Do you have the guts to do Katamarino's Alaska flight

Do you have the guts to do Katamarino's Alaska flight

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StevieTimes

StevieTimes

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StevieTimes
Katamarino's Alaska flight seems like quite an adventure. It is the stuff of dreams, is it not? It reminds me of the Russian dude in the RV, I believe. It makes you want to fly.

I would love to do this flight, the fun and freedom are compelling. Camping and just being in the wild nature, way up there, I bet the smells and sights are incredible. The mist in the air, the coolness, or the warmth, whatever it is, can only be experienced to truly take it all in and enjoy it.

Having said that, I likely lack the nads to pull it off. Maybe it's the skill, but whatever it is, I admit I'd be afraid to try.


ref:
https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/katamarinos-alaska-flight.111832/
 
Meh. Who’d even want to?






Me! That’s who. But I currently lack the time and resources. But I hope I’d have the guts if the other prerequisites were there.
 
kath said:
If you can fly 200 miles to an airport you've never been to before...
...you can string fifty such flights together, and fly 10,000 miles.
Click to expand...

There you go. Applying math and logic to aviation. You do know that isn’t acceptable behavior, don’t you?
 
When I was younger....... just come up with an idea and we would probably do it.
 
I just returned from a long Alaska flight, although it wasn't near as ambitious as @Katamarino and his flight. But the time spent flying through and around the Rockies, up around the glaciers and around Denali and through The Trench was pure fun. Landing at those little ghost towns called airports in Canada was surprisingly thrilling. I would do his flight in a heartbeat. We plan to do it again in a couple of years if our bodies hold up. I sure wish we were able to do this when we were younger, but the time and money weren't there. Now that we have the time and the money, we don't have the youth and energy we used to, but we didn't let that hold us back. We just stayed at Marriotts instead of tents under the wing.
 
Right now I don't have the skills/experience, or time to do it.

But hopefully when I have lots more hours under my belt, I'll have the time and ambition.
 
I think it’s pretty friggin awesome! Looking forward to the PIREPs along the way.
 
Been there done that. It was those Canadians who you got to be worried about lol
 
I just did 1600 Nautical Miles of open Atlantic from the BVI to New York in a 50 ft sailboat in the last two weeks..and consider it normal behavior...it take me much more time and planning to do the Alaska trip
 
Alaska is very doable. Earthrounders.com , that gets a bit trickier.
 
I haven't made it to Alaska yet but I've been up to northern Canada a few times. Flight planning and preparation is a bit different but overall it isn't much different than any other cross country flight. It's no big deal really.
 
I have to admit I’m not a fan of flying over nasty terrain in a single engine. Too much risk I guess. I’d do it in a twin though.
 
I went 1300+nm to western WY and back, hitting 200 hours enroute. With a Mountain Flying class along the way, Alaska would be very doable. The problem right now is time off and fuel / food money.

But dang, it's definitely the trip of a lifetime!
 
Guts to do an Alaska trip like that? Sure.

Time? Eh, not so much.

Maybe someday...
 
I'd like to but I have a Piper low wing and everyone knows that you can't fly Piper Low wings to Alaska.
 
I've done it a couple times, but didn't do the sight seeing tour. I was in a Casa and we did Bellingham-Ketchikan-Anchorage. Doing it Kat's way would be cool sometime, but I tend to be impatient about such things so I'd want a faster plane with longer legs, like my Tango.
 
StevieTimes said:
Katamarino's Alaska flight seems like quite an adventure. It is the stuff of dreams, is it not?
Click to expand...
Maybe I'm not like most GA pilots, but while this does sound like an amazing flight I don't think it's that big of a deal. People fly super long distances in GA planes all the time. I have a buddy that flies his 185 up to/from Alaska every summer from Colorado. Do most GA pilots never leave the pattern?

Using the plane for what it was designed to do isn't really something that requires guts IMO. Sure, time and resources can be an issue, but guts? no.
 
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As many have said, it's really just a bunch of shorter flights stuck together. A bit more to consider once getting far north in terms of remoteness, fuel availability and so on, but not too bad.
 
Attempted the same flight in 2016. Got read to cross the border into Canada and weather had other plans, and I didn't have enough time off of work to wait it out. I probably won't ever have enough time until I'm retired.
 
I have friends in Alaska that use their planes for travel. Florida, Mexico, New England, etc. They prefer to fly themselves. I have more friends who are more about the destination than the journey so they take airlines and skip the hours of stressing over bad weather, hoping to find fuel, and sleeping in tents. Different strokes for different folks.

The guys who visit Alaska in their planes barely scratch the surface of Alaska flying. To me? Getting here isn’t the draw. Being here is.
 
Stewartb said:
The guys who visit Alaska in their planes barely scratch the surface of Alaska flying. To me? Getting here isn’t the draw. Being here is.
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That's the same for any destination, though. It's not practical for everyone to uproot and move to Alaska, so visiting is the next best thing.
 
That’s fine, but much of the time some spend to travel here could have been spent being here. It’s personal choice. I’ve lived here for 50 years and I’ve barely scratched the surface!

If I have 7 days I can sneak away I’ll probably want to see my grandson. If I take a 737 I burn half a day going and returning, so I have 6 days to enjoy the destination. If I took my go-fast plane? I wouldn’t make it all the way there before I had to turn back. If hours of flying was my passion? That’s fine, but if seeing my grandson was the goal? It doesn’t work out very well. Most of us in Alaska that have airplanes have them to access places more efficiently. That efficiency is often lost for long distance travel unless having the plane is key at the destination. How different guys view those factors is up to them. There’s no right or wrong, just different priorities.
 
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Stewartb said:
That’s fine, but much of the time some spend to travel here could have been spent being here. It’s personal choice. I’ve lived here for 50 years and I’ve barely scratched the surface!

If I have 7 days I can sneak away I’ll probably want to see my grandson. If I take a 737 I burn half a day going and returning, so I have 6 days to enjoy the destination. If I took my go-fast plane? I wouldn’t make it all the way there before I had to turn back. If hours of flying was my passion? That’s fine, but if seeing my grandson was the goal? It doesn’t work out very well. Most of us in Alaska that have airplanes have them to access places more efficiently. That efficiency is often lost for long distance travel unless having the plane is key at the destination. How different guys view those factors is up to them. There’s no right or wrong, just different priorities.
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As is always the case, not everything is so clear cut. I just traversed the lower 48 south to north in a 100mph super cub and got the job done faster than I got to the plane via airline. But, if there was significant wind or terrible weather that trip could have turned into a week journey. GA travel is really only practical for those of us who want to go from one place in BFE to another, otherwise as you said, the airlines beat it.

I’d love to spend a season or two working up in Alaska to really get to experience it. Unfortunately that will probably have to wait until I’m ready to retire.
 
mondtster said:
I’d love to spend a season or two working up in Alaska to really get to experience it. Unfortunately that will probably have to wait until I’m ready to retire.
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I'll be going back again to work in Alaska at age 60.

Stewartb said:
I’ve lived here for 50 years and I’ve barely scratched the surface!
Click to expand...

I believe that. I have some relatives living in Palmer since the day before the 1964 earthquake, and they have never been out of the Mat-Su
area except a few trips to Denali National Park and Fairbanks...:lol:

The 7 years and several summers I lived in Alaska I flew to every corner except the Aleutian chain. I have always wanted to get to Attu or Adak and Dutch Harbor.

https://avcams.faa.gov/ makes life a whole lot easier than it used to be.
 
when i buy the twin i'm going to go from WA up to AK for fishing and to poke around. SE Alaska has terrible weather in the summer (lots of low cloud/fog conditions), but the flight is only 4 hours, so you just need a window of good weather. I'll have my IR before I do it as well, or do it with an IR rated safety pilot and get lots of hood time on the flight, with the ability to get a popup under his/her name if needed to get in.
 
Zeldman said:
The 7 years and several summers I lived in Alaska I flew to every corner except the Aleutian chain. I have alwayse wanted to get to Attu or Adak and Dutch Harbor.
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Dutch Harbor is pretty neat. It's surrounded by mountains. In fact, I think it's inside an old volcano. The airfield itself is located next to a mountain. You won't see the runway until you're turning final. Can't remember the runway direction itself, but for the more direct runway, there's a big rock in the water that makes a good aim point for the base to final turn. Can't remember what if there were any markers for the other direction, but I do remember that it's called the back door approach. You'll have the mountain between you and the runway as you do the pattern.

Like I said, pretty interesting.
 
Would love to make this trip! But... Flying under BasicMed and my aircraft doesn't have the legs to overfly Canada, so...
 
Did pretty much the same flight ten years ago. You can do it.
 
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