Dot, Keep your ears open, one year about this time, we had to wait for some reason at Lethbridge....and the Calgary Stampede was just starting. It was the best parade that I ever saw, and the next day at the rodeo was great too. John

Are you going through northern UT at all? You're welcome to stay a night if you need to. Payment for staying at my house will be for you to get my tcraft in the air though

Dot_AK wrote: Intend Lethbridge, Cross at Cut Bank, down to Bozeman... enough mountains for me for a while.

Dot,
Weather here in Lethbridge has been nice for past week as opposed to northern Alberta/BC. Should be pretty good until Wednesday, Thursday with maybe the odd T-shower in the afternoons.

If you need anything, let me know (drop a note in this thread)

Blue Skies,
Joe

Unfortunately, weather in Grande Prarie down too much, so I'm at Fort Saint John for the night. Will try for Red Deer in the morning.

Joe, I see that nice weather on the satellite pics, on the other side of the low pressure trough from me. I hope to be there soon! Do you know if Lethbridge airport has wifi so I can file EAPIS there?

Ajfriz, not intending Utah, as I have no transponder, so heading south toward Ogden to see friends I'd be cut off by Salt Lake City's mode C veil. Planning I80 east, at least until Iowa. Do you need any spare parts? I have the spare set of wood spar compression struts, a butt rib, and some aileron cove with me.

Dot,

Crookston's right on your way. Drop by. You doing Cutbank for Customs? There's a friendly little flight school at the south end of the Red Deer airport ramp. Nice folks. Last time I came through, was weathered there for a few days and they let me park/snooze there for a few days.

MTV

I went through customs at Whetstone International, a 4000-ft grass runway west of Cut Bank on the border, just about straight south of Lethbridge. Now in Bozeman, MT spoiling a dog rotten and trying to stay hydrated.

A few images from the trip so far.

Welcome back to the outside!

Beautiful pictures Dot!

sweet shot of that plane flying with ya... glad you made it back to America....here' we're just North America.... which in turns probably makes Ak North North America...! It should be a great crossing to TN.... any troubles so far or is that 41' flying just like in 42'

Cheers, J-M

Dot,

Do they still require you to get a transponder waiver for the southern border? It was the case when I flew my T-Craft to America. I found out about the requirement at the very last moment, when I called FAI FSS to file for the sendoff leg of my journey. A very thoughtful briefer asked me if my transponder waiver was all set On top of that, it was the beginning of a weekend, and already after hours in the time zone that mattered. It may have been labor day weekend too! Incredibly, I reached someone, who faxed something, and I got started just one day later.

Thanks for the photos. They're great.

-DP

DOT, the pictures are great. Have a safe flight and happy to see things are going well .
Be safe and great flying..

Ken

Denalipilot, yeah, they required a transponder waiver. I ended up having a 3 ring binder to hold all the paperwork, but life is good so far!

Currently in Billings, waiting for the wind to die down. I refuse to taxi in 24G30 knots when my stall speed is 28 mph!

Great pictures, Dot! If you get a chance, I'd love to see your complete route with all the stops. I'm thinking of flying my 1986 Maule MX-7-180 from Western North Carolina to Merrill in Anchorage. I'm about 2 hours east of Nashville on the other side of the mountains.

Andy

Hi Dot,

Another thread around here just reminded me that the times I flew a T-Craft through Canada, there were no user fees because its empty weight was off the bottom end of their fee schedule. Initially I got billed, but after I inquired about that, it was dropped each time. Hope that helps.

-DP

Everybody, thanks for the kind words and encouragement! By the time I got out of Billings (when the wind was down to merely 14 knots), I had enough sunlight to make it to Gillette, WY. Camped the night, and then lit out like a scalded cat in the morning. A scalded cat with three lame legs, anyway... the climb prop, 8:50's, etc don't make for going fast. Got to Chamberlain, SDbefore the heat exhaustion, although I was cruising about 3000 AGL, started making me stupid. Landed, d after drinking half a gallon of water, finally felt human. Camped there, made it to Mitchell, SD today, before I realized I was aimed at a thunderstorm, and landed.

Mtv, crookston is too far north for me, or I would stop by. Met a gent named Preston at Wall, SD who spoke very highly of you while he sold some fuel to me.

Andy, I'll do a complete writeup when I'm not using a tiny phone keyboard. However, with better weather, and with a Maule, you will be much faster than me.

DP, thanks for the tip! I'll definitely keep that in mind!

Dot,
Looks like you're 100 miles straight south of me. I'm at Conde. Look north and wave.
I am still working my way toward a flight to Alaska this August. I hope to meet up with Backcountry Tundra if all goes well. If you get blown north you can stop here.
dirtstrip

Dorothy, I'm Google Earthling you and brushing up on my USA geography..which is pretty good to start with but you are in unvisited territory for me... sounds like you're seeing a LOT of country! keep up the updates, cheers, J-M

Dot,

It is a small world. Preston is a great kid, and is doing very well spraying in Wall these days. One of these days I need to drop by there my own self. Glad your trip is going well.

MTV

Dot,
I have been following your progress but haven't said anything til now. Glad you are having a great time and seeing lots of country. If you happen to venture a little further north you have a place to stay at my place. I am right outside Itasca State Park, where the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi begin their flow to the south. I have a strip and a place to relax if needed.
Keith aka WWhunter

Taking off from Mitchell, SD after the thunderstorm passed, I learned an important lesson: the air behind a thunderstorm is not always clearer, cooler, and calmer. In fact, it was rather like flying into a steam room. The ceiling came down, and the visibility came down - but unlike Alaska, it was steamy hot, and the wind was still blowing hard at altitude. I decided flying further into lowering weather was stupid, and landed at Sioux Center, Iowa. The ramp was full of cropdusters who'd also decided to wait the weather out, and the ramper actually had to play tetris in order to make a slot for me. Fortunately, with decent-sized tires, I could just check that I was clear of taxiway lights and shortcut across the grass to the slot instead of waiting for them to maneuver until that airplane-sized slot was near the taxiway onto the ramp.

I borrowed the crew car and went into town, found the public pool, and paid for a day's admission. I wasn't interested in the pool itself, but in the shower - yay shower! By the time my hair was truly clean and I'd had enough hot water, and food, the skies were clearing. I waited for the ag pilots to scatter, as they're trying to make money by the hour with every minute of daylight, then took off south. I intended to go east, but I kept dodging thunderstorms moving northeast by going south behind them. I made to to beautiful Carroll, Iowa before putting down from heat exhaustion, fatigue, and not much daylight left.

The FBO at Neu field, Carroll, IA, are awesome - they have laundry on site, and air conditioned couch to sleep on, courtesy car, even hangared my plane for free, with the only caveat being I had to be up early enough to move it out before the semi with the fungicide load for the ag pilots came in the morning. They also have two airport cats, one very friendly and one stand-offish.

The next day, I was up at the crack of dawn to move the plane, and still barely made it out before the semi and the ag pilot appeared. With some fuel, I spent the next few hours dodging more thunderstorms, working my way south and east through the northeast storm flow - first tailwind of the trip! I made it out the other side of the storm band and landed at Galesburg, Illinois, where more ag planes took up half the ramp - and the other half had the oddest assortment of brightly painted, freshly washed and waxed planes I'd ever seen. Classics like a round-engine Cessna, new composite sport pilot planes, RVs... once I got inside, I realized the were all pilots headed to Oshkosh, in a holding pattern around the weather computer. They asked why I wasn't headed to Oshkosh, too - but I hadn't seen my husband for almost three months. Oshkosh can wait for another year.

Reveling in a tailwind, I climbed high and caught it eastward, until clouds forced me down, and landed under the shelf of Indianapolis's Class C airspace. There were two T-6's tied down and swaddled in covers on the ramp, looking like they'd been ridden hard and put away wet. I phoned a friend, and spent two days with her, relaxing and unwinding, and meeting a few folks I only knew from the internet, but were friends of friends in real life.

Tuesday, I got dropped off before my friend went to work, and caught a tailwind down to Lebanon, TN, where I'm now based. I stopped to fix the bungee cover flap at Tell, Indiana - the duct tape put on at Watson Lake had finally come loose. After calling my husband, I made it to Lebanon., TN, where my husband was waiting.

I'll get pictures up eventually, but there aren't many - it was hazy, low vis, and flat.