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.