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.