Alaska 2020

a2324pilot

a2324pilot

Orbiting Earth
I am planning on flying to Alaska in 2020. After questioning Nelson and Bob and checking weather records, the dates will be depart on June 13, 2020 from the Midwest and return to arrive back on Jun 28, 2020. If anyone else would like to join in, please add to this post. I am posting early since the trip requires a huge amount of planning. Since I am leaving from the Midwest I will follow the ALCAN route and base at Fairbanks (FAI). If you are you are from other points in the US we can pick a point to meet up and fly together. For me this will be a outdoorsy trip with most nights in a tent. There is camping on the field af FAI. I plan on several fly-outs from there, with possible destinations of Barrow, Nome, and Anchorage. I will post a fly-in for Fairbanks.

For anyone that has this trip on their bucket list, here is a chance to go as a BAC group. The more the merrier!
 
WeiserDenisP said:
I am planning on flying to Alaska in 2020. After questioning Nelson and Bob and checking weather records, the dates will be depart on June 13, 2020 from the Midwest and return to arrive back on Jun 28, 2020. If anyone else would like to join in, please add to this post. I am posting early since the trip requires a huge amount of planning. Since I am leaving from the Midwest I will follow the ALCAN route and base at Fairbanks (FAI). If you are you are from other points in the US we can pick a point to meet up and fly together. For me this will be a outdoorsy trip with most nights in a tent. There is camping on the field af FAI. I plan on several fly-outs from there, with possible destinations of Barrow, Nome, and Anchorage. I will post a fly-in for Fairbanks.

For anyone that has this trip on their bucket list, here is a chance to go as a BAC group. The more the merrier!
Click to expand...
Denis, I have flown the ALCAN a few times from Whitehorse, YT to the lower 48. 2 weeks is not enough time to really enjoy the trip. I know who has 4 weeks free to run around the country? But the time and money you spend on a 2 week trip would be way more fun spending a few days in several locations, VS an overnight and a quick tour of the area.

Just my thoughts. Feel free to PM or call me.

Bill B
Juneau, AK
907-790-2249 Weekends..:)
 
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Denis,
If you can do it, allow a bit more time. The wx can be fickle there.

I am fortunate enough to have that one in my bucket already (Thanks, Bob S!). The camping at Fairbanks (PAFA) is “plush”, to say the least. Hot showers, sheltered (open) kitchen with a great wood stove, and firewood delivered with a smile. There are 110v sockets on the wall behind the shower block. Pitch your tent right beside the plane. Too easy!
 
North West Staging Route to Alaska

You will effectively be following what in WWII was called the North West Staging Route. About 8,000 US warbirds made the one way trip to Russia thru Edmonton. In fact it was in Edmonton where the white star was painted red.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Staging_Route

I see you say that you will be turning around in Alaska and not going on into Siberia - probably wise given your time constraints.

Unfortunately, you will not beable to touch down at Army Air Base Edmonton / aka RCAF Station Edmonton (CYXD), as our City Fathers tore it up five years back. You may however wish to consider a strip about 25 miles northeast of Edmonton where I now hangar my 19A.

It is called Josephburg, CFB6. The 4560 ft x 100 paved and lighted strip (08/26) (2,069 ft ASL) has GPS approaches and will handle most Musketeers with ease.

Better yet, we have 100LL available 24/7 and it loves US credit cards.

The town of Fort Saskatchewan is about 5 miles away and has real hotels with running water and flush toilets. (That will not necessarily be the norm further north.) There are high class eating spots such as McDonalds and A&W etc and feature Heinz ketchup, another luxury not to be taken lightly.

CFB6 just outside of the the CYEG control zones so is easy to get into and out of. I think that may be one reason we routinely see a lot of light traffic stopping for fuel or overnight on flights from Alaska to the Lower 48.

I think we must also have the cheapest Jet A in the area as it seems every helicopter passing thru stops there.

Today we had a Dassault Falcon 7X three holer in just to add a bit of class to the strip as lately it has seemed to be a playground for turbine Thrush spray planes.

In summary, CFB6 it is a good fuel stop right on the route and is worthy of consideration. (There are no landing fees; the County owns and runs the strip.)

https://skyvector.com/airport/CFB6/Edmonton-Josephburg-Airport
 
Is the Siberia route still open? We tried it on the 2005 trip, but fog got us at Nome. Probably just as well, as they apparently didn't have 100LL at Providenya, though it was reported they did.
 
Denis,

This is a great time to plan with many months to discuss. Yes, I will consider joining in and here are my few inputs for the team:

- - good job on an earlier month. Any later, the mosquitoes can make outdoor activities impossible. Even earlier dates would be better for avoiding the tourists as well.
- - keep expectations low. Just getting to Fairbanks would be a great accomplishment! It is not unusual to get stuck at an airport for several days due to the weather
- - it has been done, but I would be mixing my Sundowner cruise with the higher speed Sierra. It would be sad if I cost you a day or more because I am VFR and slower, so let's work through this.
- - flying the Alcan route would be my personal requirement. The terrain is VERY unforgiving. Flying as a group is positive.
- - for me, a trip to Talkeetna would be a recommendation. This is the jump off point for those heading to "the mountain".
- - I might head down to Kenai for a visit with neighbors and friends
- - I would vote for a rally point somewhere in the northern part of the States prior to the trip, giving us a day or so for additional prep

Overall - - a very exciting prospect!
 
Denis, this has been on our list so we're interested! Starting with when, and asking those experienced or living up there, is the best time to get optimal weather?
 
I am excited that several of the BAC family are interested in going. Don't worry about the speed difference between the Sierra and the Sundowner we will work that out. If you haven't already looked at it, the AOPA website has some great articles on international flying and flying to Canada. Also a good article on the FAA website on crossing the border into Canada. Bob has a website he setup from his 2005 trip that has a useful spread sheet and pictures. The AOPA has a check sheet that would be great to use. When I get on a PC I will post links.

Bill and Mark have made a good point about the weather and allowing time for it. I haven't read a single diary of someone flying the ALCAN route without having a weather delay. I am planning on two weeks, but it is important to just be realistic that it may take longer than that. I have this four letter word I have to factor in "WORK". The owner of the company I work for is going to have a melt down when he finds out I am going to be gone for two weeks, but I figure if you can't get back, you can't get back. Work will wait.

Bboyer has made an offer to meet up at his airport and I think that would be a great idea. I didn't realize he was that close to Edmonton. Due to the different flight paths to get to the ALCAN route, CFB6 would be an excellent place to meet to start the journey together. My International departure airport will be Williston ND (it might work for Allen too), and Nelson/Michael's would most likely be Cut Bank, MT. The Canadian arrival airport would be Edmonton to clear customs, then just a short hop to CFB6.

I am jumping into planning, but I have been thinking about this for a couple years. We can have a planning get together at BACFest. The great thing about BAC is we have members that have made the trip, Canadian members, and Alaskan members that have a lot knowledge to help make this a success.
 
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This one has got me thinking. I had such a great time with Bob in ‘14 and I wouldn’t need too much convincing to go again.
Hmmmmmmm,........
 
Interested also, but don't know if 2020 is the year.

One issue for me is I would have to upgrade my medical back to a Class III. Currently flying as Basic Med. Last I heard, Canada does not recognize Basic Med for a medical certificate.
 
markweiss said:
This one has got me thinking. I had such a great time with Bob in ‘14 and I wouldn’t need too much convincing to go again.
Hmmmmmmm,........
Click to expand...


I'm pondering doing this one again as well...

I've done it twice and the trips were as different as night and day. First one was HOT and the second one was WET, among other things, but both were awesome!

I'm no expert, but a couple of things to think about (there are lots more!). How are you going to fly together? Both times I've only had one other airplane to worry about. The first time we wandered around looking at interesting things and we could be up to ten miles apart. The second trip, Marty stayed tucked up pretty close to me all the time, so no worries about where he was. You might want ot think about multiple flights of two, depending on how you decide to fly. W ewatched an Air Journeys fight come in to Watson Lake, and they had two flights of about nine airplanes flying in trail. Didn't seem like that much fun to me.

We also had hard and fast rules about hte flights. Day VFR only, and if any one had concerns about flying a leg, we didn't fly. It happened once on the first trip and was a very good call. The other airplane had concerns about weather after engine start, so we shut down and went back to the hotel. The next morning we saw an RV-6 that had taken off just before we cancelled. He hit bad weather and had to turn around and come back.

The first trip we crossed from Cut Bank to Leithbidge because that was a suggested route in the Alaska Airman's Logbook. The second time we went direct to Fort Nelson as it's all flat prairie until you get there.

Coming back the second trip, we crossed at Peace Garden North Dakota. One end of the runway is in Canada, the other in the USA. Both customs are there and their main duty is to highway traffic. You have to go down to the office and ask them to come up to clear you. I screwed up our arrival time because of a time zone error on my part. I managed to call them on my cell from the air to tell them and they said "no problem, we'll see you whenever you get here!" Try that at an airport customs office!
 
Bob is right, we will have to have some rules on how we fly together. I watched I training video on formation flying and the first thing they said was don't attempt a formation flight to a destination. Some separation will be required.

The weather will be the luck of the draw. But June has the best averages when the snow stops. July and August have more rainy days. In June it still averages rain 1 in 3days. The following is for Fairbanks. When I cut and pasted the matrix it messed the columns up , but just count the spaces. There is more sunshine in June than any other month.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Average high in °F: 1 10 25 44 61 72
Average low in °F: -17 -13 -3 21 38 49
Av. precipitation in: 0.59 0.43 0.24 0.31 0.59 1.38
Daysprecipitation: 9 7 7 4 8 11
Hours of sunshine: 54 120 224 302 319 334
Average snowfall in : 10 8 5 3 1 0

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Average high in °F: 73 66 55 32 11 5
Average low in °F: 52 46 35 17 -6 -13
Av. precipitation in : 2.17 1.89 1.1 0.83 0.67 0.63
Days precipitation: 13 15 10 11 9 8
Hours of sunshine: 274 164 122 85 71 36
 
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We didn’t fly a true formation, just a (more or less) visual reference. More when Marty had the controls, less when John did!
 
Flying formation (loose) with a Sierra and a Sundowner wasn't a big deal. The Sundowner can't be at an economy power setting or the Sierra will run out of oil. But with the Sundowner set for 75% and best power at 6,500 ft, it will do 112 KTAS (119 KTAS after the Vanover/Weiss rigging ritual). If you use 2375 rpm and 20-22" MAP, you will be close to the same speed and still make enough BMEP to keep the rings sealed. The Sundowner will be burning 10.5 gph to your 6.0 gph, but that didn't seem to be a problem ....... for me. Keep the formation loose, but don't loose sight as it can be hard to fine each other again. I found that ATC (at least in the States) gets a little nervous when you're flying close enough there is only one return on their scope. So try to stay at least 10 feet apart.
 
Both our trips were the last two weeks in June as we wanted to experience the long days. I posted video of the wet trip above and the hot one in on my web site.

You must understand I built it over ten years ago for my own use, so it's not very pretty.

nuinet.dnsalias.com/Alaska Caps required as it's running linux on a raspberry pi.
 
Couldn't open the link Bob.


Update:

OK, I cut and pasted "nuinet.dnsalias.com".
 
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