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Alaskan Winds :: The Coffeeshop :: Logbooks :: First Flight
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AuthorTopic: First Flight (Read 1,350 times)
Ras
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First Flight
« Thread Started on Apr 10, 2008, 10:57am »
Eagle, AK (PAEA) to Circle City, AK (PACR)

Flight Time: 30-40 minutes

I am not sure why I took this assignment, but one look at the photo of the Yukon River will tell you why I was interested. The beauty! And the fishing!.

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By dane48

Having arrived just a week ago from the hustle of the city life of Fairbanks, I was looking for some peacefulness. A bush pilot for nearly 9 years, a tour in the quiet of eastern Alaska seemed like the answer. The town of 129 souls in 2000, had now grown to 138 with my arrival. And that was because the boss' wife had twins-- twice in 6 years. It must be the genes. Or the viagra!

A six pack of Shiner Bock from my days spent in Texas, and a frozen pizza, was waiting for me when the phone rang. It was the new boss. Hell, I wasn't scheduled for a flight for two more days.

"Yes sir. I can handle it. I have a good feel for the 500. There's no one else?" I asked.

"You can handle it, Fishman" A thirty minute flight and you can spend the night in one of the most quiet places in Alaska. The plane is fueled and ready to go. It is important that you get there quickly. You are taking some much needed medical supplies and an ambulance will be waiting for you at the airport. No sightseeing. And the weather looks pretty decent for this time of year"

"I'll be at the airport in 15" Have the crew get the engines up and running, and I will be in the air two minutes later."

The engines are warmed and ready to go

[image]
By dane48

The weather looks great and it sure this Howard 500 is great. Hmmm-- I wonder who did the paint job? He sure did a nice job on this model.

[image]
By dane48

Wow, What a powerful aircraft. Those two Pratt and Whitney Engines: are putting out 2500hp. ea. No wonder she screams.
It's a great day for a short flight, cruising at 210 knots and 11,000 feet. But I start running into turbulence 15 minutes into the flight and tried to get above it. At 17,000 still lots of shaking going on. Can't go too high because this baby takes a while to get back down to earth.

[image]
By dane48

The clouds are building and the turbulence is still rough, but this plane is tough. Even if the weather deteriorates we are in a desoloate area.. Thr only airport even considered close is Coal Creek and that is nothing but a short grass strip. Besides, we have to get this equipment to Circle City for the medical team and we have to get it there QUUICK.

[image]
By dane48

A light rain begins to change to snow, but we are getting close.

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By dane48

Now its really getting nasty. Trust your GPS.. Always, or almost always.

[image]
By dane48

The wonder of it all! Isn't that a beautiful sight? Circle City is very close now.

[image]
By dane48

On the ground at Circle City. Emergency services are on the way. Lets shut down the engine and go get that cold 6 pack.

[image]
By [URL=http://profile.imageshack.us/user/dane48

Edit:
Added a [ to the beginning of last image's link, so it displayed correctly.
JP



« Last Edit: Apr 11, 2008, 7:52am by Joao Paz »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
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Joao Paz
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #1 on Apr 10, 2008, 11:11am »
Yes! great first flight and PIREP, Dane! 8-)

Great story and photos, ideal reading for an evening at the office (the real one ;))

Keep em coming, Sir! Well done!
JP

PS: ...and that Howard... if you ever find the guy who painted it send him my best ;D I know from a reliable source that a couple hundred hours went into that paint alone!
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wheeli
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #2 on Apr 10, 2008, 11:13am »
Great story and nice pics to follow :)

Keep the stories coming :).. They are great :)
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Ras
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #3 on Apr 10, 2008, 11:21am »
JP. That was a special job on that plane. That is a wonderful web site and you fellows did a fantastic job on it. And to think that the Howard 500 is in my backyard only 4 hours from here. Maybe I will get to see it one day. I am working on putting your other paint job with the Alaska Winds logo on it. Thanks once again for your assistance on the posting of pictures. Years ago, I had worked with Image shack and had to learn this all over again. Much appreciated
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Ras
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #4 on Apr 10, 2008, 11:24am »
Thanks wheeli. Things are slow in my part of the world now. I just ordered the new FSX Twin Otter package from Aerosoft. When I get that up in the air maybe I will do another fight.
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samuel
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #5 on Apr 10, 2008, 5:14pm »
Excellent PIREP Dane! :)

Beautiful aircraft and paint! ;D
Love the radial piston engines of that bird! 8-)
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kccody1
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #6 on Apr 10, 2008, 11:26pm »
This is my first flight as an Alaskan Winds pilot.
I chose to fly to Stewart, Canada from Ketchikan.
Depart: (PAKT) Ketchikan
Destin: (CZST) Stewart rwy-36
Distance: 68.4 nm
Aircraft: AW Piper Super Cub-N127AW
speed: 95kts
Alt: 5500 ft
fuel use: 6.3 gal. US
Time enroute: 52 minutes
---------------------------------------
After picking up and checking out the Super Cub in the AW livery I set my flight plan for Stewart, Canada. I was 2:15 in the afternoon and the weather looked great for this flight. I called for clearance to depart and taxied to Ketchikan's runway 11. Cleared to take-off I began my roll-out and made a nice smooth lift off at 55 kts. As I began to climb I turned out over the channel and headed to pass over Pennock Is. toward Bold Is. Half way across Bold I turned to head up Thorne Bay and passing by Antelope Trail Ranch. Now this is where things get a little tricky. Each time I've flown this I've gone a different way up the valleys. This time I turn more east at Gokachin Creek to Ella Lake. Then over Manzanita Lake to the creek and followed the creek out to the Behm Canal between Skirt and Wart points. Now we turn north again then entering the mountains at Walker Cove. No real set trail here just followed the gps and came onto the Portland Canal where I crossed over the US/Canadian border. A short distance later I was making my approach to Stewart. As I began to descend I ran smack dab into some heavy misty rain. Which is common to these parts of the Tongass. Three miles out I finally caught sight of the runway and pushed the yoke forward and adding flaps to bleed off some speed and altitude. The landing was fair with a slight 3 knot crosswind. No matter though touched down real gentle like and taxied to GA parking. Let the engine idle till she cooled a bit below 200C then shut it down. Tying down and staying over night in Stewart.
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kccody1
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #7 on Apr 11, 2008, 12:23am »
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #8 on Apr 11, 2008, 7:44am »
Hei Jim! Great First Flight, too! 8-)

What took you to Stewart, if I may ask?! Was it a coincidence or because of the last Alaskan Winds MP briefing?

I'm heading to Stewart later today as well....... because, I'm about to launch a new event at Alaskan Winds (later today!) and, well, Stewart is our departure!

Note:
I edited your last post with the screenshot as it was not showing correctly... there was a [ missing at the beggining of the line.
I also added a new link, with the bigger image. The fisrt one is in thumbnail mode and the second it is in normal mode. ImageShack gives you that option, close to the various links to copy/paste.
Thought it might help.

For all:
I liked the title of this thread 8-)
Normally these flight reports would go into the current/monthly Logbook - but on the other hand a thread called "First Flight" ahs a certain ring to it, like a sort of "activation post" .... err... "career"!
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Ras
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #9 on Apr 11, 2008, 7:48am »
Nice to see you in the air, KC. You have some nice graphics there and a great looking plane. Good to read this morning and looking forward to more
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Joao Paz
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #10 on Apr 11, 2008, 7:48am »

Apr 10, 2008, 11:21am, Ras wrote:
JP. That was a special job on that plane. That is a wonderful web site and you fellows did a fantastic job on it. And to think that the Howard 500 is in my backyard only 4 hours from here. Maybe I will get to see it one day. I am working on putting your other paint job with the Alaska Winds logo on it. Thanks once again for your assistance on the posting of pictures. Years ago, I had worked with Image shack and had to learn this all over again. Much appreciated


Hi David, thanks again :)

The website is entirely Milton's work, or maybe, if I recall it right, his wife's work!

I just did the textures and even for that had Scott in the airport where the Howard was, taking hundreds of great photos so I could do my part of the job. That paint job is a huge puzzle of small patches of real photos and hand painted elements.... it was my first photo realistic paint :)
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kccody1
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #11 on Apr 11, 2008, 11:57am »
Thanks Joao for the help with the pic. I had several more but wasn't sure how to get them up. Going to Stewart was by mere chance. I have been there before and it has a nice approach. Also this is the jump off for some of the Tongass Fjords locations. I like flying through the mountains and valleys. It is great fun. Beautiful scenery too. I am using FS9 and have the Misty Fjords and Tongass Fjords scenery files installed for about a year or so now and haven't really explored the whole place. It's a wonder everytime I fly.

Thanks
KC
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renger
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #12 on Apr 29, 2008, 3:40pm »
I decided to share my first AW flight with you as well. I really like the design of the Aero Commander so it seemed to be a great choice for my maiden AW trip. Since it also was the 1st time I flew this plane, I decided to make a short (first intended) VFR trip from Nome to Port Clarence at sunrise...with not so nice VFR conditions using real world weather....which turned out te be an overcast ceiling at 1800' with light snow....
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Above the clouds there was however some beautiful Aurora to be enjoyed...
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Near Port Clarence the weather got better first with increasing temperature...
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but then some seafog spoiled the views...
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Just as I found the airport the weather suddenly improved dramatically, so landing was fortunately as easy as can be!
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wheeli
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #13 on Apr 29, 2008, 4:13pm »
Thank you Renger.

Welcome to the team.

A great piece of aircraft you choose. The Commander is great to fly. Seems like you had all sorts of weather conditions on your trip. Nice pics to follow your story.

Wheeli
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Re: First Flight
« Reply #14 on Apr 29, 2008, 6:49pm »
Hi Renger!

Ahhh the Commander!
Ahhh Nome and Port Clarence ;D

All great choices! Nome is my "home" in Alaska and I did that flight on various ocasions. I love that bay.

Great pictures, too, and the last one, the landing, looks very professional. Keep 'em coming, Sir!

Here's a curiosity about Port Clarence:


Quote:
The LORAN-C transmitter Port Clarence is a transmission facility for LORAN-C situated at Port Clarence, Alaska at 65‹14Œ40N, 166‹53Œ12W. It uses as aerial a 411.48 m high guyed mast, which was built in 1961 and which is the tallest construction of Alaska.
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