This is all great info. I'm leaving Afton, WY to head up the trench on Thursday. Any other thoughts or bits of advice would be greatly appreciated.

South from Alaska

So, Mid-September I left White Mountain, AK (70 miles East of Nome) to take the plane down to Escalante, UT as part of our move to a new job. Unfortunately, this was not going to be a site seeing, enjoyment kind of trip as I had a hard schedule for a meeting I had to be back to Anchorage for and I needed to get back to finish packing and do the trip again by road in a U-Haul with three animals, towing an aged Honda Civic.

Day 1: I went up to preheat the plane in the early morning (yes, mid-September fall is already over in White Mountain and overnight temps are usually below freezing) only to find that my excellent Tanis system was not responding to the gentile ministrations of the generator I had hauled up the hill. Now the annual had just been done a few months before and some modifications had been made to the system, but this was the first time I had needed to pre-heat since then. So after some phone calls and field diagnostics, the first leg of my trip was changed from Fairbanks to Soldotna, so that the shop that did the work could fix it instead of paying someone else to trouble-shoot the problem. After some improvised pre-heating, I took off for Soldotna. It was a fairly clear day and I was kind of sad flying over the terrain I had learned so well for what may be the last time, don’t know how to describe it. One thing about that time of year as we head into winter is the flatter arc of the sun, which is hell on picture taking. I am usually terrible about taking pictures anyway, preferring to keep the picture in my head. After a quick stop in Mcgrath for fuel, I took off for the Alaska Range and Soldotna.

Denali


Alaska Range


After landing in Soldotna and getting the plane checked out (turned out to be 1 crossed wire), it was still early enough in the day to move on. The weather looked good except for the Anchorage bowl but I figured I would give it a shot. As it turned out, the weather lived up to the forecast, 3-5 vis and about 2500 overcast, rain and fog. Which was really unfortunate since the area is really beautiful when the weather is clear.

Soldotna to Anchorage


As I turned the corner at Palmer headed for Glen Allen, the weather improved





Over the Hwy to Glen Allen




And landed in Tok to a beautiful sunset and dinner at Fast Eddies.

Day 2: Got up at 5:00 AM for a call to CANPASS and check to be sure I was cleared on eAPIS and I was off for Whitehorse, clear sky’s and a course directly into the rising sun (no pictures on this leg). Smooth flight until I was descending into Whitehorse, winds were gusting 20-30 out of the SE and I got my bell rung a few times as I cleared the last set of mountains and turned toward the airport. Managed to get her on the ground in one piece, cleared customs, filled up the tank, a quick call to NavCanada and off for Watson Lake. Landed at Watson Lake in the early afternoon; calm and warm, tee-shirt weather. I was a little nervous about the next leg down the trench to Mackenzie. At 3.5 hours, it was right at the fuzzy edge of my range, but with some good info from people on this site, I filled four five gallon cans figuring to land and refuel if things were looking sketchy. As it was, I ended up with a 10 kt tailwind and made it to Mechenzie with a little over 10 gallons usable left in the bag. It was dusk and everything was closed up, so dumped in some fuel and took off for Prince George and my first night flight/ landing in over a year. The landing went remarkably well, found a place to park, however the biggest challenges of the day were awaiting me. First, there is apparently no provision for idiots like me who arrive at 10 o’clock at night. FBO is closed, terminal is closed, so I was feeling like a lab rat in one of those mazes trying to find a way out. Finally found a door unlocked at the fire station and I snuck through the vehicle bay to freedom. Thankfully the taxi guy waited patiently because it’s a long walk to town. Got checked into the hotel and then ran into problem number two, all the restaurants were closed except the drive through. Now spending so much of my life in the hinter lands, I was ignorant of the fact that it is apparently illegal to walk up to a drive through to get food. After trying several windows, only to be rejected, I finally came across a sweet young lady at Burger King who took pity on this ignoramus from the sticks that hadn’t eaten since leaving Tok and sold me some food while her manager wasn’t looking, what a sweetheart! Then back to the room for flight planning, eAPIS and some Canadian TV. Re-entry into the US awaited.

Down the Trench


Day 3: Another early morning, back to the FBO were I paid for the privilege of parking for a few hours and tried to convince the fuel guys to put down the coffee and doughnuts long enough to put fuel in my plane, it took some convincing. Finally fired up the plane and headed for Kelowna, BC. The wind had really picked up and as I would find, would be with me the rest of the way down, Kelowna had the only favorable runway where I would need fuel so that’s where I headed. Pretty bumpy flight, but severe clear. Landing at Kelowna, I was approved for a long landing since the FBO was at the far end of the field, but I found I had to keep the juice on to keep from going backwards. The FBO there is great! Fuel truck was waiting, they had the old girl fueled before I got back from the bathroom, the young lady even chased me out the door to sign so I wouldn’t have to walk back inside (maybe they just wanted me out of there). Winds were gusting 35-40, so I lifted off almost immediately and spent, what felt like, the next few minutes climbing out over the same spot over the runway. Thankfully, the winds were out of the north and I was headed south. By the time I had climbed to 11,500 I had a cool 30 kt tailwind going. Descending into Moses Lake got pretty bumpy again, but taxiing turned out to be more of a challenge than landing as there was a long stretch of crosswind taxiway and that wind was hawking and starting to blow dirt around. Now, I have had mostly bad experiences with customs when flying back into the US, I seem to run across all the Barney Fife type officers, so much so that I was fairly convinced that was all they hired. I found at the Moses Lake office a true gem, talked to me like a normal human being, gave me some coffee, even showed me around the terminal, I was really waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe the SWAT team was in route and he was just keeping me busy. But no, he even called the fuel truck over while went to the bathroom. As I was leaving I shook Officer Lacelle’s hand and thanked him for my first good experience with US customs. By the time I taxied back out, the winds were higher yet and it reminded me of Western Kansas and the dirt storms I had seen there. Still VFR so off I went. I was thankful for ATC, because I could see blue sky above and the ground below, but it couldn’t have been more the 2 miles vis, there was no way I would have seen another plane in time to avoid it. Finally climbed out of it at around 10,000 ft and it thankfully started clearing by the time I crossed over Walla Walla. Next stop was Caldwell industrial, which Foreflight assured me was the cheapest gas in the area. The field was pretty busy, it was the first time on my journey that I had to wait in line for fuel, but I guess between the helicopter training facility there and cheap gas, that will happen. Fueled and rest roomed, I was off for Wendover. Had to divert a couple times on the way down for some F-15’s, guess they didn’t want my old bug smasher to blow their doors off . Decision making at the end of another long day of three long days of flying starts to degrade a bit and I know all about get-there-itis, but my butt was tired and I was hungry and I was tired of getting my kidneys rattled by the turbulence I had been traveling with most of the trip . So as I approached Wendover I considered my options, winds were 25-35 kt and variable 45 degrees fore – aft on both runways. As I circled a couple times to contemplate my karma and the odds of scattering the old girl all over the infield, I decided what the hell, picked one and settled on final. Things were working out till the 45 degree head crosswind became a 45 degree tail cross wind just after I had the R main on the ground. Didn’t lose it but I did side hop it a bit and managed to keep the nose more or less pointed in the right direction. A smarter man would have gone around and landed on the X’d-out runway now used as a taxiway that was pointed right down the center of those variable winds, definitely will remember to do that next time. At Wendover there is a really cool museum dedicated to the bomber base that was located there during WW II. They are restoring some of the old buildings and there is a self-guided tour, definitely worth the time. The city run FBO also has discount coupons for the casino buffets, yes another long day and I was hungry, did I mention that? A big meal and a couple of casino beers and I crashed hard.

Day 4: I had spent some time looking at all the options for my last leg, if you have never flown in the Salt Lake area, and I had not, there is a large Class B airspace surrounded by restricted airspace and MOA’s. There is a small corridor starting just west of Wendover that funnels you into the Class B airspace or fly around all that mess by heading south then east. I needed to go right through the middle of the restricted airspace, and doing either of the other options would end up being a “box” corner and add an hour or better to the flight, I know, what’s another hour at this point. When I talked to Range control the previous day, they would not commit to whether the restricted airspace would be “hot” or “cold”, but as I looked at the options, I decided to give them another call. As it turned out, the restricted airspace would not be in use until afternoon, so I hustled down to the airport, pre-flighted and took off for Escalante (1L7). Again it was a shame that I was flying SE in the early morning because the sun rising over the salt- flats was spectacular, tried some pictures, but just could not capture it. Same thing happened as I flew over Bryce Canyon, but what a view. Descended through the canyons NW of Escalante to get down to landing altitude, turned final for 31 and set her down. After shutting down the engine, I found that the main would not switch off, tried disconnecting the wires, that didn’t help. Finally had to take the top cowl off and thump the relay which finally released. The relay is less than a year old, so much for PMA parts.

So, 25.9 flight hours over three days and a couple hours of the forth, I determined a couple things.

1. This trip is worth it, even when you have to do it in a hurry, though doing it when you have more time would have to be better. The beauty of what can be seen cannot be adequately be described or photographed, at least by me, and really must be experienced.
2. Foreflight is worth its weight in GOLD! Having made this trip several times with paper charts and AFD’s there is no comparison to the ease of finding the information you need without rummaging through and trying to fold charts, and trying to read the small print in the AFD’s.
3. Don’t let fatigue and hunger rule you’re decision making. I know this already, but as I am always telling my son, I am waiting for that “knowledge” to be put into action, guess I should put that into practice also.

My pet Moose “George”



I was not looking forward to the next part of the adventure, to fly commercial back up to load all our stuff and do the same drill by road in a U-Haul, but I’ll spare you the details, 3,882 miles in 5 days.

Now on to the next chapter, life in Escalante, but I’ll put that under the airport information category.

Great writeup. Will be looking forward to hearing what in the world you might be doing in Escalante....

Greg

Nice adventure

Below that old White Mountain, just a little south-east of Nome.....

Once you make the road trip and settle in to your Lower 48 life you're gonna be like the rest of us far north guys.

Every single day, forever, you're gonna find yourself sitting there flying that Cessna across the tundra, or along your favorite stretch of river in those quiet, daydream moments.

Welcome to the club.

Gump

Where the river is windin, big nuggets their findin....

North to Alaska! They're goin' North, the rush is on....

Gump

GumpAir wrote:Below that old White Mountain, just a little south-east of Nome.....

Once you make the road trip and settle in to your Lower 48 life you're gonna be like the rest of us far north guys.

Every single day, forever, you're gonna find yourself sitting there flying that Cessna across the tundra, or along your favorite stretch of river in those quiet, daydream moments.

Welcome to the club.

Gump

Thanks, I have a sneeking suspiscion your right, though i reckon i had better learn these canyons before i do much daydreaming