Alaska Grand Tour

[DMagick 0]

Instead of popping around from place to place using the map or doing random jobs as I've done in Hawaii, I decided try out a different way to explore Alaska. I'm going to make one big, continuous tour, deciding my next destination along the way, and stopping in on random airstrips as I go. I don't plan on landing at every single dirt strip or seaplane base, obviously, but I figure that I can hit most of the major stops. Some trips I'll use VOR stations to navigate, others I'll just try to fly visually, some of those dirt strips are pretty small though, and I'll have to use the overhead view or the map.

 

Yesterday I flew around Anchorage, then up to Wasilla (does everyone have their own private airstrip there?). After that I went through the mountains to the east and ended up landing at Lake Louise on a tiny, hazardous strip along the southwest shore of the lake.

 

Today I took off from there and headed east to Gulkana, then on north to Allen AAF. Around this time was where I actually came up with this tour idea. So I decided to stop at a few airstrips on the way, while following the flight path from the Gulkana VOR station to Allen.

 

Flying north from Gulkana towards Paxson Airport, I'm above Paxson Lake here. The airstrip is just visible above my airspeed indicator.

 

 

After a successful landing at Paxson.

 

 

I switched to the Carbon Cub and headed northeast again. Now you can start to see some real mountains. I'm flying in the spring with the weather set to 'among the giants.' I like the low level clouds and how they stack up against the mountains.

 

 

Coming in for a landing at Black Rapids airstrip, now about 30nm south of Allen AAF. I like this weather setting, but the poor Carbon doesn't seem to handle the wind very well. You can see the tiny airstrip on the right. I'm pointed about 40º left of the runway, but I'm more or less headed straight for it. And it only got worse as I came in for the landing.

 

 

Luckily the Cub can take a few bounces of the ground while going almost sideways. Here I am after a successful, if harrowing landing.

 

 

Now in the Stearman headed for Allen. I took Roboray's advice and flew through the pass. The river that I'm above (Delta River I think) stretches from Black Rapids all the way to Allen where it joins with another river (maybe that's the Delta, google maps isn't too helpful for rivers).

 

 

Coming in to Allen as the sun is setting.

 

 

And I'm down for now.

 

 

Next up I think I'll head to Fairbanks, a short distance to the Northwest. From there I'm thinking I'll head all the way out to Nome, on the west coast of Alaska, stopping a few places on the way. I'll see if I can't see Russian after that. And then, who knows, I could spend weeks just making 2 or 3 hour hops all throughout Alaska.

[rtodepart 761]

nice pictures mate . if time lets me ill try something similar later on .

[Air1 136]

_{Very impressive, wish I had the time for that. Thanks.}

[Bobsk8 12,700]

That's alot of flying.

[RoboRay 126]

Please keep the pics of your tour coming!

 

I don't want to hop around Alaska, either... but I don't have the patience for a grand tour like that.

 

Rather, I think I'm going to pick a home base and fly mostly from it and in it's vicinity, learning the terrain, and the towns, the airfields and the best low-level routes between them, like I would if I were really operating from there. Then, gradually expanding my "territory" as I learn it like the back if my hand and range further from "home."

 

In Hawaii, I was fortunate to already be intimately familiar with the islands. Other than for the tiny dirt strips, I could fly direct to any field visually without even a glance at my sectional. I used it to play with the VORs, but didn't really need it.

 

I know I can never gain that level of familiarity with all of Alaska, but I would like to learn a chunk of it. Now I just need to pick a place.

 

Some place with grandeur.

 

[Blackrat100 33]

What an excellent idea. I think I'll try something similar but travel around Alaska via the Job Board and take the next job from wherever I land next.

Could be interesting.

[DMagick 0]

Well, I don't think I'll get to everywhere. I was thinking of cutting across the state in a few places, and probably down the southern areas, past Juneau. Follow a mountain range here, a coastline there, some valleys and rivers, that kind of thing.

 

I was thinking of doing the job boards too, although I want to switch around planes a lot, so I'll only be able to do big jobs when I use the Maule. But that's a good idea, especially for when I don't have any specific destination in mind. And hopefully we'll have some new cargo or passenger planes to play around with sometime soon.

 

As for Hawaii, I really like how familiar I've become with the islands. I was **uely aware of the layout of the islands before, but now, after 60 or so hours, I have a fairly good grasp on the area. There's no way I'll be able to do that with Alaska, not even with 600 hours, but I would like to get an idea for what the area is like.

 

And I could see hanging around a few areas for a while, making short trips between all those little airfields. Some places are absolutely bristling with airfields, and I'm sure I could spend a while tooling around in those areas.

[FloatedCrown9 0]

I love the idea and have started a similar thing myself but more along the lines of what Blackrat said using the job board to take me around but not allowing myself the switch airports. It's really a great way to enjoy the scenery and I like having to "work" in order to get from one place to another. I used to do the same in FSX. So far in Alaska, I started out at the southernmost airport and have now worked my way up to Junaeu. Some amazing scenery in that area! As you said DMagick, I am also hoping for some bigger passenger planes/cargo planes soon to make it more interesting.

[Chris-M 0]

Flew a 1-hour trip using the map at vfrmap.com and it was amazing! Reminded me of flying in real life.

[Bobsk8 12,700]

Flew from Ketchikan to Juneau to Sitka last night. Here are a couple of shots of the Juneau to Sitka leg.

 

 

 

[Mork 34]

Great topic! Please keep sharing those screenshots, especially with some nice scenery in it :-)

[EastCoastGuy 0]

A few of my first Alaska images...

 

First -- Aloha Hawaii.

 

 

Tight valley, challenging landing coming through the gorge and over the trees. But be careful where you park, lest someone spawn underneath you!

 

 

500+ airports to land at, and what do people do? Play "King of the Hill" on the VOR equipment, of course!

 

 

... or land on top of the nearest building ...

 

 

We found one REALLY strange anomaly (though I can't remember exactly where at the moment). There's a HUGE rectangular hole in the ground, maybe a quarter mile across, around 1,000 feet deep. Folks were actually flying down into it to try to land on the bottom (nobody succeeded yet).

 

[Bobsk8 12,700]

Flew into Yakutat ( PAYA) from Sitka this morning in the Stearman, a 230 mile flight. On approach the runway and approach lights turned on.

 

 

Touchdown and roll out

 

 

Parked at ramp.

 

[HiFlyer 9,358]

Hope you were dressed warmly in that Stearman!

[RoboRay 126]

Hope you were dressed warmly in that Stearman!

 

NATOPS guidelines call for scarf, goggles and gloves... so that's all he wore!