2010 Midnight Sun Challenge - Whitehorse, Yukon Territories

[wjknight]

We're goin' to the Yukon!!!
17-24 July 2010
I just received my registration information for the Yukon Challenge and checked out the registrants list for Beechcraft airplanes. There are four baby beeches and a Duke in this year's event. The interesting thing is that all four of the baby beeches are BAC members!!!

Roelof Dercksen and John Radysh out of Quesnel, British Columbia in their A23-19's,
Jeff Knight out of Cold Lake, Alberta in his B-19 Sport, and
Bill Franklin out of Rapid City, South Dakota in his BE23 Musketeer.

The BE60 Duke pilot is Chris Campbell out of Penticton, British Columbia...just in case anyone here knows him.

Sure would be great to have a BAC International luncheon as a sidebar to the Yukon Challenge and get to meet some other BAC members. Who knows, maybe John Lovelace will let us capture the group with our planes and the International Region Banner for a TV spot..... who knows.

Anyway, just wanted to start a thread on the topic and let you guys know that I'm very excited about doing this trip this year. I think the bonus is that 3 international members and a north central member will all be participating in the same event.

"All For One and One For All"!!!

Jeff Knight
1973 B-19 Sport
Cold Lake, AB

 

[jradysh]

Jeff I'm so pumped .Is anyone going with you or are you going by yourself ? I have a good friend going with me and share the expenses . I've been thinking installing another nav-com but I'll see (the war dept. might have something to say about it). I'm going to Arlington and man the both with Thom and the guys and head home and spit polish the plane . we have the Century Flight group staging in Quesnel and the flying club here is building a gazebo and I'm part of the committee. Which route are you going to tack and are you going to meet up with Bill Frank along the way.

John Radysh
C-FQVM

 

[wjknight]

Hi John,

I'm actually taking my girlfriend with me. I wanted to participate in the cross Canada flight last year, but we were so busy building our log house (18 months so far....) that we didn't get to go. This year I said that we definately were going. We'll be joining the Eastern Group in either Lloyminster or Wetaskiwin. Probably Wetaskiwin, the Group is overnighting there and then it will be Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson (overnight), Watson Lake and then Whitehorse. I thought about flying to Quesnel and going up the Western route, but Florence has a phobia about flying through the mountain valleys down by Banff so if I go the Eastern route we will be able to stay above the peaks. I imagine that Bill Franklin will probably go the Eastern route as well as there are stops in Winnipeg, Brandon, Saskatoon and Regina which would be easy for him to hook up with out of South Dakota. I don't know that for sure as I haven't talked to him, but geographically it makes sense.

The only things I need to do are complete my IFR Recert (it comes due in May), perhaps upgrade my Garmin 495 with a 496 (now that we have XM weather in Canada) and wash and wax the plane. I might consider adding a PCAS XRX traffic avoidance system.

http://www.pcas.ca/product_info.php?products_id=28&osCsid=69b9eaa596dd08be90dd48abdb9cc5fa

It's something that I have wanted for awhile now considering that the traffic can be displayed on the Garmin 495/496. There are 107 aircraft registered for the Yukon Challenge so it would be nice to see where we are in the train....LOL....and heaven knows my eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be so any help is welcome.

I've been flight planning and checking routes at work the last couple of days. If I go from Wetaskiwin there are some Victor airways and low level routes that I can use. So could incorporate a navex into this trip. In my neck of the woods there is only military TACAN so I don't get to practice VOR and NDB tracking very much. I've got the bug!!!

Jeff Knight
1973 B-19 Sport
Cold Lake, AB

 

[rgschmi]

It would be awesome if we could plan the 2010 BAC to Alaska trip around the 2010 Midnight Sun Challenge, but I don't think it fits our schedule. We would be taking pretty much the same route.

It really sounds like a lot of fun! Keep us all posted.

 

[musesierra]

this sounds awesome! take lots of pictures and keep us posted

Doug