THE FLIGHT OF A LIFETIME





This is my very first attempt at blogging so I hope this flows smoothly and we can all enjoy it.


This week, we (my best friend, co-pilot and wife) will be flying from Northwest Arkansas to Anchorage, Alaska via American Airlines to pick up Cessna 63082...a Cessna 150.


This plane was nicknamed "Mighty Mouse" some time back as this is no ordinary, run of the mill Cessna 150.

This is a 150-150 which means the stock Continental, 100 horsepower engine was removed and then upgraded to the Lycoming O-320 with 150 horsepower.

Additionally, Mighty Mouse has the full Horton STOL kit installed and 39 gallon long range fuel tanks.

Another big plus with this conversion is the 160 gross weight increase.

Mighty Mouse is a 1976 model with about 2,500 hours total time on the airframe and a new, zero timed, Lycoming factory rebuilt engine.




Here's a picture of Mighty Mouse in Alaska.










Cindy and I will be flying with (following actually) our good friend Terry Dickinson from Big Lake, Alaska.

Terry has two planes. One is a Piper Super Cub (on floats this time of year) and the other is a Cessna 152 which is affectionately known as Mosquito or......"Skeeter" for short.

Terry has a need/desire to reposition Skeeter to his winter home in the desert of Nevada and we (Cindy and I) have a need to travel with a highly experienced bush pilot (who also just happens to be a CFI) from the Alaskan wilderness, through the Canadian Rockies and on home.

Our generic plan will have us crossing back into the lower 48 at Great Falls, Montana and at this point (probably) we'll separate where Terry will turn right to the southwest and head to Nevada and we'll turn left to the southeast and head to Arkansas.




Here's Mosquito (Skeeter) parked next to Mighty Mouse at Big Lake, AK




All three of us consider this to be the ultimate flying adventure of a lifetime and we'll do our best to document this trip for not only our enjoyment but yours as well.





Jim & Cindy

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Lloydminster - June 19, 2014

As you'll see from the pictures below, we'll remain in Lloydminster for a third day.

It's been 200' overcast with poor visibility for most of the day and it's not forecast to change much.

We drove out to the airport to check on the Mouse (and to help kill some time) and he's sitting there in the cold rain with a frown on his face.......I don't blame him much.  I don't think the old boy had any idea what was in store for him but he's learning all about life now.

All commercial flights in and out of Lloydmintser have been canceled for 2 days now.  They don't have an instrument landing system in place here so that's the reasoning behind the cancellations and why the commercial fliers can't get in.

While we were there, a helicopter did come in and he was flying very low to stay under the cloud deck.

So anyway, this leaves us with staying put and hoping tomorrow will be better.


Jim, Cindy and one very cold and wet Mouse.

   
Poor old Mighty Mouse sitting out in the cold, wet rain.

The ground the main gear is sitting on is on a slope and it's saturated.  I'm so glad I was able to leave the nose gear on pavement to ease the job of extricating him when we leave.

Here's the helicopter coming in.  He landed at the fuel pumps to refuel.

 
For those who know me, I'm rather partial to the Beechcraft Bonanza and here's one I found parked down the row from Mighty Mouse.  It's an early model Bonanza from the late 1940's or very early 1950's. 

And lastly, here's a Cessna 150 brother, tied down at this very wet airport.

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