After probably a year of authoring, @grassstrippilot and I have published the Guide to Flying to Alaska (from the Lower 48.)

You must be logged in to view the article, so please wait to share until we've reviewed here in the forum for a couple days.

Cory and Allen took this mega trip from Utah back in June 2017, and Cory was generous enough to author a great guide for the BCP knowledge base. Each took some amazing photos and we've peppered the article with those.

And guess what? Many of you have been quoted in the article too! Under the "BCP member tips" section, Cory cited helpful tidbits he culled from the forum prior to his trip.

Please give it a read before I share it with the world. We are open to suggestions, corrections, etc. And it is LONG. Please tell us if it works as a guide, as a reference tool, or as anything else.

Thanks!

Edit: Just made first batch of copious edits and typo fixes.

There has been mention of "Vickie" at Mackenzie, BC. Does she actually work at a FBO there? Or does she have an ice cream shop, or what?

I'd like to give her a call.

She runs the City’s “Terminal” at the airport. The city sells the fuel.


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Similar to what Llano does if you recall that.


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Really good information, thanks.

In Canada we call it a flight itinerary rather than a flight note:


Filing of a Flight Plan or a Flight Itinerary

602.75(1) A flight plan shall be filed with an air traffic control unit, a flight service station or a community aerodrome radio station.

(2) A flight itinerary shall be filed with a responsible person, an air traffic control unit, a flight service station or a community aerodrome radio station.

(3) A flight plan or flight itinerary shall be filed by

(a) sending, delivering or otherwise communicating the flight plan or flight itinerary or the information contained therein; and

(b) receiving acknowledgement that the flight plan or flight itinerary or the information contained therein has been received.

Zzz wrote:There has been mention of "Vickie" at Mackenzie, BC. Does she actually work at a FBO there? Or does she have an ice cream shop, or what?

I'd like to give her a call.

I called Vickie and had a little chat. Very nice lady.

daedaluscan wrote:Really good information, thanks.

In Canada we call it a flight itinerary rather than a flight note:


Filing of a Flight Plan or a Flight Itinerary

602.75(1) A flight plan shall be filed with an air traffic control unit, a flight service station or a community aerodrome radio station.

(2) A flight itinerary shall be filed with a responsible person, an air traffic control unit, a flight service station or a community aerodrome radio station.

(3) A flight plan or flight itinerary shall be filed by

(a) sending, delivering or otherwise communicating the flight plan or flight itinerary or the information contained therein; and

(b) receiving acknowledgement that the flight plan or flight itinerary or the information contained therein has been received.

Thanks, I updated the language for accuracy with the CARs.

Looks pretty good Zane. It's a good read. Just a heads up to anyone who is coming up the east side, I'm always open to having company and allow camping at my place. I'll be moving shops this summer, but travellers are still welcome. And if you have any mechanical issues I can help out. Had a few supercubs from Caldwell stop in last summer and fixed up some spark plug leads for one of them. Phil has also stopped in, once by car and once with his 185. I'm not far off the Alaska highway route.
David

A1Skinner wrote:Looks pretty good Zane. It's a good read. Just a heads up to anyone who is coming up the east side, I'm always open to having company and allow camping at my place. I'll be moving shops this summer, but travellers are still welcome. And if you have any mechanical issues I can help out. Had a few supercubs from Caldwell stop in last summer and fixed up some spark plug leads for one of them. Phil has also stopped in, once by car and once with his 185. I'm not far off the Alaska highway route.
David

Cool. I hope that the message is clear that using the BCP community ahead of time is a good way to track down friends on the ground, like you.

Perhaps a member map for BC and Yukon would be useful too.

Zzz wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:Looks pretty good Zane. It's a good read. Just a heads up to anyone who is coming up the east side, I'm always open to having company and allow camping at my place. I'll be moving shops this summer, but travellers are still welcome. And if you have any mechanical issues I can help out. Had a few supercubs from Caldwell stop in last summer and fixed up some spark plug leads for one of them. Phil has also stopped in, once by car and once with his 185. I'm not far off the Alaska highway route.
David

Cool. I hope that the message is clear that using the BCP community ahead of time is a good way to track down friends on the ground, like you.

Perhaps a member map for BC and Yukon would be useful too.

And Alberta... [emoji6]

Great article. Enjoyed it a lot and it’s well written.

In the gearing up section, should this be layering?

A1Skinner wrote:

Zzz wrote:And Alberta... [emoji6]

Heh heh...I'm totally stuck in the mindset of going due north of here. Why would anyone else in the US want to go direct??

Aryana wrote:Great article. Enjoyed it a lot and it’s well written.

In the gearing up section, should this be layering?

Good eye, thanks.

Wow! This looks fantastic! I can tell a ton of work went into what will be a great resource for future trips.

Great work!

Zzz wrote: "Perhaps a member map for BC and Yukon would be useful too."

An excellant tool for more than this occasion.

Aryana wrote:Great article. Enjoyed it a lot and it’s well written.

In the gearing up section, should this be layering?

I read that a completely different way.
Guess I should revise my plans now.

I plan to comb the area between Watson Lake, Whitehorse and Dease Lake fairly extensively this summer, so I found the article very helpful.

I think a member map would be very cool. Not all of us are as mechanically capable as David but when weather gets in the way it can be really welcoming to find a friend with a spare room or camping space.

The guide mentions the Alaska Airmen's Logbook. Anybody have one they want to part with?

Really good article! It has some length but it's not a long read. I found myself scrolling up to previous sections to re-read - good indication that it had good info in it.
It's the first time I've made sense out of the three routes North.

I'm hoping/planing/wanting to make the trip from the East coast. Possibly as early as this September, if not next May and reads like this make it seem much more attainable.

A pdf copy is included in the article. Click on its name when highlighted in green or at the end in the reference section.

Thanks for the comments and proof reading. The interface I was using after the first writing didn’t have any type of a spell checker.

Thanks for the flight note comment. Every time we were asked it was reference by the controllers as a flight note. I think the Alaska Airmen’s Logbook referred to it by that as well. Maybe some old lingo?