For about ten years now I've wanted to fly to Alaska in my own plane. Since I bought my Piper Archer in the early nineties I've been on many great adventures in it. As far north as Quebec City, west to Wyoming, and south to the Bahamas. I've also flown around Australia in a rented Piper Arrow. But Alaska seemed like the ultimate small plane trip that was just waiting for me.
Problem was I didn't want to do it alone and none of my immediate family or close friends seemed to want to go. Not until my cousin Chris in Australia heard about my dream that is.
Although Chris is my second cousin we didn't really get to know each other until about 12 years ago after my Dad died. Once we started talking aviation, it was like we were mates from way back. I think I might have been responsible for turning him on to flying when I rented a plane and took him for a ride on one of my trips back to Australia to visit my Mom. Seems like he got pretty well hooked on it and went off and bought a Yak not long after he'd learned to fly.
He likes doing aerobatics and I like flying IFR on the gauges, so I guess we'll be a good team, although I don't think we'll be doing much of either. From what I hear, flying the Alaska highway is best done VFR and straight and level.
Anyway, as we plan for our trip, we'll drop by this blog here and post a few notes, We are not the first pilots to adventure north and we won't be the last, but we will tell our story in the hope that it might serve others and maybe reassure our friends and family that we are only a little bit crazy and not totally nuts.
When Mick sent me a bucket list that included going to Alaska I thought I'd better go along and keep him out of trouble. A big ask sure but Lori his good wife has been doing it for a while now and I figured she could give me a few tips and maybe a few tools .... pointy stick, thumscrew, garlic, electric cattleprod etc..
ReplyDeleteAustralians are better at geography than Americans and so I knew he'd have to fly over Canada to get there. Canadians often eat American flyers and so I figured it'd be best if an Australian tagged along. Australians aren't generally considered good eatin - even by the Canadians - tho quite a few Aussies have tried pretty hard to pickle themselves. I've known quite a few Canadians in my time and not one has ever tried to eat me... though one time there was this girl from Seskatusomthin ... anyways best not to tell that story. Ok so inedibility is not such a great qualification for flying to Alaska but I like to think that everyone has a special talent deep down. Bein a bit hard to swallow is mine.
Anyways Mick every adventure ought to have someone with judgment and taste along to keep the guns loaded, mind the booze and eat all the chocolate. Mick can do most of the flyin' and talkin'. I'll just stick my head out the window every now and then and go 'whhheeeee...' Of course I can sometimes take over the talking. Though I prefer to stick to a few simple searching questions like 'are we there yet?' and 'isn't that ice on the edge of the wing pretty? Also have a stock set of colourful adjectives that can fortify the spirit in most situations that come to hand. Like to leave God out of it unless it's a real emergency.
Anyways I'll log in later and keep you posted. Can't wait to meet Ed, Maggie and the Moose ... what language do they speak in Alaska?
http://www.alaskaairmen.org/
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