Anhorage to Ketchikan at 500 feet

Wednesday, July 20th was the last scheduled leg for our group to fly together. The route we would be flying was the reverse of the one we took to catch up with our group five or more days ago from Canada. The difference now was that we would be flying by visual flight rules taking some scenic detours, and flying at 500 feet above ground level the whole way to be better able to see the scenery.

We had what seemed to be a leisurely start at 9 am and the weather was glorious. Clear blue skies and great VFR for most of the way. The only weather we expected would be as we got close to our destination of Ketchikan when ceilings were forecast to be about 1500 feet. The group would check the weather at our scheduled fuel stop at Yakutat (PAYA).

Today Jim and I would be the trail aircraft in a flight of nine. Soon after takeoff we were at our target altitude of 900 feet to stay below of Anchorage airspace. Within a few minutes Dale, the flight leader, announced he would have to return to the airport because his door popped open in flight. This does happen on occassion which is why we always make sure the doors are secure - and while it doesn't impact the plane it can be a frustrating distraction so the protocol is to land the plane, secure the door, and take off again. Our flight leader turned the flight over to the number 2 plane and told us to go slow along our planned flight and he would catch-up. We all slowed to about 115 knots and went on our way and within 20 minutes our flight leader caught up and took his position in the front and we were once again up to 150 knots indicated airspeed.

Our initial route took us out Turnagain Bay and over the Portage Pass into Whittier and Prince William Sound, Valdez and the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline, and then the east side of the Sound where the Exxon Valdez spill took place.

I apologize to my readers that again words will not do justice to what we saw and I look forward to posting the photos Jim took as soon as I have access to a regular computer. We flew over and around numerous glaciers and isolated bays along the coast. We even saw a huge glacier 'calving' that seemed to go on forever with a river of snow spilling into the bay. Once out of the immediate Anchorage area we started flying just over the coast (beach) at about 500 to 700 feet and continued along that way for some time. We passed a shipwreck, a lighthouse and had a constant view of majestic snow capped mountains to our left, glaciers that we could almost reach out and touch, and endless blue ocean to our right. We even took a detour to see hundreds of sea lions sunning themselves on the beach. Jim says he saw a moose but it was an uncomfirmed sighting.

After about 3 hours we landed at Yakutat and formed a conga line to refuel at the one self service pump and grab a quick bite at the hunting lodge (with the sign Food Booze Shelter) and to check the weather at Ketchikan. No cell phone coverage here so we again used the wireless at this rustic lodge and our iPads/iPhones to check aviation weather sites. Soon we were set with both our planes and bodies refueled and we took off for the second leg for the day. After take off one of the RV's (planes) in the group announced trouble - his oil filter hatch had opened in flight - not a big deal but flying with it open would not let his engine cool properly (aircraft have baffles and other structures around the carefully engineered engined compartment to optimize airflow and enfine cooling). He immediately headed back to the airport with another RV pilot for support. So we again slowed down to about 105 knots to give them time to fix the problem and catch back up.

It was clear on this flight I was going to get a lot of practice with slow flight. We cruised down the coast and in about 40 minutes, travelling full throttle at 185 knots, the two aircraft caught up. A little duct tape to keep the oil cover closed solved the problem until he could get a replacement screw which popped out.

We travelled along the coast and detoured towards Juneau and Glacier Bay for more sightseeing. Once we were in southeast Alaska south of Juneau it is like a loose aggregation of islands. We were navigating a route around, between and over. Soon, we saw whale tales splashing in the waters below, and although we weren't quick enough to get a picture, we had half a dozen or more whale sightings. Before long, we saw the big white whale, a cruise ship off in the distance. We flew by with some of us rocking our wings and getting waves from the passengers (as best we could tell).

When we got withing 20 minutes of Ketchikan the weather started to deteriorate with ceilings of 1000 to 1500 feet in places but visibility remained good. We tightened up the formation to make sure we could keep sight of the plane in front of us should visibility be reduced, but we expected 5 miles visibility to the airport. Within 10 miles of the airport clouds were obscuring the mountain tops on the islands around us and we saw a wall of white down to the water ahead of us, higher ceilings and great unlimited visibility to the left. We proceeded knowing we had a generous escape route to the left if conditions worsened.

Our direction would have us changing our course to the left after we passed the island to our left to enter into the bay where the airport was located (sea level elevation). As we approached the wall of white ahead a light rain began to fall and visibility was reduced for about 30 seconds (it seemed longer) but as we changed our heading left for the airport conditions 'improved' to marginal VFR for the last 3 miles to the airport which was clearly in sight ahead of us. We landed in a good formation and soon had our planes secured, bags unpacked, and fuel orders placed. The day had been long with over 6 hours of flying but it remains one of the most memorable legs of the trip. We now had a day off in Ketchikan to sleep in and walk around the town before our Friday departure back towards home.

Glacier Flight

On our first day in Anchorage, Saturday, the plan was to do an extended flight around the glaciers of the Kenai Peninsula, stop in Homer and have dinner then fly back 'home.' Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate so the flight was cancelled. To make up for the loss, the flight leader offered to have a brief glacier flight with those planes that wanted to go at 8:00 am this morning. Four 'crews' rolled out of their beds to be at the airfield in time to make the flight, we were one of the four.

Clouds were still 'layered' in the morning with ceilings anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 feet. As the day heats up the clouds tend to dissipate. We took off and headed over the Harding Icefield in our typical formation flight. LIke yesterday's blog, I can't do justice describing the experience, and we will have to rely on Jim's photos. We flew along the valleys, beautiful terrain on either side, layers of wispy clouds above and below us, over these giant frozen rivers. It was difficult to comprehend their size as we flew up the valleys although a remember thinking how unusual it was for us to be flying at 180 miles an hour and it seemed like we were standing still - the planes ahead mere speaks against the backdrop of these enourmous glaciers. Off to our left on the return home we saw Mt. Redoubt.

The flight was too short.

On landing, we taxied back to get fuel and had to go through a construction area at the airport full of cranes, barricades and other equipment. Jim and I reviewed the flight as we taxied and took our attention off the construction 'stuff' around the plane, and before we knew it the right wingtip brushed up against a folding highway barricade with a blinking light on top - we saw bits of glass and debris spray out on the ground - the strobe and nav light on the wingtip had broken off. Crap. We were not going to get stuck in another Alasak town waiting for a part. Although the plane was perfectly safe to fly, we are required to have a functioning strobe light for flight (kind of like headlights on car) which increases the visibility of our plane to others.

I remember from my previous calls down at Prince George that there was a Cirrus Service Center in Anchorage - the only one in Alaska (yeah!). I gave them a call and discovered they had stopped being service center an no longer carried the parts (#@%*). They referred us to a shop on Merrill Field where we were located. We found out these lights are a bit more common and with the help of a great parts guy and A&P mechanic we had made the repair and were set to go again.

Jim and I then headed back to the hotel and some hangar talk with some of the other pilots. Tomorrow we would begin our final leg as a group, Anchorage to Ketchikan. Two of the pilots on the trip, a father and son, soon joined the group. They had stayed in Talkeetna for a couple of days, the Dad getting a Bush Plane endorsement, and son getting a float plane rating. Hmmmm, and idea for the next trip.......

Vacation Day - Whittier Glacier Cruise

Sunday was a day of 'rest' with no flying adventures. Our day was largely a five hour cruise from Whittier, AK to view many of the glaciers in the Prince William Sound - which you may remember as the site of the Exxon Valdez oils spill. Jim and I took and early start so we could stop somewhere along the 90 minute drive out to Whittier to have breakfast. Part of the drive was through the 2.5 mile Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, the only way to get into Whittier by car outside of the Marine Alaska Highway Ferry. The tunnel is one lane only, and is shared by both directions of traffic as well as the train. Getting through the tunnel by car in a given direction was only for a 15 minute period once every hour. http://www.dot.state.ak.us/creg/whittiertunnel/

On the way we stopped at Gerdwood, a place Jim was familiar with from a previous visit to Alaska, and had breakfast at 'the bakery.' Whittier is one of the largest cold water ports in the U.S. and was a major hub during WWII as well as the cold war (military base) and still moves over 1/3rd of the shipping of goods and products into Alaska. That, plus the beautiful mountains and glaciers is pretty much all that's there. You don't want to miss the last tunnel out. By way of example, one of the locals was wearing a bright orange hoodie with the words on the back that said 'Prisoner of Whittier.'

The weather was beautiful the day we were there, which is not always a common occurrence. Rains is common, often blowing sideways. I can't do justice in describing the glaciers and wildlife we saw on the cruise, and we had a chance to take some great photos - but I will have to wait until my return to be able to post them to the blog (using only an iPad to blog does have its limitations - in case you were wondering I do have a keyboard which makes a world of difference).

Until the pictures then.......

Food Shelter Booze

The airport in Ketchikan is located on an island and you have to take a ferry into town. Given our tight schedule, I stayed in the FBO (flight based operations) on the airport to plan the next leg of the trip and get updated weather briefs from the Alaska briefers. Jim went to the airline terminal next door to grab us something to eat during our very brief turnaround. We didn't have a chance to go into town and would be back to Ketchikan in a few days. The weather continued to hold and we filed IFR at 6,000 feet to Yakutat, Alaska which is about half way between Ketchikan and Achorage. Part of our leg was between the various islands of the inside passage north of Ketchikan, then northwest towards Sitka before turning north again and flying up the coast.

You can follow our route for all three legs on flight aware, track private flights. Our tail number is N310TN and the link is http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N310TN/history/20110716/1900Z/CYXS/PAKT .

The views along the inside passage where fantastic, lush, green forests and blue water - looking virtually untouched and pristine.

As we turned north we again soon got into IMC (instrument meterological conditions) and were flying in the clouds with occassional holes where we could see the beautiful Alaskan coast on our right, and the endless ocean on our left. After two hours we landed in Yakutat (PAYA) with its 7,500 foot runway. No tower on the airport but Juneau Radio, which normally does the weather briefings, provides traffic advisories and manages traffic at the airport even though they are miles away. Alaska is probably one of the few places left where this happens.

We landed without incident on the 7,000+ foot runway and taxied over to get fuel, take a break and plan our next leg. After fueling, we walked over to the 'rustic' lodge on the airport (there isn't much else around this very remote location) to get a cold drink and plan our next leg. The sign over the lodge in big letters was 'Food Shelter Booze.' It is a hunting and fishing lodge - walking inside it definitely had the lumberjack feel. The few folks in the lodge sitting at the wooden bar having their evening shots just gave us a sideways look when we walked in which was the extent of their acknowledgement. No cell service but the lodge proprieter let us use their land line to call for a briefing and file a flight plan for our last leg.

Again the weather held, so we planned for a take-off in 45 minutes, stretched our legs, re-arranged the plane and jumped back in to make the last leg to Anchorage and cell phone coverage. Despite the long runway of 7,500 feet (our home airport is only about 3,200 feet) there is no parallel taxiway, so we back taxied on the runway itself for takeoff. We taxied back the whole length so we could use the footage markers every 1000 feet to check the performance of the plane at full gross weight and see how many feet it actually took for take-off. Less than 1,000 feet, gotta love this plane.

We were in solid IMC for most of the flight back to Anchorage at our cruise altitude of 6,000 feet but when we got past Cordova we had to climb to 10,000 feet for the rising terrain and getting over the mountains surrounding Anchorage. We climbed out of the clouds and again we were in beautiful clear skies above the cloud layer with unlimited visibility. Majestic mountain peaks jutting up through the clouds to the right. The weather broke up more as we approached Anchorage and we had spectacular views of the surrounding glacier fields. After clearing the mountains we had a rapid descent into the Anchorage bowl, with a very understanding controller who knew we were unfamiliar with the area. Jim quickly picked out Merrill field from the half-dozen airports all confined in a very small area. We arrived after 10pm Alaska time (11 pm Pacific) with the sun still shining brightly well over the horizon - it doesn't even count as night flight.

We quickly secured the plane and got a pickup at the airfield to our hotel where we met some of group in the hotel bar to say hello and swap stories. A great end to a long day.

Trek to Alaska

After a day of dejection with a poor long range weather forecast, Jim and I woke early again on Saturday to figure out our next steps. Had the weather cleared enough for us to take a stab at flying north to catch up to our group? Or, looking for a gap in weather south and escaping back to home.

The weather looked remarkably better around Prince George, but if we elected to push on we had over 1,000 nautical miles to go to get to Anchorage Alaska. After detailed briefings with Kamloops, BC flight services, and Juneau flight services (since our first leg crosses the Canada US border around Prince Rupert/Ketchikan) it looked like an IFR flight might be doable. The Kamloops briefers were outstanding, and with their help discovered a narrow corridor of good predicted weather around noon just north of Prince George and direct to Ketchikan.

I filed our border crossing papers on line (eAPIS) which is a real pain in the butt, and we set a target time of noon to depart. We committed to push on. We checked out, went to the airport, and I finished one more briefing and filed a flight plan. Now, Prince George airport is not very busy, despite the fact that it has a mile and 1/2 runway. It serves more as a logistics hub. So when I called the tower to get my IFR clearance I was a little vexed why he read it back rapid fire making it very difficult to understand. That didn't allay any of the anxiety I already had with 1000 miles in front of us dodging weather along the way. He slowed down after I asked him for repeated clarifications. At noon, we were wheels up!

We hit solid instrument conditions at about 5,000 feet and our cruising altitude was 10,000. Then ATC rerouted us further south of our intended plan which raised a few more concerns we might be pushed into some of the remnants of nasty weather. As always, the concern was ice. We soon broke out of the clouds and at 10,000 feet we were in clear skies with a cotton layer of clouds below punctuated by rows of alto cumulous (small thunder clouds) all of which were below us. We could see clear skies to the horizon. Beautiful weather!

There were patches in the cloud layer below so we could see the beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers below us through the holes in the clouds. Free at last.

The flight was largely uneventful. But because we are in rugged terrain in sparsely populated areas, the ATC stations that you are in communication with throughout the flight have gaps in both radar and communications coverage unless you are flying up with the airliners. When flying IFR/IMC we are in constant contact with ATC and they have us (we hope) in radar coverage so they can track us and see exactly where we are at all times. ATC will hand you off from center to center as you progress along on you trip. It took a little getting used to when the controller whould say something like "radar coverage lost, in 50 miles contact me on frequencey 132.2, and if you can't reach me just keep trying every 10 minutes or so." That took a bit of getting used too, but we discovered it would be pretty standard for the rest of our trip. I certainly had to brush the cob webs off of 'lost comm' procedures.

When we hit the coast we had a bit more weather at our altitude andwe hit some clouds and began to quickly collect some clear ice on the wings. We were just skimming along the tops of the clouds, so we requested higher from the controller as we knew this would get us out of the clouds in short order. We were given a new altitude of 13,000 feet, on top of the clouds again in clear skies, life was good.

The descent into Ketchikan was uneventful, the clouds broke up and we saw tremendous vistas of the inside passage from the air at 13,000 feet. Photographs can't do it justice. Our landing was uneventful. We had to stay in our plane until customs officers came to check the plane and our papers for entry in the US, which only took a few minutes. Ther first, and hardest leg of our our trek to Alaska was complete.

More later, you can check out our track on our spot website but using the link in the first blog entry.

Grounded

The weather isn't cooperating. I was up at 5:30 AM talking with weather briefers in Alaska and Canada as well as studying available weather charts on the computer. We continued to be surrounded by unstable weather, with low visiblity and low ceilings along portions of just about every direction out of Prince George. North and 'the Trench' was quickly eliminated as an option as ceilings were down to 1,500 feet on portions of the route. Coastal weather in Alaska was marginal VFR but fine for IFR flight, the only problem was flying west of Prince George to Prince Rupert where we have to fly at higher altitudes to avoid terrain and were icing becomes a problem, before we can turn north and fly at lower altitudes.

Jim and I headed to the airport to pick up a couple of charts we didn't have and finish weather briefing there hoping for two options: VFR flight to Prince Rupert (so we could fly low) where we could land and then fly IFR safely up the coast of Alaska, or that freezing levels would improve so we could fly IFR all the way.

Conditions didn't change by the time we got to the airport, and once we got the extra VFR charts we were able to look at the VFR route from Prince George, to Smithers, Terrace and then Prince Rupert. Briefed again with a Canadian flight service station who was familiar with the area and used to work Prince Rupert. He quickly advised that weather was good VFR to Terrace, but very iffy from there to the final leg to Prince Rupert flying in the canyons of the Skeena River. Icing levels didn't change so IFR options remained the same. We also took a look at flying further southwest to get to the coast to then fly up IFR at lower altitudes, but VFR conditions in that direction where even worse. On top of all that, today looks to be the best weather for the next 7 days.

I talked to the flight leader this morning as well and they were flying out of Whitehorse but conditions weren't great. And in talking with the Alaska briefer, weather there is not going to be any great shakes either in the coming week.

Crunch time. Jim and I talked over our options. We could make the IFR flight and probably be ok, but would have to be prepared to turn around if we encountered icing. Or, we could take small hops over as far as Terrace to see if the weather cleared tomorrow. It didn't take us long to decide to stay put. Even with a succesful flight we are just pushing further into crappy conditions in Alaska and NW Canada and could very well end up stuck again further up the coast. Advancing only as far as Terrace doesn't buy us much distance. Time to bail out.

We've lost almost half of the trip with downtime in Prince George, our first leg into the trip. Time to think about getting home and cutting the trip short. The unseasonable weather just isn't working out. So, if the weather cooperates tomorrow, we will fly IFR to the Bellingham or another US port of entry and then push on to home.

More downtime. Off to see the last installment of the Harry Potter movie.

Idle in Prince George

We are idle in Prince George as we wait for our aircraft part to be shipped from Maryland, clear customs, and make its way into Prince George. The estimated delivery time - 5pm on Thursday. Two days to kill and no guarantee that this part would fix the problem. We had to add to this the unusually crappy weather we are having in Alaska and Western Canada - where normally the weather is a balmy 21 degrees centigrade with the sun shining brightly, it is a humid 15 degrees with constant thunder clouds, rain and lightning. Freezing levels are low (the altitude at which a plane is in danger of getting ice when flying in the clouds) limiting IFR travael. VFR flight (visual and low to the ground in Alaska/Canada) is iffy with the rapidly changing weather. Not to mention that we are now a group of one.

So, I have been spending a good chunk of my time over the two days reading about Canada flight rules, researching route options, and constantly checking the weather patterns to determine what we might be able to do to catch up to the group once we get the plane repaired.

It did give us a little opportunity to get familiar with Prince George (you can see the shot from our hotel room of the town above). Tuesday night we caught part of the World baseball championship playing in PG and saw the Formasa/Japan game. We also checked out probably all the good restaurants - a couple of recommendations - the Hummus Brothers (gotta love the name) which actually was a superb tapa restaurant that just opened, and, CiMO, a great italian restuarant with house made pasta and ingredients from local farms. If you every find yourself in Prince George check it out. Oh, and our hotel was booked so we had to switch from the Coast to the Ramada and welcomed a big improvement to our accomodations.

Aside from doing the laundry, and trying to find Jim fresh brewed ice tea (harder to come by then you might think), that was about the extent of our adventures.

Thursday finally came and the aircraft part finally arrived. I won't bore you with the details of my constant web checking and phone calls to track its progress thorugh the FedEx system. The folks at Hill Aviation at Prince George Airport where fantastic and called me as soon as it was in. We rushed down to the airport to assist with removing the airplane cowl so the mechanic could do his work. It only took 10 minutes to install the part (for want of a nail). After a quick engine run-up to check for leaks we took the aircraft out for a shake down flight circling around the Prince George with clouds at 4,000 feet and showers at various points on the horizon with winds of 19 - 21 knots (fortunately right down the runway). The plane performed perfectly so it seems all is repaired and ready to go. While in the air we had a chance to see the swollen Frasier river that has been causing record floods, washing out roads, and causing general mayhem. Talk about global warming.

After landing and securing the aircraft we put in a fuel order and headed back to the hotel to try and sort out options for the next day. I had a chance to talk with a local pilot as well who gave me some tips on the local weather patterns on the various routes.

I gave a call our flight leader to let him know we were ready to get back in the air and catch up with the group and discovered that the group got stuck in Whitehorse, YK - the place we were headed to when our plane acted up. Seems the weather has kept them gounded as well and with the patchy internet services in Whitehorse, and the fact that Canadian aviation weather will only forecast out 6 hours, they haven't been able to quite sort out their options either.

We will have to see how the weather looks in the morning. Plan A is an IFR flight over to Prince Rupert, BC then crossing over the border and landing in Ketchikan, AK. Once over there more options will open up to us. Plan B will be going through 'the Trench' but the line of thunderstorms, however mild in Canada compared to farther south, is creating rapidly changing conditions. Plan C is going further down the list of restaurants in Prince George and checking out the bowling alley.

Trouble at 4,000 Feet

Today, our our group had a long day ahead of us flying from Prince George, BC to Mackenzie and then through 'the Trench' before getting to Watson Lake - a 431 NM leg (for you non-aviators a nautical mile is about 1.15 staute miles and is equivalent to 1 second on a Lat/Long chart). After a stop for fueling at Watson Lake we were to push on to Whitehorse, our final destination. A total trip of 640 NM and about 4.5 hours of time in the air. At dinner last night Jim and I sat with the flight leader for one of our two groups who gave me an idea what to expect.

The Trench, she told me, was approximatlely a 350 mile straight narrows varying from 5 miles to 20 miles wide with mountains on either side rising from 7-10,000 feet and weather or cloud cover lower than the mountain tops. Sometimes down to 1,000 feet. Once you entered the Trench trying to get out by flying 'up' was risky, and you didn't know what weather was in the Trench because there are no weather reporting stations along this section of the route. Once you entered the Trench, she explained, you can't get out until you get to the other side. She made it sound like the Laurentian Abyss on land. There is a little river that flows through the Trench - never lose sight of it, she said, no matter how low you have to fly due to weather. What if the clouds are below the tree tops? Fly lower. The only escape was to turn around and go backwards if the weather became unmanageable. Of course this brought up all sorts of visions of trying to turn an airplane around in a tight canyon while flying at 900 feet while successfully staying off the ground, not drifting up into the weather, or making a lazy turn and getting too close to the terrain on either side. All skills a good pilot has, but one needs to stay on their game. The Trench, she repeated, once you go in you can't come out. I think she was having fun with this, kind of like telling me a campfire ghost story.

There are some small gravel strip airports along the way for oil workers and the like, only about 2200 feet long (very short), which you could use in an emergency. But they had no services, like fuel, once you landed. Now I understood what our trip leader said on our first day during our pilot briefing - we are not on a vacation, this is an adventure. A vacation, you see is where you can sit back and relax while someone else took care of you and you could have a cold drink by the pool. An adventure is when one is in charge of his or her own destiny and your performance and the decisions you make will determine your outcome.

I included a map reference in the blog showing Mackenzie. The long blue trench like thing going north west from Mackenzie is 'the Trench.'

So, this morning we assembled at Prince George airport to take off on our trip to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory through 'the Trench'. Cloud ceilings were about 4,000 feet along our route and only 900 feet right over the airport. Before long our group took off under 'special VFR' to clearer skies a few miles ahead. Our plane was position number 8 in a group of 10 planes. We soon leveled off at our initial altitude of 4,000 feet, I set the speed and gas mixture on the plane, part of the checklist of initial duties once getting to cruise altitude, and settled back to flying in formation. Then trouble struck.

I saw a flash of red on my primary flight display which caught my attention. The oil pressure had shot up 'in the red' to a high level of 100 PSI - not good. Within a few moments it read 'zero' - even worse. I had to think engine failure was imminent. I announced to the flight leader I was having trouble with my oil pressure readings and had to return to the airport and I started my turn back. Before I knew it the readings where back in the 'green' and everything was normal. The oil temp reading was steady green at at 170 degrees during the whole episode which told me the problem might be with the engine oil pressure sensor failing but no real problem with the engine. (Like modern cars, new aircraft are heavily computerized - my cockpit displays are all computer screens without any real 'gauges'). I wanted to stay with the group so I reversed my turn to head back - not the best choice. Within a few moments the oil pressure indicator began to swing wildly again - this time I didn't hesitate to turn back to the airport. With thoughts of 300 or so miles of 'the Trench' ahead I couldn't afford to take the risk. I announced my intentions to the flight leader. This made my co-pilot Jim happy who was probably wondering what the hell I was thinking to try to re-join the group anyway (being the calm guy that he is he just shook his head and waited for me to sort it out).

I contacted Prince George tower and asked for permission to land right away and that I was having trouble with my oil pressure. The cleared me to land and then asked 'are you in need of assistance' - which is their way of asking if I was declaring an emergency and should they roll the fire trucks onto the field. But the the plane was performing fine, the oil temps were good despite the pressure readings so I let them know that I should be able to land without incident.

A call to my mechanic back home and a quick inspection of the engine confirmed that the oil pressure transducer (or little expensive computer thing) failed and needed to be replaced. A quick fix, but a part is required which our home aviation shop finally tracked down in Maryland and had shipped out for an arrival to Canada, and through customs of about two days. Thank you Maidra and Scanlon Aviation!

So, all is safe, and we have an unscheduled stop in Prince George waiting on repairs before we fly back to join our group. After one day of flying in remote areas of Canada, we will have to find our own way to rejoin our group. More on that later as we re-write our trip and make it a new adventure.

The offending part is the little silver item with the red, black and green wire attached to it:

Arrived at Prince George Canada

I always have had a dream about being a bush pilot in Alaska or Africa. This month I have a chance to get a taste for what that might be like. I have joined a group of 11 general aviation aircraft organized by Dale Hemman of Let's Fly Alaska who is taking us from Olympia Washington up through the Canadian Yukon, into Alaska and back into the lower 48 by flying the Inside Passage from Ketchikan to Olympia on our final leg. My travelling companion is Jim Whitlock, also a pilot. Both Jim and I usually fly out of Gnoss field in Novato, California.

Today was our first day of flying, and I will admit I was a bit nervous as this would be the first time I would experience flying in formation with other aircraft, at low altitude, and down within the canyons and terrain of the beautiful Yukon. Not to mention all of the registrations, rules, phone calls, flight plans and other things one needs to keep straight to fly across an international border.

Today was the first day of flight from Olympia,Washington to Prince George Canada - a total of 444 nautical miles. The weather cooperated for most of the flight. We flew over three aircraft carriers in the Seattle waters then landed briefly in Skagit after a short 100 mile shake down flight for the group. It took a little while for me to get used to flying with a plane off my left wing only a 1/4 mile away, and one ahead only 1/2 mile while flying at 1200 feet. After Sakgit, we all lined up on the runway together and took off in formation for our flight into Canada. The views were wonderful although I spent most of my time focused on flying the plane. In addition to being a calming influence, Jim took some photos that we hope to share on the bolg. You can check out our route by going to my SPOT tracker page at http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=098hhieRBQXFqJruoPS6ziHgIKHXIVERd .

We ran into a bit of rain as we approached Prince George which made visibility and keeping track of the planes in front of us a little more challenging. As we fly in a group we also land as a group all at the same time on the runway, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile apart. It all went smoothly despite the rainey conditions. Although as we taxied back to the terminal to be checked in by Canadian customs the engine on the plane in front of me sputtered to a stop - out of gas. I would say that was close one.

Stay tuned for more updates, hopefully pics to come although we are limited with iPads and the usual challenges with data a wireless in the Yukon and Alaska.

Cheers

Kevin