Alaska 2020

[bbyer]

Not CYEG, Edmonton International or Calgary International, CYYC

Bbyer 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.

My thoughts are that you want to clear customs at a small airport. The link below provides a list of aircraft Ports of Entry. These have both US and Canadian Customs and I suggest you choose a little one, but not all are paved.

From Montana into Alberta, you could stop at Coutts/Ross International (CEP4)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coutts/Ross_International_Airport

Coutts is 2900 turf, so for paved, Lethbridge, (CYQL), is probably preferable as they also have flush toilets etc.

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

Saskatchewan and Manitoba are a bit easier in that almost no one lives in either Province but they still have some paved strips left over from the WWII Commonwealth Air Training Plan. For Saskatchewan, Regina, (CYQR) comes to mind.

For Manitoba, stay away from Brandon Manitoba, (CYBR), as the locals know all private aircraft owners are rich and charge a five hundred to a thousand dollar customs fee, (CanBuck, so you get a 30% discount). The excuse is 9/11; this is a bit unusual, but might I remind you, this is not the Land of the Free.

http://airport.brandon.ca/pilot/border-clearance

The following will work just fine to get you into Manitoba, as it is safely in North Dakota, (FAA S2 ), the International Peace Garden Airport, and is 3000 ft paved, has running water, and takes real money.

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

Josephburg is probably a good place for a night sleepover as well. As I said, five miles away are real hotels with running water, Heinz Ketchup and other delicacies of the South. You are also out of the CYEG control zone so that makes life a bit easier.

We do not have an ADS-B up here; a mode C transponder is the most you will need.

The Internet exists up here. The primary carriers are TELUS and BELL Canada, as well as Rodgers.

Telus is the best of the three re coverage as they are in British Columbia as well - they do the bush better than any of the others.

You will have to check with your US carrier to see if they have any arrangements re up here. I use TELUS as they have a "protection" shakedown fee I can buy for a hundred dollars a month that will keep me out of trouble in the States or Europe re roaming charges.

A Sat phone is not out of place and some sort of SPOT locator that talks to satellites might be a good idea. VHF coverage is not exactly guaranteed where you are passing over.

This link talks a bit about cell phone coverage and then goes on to discuss the best Sat phone.

https://www.gettingstamped.com/driving-to-alaska/

The one thing Canadian Customs will look for or ask about is guns. Big, little, old, survival, etc - as a rule, they are not at all reasonable, and they are deaf to "just passing thru", so you might want to do some research on that matter if it is applicable.

Once thru the fusses, what you will enjoy is hours of flying with only a little bit of traffic on 126.7 and watching the contrails at FL400 leading you to Elmendorf.

 

[mvanover]

I got a bit excited about this. Then, realized that it will be our anniversary. I'll most likely be in a Villa in Italy at that time. Shucks!! Don't forget to post pictures!

 

[bbyer]

priorities

I got a bit excited about this. Then, realized that it will be our anniversary. I'll most likely be in a Villa in Italy at that time. Shucks!! Don't forget to post pictures!

You seem to well understand the priorities.

Italy is not exactly suffering, and no icebergs, glaciers or black bears.

 

[Max-1]

Gee Marty I don't know...

Buy an airplane or some while in Italia??

I'd buy the airplane, and then fly my wonderful bride to the best Italian restaurant in the state! Well next state over in Nevada, Nyo-Joyrsy is kinda far.

I like Roma very nice there.

 

[JOHNNYXRAY]

Andrea and I just spent a week in Fairbanks for our 30th . AWESOME !!!! Chena Hot springs has a air strip and lodging , North Pole Alaska is not far from Fairbanks and Flying around Denali is amazing . We went commercial but flew around Denali in a charter .

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!

 

[rgschmi]

A couple of thoughts.

If you are pressed for time, consider going direct to Fort Nelson, flying long days to get there. terrain is mostly flat, much like the Midwest and Great Plains, and I believe it is the official start of the Alaska Highway.

I do recommend getting a copy of the Alaska Highway VNC (sectional) chart soon if you are at all serious about the trip. It covers Ft. Nelson to Northway Alaska and is great for planning/daydreaming about the trip. World of Maps is the cheapest place I have found to get them:

https://www.worldofmaps.com/product/AIR5099.html

Recommended routes are marked with purple diamonds. I attached a section of the Ft. Nelson VNC chart, as I seem to have lost my Alaska Highway chart

 

[bbyer]

Dawson Creek was the railhead at the time.

A couple of thoughts.

If you are pressed for time, consider going direct to Fort Nelson, flying long days to get there. terrain is mostly flat, much like the Midwest and Great Plains, and I believe it is the official start of the Alaska Highway.

I do recommend getting a copy of the Alaska Highway VNC (sectional) chart soon if you are at all serious about the trip. It covers Ft. Nelson to Northway Alaska and is great for planning/daydreaming about the trip. World of Maps is the cheapest place I have found to get them:

https://www.worldofmaps.com/product/AIR5099.html

Recommended routes are marked with purple diamonds. I attached a section of the Ft. Nelson VNC chart, as I seem to have lost my Alaska Highway chart

The Aircraft Spruce part number for the VNC Alaska Highway as referenced above is 13-04516.

The sectional starts at about Fort Nelson in British Columbia and takes you to Northway in Alaska.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/wacf21.php?clickkey=5457

I think you may also beable to access it on Forelight; an instructional link is below.

https://support.foreflight.com/hc/e...ighway-VFR-Navigation-Chart-?mobile_site=true

The link below is to the Northway Community Centre.

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=e...sAF1QipP3F4f6VUs-p06BBj4-92ChYAyfYFvyqLYad6B8

Dawson Creek is about 300 miles south of Ft Nelson and thinks they are Mile 0, but given that most streets are now paved, probably the real highway starts further north.

In truth, Edmonton was probably Mile 0 if the end of pavement counts in 1942.

Dawson Creek however had rail access in 1942 - was end of track, so the US Army shipped all of its equipment to Dawson Creek out of Edmonton so to speak. Nothing came back - it was all buried in the Muskeg upon completion.

The last of the US Army warehouses were located about three miles west of where I grew up in Edmonton and were only torn down about 1958. I used to explore the railhead area when I got my two wheeler and could bike over there.

 

[bbyer]

Mile -360 of the Alcan Highway

I guess this might be thread drift but I found some circa 1942 pictures of where you are going.

I might add that a mile off any road up there, it will still look like 1942.

The Daks and P-39 jpgs are at our now ripped up CYXD, (looks worse than Meigs after Daley and will never be reopened). If you look at the IFR charts, you will see that the Edmonton VOR YEG, is a major turning points on all routes across the top of the world to the far east. This all goes back to the Northwest Staging Route. Edmonton is what I would call -Mile 360.

Air Traffic Control as we know know it was pretty much invented here as your Army Air Force people soon realized that one could not have squadrons of aircraft taking off out of Montana and North Dakota without some thought of when they would be landing. Hundreds of planes a day were arriving with near empty tanks so a solution was needed.

Bechtel built the hangars and concrete runways and Esso the local refinery. The refinery is still here, bigger than ever, and the field is a mud hole as the runways and hangers are gone.

 

[trumpet nelson]

I have driven the Alcan twice. I will also be packing the latest edition of the "Milepost", which is a mile by mile description of the highway resources (very important) and sights. It was invaluable while driving. Might also be useful for the flight.

 

[rgschmi]

I have driven the Alcan twice. I will also be packing the latest edition of the "Milepost", which is a mile by mile description of the highway resources (very important) and sights. It was invaluable while driving. Might also be useful for the flight.

I've not seen the Milepost but it is mentioned frequently in the Alaska Airmen's Logbook, which is unfortunately out of print and very hard to find. The last edition was 2001, I believe, and I have a copy I'm bringing to BAC Fest for Denis to BORROW! It is a turn by turn description of the popular routes to in in Alaska. Some of the facilities mentioned will have changed, but the routes, terrain and weather (maybe) haven't.

 

[a2324pilot]

John, congratulations on the anniversary. How was the weather while you were there.

Andrea and I just spent a week in Fairbanks for our 30th . AWESOME !!!! Chena Hot springs has a air strip and lodging , North Pole Alaska is not far from Fairbanks and Flying around Denali is amazing . We went commercial but flew around Denali in a charter .

 

[a2324pilot]

My thoughts are that you want to clear customs at a small airport. The link below provides a list of aircraft Ports of Entry. These have both US and Canadian Customs and I suggest you choose a little one, but not all are paved.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba are a bit easier in that almost no one lives in either Province but they still have some paved strips left over from the WWII Commonwealth Air Training Plan. For Saskatchewan, Regina, (CYQR) comes to mind.

If I go direct to Fort Nelson, Regina is on my flight path. That could be a good solution.

 

[rgschmi]

A page from the AAA Logbook with a quick description of the Alaska Highway (Northwest Staging) route. If you want to camp, I'd try for an overnight at Watson Lake. Whitehorse used to have a few campsites with an outhouse (full of spiders) and three rooms for rent at the FBO, but I don't know if they are still available and it's certainly not a wilderness experience!





And a couple of more detailed pages describing part of the route

 

[drwhite]

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.

How do I get one of those riggings?

 

[rgschmi]

I will take a bit of exception to Marty's formation flying. On the first trip, we were up to 10 miles apart at times when we went to explore something interesting. We used distance to next waypoint as a judge of how far in trail we were and which side of river/highway we were on for lateral distance. If we were close and not visual, we made sure we were at different altitudes. I'm not necessarily recommending you do it, but there is lot's to see and keeping an eye out for the other guy all the time can detract from the sightseeing. Of course we had only two planes, so not a big issue. The only time our method was an issue is when we were following the White River and it made a 90 degree bend perpendicular to our waypoint. We were only watching the distance differences, not the actual miles to waypoint. Brian caught up to us (distance to waypoint), when in fact he was still about five miles behind us. Lesson learned!

I thin there was a thread here that if you have ADSB, even in Canada, and someone to interrogate you, ADSB will work to give you everyone's position.

 

[RickKoch]

Bob,
I've been trying to email you BACFest update materials and your email address comes back as delivery failure.
Can you please send me an email so that I'll have your address again.

Thansk!
-Rick

 

[aftcg]

Found this:
https://backcountrypilot.org/knowledge-base/destinations/190-guide-to-flying-to-alaska

Haven't looked at it yet, but I found it!

 

[rgschmi]

Found this:
https://backcountrypilot.org/knowledge-base/destinations/190-guide-to-flying-to-alaska

Haven't looked at it yet, but I found it!

Looks like a lot of good info. Wish I would have had it on my trips.

 

[a2324pilot]

A lot of good reading, thanks for the post.

 

[rashby]

I would love to do this trip, however I don't think I want to jump through all the hoops to do my 3rd class medical again....... However, it would be worth it for this trip! How would the group feel about 100kt sport joining the fun?