Alaska bound.....

[cessna170bdriver]

My Alaska flying experience is almost 9 years old, so some info is probably outdated.

Coming from California and already being west of the Continental Divide, we filed our international flight plan from Oroville, WA to Kamloops, BC. From Kamloops, our route to AK was Williams Lake, BC - Smithers, BC- Dease Lake,BC - Whitehorse,YT - Dawson City, YT - Eagle,AK. I wouldn't recommend that route if solo; I was one in a group of three airplanes. There are places between Dease Lake and Teslin that are 100 miles from ANYTHING man-made, and without floats there are very few options for a successful off-field landing. With a group, at least someone knows where to tell the rescuers to go. If I were ever to do it single-ship, I'd probably stick to the Highway all the way.

In Whitehorse, the on-airport accomodations were full, but there was a decent motel within walking distance across the highway. We were weathered in in Whitehorse a full day, so we rented a car for the 2.5-hour drive down to Skagway. Well worth the trip, (but don't forget your passport). On the return fight, we stayed in town where the accomodations were only about half the price of the motel near the airport, but we did have to get a ride in. There's a lot of history in Whitehorse; I especially enjoyed the SS Klondike sternwheel riverboat.

From Whitehorse we flew the length of Lake Leberge, then to Dawson, YT, focal point of the Klondike gold rush. We spent a half day there taking in the Gold Rush history and readings of Robert Service, poet laurate of the Yukon. The easiest navigation of the trip was from Dawson to Eagle. From the Dawson airport a few miles east of town you follow the Klondike River to town where it joins the Yukon River, follow that to the Alaska border, which is an unmistakable clear-cut through the trees on the 141st meridian, then around right, then left bends in the river where you'll see the airport on a hill south of the river. Eagle is an interesting little town with a population just barely into 3 digits, overlooking the Yukon River. Its airport is a gravel runway, yet is a customs landing rights airport. The customs office was an aged Chevy Suburban manned by a single agent who lived in the local B&B.

From Eagle, we landed in Tok Junction, Manley Hot Springs, Denali National Park, and Talkeetna before arriving at Merrill field in Anchorage. We camped in Eagle and Denali. The only place mosquitos (the Alaska State Bird ) were a problem was in Eagle. At the time I didn't know about the high-potency DEET, but did have OFF repellent (which only marginally repelled the skeeters) and a head net.

Manley Hot Springs was also an interesing visit, located in the central part of the state, and just about the furthest into the interior you can get by road. We found the hot springs within walking distance of the airport, but the OAT was well into the 80's, with a humidity to match, sot the springs weren't very appealing at the time. I have read where this is a popular ski-plane destination in the winter. We did have a nice visit with the hot springs caretaker who was an amateur photographer with some interesting photos of up close and personal encounters with polar bears durinig his travels. We had to buy fuel out of someone's personal stock so we'd have enough to make Denali, then Talkeetna to refuel. The price was $50 for 15 gallons, about a $1/gallon more than the average for the rest of the trip.

On the return trip from Anchorage, the group I flew up with wanted to fly down the coast route, but I opted to follow the highway with a different group. Normally you can't expect a lot of VFR weather along the coast, but as it turned out the ones that went that way were home in 2 days, where it took us a week of fighting the weather inland. go figure.

At that time, Canadian customs was a no-brainer. I never met a Canadian customs agent; it was taken care of by phone (1-800-CANPASS) both times. I'm not sure that is how it works anymore.

Miles

[jrenwick]

Here are a couple of additional camping ideas:

Continental Divide Lodge, AK Highway mile 698 from Dawson Creek is about 2-1/2 miles from the Pine Lake airstrip. It used to be called Walker's Continental Divide, and I suppose the name change means that Gordon Walker is no longer there. They have a restaurant, bar, rooms, RV park, gas, and camping. When Gordon was there, he'd come over to the airstrip and pick you up if you buzzed the place. Call ahead and see if they'll do that. It's a very scenic spot.

Burwash Landing Resort, mile 1061, Yukon Territory. Rooms, restaurant, bar, RV park, camping. About a mile from the Burwash airfield, and when I was there, they'd pick you up. On the shore of Kluane Lake, where they have HUGE lake trout. Have some for dinner in the restaurant. When I was there, the chef picked us up at the airfield at about 10:30 PM, closed the bar with us at 2:00 AM, and was up in time to fix us the baked trout dinner for breakfast at 8:00. Unforgettable!

If it works out for you to stop at either of these out-of-the-way places, you won't be sorry!

John

[AR Dave]

"Next day, we flew to Wiliston, N.D. for customs, then to Pierre, S.D. for the night."

My how time fly's! Back when Traci and I were kids, we flew down from Alaska. Although it was winter, a lot of folks from this club gave us pages of guidance. Sure seems like a long time ago!

http://cessna170.org/forums/viewtopic.p ... it=+Alaska

[KG]

Thanks again everybody. I'm glad I asked for suggestions because you guys have come up with a few things I haven't thought of.

I thought I had all my charts together but then read Dave's old post and he referred to the Canadian Airport / Facility directory. It had never crossed my mind that I might need that. Just ordered one and it's on the way.....

I'm going to have to make a list of the airports that you guys have recommended and plan some stops.

I'll keep you posted...
Keith

[jrenwick]

Somebody already mentioned AOPA's resources, but here's a link: http://www.aopa.org/members/pic/intl/.

Click on the "Alaska" and "Canada" links on that page. Just about everything you need to know about rules and regulations is there.

I could assume you already know all this, but just in case, and for others who may be reading:

Both Alaska and Canada have requirements for survival gear to be carried on board, and in my opinion, the minimum requirements aren't as much as you'd probably want or wish you'd had if you should go down somewhere. Mosquito head nets for each occupant are required in Alaska. Canada requires you have on board means of starting a fire, providing shelter, providing or purifying water, and visually signalling distress. Alaska has more specific requirements, which you can find here: http://www.aopa.org/members/pic/intl/al ... les04.html.

A firearm is no longer required in Alaska. Handguns are prohibited in Canada. You may import a rifle or shotgun to Canada, but it requires a temporary permit that you can get at the border for a fee.

Call your insurance company and make sure you have at least the minimum liability coverage required for flight in Canada. They'll send you a binder so you can prove you have it.

An FCC aircraft radio station license is required for international flight, but I've never heard of anyone being asked for it.

Have a great trip!

[GAHorn]

BIG OVERSIGHT (IMO) IN THE FOLLOWING SURVIVAL EQUIPT. LIST: WATER and a means to carry it. Plastic bags, if nothing else. You can survive a week without food (so the first ration-item may be moot ) ...but you MUST HAVE WATER! I carry a minimum of 2 bottled water and MRE's for each person on all cross-country trips no matter where. You can go "down" in the U.S. near a populated area, but injury may prevent you from walking to obtain help for several days before they find you. You will need sustainence and First Aid equipment to tide-you-over until help arrives.

For non-AOPA members, here's the text of the rule (join AOPA...it's GOOD for you!):

Alaska Statute 02.35.110. Emergency rations and equipment.

An airman may not make a flight inside the state with an aircraft unless emergency equipment is carried as follows:
The following minimum equipment must be carried during the summer months:
rations for each occupant sufficient to sustain life for one week;
one axe or hatchet;
one first aid kit;
an assortment of tackle such as hooks, flies, lines, and sinkers;
one knife;
fire starter;
one mosquito headnet for each occupant;
two small signaling devices such as colored smoke bombs, railroad fuses, or Very pistol shells, in sealed metal containers;
In addition to the equipment required under (1) of this subsection, the following must be carried as minimum equipment from October 15 to April 1 of each year:
one pair of snowshoes;
one sleeping bag;
one wool blanket or equivalent for each occupant over four.
However, operators of multi-engine aircraft licensed to carry more than 15 passengers need carry only the food, mosquito nets, and signalling equipment at all times other than the period from October 15 to April 1 of each year, when two sleeping bags, and one blanket for every two passengers shall also be carried. All of the above requirements as to emergency rations and equipment are considered to be minimum requirements which are to remain in full force and effect, except as further safety measures may be from time to time imposed by the department.
You may not be asked about your survival gear when you file a flight plan, but the responsibility for having it on board is the pilot's.

The Canadian government has additional survival equipment requirements for sparsely settled areas and overwater operations. Refer to AOPA's Canada Flight Planning Guide if your flight transverses Canadian airspace.

Search and Rescue
General Emergency Procedures
Search and rescue operations are provided in Alaska by a joint effort between the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Air Force, and the Alaskan Air National Guard. The emergency frequency is 121.5 MHz.

Search and rescue is a lifesaving service provided through the combined efforts of the FAA, military services, Coast Guard, or other organizations such as the Civil Air Patrol and state police. They provide search, survival aid, and rescue of people in missing or crashed aircraft.

Prior to departure on every flight, someone you know should be advised of your destination and the route of flight. Search efforts are often wasted and rescue is often delayed because of pilots who thoughtlessly take off without telling anyone where they are going.

All you need to remember to obtain this valuable protection is:

File a flight plan with an FAA flight service station (FSS) in person or by telephone or radio.
Close your flight plan with the appropriate authority immediately upon landing.
If you land at a location other then the intended destination, report the landing to the nearest FSS.
If you land en route and are delayed more than 30 minutes, report this information to the nearest FSS.
Remember that if you fail to close your flight plan within one-half hour after your ETA, a search will be started to locate you.
If a crash is observed while en route:

If the crash is marked with a yellow cross, it has already been reported and identified.
Determine, if possible, type and number of aircraft and whether there is evidence of survivors.
Fix, as accurately as possible, exact location of crash.
If circumstances permit, orbit scene to guide other assisting search and rescue units.
Transmit the information to the nearest FSS or other appropriate FAA ATC facility.
Immediately after landing, make a complete report to the nearest FAA, Air Force, or Coast Guard installation. A report may be made by long-distance collect telephone call.
To assist survival and rescue in the event of a crash landing, the following advice is given:

For flight over uninhabited land areas, it is wise to take survival equipment, suitable to the type of climate and terrain.
If forced landing occurs at sea, chances for survival are governed by degree of crew proficiency in emergency procedures and by effectiveness of water survival equipment.
If it becomes necessary to ditch, distressed aircraft should make every attempt to ditch near a surface vessel. If time permits, the position of the nearest vessel can be obtained from a Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center through the FAA facility.
The rapidity of rescue on land or water will depend on how accurately your position can be determined. If your flight plan has been followed and your position is on course, rescue will be expedited.
Unless you have good reason to believe that you will be located by search aircraft, it is better to remain near your aircraft and prepare a means for signaling over-flying aircraft.
Close your flight plan! Air traffic control at towered airports does not automatically close VFR flight plans because many of the landing aircraft are not operating on flight plans. It remains the responsibility of the pilot to close his own flight plan. This will prevent a needless search and rescue operation.

Search and Rescue Listing

Alaska Air National Guard (210th SAR Wing)
Telephone 907/249-1210

Alaska Mountain Rescue Group
Telephone 907/428-7200 or 566-2674

Alaska State Troopers (SAR Unit)
Telephone 907/428-7222

Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Response Team
Telephone 907/352-3777

Civil Air Patrol
Telephone 907/753-0518

Rescue Coordination Center (Ft. Richardson)
Telephone 907/428-7230

U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Control Center
Telephone: 800/478-5555 or 907/463-2000

[futr_alaskaflyer]

If I don't pass through Denali Park on the way, I'll be coming up there at some point for a visit. I'll be staying at Denali Private airstrip but will give you a heads up when I'm up that way.

Keith

Goodness...don't tell me you know Roger too?!? Is there any pilot in the United States who doesn't?

[futr_alaskaflyer]

Preparedpilot.com sells little foil packets of water. When I first saw them I was extremely cynical but he threw a few free ones into one of my orders and I found they are perfect to put in a survival vest or flight suit pocket. Remember that after a crash you might only have what is attached to your person to use.



You all DO have a survival vest don't you?

Also, IMHO a good advanced reading of the Canada Flight Supplement referenced above is an absolute necessity for VFR flying there. While IFR procedures for you professionals are the same I found VFR to be quite different in many ways, mostly centering around radio procedures and the "traffic circuit." Now I prefer most Canadian procedures over our own

[GAHorn]

That's a nice product, Richard. Thanks for sharing. And the comment about a survival vest or pack is also a good one.
I prefer bottled water because one can utilize the bottle over and over after the crash.

[jrenwick]

RAF pilots, and others for all I know, carry a condom in the survival kit. For use as a water vessel. Keep your silly jokes to yourselves, please!

John

[KG]

Goodness...don't tell me you know Roger too?!? Is there any pilot in the United States who doesn't?

Yes, I know Roger. Small world, huh? Actually I only know him casually as I am close friends with, and go to visit, Jim and R. D.

I happened to be in Aircraft Spruce today and saw those foil packets of water on the shelf. I got tied up with something else and forgot to check on the price but I think I may just go back and pick up a few.

We are pretty well prepared with survival equipment. I'm taking my old fly fishing vest (which never helped me catch a fish anyway) and packing the essentials into the many pockets. Push is a backpacker / hiker / fisherman so can probably live a couple of days on whatever is in his pockets on a normal day.

We still need to pick up an axe / hatchet to meet the Alaska requirements for a survival kit. I hate to lug all that dead weight around for something that will probably just cause me to injure myself if I try to use it but I guess I'll get one anyway. It's my understanding that most of the survival schools are now teaching to not take an axe as there have been more injuries with them than lives saved. A good folding saw is more useful, safer, and lighter weight.

I also still need to pick up flares / signaling devices. I see Alaska says they must be in a sealed, metal container. I know we used to keep flares on the airplanes when I worked in Alaska but I never saw one in a sealed, metal container. They were always just in their plastic package they came in and floating around in the bottom of the survival kit somewhere. Not sure what I'll do to pack them.

Bought tie down ropes today but Spruce was out of the MAS tie down anchors that I had decided to buy and said they will no longer stock them. Any suggestions on anchors? I've seen the popular ones and most look like they would work well in grass but I'm not so sure about the rocky northland.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Keith

[jrenwick]

Bought tie down ropes today but Spruce was out of the MAS tie down anchors that I had decided to buy and said they will no longer stock them. Any suggestions on anchors? I've seen the popular ones and most look like they would work well in grass but I'm not so sure about the rocky northland.

Nothing that screws into the ground will work in the gravelly "soil" you'll find along the Alaska Highway. It's got to be something with straight spikes that are pounded into the ground at opposing angles, like the rather expensive "The Claw" kit you see in pilot shops. A number of years ago the EAA Vintage magazine had an article on how to construct a good tiedown. You can find that article here: http://www.vintageaircraft.org/magazine ... iedown.pdf.

I've seen lots of lively discussion about what makes the best tiedown, but there's a lot of agreement that screw-type anchors are no good at all. I've used the kind with a split disc on the pointy end, and noticed that in wet soil, as after a rain, they can be pulled straight out of the ground with a surprisingly small effort, leaving a nice, neat cylindrical hole in the earth.

John

[GAHorn]

My hatchet doubles as a mallet to drive my tie-down stakes, a crash-axe (to chop my way out of the wreckage), a small axe, ... and a defensive weapon (tomahawk.)

For tie down stakes I use the mobile-home anchors (4-ft) with the split-plate cut off and a point ground into the end. (They end up being about 3'-long.) Driving a pair or 3 of them at angles to each other, until their "eyes" are aligned and the tie-down rope simultaneiously slipped thru all of them and tied, they prevent the opposing stakes from pulling out. VERY secure in all types soil. And cheap.

[futr_alaskaflyer]

[

We still need to pick up an axe / hatchet to meet the Alaska requirements for a survival kit. I hate to lug all that dead weight around for something that will probably just cause me to injure myself if I try to use it but I guess I'll get one anyway. It's my understanding that most of the survival schools are now teaching to not take an axe as there have been more injuries with them than lives saved. A good folding saw is more useful, safer, and lighter weight.

I also still need to pick up flares / signaling devices. I see Alaska says they must be in a sealed, metal container. I know we used to keep flares on the airplanes when I worked in Alaska but I never saw one in a sealed, metal container. They were always just in their plastic package they came in and floating around in the bottom of the survival kit somewhere. Not sure what I'll do to pack them.

Bought tie down ropes today but Spruce was out of the MAS tie down anchors that I had decided to buy and said they will no longer stock them. Any suggestions on anchors? I've seen the popular ones and most look like they would work well in grass but I'm not so sure about the rocky northland.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The law is the law, but many of us recognize that laws don't always keep up with technology.

Go to your local marine store and pick up a four pack of self-contained Skyblazer Alert aerial flares, which are perfectly waterproof, and keep them in your pocket where you need them, not in a metal can where you will never reach them. Throw a couple of small smoke flares from the same store in your kit for good measure (also waterproof.)



And I have a folding bow saw too instead of a hatchet. BUT, as George notes, a small hatchet or "half-hatchet hammer" can be used to pound in your tie-down device - works better than a rock I use the Flyties tiedown set. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/p ... lyties.php I highly recommend it.

[AR Dave]

I just happened to be cleaning out a closet today and found Marty Bastons' write-up titled "Flying to Alaska". Marty hosted the 2000 Convention in Anchorage. I don't remember, but I'm guessing it would've been published in the 1st Qtr, 2000, 170 News? Anyway the link from which I copied it, is long gone.

We have a lot of members experienced with flying to/from Alaska. Maybe we should try to compile our information and put an up-to-date package together. Have it so that pilots taking the trip, like Keith, can update the information.

Marty's "Flying to Alaska" might be a good starting document. It consist of an Introduction, Flying the Trench, The Highway, The Cassiar, Survival Gear Requirements, and a lot of other Links. He discusses the weather, money & fuel in Canada, gives a list of sectionals, supplements, phone numbers, detailed Customs information (pre 911), and what to expect at each airport. Ken Morrow wrote the section on the Cassiar Route.