading over the Alaska range

Heading over the Alaska range, under the other wing

Heading into/over the Alaska range

VFR over some scattered/broken layers

NO HANDS!

pretty day in Nome

dpadvo wrote:
NO HANDS!

Crazy a$$ pilot!!!

Hopefully soon I'll have more interesting Seward Peninsula trip reports to post...

Flying the Seward peninsula, don't worry, "interesting" happens all the time. Lived in White Mountain for 8 years and made countless trips to Nome, Unalakleet and every other village around the sound. "Interesting" was the norm, not the exception.

slowhawk wrote:

Hopefully soon I'll have more interesting Seward Peninsula trip reports to post...

Flying the Seward peninsula, don't worry, "interesting" happens all the time. Lived in White Mountain for 8 years and made countless trips to Nome, Unalakleet and every other village around the sound. "Interesting" was the norm, not the exception.

Haha, sounds "good"

Out of curiosity, were you with bssd in wmo?

no NSHC