What's the best route? I'll be flying my Citabria from Wyoming to Kotzebue through Canada(Alaska Highway route). I think I have my Canada route figured out but I'm not sure what route to take across Alaska to Kotzebue.

Fairbanks, north to Bettles field, west to Kobuk, west to Kotz

Trapperty, what part of Wyoming you coming from? From Wyoming myself, live in Fairbanks now. I'm a new pilot and dumbass chechoko (been called that on here a time or 2) but would be more than happy to help, while you are in Fairbanks, may even try and slip away from work and go with. Depending on time of year your coming up.

JD

Thanks Goldfinch that's the route I was looking at. Is there fuel in Kobuk and the other villages along the route?

JDW, I am from the Shoshoni area. What type of plane do you have? I'm coming through in May.

Depends on what time of year. That's a long haul, so I'd plan on a gas stop. Bettles will work. If you're doing this in winter, I'd probably stay further south, by going west to Galena, then northwest to OTZ. Distances are about the same, and gas available at either BTT or GAL.

To some degree, the weather will dictate which way you go as well. The northerly route puts mountains on the east part of the trip, while the southern one puts the mountains on the west part.

If weather is good the whole way, and you can carry lots of gas, go direct....

MTV

goldfinch wrote:Fairbanks, north to Bettles field, west to Kobuk, west to Kotz

Sounds like u made that trip before

Trapperty wrote: Is there fuel in Kobuk and the other villages along the route?

No fuel in Shungnak, Kobuk, or Ambler coming in from Bettles. Lee's Sea Air in Kiana may have gas, but I wouldn't count on it.

If you're gonna come in from Galena, there's nothing available along that route. If you're packing gas cans, there's plenty of places to stop and pour.

Gump

Trapperty My sister used to live over by Bonneville. Was raised around Buffalo the other side the mountain there.
I'm learning to fly a Maule MX-7-180C, should have licence some time in March, and ready to go. May is just the start of the start of busy time here, but may be able to get away. Your in for a great trip coming up. Flew the Maule up from Chicago with an excallent instructor 1st week of April last year. Got snowed in Rapid City for 3 days then 3 days on into Fairbanks.
Will get your contact info and get together while you are in Fairbanks.

JD

Gump,

Last I checked there was gas available in Galena. Has that changed? That's less than 200 miles from OTZ.

MTV

[quote="mtv"]Gump,

Last I checked there was gas available in Galena. Has that changed? That's less than 200 miles from OTZ.

MTV[/quote]

I used the self serve @ Galena in the summer of 07 for 100LL and it was working good then.

WW

mtv wrote:Gump,

Last I checked there was gas available in Galena. Has that changed? That's less than 200 miles from OTZ.

MTV

Sorry, Galena does have fuel. I wasn't thinking of Galena as one of the bush strips. But, from Galena in, there's no gas, and if Kotz shuts down on you with wx, you gotta be thinking where to go to get go-juice.

Gump

Galena has gas.

If wx in Kotz is down there are several villages in the area where you can wait it out. West wind can create fog in Kotz, but 10 miles away wx will be fine. Just park and wait.

If you end up in Nome, which means you took a left turn somewhere that you shouldn't have, look me up and I can help point you north.

TG

Yep, as I noted, put the mountains at the beginning or the end of the trip, depending on weather. It's a lot farther from BTT to OTZ than from GAL to OTZ, though.

Hey, from Galena to Kotzebue, you get to fly over the Nogahabara Dunes, which in itself is a pretty amazing piece of work out in the middle of nowhere.

Going from BTT to OTZ in summer, there's lots of places to land and camp on gravel bars. Less so on the "southern" route.

It's a long trip in a little plane. I've done it several times in Cubs, and once in a Husky. Wonder why I like Huskys?

MTV

I gotta tell you, that run from Bettles to Kotz, in my opinion, is one of the most spectacular flights you can make in Alaska. Especially late summer, early fall when the colors have changed and you have first snow on the mountains. Unbelievably spectacular.

When I based out of Kotz my runs east ended at Kobuk and Shungnak, and even though I flew it seven days a week, I never tired of the trip. But, sounds like you'll be seeing for yourself pretty soon here.

Gump

Thanks for the replys. I think I like the Bettles route. I don't have much useful load with the Citabria so I need at least one fuel stop.

mtv wrote: by going west to Galena,

MTV

Ah, Galena.....
Has it changed since 1970? That summer I was 17 and me and a buddy hitched a ride down the Yukon/Tannana from Fairbanks aboard a supply barge with supplies for the village in Galena. We were waiting for the fire season to start, hoping to get hired out of Galena. We camped on the river bank until sure enough, we got hired some days later to help man the helitak squad based there for the summer.

We had the most fun flying all over the interior in a Huey going on fire calls. Talk about getting into some virgin unspoiled wilderness! The pilot was real cool and if we begged him he would go down on the deck while we chugged along looking at the scenery go by.

The Air Force strip there at Galena had two F4 Phantoms based there, so we got entertained by those guys screaming around. Crap those things were loud. There also were two or three B-25 bombers based there for the summer that were on call to drop "Borade" on the fires. One time one came back with a large half moon shaped ding in the leading edge of wing where he hit a tree on a drop. Another day one of the B-25s landing gear wouldn't come down (only nose gear half way) and after trying to bang the tail on the runway to try and jar the gear loose (unsuccessful) he went ahead and made a belly landing on the foam. Picked the plane up with a crane, gear comes down, two new props, and fly the thing back to Fairbanks for repairs. What fun times.

By the way, the bar there in the Galena village was absolutely frightening to a 17 year old! The scariest looking drunk indian woman I ever saw tried to take me home with her. I got rescued and never went back.

Some of the best times of my life.

Trapperty wrote:Thanks for the replys. I think I like the Bettles route. I don't have much useful load with the Citabria so I need at least one fuel stop.

Kiana http://www.airnav.com/airport/PAIK is a good place for a fuel stop. Two hours for you from Bettles, 50 miles from Kotz, right on the Kobuk River, and Lee and Heaney at Lee's Sea Air got a phone, food, and free advice, and they're two people (and their kids) who you really want to get to know and become friends with up there for flying, hunting, or fishing info. There is no finer family living in the Arctic. Call Lee's Sea Air on 122.7 and Heaney or one of the kids will drive up to get you. Tell 'em Gump and Hoser the Wonder Dog said hello.

Unless you're carrying local passengers or mail, and know the locals, I would not stop in Kobuk or Shungnak. Not that there would be a problem, they're just private people and take a while to warm up to strangers. Ambler's cool though, just a bit of a walk down the hill into town..

Good luck, have fun.

Gump

One thing to be aware of up there.

The ICAO identifiers for airports in Alaska are started with "PA" not "K" thus Anchorage will be PANC, not KANC. If you're using an old GPS, you will find a lot of the bush strips listed under the old ICAO or FAA identifiers. Kiana for instance is now PAIK, but in the old days, and in my old Garmin 89 it is in the database as IAN.

When in doubt, use the "nearest airport" function to pull up the correct airport in your database.

Gump

Delete

Whynot,

Well Galena hasn't changed that much, actually. The Air Force switched to F-15s sitting hot alert there sometime in the eighties, but they pulled out of there after the end of the Cold War, and the base is in "warm" status.

Otherwise, the village hasn't changed much. Old Town is still a bit rough around the edges. AFS only bases out of Galena when they have incidents going in the neighborhood these days. Still a monster airport, though, with regular air service out of Fairbanks.

Most folks there are really nice, compared to many interior villages-Galena's one of the "friendly" ones.

The "PA" designator Gump refers to stands for Pacific Alaska region. Hawaii is PH, or Pacific Hawaii, etc. Therefore, some of the four letter designators make little sense. Get a copy of the Alaska Supplement, it's mandatory for a newbie flying up there, in my opinion, and has a wealth of information. It's the AK equivalent of an A/FD, but with much more information.

MTV