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

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Tok, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory - June 6, 2014

The long leg from Tok, Alaska to Whitehorse went very well.  We covered the distance in 3.2 hours while running at 65% power to conserve fuel.  Mighty Mouse took 24.8 gallons which worked out to 7.75 gph and I landed with plenty of fuel left in the tanks.

Filing the international flight plan went off without a hitch and the call from Tok to Customs in Whitehorse went okay with only a couple of hurdles.  One being that I was bringing a shotgun with me and had not filed this with them before now.  My bad.

They agreed to have the greeting agent meet me with the form where I could fill it out, pay the normal 25.00 fee and put it to bed.  I thought I was home free until after we landed when this agent asked me how long the barrel is?  Anything 18" or less is illegal.  Mine slipped in at 19".

The other minor hurdle was giving them an ETA.  I gave them 1:30 local time and they give you +/- 30 minutes.  I was feeling real good about that 1:30 ETA until we started approaching a very long lake, Kluane Lake and we hit a head wind which dropped our ground speed down to 80......it was one of those "Houston, we've got a problem" moments.  Once past the lake and beyond Kaskawulsh Glacier (which I was hoping was channeling this wind) our ground speed went back up in the 110 range.  We landed at 1:50 with 10 minutes to spare to clear customs.


Jim & Cindy


Our friend and life line......the Alcan Hwy.

One of very few runways available in 387 miles and no fuel to help the needy.  This is Beaver Creek.
Kluane Lake and head winds on our nose.
See???
Over our shoulder a backwards glance....headwinds behind us and on to Whitehorse.

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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJune 8, 2014 at 10:48 AM

    Let me get this straight per your last post. You went all the way to Alaska for a plane that isn't very fast?? Matt

    ReplyDelete

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