Alaska Trip

Iceman

Iceman

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Apr 27, 2005
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Kalamazoo, MI
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Chris
After wanting to travel to Alaska for the past few years it looks like I will finally be able to make the trip this year. I’m looking to leave the end of June and was wondering if there are any sites or informative books that can give some background on flying to Alaska.



It would also be a big help if you could give some personal reports on what places are the best to visit or anything else you can think of.
 
Iceman said:
It would also be a big help if you could give some personal reports on what places are the best to visit or anything else you can think of.
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I flew up in 2001, We crossed the border at Peace Gardens, ND. There is a car crossing and an east-west airstrip there, nothing else. Park in the south ramp--USA, north ramp--Canada. We parked on the south side, walked down to the US customs, asked to go talk to the Canadian side and got a Yes. The Canadains said "Taxi on over to our side, bring your guns(required in Alaska at the time) and paper work on down." We did, and they never looked at our planes. We camped the night under the wing and used the customs facilities to clean up in the morning. Even had a cup of coffee with the customs guys. They were very nice. Regina has a flight service you can walk into, and they were very helpful getting us around some storms. Conversation went like this "I have to tell you VFR not recommended but lookee here. If you fly about ten miles towards this storm then turn north you should be able to cut between these two and get to North Battleford, then it should be clear to Whitecourt" It worked perfectly.
Fort St. John had an undisclosed landing fee. Dawson (at mile 0 on the Alaska Highway) was friendly. Watson Lake was a beautiful place to camp under the wing. I woke up to the sound of Loons and watched an eagle catch a fish, while my tent was pitched in the middle of a bunch of wildflowers. I didn't have an urge to find town. Northway was customs in Alaska. Kind of a dusty little strip in the middle of a mosquito swamp. Flight Service guy was nice. And Customs was a non-event for us. Fairbanks has a very nice camp site for airplanes. It was $2.00 to park on the ramp, $3.00 to park in the campground. It was nice gravel taxiway, you cross the street to get there, watch for traffic, and each site has its own alcove, tiedowns, picnic table and fire ring with cut wood by the pavillon and well water, and a very nice outhouse--clean. They also had bikes to ride to the control tower where there are showers or its about 3/4 mile walk.
I could tell you more if you want.
Also the Cessna 170 club had some very good articles on flying the Alaska Highway and the Trench but I can't remember the web site.

Barb Miller
 
One of the best sources of information, whether you're flying or driving, is The Milepost.

Of course, you'll also find lots of information the Web, a Google search for "flying in Alaska" turns up such sites as:

http://www.alaska.faa.gov/ancfsdo/Flyingak/flyingak.htm

http://www.alaska.faa.gov/ancfsdo/index.html

http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/alaska

http://www.avweb.com/news/safety/183068-1.html, and so forth.

I have posted lots of pictures from my trips from Tacoma to Anchorage and Fairbanks via the coastal route on my Web site at:

http://www.bruceair.com/alaska.htm and

http://www.bruceair.com/alaska_2002.htm

It's a great trip as long as you really, really respect the weather.
 
Iceman said:
After wanting to travel to Alaska for the past few years it looks like I will finally be able to make the trip this year. I’m looking to leave the end of June and was wondering if there are any sites or informative books that can give some background on flying to Alaska.
Click to expand...
Chris, what kind of airplane will you be flying?
 
Diana said:
Chris, what kind of airplane will you be flying?
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I will be the copilot in a mooney M20R. This being the case we will need to find paved landing strips >2500-3000.

I wished we were leaving a week later...that would allow me to attend both the fly-in and the trip...
 
Thanks everyone for the links!!!

I'm reading as fast as I can...good thing I have over a month to get everything ready.

If anyone is interested I will be taking lots of pictures that I will share with anyone interested...I have a 20gig portable pic storage device and I'm planning on filling it up!
 
Iceman said:
Thanks everyone for the links!!!

I'm reading as fast as I can...good thing I have over a month to get everything ready.

If anyone is interested I will be taking lots of pictures that I will share with anyone interested...I have a 20gig portable pic storage device and I'm planning on filling it up!
Click to expand...
Chris, I did this trip 5 years ago. Went Edmonton, Grand Prarie, St. John, Ft. Nelson, Watson Lake, and up to Ketchikan; up the inner passage. Return trip was coastal to Victoria. Very, very nice. Crossing the Canadian Rockies is much easier with oxygen. All have 4000 foot strips or better.

Email off line if you need more. Buy the Canada Supplement at Sporty's along with Canada WAC E15, D12 and E16. Have a blast.

Oh. Also bought an EPIRB 406. Worth the peace of mind.
 
Iceman said:
After wanting to travel to Alaska for the past few years it looks like I will finally be able to make the trip this year. I’m looking to leave the end of June and was wondering if there are any sites or informative books that can give some background on flying to Alaska.



It would also be a big help if you could give some personal reports on what places are the best to visit or anything else you can think of.
Click to expand...


I flew to Alaska in 2003. Some of the most fun flying I have ever done.
http://webpages.charter.net/carolt/trip03/xc03.htm

Go to the last page for some links to resources.

Definitely look Tim up if you go to Fairbanks.
 
Carol said:
I flew to Alaska in 2003. Some of the most fun flying I have ever done.
http://webpages.charter.net/carolt/trip03/xc03.htm

Go to the last page for some links to resources.

Definitely look Tim up if you go to Fairbanks.
Click to expand...

That's a great looking website...I'm going to have to learn how to make one to share my pictures when I get back.

bbchien said:
Chris, I did this trip 5 years ago. Went Edmonton, Grand Prarie, St. John, Ft. Nelson, Watson Lake, and up to Ketchikan; up the inner passage. Return trip was coastal to Victoria. Very, very nice. Crossing the Canadian Rockies is much easier with oxygen. All have 4000 foot strips or better.

Email off line if you need more. Buy the Canada Supplement at Sporty's along with Canada WAC E15, D12 and E16. Have a blast.

Oh. Also bought an EPIRB 406. Worth the peace of mind.
Click to expand...

Sounds like there are plenty of good long runways. Thanks for the email offer... I will probably take you up on it. The EPIRB is the next thing on my list...I think I'm going to start a thread and see what models everyone likes.

Tim said:
look me up when you get here.
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Tim, I will definatly take you up on that offer. I'm not sure on the exact date that we will be in your neck of the woods but It should be between june 28th and july 7th (I will know as the trip gets closer).

Thanks again all!
 
Iceman said:
Sounds like there are plenty of good long runways. Thanks for the email offer... I will probably take you up on it. The EPIRB is the next thing on my list...I think I'm going to start a thread and see what models everyone likes.
Click to expand...
Check out www.equipped.org
 
Thanks everyone for helping out...I sent some reputation points for taking the time to post!
 
Iceman said:
After wanting to travel to Alaska for the past few years it looks like I will finally be able to make the trip this year. I’m looking to leave the end of June and was wondering if there are any sites or informative books that can give some background on flying to Alaska.



It would also be a big help if you could give some personal reports on what places are the best to visit or anything else you can think of.
Click to expand...

YOUFLYALASKA has a nice website and will RENT you their CUBS after checking you out for local flying !

The Knik River Bars out of Anchorage cover a huge, wide, long area from the glacier terminus & downstream and we've landed all over the place there.
 
One more thing. If you are going to do Coastal Alaska (the inner strait) be sure to leave OUT OF THERE before August 7. RELIABLY, the northern Pacific Fog comes in and seals it up in the second week of August. If you watch the FAA AVR accident page, the frequency of VFR into the Soup accidents skyrockets about August 10. EVERY YEAR.

First week of August you can see the fog, solid, 500 feet thick, sitting just outside the outer barrier islands...if you're flying that week, keep lotsa fuel on board and half an eye on the fog shelf, because you might just have to ....head for the hills.

The pic was taken in the Chatham straits on August 3.
 
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bbchien said:
One more thing. If you are going to do Coastal Alaska (the inner strait) be sure to leave OUT OF THERE before August 7. RELAIBLY, the northern Pacific Fog comes in and seals it up in the second week of August. If you watch the FAA AVR accident page, the frequency of VFR into the Soup accidents skyrockets about August 10. EVERY YEAR.

First week of August you can see the fog, solid, 500 feet thick, sitting just outside the outer barrier islands...if you're flying that week, keep lotsa fuel on board and half an eye on the fog shelf, because you might just have to ....head for the hills.

The pic was taken in the Chatham straits on August 3.
Click to expand...

I rerouted my trip inland because of coastal weather. Check out the terminal procedures for those coastal airports. Even with a good GPS for the approaches I didn't want to take a chance at ruining my vacation. Bruce has some great photos of a couple of the approaches.
 
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