Flying to Alaska

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tedg5
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 1:15 pm

Flying to Alaska

Post by tedg5 »

July 2015 Trip from Great Falls to Alaska and back to Bellingham :D

My son, Alex, and I flew to Alaska and back in our ‘01 Mooney Ovation in July of 2015. It took us 2½ days from Paris, TX to Fairbanks, AK. We returned thru Bellingham, WA. Palmer, AK to Bellingham took 2 days due to weather. Here I will discuss our flying experience starting in Great Falls, MT, through Alaska and then back to the lower 48 at Bellingham. Our landing airports, in order, were as follows:
o Great Falls, MT GTF
o Calgary, SK YYC
o Grande Prairie, AB YQU
o Ft. St. John, AB YXJ
o Watson Lake, YK YQH
o White Horse, YK YXY
o Northway, AK PAOR
o Fairbanks, AK PAFA
o Talkeetna, AK PATK
o Palmer, AK PAAQ
o White Horse, YK YXY
o Prince George, BC YXS
o Bellingham, WA BLI
First, a lot of the information I read discusses getting Canadian charts at airports along the U.S. border. Do not count on this. I suggest getting all your needed charts and airport directories on-line before departure. I asked at GTF and in Sheridan, WY and was told they carry no Canadian charts. I had most of them, but was missing one that included Calgary. So, best to plan ahead and not count on acquiring charts in route. Canada has an excellent airport information book, get it. Did a few screen caps of charts on my IPad to bridge gap to just north of Calgary.

Now I will discuss each airport with a little about what we encountered between, in order.

We flew IFR from GTF to YYC, there was no weather, but without the VFR chart for that segment I felt more comfortable. Also, I normally utilize IFR when going into relatively large airports as it makes arrivals easier. We had originally intended to land at Edmonton but switched to Calgary because of the overall late time due to a delayed start from Texas. I do not recommend Calgary International as a stop for light piston planes, it is just not set up for us. The only FBO with avgas, the Shell, was very friendly and helpful, but I would recommend picking somewhere else. Also, I received a rather large bill a month later for the privilege of landing there. I called Canpass from GTF for the border crossing and it was simple as usual.

The next leg from Calgary to Grande Prairie is very easy over generally low terrain with lots of roads, landmarks and some airports. We made a dogleg going north, just West of Edmonton then turning northwest to Grande Prairie. This was an easy flight.
A little bit about flying in Canada. You must be on a flight plan at all times, either IFR or VFR. When you call the Canadian version of our FSS they are very thorough and helpful. They will lead you thru the flight plan format. They will ask if you have your survival gear (be sure you do as it is required) and about your ELT type and how it is installed. You do not have to open your flight plan, it will automatically happen at the flied departure time. Technically they will cancel at your arrival airport when you call on the radio, but always verify. At each airport without a control tower there will be a flight service person monitoring and coordinating traffic on the given frequency. Everything is based on position reporting though as they are usually not physically there. I should also mention that at this point we no longer received weather data on our XM receiver, it did not work again until we were in WA.

Grande Prairie is a great Airport with two FBO’s. We used Swan Aero, they were very friendly, helpful and quick. The other FBO, Happy Gas, looks like a lot with new hanger, nice signs etc. but made no effort to bring us in. The FBO we used was there directing us to a parking spot. They informed us they have been there for 20 years whereas other one is new. I recommend Swan. Quickly fueled and ready to proceed to Ft. Nelson, we departed Grande Prairie.

The helpful weather people had said we could expect marginal VFR just South of Ft. Nelson. From Ft. St. Johns to Ft. Nelson the main highway goes a little west down a valley requiring some mountain (large hills actually) flying. The more direct route stays east of the mountains and follows the railroad, this is the route we chose. There is a very gentle “ridge” about 65nm South of Ft. Nelson. We got stopped at this point due to clouds down to the ground (or at least too close to proceed safely), so we turned back and landed at Ft. St. Johns.

This airport did have an FBO of sorts. The FBO door was locked with a key pad (turns out the code was one of the frequencies, but no signs stating this). Another pilot waiting inside let us in. A helicopter landed at about the same time as us. So three aircraft needing fuel and no one there. I called number on sign and he said he would be there shortly. It was about 30 minutes, then he had to go fuel a firefighting plane first. I said fine, placed fuel order and walked next door to main terminal to eat lunch. Oh, turns out when you leave the FBO the door to outside also locks and you cannot get back in. You need to go thru a nearby gate to ramp (another code with no signs), then into FBO from there thru first coded door. Whew, OK, got all that? Or maybe like in our case there will be a pilot in FBO who will open from inside. Lunch was just a sandwich, menu is limited. I would generally skip this as a stop, but if you need to you can get fuel and food here. There was also a detailed sign giving information on hotels and taxis so I suppose you could overnight here if needed. So fed and fueled we filed to Watson Lake, stopping at Ft. Nelson no longer made sense so we skipped it.

Weather had cleared out nicely to just a broken layer at about 3000’ agl improving to 5000’ at Ft. Nelson. Followed the railroad to Ft. Nelson and then roughly the Alaska Highway from there (cutting off some of the bigger bends). Up until Ft. Nelson you have been east of the mountains, now your actual mountain flying starts. The Canadian VFR charts are great and very detailed. Overall a pretty uneventful flight. Now there are few airports so plan ahead and stay near enough to highway to use it as an emergency runway.
Landed at Watson Lake. No FBO, but there is a good self-serve fuel station. Terminal was open but no one there and nothing really to do so we fueled, visited restroom, filed flight plan, called US customs and learned that our timing would not allow crossing that day. BTW, you did file your electronic notification didn’t you? That should be done in advance. I will discuss crossing hours and procedures when I get to that point. You should check the AOPA guide to border crossing for the electronic filing requirements. The only thing I will add is that you need to set up an account with CBP before leaving home, this is very complicated and requires e-mails, so it is best to have it done already. So, new plan, stay overnight in Whitehorse. Filed for flight to there.

Due to slightly lower clouds mixed with some smoke, it was recommended to actually follow highway this leg even though this added some big bends to route. We did and flight was generally uneventful. Again, there are few airports so plan ahead and stay near enough to highway to use it as an emergency runway. Up to Whitehorse your mountain flying is more of the smaller/lower variety. After Whitehorse the peaks get progressively taller. None of the airports is at a significant elevation though.

Landed at Whitehorse. This is a commercial airport with a substantial terminal. No FBO. Tower will direct you to the self-serve fuel at North end of airport. There are parking spots near there, but the better location is the parking at base of tower. No ropes or blocks, bring your own. We had ropes but did not think to bring chocks, you should, as I do not think there were any at all the airports we visited. From the parking area there is a gate to exit to terminal, write down code for reentry. At terminal I was able to arrange a hotel for the night, Best Western downtown. There is a parking fee here of about $5, drop box by gate for cash.

There are two hotels just across highway from terminal but we liked being able to walk around town a little. The Best Western is nice enough, no complaints. They claim airport shuttle but it is only by arrangement to meet commercial flights. We got taxi to hotel, $15 including tip. We reserved space on mourning shuttle for return. In Whitehorse do not go to Southern part of downtown, there is nothing there. Everything is from the middle to the North. Lots of shops to get our Yukon t-shirts and places to eat, easy walking and little traffic. Decent restaurant for breakfast is at the airport, so we did that.

Next day headed for Northway, AK. Canadian FSS will coordinate your flight plan with US FSS. Weather was absolutely clear now. We followed Highway from Whitehorse all the way to Northway. At Haines Junction we made one small detour to west of route thru a valley, looping around a mountain, to see our first glacier, well worth it.

Now I will complete the data I have for CBP at Northway, none of the guides I read covered this very well. In short the hours at the Northway airport are 10:00 to 3:00pm. You will find guides talking about 9 to 4, they are wrong. When you call the number you are talking to the crossing station on the highway, which is open 24 hours. They have to send someone from there to airport to meet you, which is an hour away. They will leave the station at 9 but must be back by 4; so actual hours at airport are the 10 to 3. You have to call and give them a minimum of 2 hours’ notice. If you will miss your scheduled time or your electronic filed estimate, you must call to notify ASAP. They will not send someone out based on your electronic filing, they just use that information to plan ahead, so call. Be aware on the phone I talked to two different officers, they were not very friendly, just business like. They will try to convince you to go direct to Fairbanks if you have enough fuel like we did. Do not do this, you need to visit the Northway FSS. Once you have established that you are in fact going to land at Northway they are nice enough though. The officer that met us was very friendly. He asked for my passport, pilots license, medical and aircraft airworthiness cert. so be ready to have all this. He went all around plane with a Geiger counter (same in Bellingham), looked at our documents, asked a few simple questions, filled out his form and sent us on our way, about 15 to 20 minutes total. We called in at 9:00 from Whitehorse for a 10:00 arrival, there is a one hour time difference to factor in.

Once you are done with CBP, visit the FSS. They are very helpful informing you on procedures and differences flying in Alaska, there a number of them so pay attention. Extremely friendly, you are transported back to dealing with FSS the 70’s in the lower 48. We probably spent 30 minutes with him, they have a nice restroom, technician shared a soda and some snacks with Alex. There are no services or fuel at Northway, not even cell service! In smaller planes, a few miles past Northway there is fuel and a restaurant in Tok. Runway is fairly short, we skipped it in the big Mooney.

Now you are flying in Alaska! Next stop was Fairbanks. The flight from Northway is fairly straight past Delta Junction. However, about 30 miles out visibility was reduced by smoke from forest fires (this is going affect us entire trip).

Fairbanks ATIS was reporting 2 miles visibility so we called up and got an IFR clearance into Fairbanks. Vectors to the ILS, on approach visibility was certainly no more than the 2 miles. Fairbanks is a big airport with lots of commercial passenger and freight, along with military, traffic. The airport is deceptive as the Southeast side has a large number of small plains, but no services there. The only FBO is Alaska Air Fuel at the North end. They were very helpful, got us fueled and arranged a hotel near downtown. Hotel had a shuttle.

Fairbanks is a nice place to spend an afternoon. Do not miss the visitor center on the river, it is an excellent overview of historical Alaska and has extended hours. Had a nice walk in the park along the river.

The next day we departed airport at 10 to fly past Mt McKinley, land at Talkeetna and then continue to Palmer. If you are flying your own plane, and weather is good, flying the north side of Mt McKinley is spectacular. There are only a few lower mountains there so you can get very close without flying too high. We did it at 10,500’. On the South side there are numerous other high peaks to deal with before the big mountain. Just look at a chart and you will see what I mean. After touring the big mountain we headed to Talkeetna. It is all the way down at few hundred feet ASL so a lot of decent required.

This airport is probably the busiest small airport I have been to. There are a bunch of glacier/mountain tour operators based there, each with numerous planes. It is an easy walk form airport into town. The town is very tourist friendly as cruise ships run regular busses to here. Had a nice lunch and then an excellent milk shake among other things. We left Talkeetna and headed to Palmer.
Palmer has self-serve fuel near middle. Another very friendly FSS here. The guys with a maintenance hanger near the fuel told us to talk to Jenny at flight service to see about transportation into town. They also gave me a screw to replace one missing on my cowl, very helpful. Jenny was great. They had an old (probably 1978) Chevy courtesy car that they let us take to motel, it didn’t look like much but ran great. The next day we were planning to meet some friends nearby but that fell through. I do recommend the transportation museum in Wasilla.

Finally time to leave Palmer. Woke up to the worst weather of the trip. Toward Anchorage it was not too bad. But to the east and along the coast was terrible. I had planned to fly down the coast to Ketchikan, then direct Washington and skip another Canada excursion. The ever helpful FSS guy said he did not expect the coast to improve for a few days to a week. So we’re going back to Whitehorse. But weather that direction was currently worst of all. So we visited the famous Palmer Musk Ox Farm and by noon weather up the river along the Glenn Highway to east was improving. A neat thing the FSS has in AK is access to remote cameras in the passes, very cool and helpful. So we filed back to Whitehorse. Called Canpass again and off we went. Fairly easy flight in marginal conditions at first, going to easy VFR at top of first pass. Smoke in the Northway area. But made it back to Whitehorse.

Due to our delays and the time change it was about 6pm when we finished in Whitehorse and I was tired. Conditions to the East looked marginal. I talked to Canadian weather, their observations/predictions were marginal conditions to Watson Lake but probably workable. Then getting worse overnight, but improving early morning. I let myself get swayed by this to stay overnight, a Vans RV went on that evening; he made the right choice. Same drill as before in Whitehorse but now we knew the ropes.

Our plan was to fly to Watson Lake then turn southeast through what is called The Trench. The Trench is a relatively low valley through the mountains making an almost straight line from Watson Lake to Prince George, requiring only a slight turn more south for the final 50 miles. The morning brought even worse weather than in Palmer. Not IFR but close, with low ceilings at stations along the route to Watson Lake. Watson Lake and onward in The Trench were OK at this time. We should have flown to Watson Lake the evening before, broke out some of our survival gear and camped overnight. I considered IFR over to Watson Lake but MEAs and the freezing level did not allow it. So, more waiting in Whitehorse. Had lunch there and weather had improved just enough to start heading East. This was worst leg of the trip. We knew the weather improved at Dease Lake, to the South, to easy VFR with broken clouds. That was the way we went. Getting there was a lot of scud running in areas that you really don’t want to do that in. We made it, but not without a lot of deviations and turns making for difficult navigation. I probably would not fly that leg again in similar conditions. The ceiling lifted nicely at Dease Lake revealing all but the highest peaks. We worked our way from there over to The Trench going ESE, by the time we reached The Trench the ceilings were broken and easy VFR with about 50% coverage.

Landed at Prince George, BC. Nice airport, good FBO, quick fueling, CBP calls and on to Bellingham. Sky was clear at Prince George.
Another flight for the books, this time due to smoke. We were following the Frasier River. As it got into the big mountains at the south end visibility was down to 3 to 4 miles, while you are following a river in a steep sided canyon with peaks approaching 10,000’ it is not a very good situation. We did work our way through and landed at Bellingham, WA.

Bellingham is a great entry airport. They have long hours, 8 to 8, CBP based right at the airport, perfect setup for small aircraft. Very friendly and professional. I highly recommend this as a crossing point.

Now we were back in the lower 48 from our adventure to Alaska and back. It was a fun, exciting adventure for me and my 14 year old son. There is no need to be intimidated by this trip. Just allow plenty of time and don’t be afraid to adjust your plans as needed.
Vlad
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2014 2:47 pm

Re: Flying to Alaska

Post by Vlad »

Thanks for sharing! I am planning similar trip in August 2016 and really appreciate your PIREP on airports and fuel. It looks like you guys had a great time together.
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drseti
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Re: Flying to Alaska

Post by drseti »

Vlad, I assume you're RVing to Alaska next year? Be sure to blog details, post to VAF, and please do also cross-post here. Thanks.
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Vlad
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2014 2:47 pm

Re: Flying to Alaska

Post by Vlad »

drseti wrote:Vlad, I assume you're RVing to Alaska next year? Be sure to blog details, post to VAF, and please do also cross-post here. Thanks.

Affirm Paul. Will do. Wheels up August 15th if WX cooperates. Six weeks shift from lousy 2014 :mrgreen:
tedg5
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 1:15 pm

Re: Flying to Alaska

Post by tedg5 »

Yep, lots of fun and cool flying. Glad we could help, my goal here was to provide more up-to-date and correct data than I found else where.
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