175, thanks for the link!

mtv, yeah, it's clear out in Delta. Earlier today Eielson was reporting clear, but now the smoke seems to be thinning though widening. We're up to 1 mi now, but I'm not comfortable with svfr in the current conditions. Smoke tops are at 1500' with a broken cloud layer at 3k and ovc at 6k. I'm still hanging out and watching the sky!

Still looks crappy. Now the stuff is really spreading.

Cam,

Sure wish things were going better for you. I know the patients is difficult in that position. Glad to hear that you aren't letting it creep into your decision cycle. Hope it looks better tomorrow.

Brett

I appreciate that, Brett. Hopefully so!

At this point I'm re-evaluating the plan. I may just be shooting for getting to WA to store at my Dad's airport until I get another opportunity to bring it to AL.

Thats pretty low, and lots of it. At least out toward Tok is fairly low ground, but in vis like that, you aren't going to be having any fun.

Hang in there.

MTV

Made it to Kalispell last night. Pretty smokey last 100 miles. 5 miles vis or less with clear skies. Keeping fingers crossed for Watson lake today. Hope you make it out of there. Just FYI western Wyoming and eastern Idaho were fairly clear.

Today I tried to get out and no dice. Got an SVFR out of the Fairbanks class D, went out above the smoke and found it to be disorienting flying between the smoke and a cloud deck. The smoke is just too thick. Turned around and bought a commercial ticket home.

I'm out of days on the calendar so my friend from Fairbanks is going to ferry the plane for me (I won't get free time at work until Christmas). He's retired so he has the time to wait.

Thus will end my epic journey from Alaska to Alabama, in an aluminum tube at 30k feet.

Oh well, it could have ended on the side of a mountain!

At least this way I'll have my plane to fly down at home before next summer!

"All's well that ends well." Bill Shakespere

Good on ya!

Seems like many of my time-critical trips have gone the same way, at 53 i'm still working on the "patients" thing and have pushed to hard, scared the crap out of myself, but managed to slip through the cracks and survive another day. Not the best prescription for a long, worry free life.

Did the right thing (at least once) several years ago. Needed to get from Unalakeet to Texas in January and had a week to do it. Left late in the day due to a last minute maintenance issue, weather was getting worse and it was already getting dark. First leg to Galina took 45 minutes longer than it should have due to bucking a nasty headwind. Forgot to push the mixture valve in as soon as I shut down (-45 at the time) and even though I quickly put the engine cover on, the mixture control froze, has to re-pre-heat the engine to get it to open another 1/2 hour gone. Took off into complete darkness, strong headwinds and ice fog. While watching ice build on the wings, I finally made the right decision to turn around, left the plane in Unalakleet with a friend and went commercial.

Glad you did the smart thing.

Chris

Cam,

Sorry this didn't work out for you. Good on you for documenting the planning and decision process as the pressure mounted. Some young pilot will happen across this thread and see that it's OK to call it on something as long term as this project has been for you.

Guess who has two thumbs and has waited at Rucker/Dothan for someone else to ferry their plane down from Fairbanks. This guy. Took Dick Burley two days to get my skywagon down several years ago.

Again, thanks for sharing this with us. Sorry you couldn't get the adventure in with your dad. At least you guys tooled around some of Alaska while you had the chance.

Brett

Sorry it didn't work out as planned, but as they say, "Got time to spare? Go by Air."

You made a good decision. The conditions you described between layers is what I've long referred to as "PVFR" which stands for Pretend Visual Flight Rules......the definition is a condition when you may have actual legal visibility and cloud clearance requirements for legal VFR, but there's nothing out there to use as a VISUAL reference.

My criteria for VFR is that I have to be able to see something on the ground well enough to remain oriented upright, and to navigate, if electronics were to fail. Being between a low smoke later and a cloud layer doesn't meet that definition.

Good decision, sorry the plane will have to wait a while, but in the long run, you made a very good decision. I haven't always done so, myself, so good on you.

MTV

Sorry you missed the window Cam, So glad you did not push it!!
About 17 yrs ago I took off from Anchorage, same time a friend headed out in his pick up pulling a trailer, some time in Nov.
I made it to Duffy's and then spent an extra night, Stan stopped by and said hello, Made it to Whitehorse, Stan stopped by and said hello, Stayed the night with Stan in his trailer in Watson lake, He beat me home by a week!! Took 13 days to get to Washington State!
He still Laughs about it!!

It is much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, then in the air wishing you were on the ground.

Good on you for making the series of decisions that you have.

As I fly for personal reasons now, rather than for work purposes for a twenty year stretch, I am finding it much easier to make those types of decisions than I once did.

Sorry we will not get to meet you on this journey, hopefully we have opportunity on the next one.


UpNorth

I appreciate the affirmations, guys. It really means a lot and helps swallowing the pill of the lost adventure.

My Dad and I were talking today and it's been a pretty good adventure so far, even if it did get cut short. Counting my blessings for the awesome experiences and new friends I made along the way!

My friend is going on my insurance policy, so we have to wait on the update to that as well as the weather clearing up. But as I said earlier, he's retired and has the time to wait. In the meantime he's going to have his mechanic throw some leading edge tape on my horizontal since I've already picked up a few gravel nicks. He's also going to install a Trutrak ADI I just bought.

He's going to use my InReach on the trip so if you're curious you're welcome to follow him.

Looking forward to seeing it in Alabama!

Might have been a little smoky on down the trail!!
http://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/regional-news/fort-nelson/extreme-fire-activity-blocks-alaska-highway-at-mile-250-1.1994334

Holy cow!

Yes, it was very poor visibility in smoke around here, yesterday in particular. Several fires in the area causing intermittent poor visibility over the past month or so.

We received some much needed rain last night. Low ceilings today, but the smoke has layed down a bunch.

UpNorth

This blew in when the winds turned out of the north this evening. Didn't take long. You made a good call Cameron. Wouldn't have been any fun flying through this for very long.

One word to say about that smoke: woof.

On the plane in Anchorage. Nice that I got a window seat and can see the beautiful scenery on my way out!

Also, my friend decided against ferrying my airplane. We went for an orientation flight and had some stiff crosswinds during pattern work. It was a little squirrelly and he wasn't comfortable. Good on him for making the hard call early and not trying to muscle through, possibly breaking the plane or hurting himself!

So now I'm working with another friend who is also retired and has TONS of Shortwing Piper time. If he's not able to do it, then I'll have to figure out a way to get more time off of work this fall or just try again in the spring.

In the meantime, I'm having a mechanic check the axle alignment just in case. It's got Cessna axles and will shim the same way.

Well, to close this out, here's some pictures:


Here's the last I saw of her. I'm pretty lucky that my friend is keeping her in his hangar for now:




Saw a really nice Beaver take off from the float pond on my last morning in town. It was a nice morning, too. I was pretty tempted to cancel my airline ticket, eat the fee, and try to get out to Washington at least. I might have if I hadn't been solo. My Dad flew out the night before.




Here's some from the flight home:










It was a fun trip! Fingers crossed that I can figure out the next leg of logistics!

I go back to work (well, another school so not as flexible as actual work) on Monday, so I'm going to check and see if there's any chance I can go back to try and get the Racer later this fall. I'm also looking into ferry pilots, but I'll start another thread on that. One way or another, I guess.