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

Monday, June 23, 2014

Swift Current, SK to Minot, ND to Aberdeen, SD - June 21, 2014

We had another change of plans on Saturday morning (June 21, 2014) as we had planned to depart Swift Current and fly to Williston, ND and go through customs there.  When I called for a weather briefing, the Canadian briefer informed me that Williston was closed for the day for some runway maintenance so we could not land there.

I refiled my border crossing application (eAPIS) for Minot, ND and was given a new confirmation number and a clearance for departure to Minot.

This delayed us somewhat but we were airborne and I had given the border crossing agent an ETA of 2:00.  We flew 2.6 hours to Minot and landed at 1:45....just a little ahead of schedule thanks to a tail wind.  The agent was polite, courteous and a real gentleman.  The process was seamless taking less than 20 minutes.  We refueled and departed for Aberdeen, South Dakota in short order.

The 2.2 hour flight to Aberdeen was fairly smooth and benign until about halfway when thunderstorms started popping up around southern North Dakota and northeast South Dakota.  We had talked earlier about continuing past Aberdeen after we refueled there but by the time we landed it was 5:00 and several storms were around the area....one of which we had to fly off course to miss and then race it to Aberdeen.

We were able to make arrangements for shelter for Mighty Mouse inside a hangar before this storm hit....I figured he's carried us this far and deserved a break from this oncoming storm.  It turned very black and mean about an hour after we landed and we slept good that night knowing the Mouse was comfortable and protected.

With any luck, we'll get home tomorrow, Sunday, June 22.


Jim & Cindy


Departing Swift Current, SK.  Our last and final Canadian departure as we head toward Minot, North Dakota.

These are the storms that blocked our path east which is why we changed gears and headed south to go through customs in Minot, ND instead of Pembina, ND which is further east on the Minnesota border.

Storms to the southwest of us beginning to develop.



And they continued to build and grow. 


We had been watching out the window and on the screen inside and witnessed the speed of movement increase from 18 mph to the northeast to finally 38 mph to the southeast.  It picked up speed, changed direction and kept building.  You can see where we deviated off course to keep our distance and also I increased power to pick up speed so we could safely beat it to Aberdeen.


We're on the ground in Aberdeen with Mighty Mouse safely tucked away inside a hangar for the night.



He's been running flawlessly for the entire trip and he deserved this protection from the oncoming storm......didn't hurt his owners mindset either as we still have some distance to fly.


Things are turning nasty about now.....or as they say in the south:  It's fixin to get ugly.



And here it comes.  The wide open plains have some of the most ferocious storms you'll find anywhere on earth.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)