Trip May 2005
I just finished reading your “Log” and story about your flying trip from Georgia to Alaska and return. It held much interest for me because I have flown out of Alaska to the US and back for at total of 19 one way trips. The geography and some of your stopping places are quite familiar.
Also, on May 25th I was at Northwest Regional airport between Dallas and Ft. Worth with my Cessna 182 78 RR and friend Dan who owned the hangar and wanted the experience of flying to Anchorage. 78RR has long range tanks, so the max air time at 12 gph was about 6 and ½ hours, or at the average speed of 150 mph of 975 miles. A little different from your J3.
We filed our plan to Grande Prairie and took off. We tooled along the east side of the mountains, much as you did, and skirted Calgery’sairspace to the west and also Edmonton’s to the west, flying over some places where you stopped, like Red Deer, and on to Grande Prairie about noon. Fuel, pit stop, a sandwich and filed for Whitehorse, which is 705 statute miles away in a straight line and over about 600 miles of mountains.
My friend said at the beginning he would like to log the time, so I told him if he was going to log, he was going to fly. So, he did the left seat the whole way. Remember he is a Texas pilot used to the flat plains. As we left Grande Prairie and climbed to 9500 feet to at least skirt some of the taller mountains, he was stretching his neck and commenting, “You think we can make it over that next ridge?” We did. He also commented on where we might land if the engine died? Well, is you look down into those valleys with their meandering rivers you see a lot of sand bars. In an emergency we might flip the plane, but probably save the people. However, the engine hummed along happily for the 5 hours and 5 minutes it took (a little head wind) to get to Whitehorse.
