Mooney flying trip to and around Alaska

[Flash]

I just got back from a 16-day vacation in Alaska in my 1993 M20J. I had only a day and a half of sunshine. As a result, I shot 11 instrument approaches in the 16 days. My previous trip to Alaska, 12 years ago, was almost totally VFR. My itinerary was affected by the fact that I'd been to Alaska before, so, for example, I didn't need to go to Barrow again. Barrow is definitely worth a visit if you haven't been.

Day 1: San Carlos, California to Ketchikan. Fuel and lunch stop at Port Angeles, Wash. Ketchikan is a natural first stop in Alaska on the coast route. The coast route can be tricky because of the possibility of ice and the paucity of bail-out airports below. VFR below the clouds is unlikely to be practical for the entire route but may offer an emergency escape from ice. A 180-degree turn and the Mooney's long range is more likely to be the best choice if you can't find a way to continue along your route at an IFR altitude. The Ketchikan airport is on a different island than Ketchikan, so you take a ferry across. There are seaplanes in the channel, and they scud run. There's no tower, but Ketchikan radio is very active in calling out traffic. Ketchikan's airport also is curious in that it has three elevations. The runway is on a hill above the main ramp, with a taxiway climbing up the hill from the ramp to the end of the runway. Overnight parking for Mooneys is on a lower ramp, downhill from the main ramp. The FBO will give you a ride to and from the lower ramp. The FBO is very busy, though, and so is the airport, so it may take a long time to get fueled and to get an IFR release. Ketchikan is totem pole heaven. I like totem poles. I was in heaven. Also, good salmon fish and chips. Stay at the Gilmore downtown.

Day 2: Ketchikan to Sitka, VOR/DME-A. Did I say I like totem poles? There are a bunch at Sitka, and there is a wonderful raptor center. I made a return trip to Sitka because I liked it so much the first time. You can walk to town from the airport (about a mile?). 

Day 3: Sitka to Skagway, LDA X Rwy 8 at Juneau: I didn't want to scud run, so I departed Sitka IFR, knowing that Skagway was reporting 5000-foot ceilings and expecting to shoot a visual there. Surprise. Minimum vectoring altitude at Skagway is above 5000, and there is no instrument approach. The controller asked if I wanted an instrument approach into Haines, about 10 Mooney minutes from Skagway, but (and this happens a lot in Alaska) the instrument approach into Haines is not a public approach and thus not on my approach plates. The controller offered the alternative of an approach into Juneau and breaking off below the clouds, and that worked great. Then I got to Skagway and saw why there is no instrument approach. It's in a narrow valley (Skagway is from a Tlingit idiom that figuratively refers to rough seas in the Taiya Inlet, that are caused by strong north winds passing through this valley). There's a mountain rising on the left side of runway 2/right side of runway 20, so when you're on right downwind you're tight to the runway and/or scraping the treetops. As the A/FD says: APCH TO RWY 20 IN NARROW CANYON; TURBC & HIGH OBSTNS. So I am not embarrassed to say I did a go-around (actually, I'm never embarrassed to say that), and the second time I went about six or seven miles up the canyon where it widened to an extent that a non-mountain-pilot could safely do a 180, and then it was just a straight-in. Skagway is an old Yukon gold-rush transportation hub; you may have seen the classic photo of all the stampeders lined up along the trail into Canada. It's now filthy with cruise ship passengers during the day (as is Ketchikan), but it's still worth a visit for a ride on the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad (I took the excursion up to White Pass and back, so I was actually in Canada during this trip, not just over it, but you don't get out of the train in Canada), or for a climb (a somewhat strenuous hike) to Upper Dewey Lake and the Devil's Punch Bowl. Excellent Thai food at Star Fire Restaurant.

Day 4: Skagway to Haines: 11 minutes en route. Not much in Haines: highlight was an old (by Alaska standards) fort, with a couple of totem poles (!).

Day 5: Haines to Kodiak (ILS Y 26), with a fuel stop in Yakutat (RNAV 29): Yakutat is a $100 hamburger stop that is perfectly located near the middle of an airport-less route between Southeast Alaska and the rest of the state. Fuel is cheap by Alaska standards (under $6 a gallon). The bar/restaurant has a huge moose head on the wall and a beautiful stuffed mountain goat. I think most people who aren't pilots go there to fish, though. The only land or airport between Yakutat and Kodiak is Middleton Island, so I donned my immersion suit. Broke out right at minimums at Kodiak, and I don't think anybody else made it in that day. Landing runway 26 is no big deal until you get a look at the mountain at the departure end. It's really a go-out-the-way-you-came-in runway. But it's plenty long. Saw no bears in Kodiak, although I looked. Did see bison, and bald eagles, including a couple at the airport. Ceiling stayed low my whole time in Kodiak. Couldn't get out on Day 6; my destination was Dutch Harbor, and it was socked in, even if I could leave Kodiak when the weather was below the minimums for a return to the airport on the ILS (i.e., I couldn't use it as an alternate, and there weren't other reasonable alternates).

Day 7: Kodiak to Saint Paul Island (RNAV 36), with fuel stop in Cold Bay (RNAV 33): It was still IMC the day after the day after my arrival in Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor was still inaccessible (the RNAV approach there goes down to 2000-3, so even in MVFR conditions you can't get in unless you descend elsewhere and scud run, and there was a scattered layer below the overcast, and it would have been a long, dangerous scud run), so I chose Cold Bay. There's not much there, but it's a great place to spend an hour, talking to the proprietor of the Bearfoot Inn (and store), and using the slowest internet connection known to man, thanks to the generosity of said proprietor, after I explained that I needed to send an email to explain to my parents that although I might not be able to get a call through to them that didn't necessarily mean I was floating in the Bering Sea. Speaking of which, there is two hours of Bering Sea between Cold Bay and Saint Paul Island, so I got a wonderful face-to-face briefing with the very friendly FSS specialist at Cold Bay, then donned my immersion suit and headed northwest. Saint Paul Island is farther west than any of the Hawaiian islands. It's so far west that if you go due north you're in Russia. 170-13-21.2W, to be exact. That's more than two degrees west of Wales, which is the farthest west airport on the North American mainland. Saint Paul Island is paradise if you like birds. Puffins! And murres, crested auklets, red-faced cormorants, Lapland longspurs, and every 10 feet as you walk along the road, another rock sandpiper. Also, huge northern fur seals (bigger than the seals in California, and far more numerous and more boisterous). They call Saint Paul Island the Galapagos of the north. It's well worth a visit. Few private pilots do, though. Checkout time at the only hotel (communal bathrooms, no TV, but Internet) is noon, but when I tried to check out there was nobody there. I called the number for the hotel. The flight doesn't leave until 6, I was told. My flight leaves before then, I responded. So I went for another walk, saw some more birds, and checked out an hour and a half later.

More on next post.

[Skates97]

Having lived up in Eagle River outside of Anchorage as a kid a trip to Alaska in my Mooney is high up on the bucket list. However, when I finally go I will take the inland route through the Yukon and up the Trench. 

[carusoam]

@201er would like this...  long Xcountry travel and birds!

Best regards,

-a-

[Flash]

Day 9: Saint Paul Island to Nome (ILS Z Rwy 28) after fuel stop in Bethel: I had hoped to visit Saint George Island, which has the other airport in the Pribilof Islands. But the weather was low, and so I decided to head to Nome. I could have tried direct, but the fuel on Saint Paul Island costs $200 just to start the pump, and it's $7 a gallon thereafter, and though I had about 4 hours of fuel for what looked like a 3 hour flight, getting to an alternate with sufficient fuel to be both legal and, more importantly, safe, would have been a challenge. The only thing on the direct route from Saint Paul Island to Nome is the Bering Sea. Nome had a NOTAM for musk oxen on and in the vicinity of the airport, and sure enough I saw them the next day, as a fire truck at the end of one of the runways tried to shoo them with a hose as they swam past along the Snake River. Nome is a gold rush town, and there is still mining there. The most interesting thing to see in town is all of the rusting mining equipment, including some dredges. The most interesting person I met was Hugues Jurion, a 77-year-old New Caledonian retired airline pilot who had just come from Russia in an RV8 on his second round-the-world trip (New Caledonia, Brisbane, Cairns, Borneo, Taiwan, Japan, Russia, I believe, though I'm probably omitting some stops and certainly omitting some great stories from the first month of his trip. More here if you read French.

Day 11: Nome to Manley Hot Springs, with fuel stop in Galena (RNAV 7): Galena is the biggest Alaskan town on the Yukon River, but that's not saying much. I don't recommend stopping there. I was headed IFR to Fairbanks when I heard the AWOS at Tanana reporting good VMC conditions, so I descended on the approach there and broke out well before the FAF (so I don't count it as an approach) and continued VFR to Manley Hot Springs, which has a 1903 vintage roadhouse right next to the airport. It was the only gravel field I landed on during this trip, and it's much longer than it was when I visited 12 years ago. It feels like Alaska there.

Day 12: Manley to Fairbanks: My only fully VMC day in Alaska. Parked the plane at the campsite accessed from the taxiway past the departure end of runway 2, borrowed one of the free bicycles there for pilots, and pedaled to the University of Alaska's large animal research station, where I saw musk oxen and reindeer , then to the Museum of the university's museum (a must-see) and the botanical garden (huge cabbages, bright flowers, because of long sunny days) and the bird refuge (cranes). Didn't visit the aviation museum; saw that last time. Also camping was a part-time Lufthansa pilot who bases his big-tired Aviat Husky in Idaho.

Day 13 Fairbanks to Juneau (LDA X Rwy 8), via circling Denali and fuel stop at Yakutat (ILS 11): I had intended to stop in Talkeetna or Valdez or McCarthy before heading back to southeast Alaska, but there's one narrow route from most of Alaska to southeast, and the freezing level was going to drop and the clouds were going to come in and if I wanted to be sure to get through the gate I needed to get while the getting was good. Fortunately, Fairbanks was still VMC, and that meant I could depart VFR and be on top of the 10,000 foot undercast circling Denali. It's a beautiful sight, even when you can't see all the way to the bottom. Got to the airway and picked up my IFR clearance to Yakutat. I just realized I forgot to log that ILS, so make that 12 instrument approaches in 16 days! Landing Juneau is like airliners landing at Washington National; there's a turn very close to the approach end of Runway 8 (because of a hill that would make the straight-in too steep a descent). When I got out of the plane, I saw the right main was flat. Whoops. First time that's ever happened to me. Glad it happened in Juneau rather than a place without an A&P and a maintenance shop with the necessary tools. It was too late to get ahold of maintenance that night, so I got on the horn the next morning and quickly found that although Juneau has mechanics, they are busy people, and although Juneau has a lot of planes, it had no spare 6.00-6 inner tubes. Fortunately, I got a tube ordered (and a tire, just to be safe). (I thought about reinflating the tire but was worried that even if it seemed to hold air the problem might recur at my next stop, which would be a problem.) I also spent enough time on the Web to confirm that (1) I could legally change the tire myself, (2) I might actually be able to do it, (3) I didn't have the tools, and (4) if I tried to do it myself, based on step by step instructions I could find online, I could make things worse, because although I do my own oil changes i am far from a mechanical whiz. Got the part shipped same-day from Anchorage, and a mechanic who could fix the plane on Saturday, but only at 7 p.m. So I spent Saturday visiting the Mendenhall Glacier.

Day 15 Juneau to Wrangell (LDA-C): He ended up fixing the tire at 8:15 (long story, but happy ending), and was done by 9:15. That meant night IMC in the rain. There's not a lot of after-dark flying in the summer in Alaska (the sun set after midnight in Nome), but here I was flying along in the soup with rain, fortunately below the freezing level. By this point, though, my flying was pretty sharp, thanks to all the practice I was getting, in actual, so the LDA-C led me to runway lights, and a landing, and a walk to the B&B (taxi shuts down at 11, and I got in after 11. A bit before midnight, I was at my B&B.

Day 16 Wrangell to Ketchikan (ILS Y Rwy 11)  to Kelso, Washington: Ran the Bearfest Marathon, in continuous light rain with 10 mph winds. Finished third overall, but ran what for me was a very slow time. Still, very happy I got to Wrangell and collected my 27th marathon state and 31st marathon overall. Departed IFR after a delay caused by the fact that there's no way for a transient pilot to get to his or her plane when the Department of Transportation person is not on the job. (Glad he showed up.) Delay leaving Ketchikan because it was busy and IMC, meaning nobody could be cleared for an approach until the previous plane landed or took off and departed the airspace. VMC started an hour or two south of Ketchikan, but by the time I crossed the border into Washington it was already past 9 p.m. PDT (as opposed to past 8 p.m. AKDT), and once I got on the ground at Kelso I knew that I'd be using the self-serve pumps the next morning rather than landing at San Carlos past 2 a.m. and arriving home almost an hour after that. Got some help from the Lifestar helicopter rescue pilots and checked into a hotel.

[Flash]

1 hour ago, Skates97 said:

Having lived up in Eagle River outside of Anchorage as a kid a trip to Alaska in my Mooney is high up on the bucket list. However, when I finally go I will take the inland route through the Yukon and up the Trench. 

On my first trip to Alaska, 12 years ago, I took the Alaska Highway. It was gorgeous. There's a lake along that route that was out-of-this-world beautiful. I've never flown the trench.

[Flash]

The photos above are, first, Mount Pavlof and Pavlof Sister, a pair of volcanoes near Cold Bay; three photos of Denali; flying over the tundra; airplane campsite at FAI.

[Flash]

When I was in Nome, I wanted to fly northwest to Wales, to visit the town and also to fly a bit farther west to get a look at Russia. Insert Sarah Palin joke here. But I wouldn't have been able to see anything in Russia other than Russian clouds. I got within a Mooney hour of Russia, though.

[XXX]

Excellent write up Flash. Thanks for sharing. 

[ArtVandelay]

Given you were flying a Mooney, how were the runway conditions? I'm surprised by all the IMC.

[thinwing]

How did you like the hold into Ketchikan!

[201er]

Did you encounter or have concerns of icing?

[wishboneash]

Great trip report! 

[Cooperd0g]

Thanks for the write up and the pictures!

[Flash]

12 hours ago, teejayevans said:

Given you were flying a Mooney, how were the runway conditions? I'm surprised by all the IMC.

Runway conditions were excellent. Last time I flew N315L to Alaska, I landed on gravel and dirt a couple of times; this time, only one gravel runway, and that was 4000 feet. The runways were generally lang and in good shape. There were runway condition reports at some of the airports, but it just wasn't an issue in summer temperatures.

I was surprised by all the IMC, too. You expect it in southeast Alaska, and you expect it in the Pribilofs, which are routinely so foggy that Part 135 carriers have to cancel or divert. Generally, Alaska is so big (2.2 times as big as Texas) and so mountainous that there are multiple climates, so you should find sun somewhere. I did in Fairbanks, but that was about it.

[Flash]

8 hours ago, 201er said:

Did you encounter or have concerns of icing?

I had many concerns about icing. The airmets for moderate icing were always well above me, but in a Mooney without weeping wings even light icing is something you don't want to mess with. Controllers were helpful in giving me altitude changes. A descent, a climb, or a 180 were options (not always all three). I knew the freezing level forecasts cold (see what I did there), and I adjusted my schedule and plans accordingly. I monitored my OAT and the leading edges of the wings and the rain on the windshield, and the terrain elevation below and around me as depicted on my moving map. This doesn't mean I wasn't ever nervous (maybe it means I was nervous); there are large chunks of my route in which I was out of radar or communications contact, and if I had needed to change altitude or divert in any of those stretches it would have been a bad thing (although even then, the big sky theory would have been my friend, even on the airways, and planes in my area would have been in communications range of me even if I wasn't in communications range of a controller). I handled this no-radar, no-comm issue to some extent through planning, such as requesting a block altitude before losing radio contact. But unforecast conditions are always possible; my risk tolerance certainly differs from others' (less than some, more than others). I would have seen much less of Alaska if my risk tolerance were lower, and I had no weather-related issues, but that doesn't validate my decisionmaking.

You shouldn't make the trip to Alaska without having thought about (1) icing, (2) marginal and or special VFR (I heard a lot of special VFR clearances but didn't get any myself), and (3) fuel planning, and you should bring a good book to read for the day(s) you spend waiting for the weather to clear (mine was the Wright Brothers biography by David McCullough). You need to know what conditions you're willing to accept and what conditions you won't. A lot of pilots in Alaska fly below the clouds in conditions that I would not accept, but they have different planes, different local knowledge, and different experience than I do.

[Flash]

9 hours ago, thinwing said:

How did you like the hold into Ketchikan!

I didn't have to hold; my wait in Ketchikan was on the ground. I was assigned a hold coming into Juneau, but I slowed enough that I was cleared for the approach just before I entered the hold.

[thinwing]

2 minutes ago, Flash said:

I didn't have to hold; my wait in Ketchikan was on the ground. I was assigned a hold coming into Juneau, but I slowed enough that I was cleared for the approach just before I entered the hold.

Good timing...I'm not that lucky

[Raptor05121]

Excellent story and write-up! I love the pictures and just reading your adventure took me in a jog of memory from only a year ago when I took a cruise ship from Vancouver up through Ketchikan, Juneau, then Skagway/Haines, off to Anchorage (train to Fairbanks). I walked all the way to Skagway airport from the Cruise Ship just to look at planes. I remember coming into Ketchikan, the family wanted to get a ride into a plane. We pulled into port with ceilings at 200 feet with rain. I told them no way in hell a plane is flying today. About 30 seconds later a tour plane Beaver takes off parallel to my ship and right into the clouds. My jaw dropped.

Juneau was the best weather for us. Absolutely gorgeous. CAVU, severe clear. Rode in a Turbine Otter there, climbed to 10k and got to see a lot. Met a friend in Anchorage and he took me around Lake Hood, Merill Field, etc.

I've been dreaming of Alaska ever since we left. I want to fly up there so bad. I went on an Alaska crazy theme when I got back. Good movie to watch is "The Frozen Ground" with John Cusack. He flies a Super Cub out of Merill Field. A few good reads are: "The Forgotten War: A Pictorial History of World War II in Alaska", "Broken Wings: Aviation Disasters in Alaska" (which is coincidentally awesome because several high-profile crashes, have actual pieces in collection at the museum below) and another great book I'll have to check when I get home, about Bush Flying in the 60s and 70s in Cherokee 6's out of Haines.

The Pioneer Air Museum in Fairbanks is a MUST SEE! They have actual pieces from wreckage from several famous crashes such as Wiley Posts original steel tombstone markers, pieces from the first plane to fly to the North Pole, a crashed P-39 from Lend/Lease, and several other famous flights whose name escapes me at the moment.

[Flash]

Thanks, Alex. You really should make the trip. It's a long way from Florida, but you can get to Fargo on the first day and be on the Alaska Highway by the second. If you do fly the highway, the bible is the Alaska Airmen's Logbook, which is unfortunately out of print. You're right about the Pioneer Air Museum. I should have gone back.

[Raptor05121]

Bucket list, for sure. Post more pictures if you have them.

[Skates97]

6 hours ago, Raptor05121 said:

Bucket list, for sure.

Hmm... This would have to be a trip planned out a couple of years in advance, but putting together a trip with 2-3 Mooneys to Alaska would provide company as well as a safety net in case someone had problems along the way.

[MIm20c]

Really want to make the trip in the C...extended tanks would be great to have.  Thanks for the write up and pictures!

[Hector]

That's an adventure. In my bucket list for sure


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Flash]

3 hours ago, MIm20c said:

Really want to make the trip in the C...extended tanks would be great to have.  Thanks for the write up and pictures!

Range is good, but Alaska has a lot of planes with no more range than a standard-tanks C. The Alaska Highway has plenty of fuel stops, as do most areas in Alaska itself. What range gives you is wider ability to find an alternate, but under normal conditions you can get anywhere in Alaska with what you've got..

[Hank]

12 hours ago, Flash said:

Range is good, but Alaska has a lot of planes with no more range than a standard-tanks C. The Alaska Highway has plenty of fuel stops, as do most areas in Alaska itself. What range gives you is wider ability to find an alternate, but under normal conditions you can get anywhere in Alaska with what you've got..

He may be thinking of getting to Alaska.