Zane,

It sounds like you're having the time of your life! Hope you're taking as many photos as possible, so the rest of us can be inspired by the terrain you're flying over!

Have a safe and memorable trip!

Day 3 has us in the sprawling metropolis of Fort Nelson! We departed Prince George after defrosting the plane and had a wonderfully smooth flight up the highway and into the pass through the Rockies toward Fort St John. We have about 15 hours on the airplane at this point-- we're running this new motor pretty hard for the break-in, with nary a hiccup. Something I forgot to mention in previous posts was the custom rear seat heat that this particular aircraft has. It's a long piece of thickwall scat hose that blows air hot enough to make a grilled cheese.

Rear seat heat, special Alaska mod.

Snapped this shot for our 205 guys.

Some great bush vintage memorabilia on the walls at Esso @ Prince George

We awoke to sunny skies and a nice little coating of ice on the Top Cub. Turned the red wings into the sun and it melted pretty readily.

A crisp morning.



See this friendly guy about getting a demo ride in a CC product.



We tied down with these stretchy noodles. When we untied we chased each other and had a snap-fight and then agreed we were glad they weren't chains.

About an hour out of PG we turned into the mountains, where we'd planned to shoot some scenery. We slowed to 70 mph and cracked the window open, where I promptly froze my little breadsticks. That scat tube rear heat thawed me out.

Entering the Rockies headed east.

Some serious avalanche paths.



It's tough to take in the beauty and shoot at the same time, frantically adjusting the camera and trying to get the most workable exposures, swapping between stills and video. A few minutes later though I just put the camera down and stared.

It's tough to take in the beauty and shoot at the same time.

I comb my goatee in the reflection for Floatflyer





Fort St. John is excited to see us.



The leg from Fort St John to Fort Nelson was mine to fly. Brad keeps saying he wants to take a nap in the rear seat, but either my flying scares him or he's just too excited to close his eyes. It's probably because I'm always fiddle-fapping around with these cameras!



We encountered some pretty dense snow showers and had to skirt around them. It was mostly good clear air save for the scattered showers. i snapped a few pics of the lighter more scenic variety before they started closing in and I had to think harder about routefinding.



Prophet river

Welcome to Fort Nelson.

I hope I didn't choke your internet connections too badly. Thanks for reading.

Awesome trip log Zane. Save some camera cards. The best is yet to come.
-DP

Ps- if you're going by Muncho lake, be sure to keep an eye out for Stone sheep. No joke- that's a species. Closely related to our Dall sheep here in the Alaska range, but not as white. More tawny. Keep an eye peeled near the high craggy places.

Zane,

Those pics are amazing. Here in Southern California we hardly had any sort of snow in the mountains. I cant wait to see the pics and videos from the events that happen up there. Hope you guys have a safe trip and I hope one day I can make a trip like that.

Take care,

Marc Webster

denalipilot wrote:

Grassstrippilot wrote:I see you are in Prince George. I love that DC3 windsock there!

Does Prince George have one too, or are you thinking of Whitehorse?

Yup. Shortly after I posted I remebered that it is in Whitehorse. Been too many years since I've been up that way!

Thank you very much Zane for taking the time between stops to keep us posted.

Those pictures are amazing, and I know that they can not begin to capture the true beauty you are actually seeing with your own eyes.

Little John: thanks for the great information on the Trench.

Zzz wrote:
Snapped this shot for our 205 guys.

Awesome! Thanks Zane!

John, great info on the Trench. Thanks!

Fun watching the Spot trail wind through the mountains as they follow the highway.

Man! I am jealous...

Z,
What kind of cruise numbers are you seeing in that bad boy while your pushing it for break in?
E

Great pictures Zane. Threads like this, are why I both love and hate BCP. It keeps me dreaming, but it makes me a little discontented since I am not the one taking the trip. Some day...

Great pictures! Are you using your DSLR? Or something smaller? Where do you stow your camera when not in use? I find that to be one of my biggest problems when trying to shoot from the plane.

Stay safe.

Zane- assuming you have some time in Whitehorse this afternoon, a great leg-stretcher is to walk around the perimeter of the airport fence (Clockwise). Takes you through some nice trees and a slope that should be purple with pasque flowers about now. Down a wooden staircase that leads to the side of the Yukon river. It's also about the time that the river ice should be breaking apart into "candle ice". That's fun stuff to play with, and it makes some great sounds.
Glad to see you made Watson Lake. Any bumps going by Muncho?
-DP

Great pictures, Zane. I'd love to make this trip at least once in my life time. I'd also like to see pics of the next inflight grilled cheese you make .

My dad is right behind you guys, ferrying our pacer up for the summer. He's planning on Whitehorse tomorrow night, looks like you'll beat him by a day. Hopefully there'll still be room in the Lake Hood transient row by the time he gets here

Dokmow wrote:Z,
What kind of cruise numbers are you seeing in that bad boy while your pushing it for break in?
E

And fuel burn also?

Pretty fun watching this while sitting on my arse at home, GREAT thread!

Ya, actual real fuel burn / hr would be interesting with average cruise and rpm. Be interesting to calculate average miles per gallon.
You guys have been damned lucky to make it through BC without at least one day for a delay for wx. You took the pants off of 500+miles today. Put that much behind you tomorrow and you'll be in LHD tomorrow., well ahead of schedule.

Sidewinder wrote:Ya, actual real fuel burn / hr would be interesting with average cruise and rpm. Be interesting to calculate average miles per gallon.
You guys have been damned lucky to make it through BC without at least one day for a delay for wx. You took the pants off of 500+miles today. Put that much behind you tomorrow and you'll be in LHD tomorrow., well ahead of schedule.

Hi Guys,

Brad Damm with CubCrafters here... I'm the relief pilot on this trip with Zane, as such he sticks me with all the menial duties like quantifying our fuel burn each leg. We've been averaging 8.5 gallons per hour and close to 97 knots for this trip. That's running an engine break-in profile (high power & rich of peak) between 2,450 and 2,650 RPM. Please note that is with a climb prop installed on this particular aircraft and weight(s) above 2000 lbs.

After engine break-in I would normally be pretty comfortable with cruise settings in this aircraft closer to 94-95 knots with the Lycoming 0-360 leaned out to right around 6 gallons per hour.

Morning everyone, sorry for the lack of update for Day 4. I have lots of good pics but I was tuckered out last night, not to mention the hotel wifi sucked bad. Headed to Alaska today, departing around 10am. See you on the other side!

Z

These excuses are getting old, We need more porn.