Trip Planning - The futile necessity

A common theme resonates from trip reports of the flight from the lower 48 to Alaska.  It is necessary to plan, but you’ll never follow it.  Weather is the determining factor when it comes to actually flying each day’s legs, and you can’t be wed to your plan.  Make no mistake, you do have to start with a plan.  Pink highlighter on a chart or an electronic magenta line on the iPad has a certain gravity that’s required to keep you moving in a generally productive direction.

How does one know that I’m planning a trip across Canada to Alaska?  Aviation charts virtually cover the walls of our office/guest room depicting all of the contiguous U.S. (referred to in Alaska as the lower 48), Canada, and Alaska.  Charts are the aviation equivalent to maps, with aviation specific markings to assist pilots.  In total, charts of some type cover 78 square feet of the room’s walls.  Twenty-six feet of varying colored highlighter mark the different routes across the U.S. and Canadian Territories.

I’ve used several sources to plan the trip.  Online aviation forums are peppered with the question, “How do I get information about the flight to Alaska?”  The resounding answer is to get a copy of the Alaska Airmen’s Association Logbook.  The Alaska Airmen’s Association is an aviation advocacy group for pilots and the aviation industry in Alaska.  The Logbook is an aviation version of the Alaska travel planner atlas, The Milepost, and chronicles the different routes to and in Alaska.  In great detail, the Logbook explains sights, airports, attractions, hazards, and considerations along several popular routes.  A great deal of the book discusses the exact flight that we plan to take, which follows the Alaska-Canada Highway across Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.  Although not an official publication to use while flying, I consider the Alaska Airmen’s Association Logbook one of the most essential publications before starting this journey.  Unfortunately, it is no longer in print and copies are difficult to come by.

Many other references have been helpful while planning the route and logistics of the trip.  The aviation forums, backcountrypilot.org and supercub.org are a treasure trove of knowledge with several trip reports from those that accomplished this flight before.  One of the challenges of the trip is negotiating the U.S./Canadian border.  I was able to hash out the requirements/procedures for crossing through an articles (membership required) on the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) website, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) website, and tutorials on the Canada Border Services Agency website.  Per those requirements, I now have the radio station and radio operator license (though I’m told the Canadian’s have never asked for it), my illustrious CBP sticker, and have registered for an Electronic Advanced Passenger’s Information System (EAPIS).  EAPIS is an additional step to border crossings into and out of the U.S. requiring you to declare the passengers that you are carrying in a web-based system well before making the crossing.

Using these resources, we have sketched out a pseudo plan.  The flight from Fort Leavenworth’s Sherman Army Airfield (KFLV) to Albert Whited Airport (KSPG) in St. Petersburg on 1 June is straightforward enough.  The airplane and I are both certified/qualified to fly either IFR (instrument flight rules or in the clouds) or VFR (visual flight rules flying using references outside the airplane).  Either way, I’ll split the flight into two segments with a fuel stop in Northwest Alabama or Northeast Mississippi.  Having made the Alabama and Florida portion of this flight several times, I’ll fly to Tallahassee and Cross City to stay overland around the "armpit" of Florida's Panhandle.  Albert Whitted Airport is a picturesque little airport with two runways that both jut out into Tampa Bay.  Most approaches bring you in next to the downtown Pier and offer great sights.

The plan once we depart St. Petersburg on 16 or 17 June is a great deal more nebulous.  The following outlines our initial strategy with a short explanation for why each stop was chosen.  For the non-pilot types following, the three or four character code in parenthesis is the airport identifier.  This is used to enter airports into navigation equipment and during communications.

This displays the general route overview from St. Petersburg, FL to Fairbanks, AK.  The sections below detail this route.

St. Petersburg’s Albert Whitted Airport (KSGP) to Macon County Airport (1A5) in Franklin, NC.  Uncle Norris owns a house in Franklin.  A 3-hour route, I thought this would be a good start after dropping the women off at Tampa International for their flight to Kansas City.

Macon County Airport (1A5) to Grimes Field (I74) in Urbana, OH.  My brother is attending Law School in Dayton and we can’t fly this direction without stopping in to see him.  I chose Grimes field based on a suggestion from one of those crazy Ohio Bush Pilots.  They frequent several of the online forums that I follow.  By going to Grimes, we’ll be able to meet up with some folks, visit my brother, maybe tour the museum on the field, and have a terrific piece of pie at the Airport Café.

Grimes Field (I74) to International Peace Garden (S28).  International Peace Garden straddles the U.S., Canadian border 11 miles north of Dunseith, ND.  I chose this border crossing for three reasons.  First, this was conveniently on our route to Edmonton.  Second, this put us close to where the girls will be crossing the border for a possible meet.  Lastly, I’ve seen recent trip reports that suggest this is a pretty easy border crossing with 24-hour Canadian customs service during the time period that we are passing through.  This actually represents two legs with an undetermined fuel stop because of the distance between Grimes and International Peace Garden.  We’ll plan the fuel stop when the trip gets closer.

International Peace Garden (S28) to Edmonton City Center (CYXD).  This is a four-hour leg.  The stops through Canada are still under negotiations depending on what sights the passengers want to see. Edmonton is the right distance to put some mileage behind us and has a lot to see.

Edmonton City Center (CYXD) to Fort Nelson, BC (CYYE).  At just over three hours, this leg is based solely off the leg’s duration.  It’s long enough to make progress without exceeding any bladder limitations.  A stop at Fort Nelson also splits the distance between Edmonton and Whitehorse into manageable segments.

Fort Nelson, BC (CYYE) to Whitehorse / Erik Nielsen International Airport (CYXY) in Whitehorse, Yukon.  Who can do this trip without stopping at Whitehorse to see the DC-3 as a weathervane?!  This is also a great spot to setup for the last leg or two into Northway or Fairbanks.

Whitehorse (CYXY) to Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA).  Our final destination will be the East Ramp on Fairbanks International Airport.  This is where the general aviation airplanes are kept on the field.  Rows, and rows, and rows of general aviation airplanes.  We'll have to make a decision on this leg whether to stop at Northway, AK (PAOR) enroute to Fairbanks.  Although It is not necessary to stop at the first airport once crossing the border, the first stop you make has to be an “airport of entry” with customs services.  You are also required to predict your arrival time within a relatively narrow window, so a shorter leg into the airport of entry is preferred.  Northway is an “airport of entry”, but doesn’t have customs on the field.  When you arrange for customs services, the agents drive over from the border to meet you. Because of this, they have limited hours.  Fairbanks customs is always open, but the longer flight makes time management a challenge.  Decisions, decisions.

This whole process could take us as little as 3-4 days, but more likely, it will take 5 before accounting for weather delays and sight-seeing.  Total flight time is computed to be 26 hours.

Changing gears, the girls will be driving from Kansas City to Fort Wainwright.  They expect to start the journey on 17 June after flying commercial from Tampa to Kansas City on 16 June.  There is not a great deal to report on their route.  My mom has been busy plotting national parks to get our parks passports stamped and of course, Geocaches.  It would be a shame to make that drive without adding some new Geocache states and Canada to her already impressive portfolio.  There was also discussion of learning a language during the drive.  The possibilities discussed were Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch.  In the end, my older brother has a tape series for Spanish, so aprender español it is. 

I’ll revisit the planned segments in the introduction to each leg’s report.  It will certainly be interesting to compare what I’ve planned with what we actually fly/drive.  We will also have SPOT Messengers in both the airplane and the car.  These are handy little devices that send GPS position and prearranged messages such as “911” (alerts authorities you need emergency assistance), “Help” (tells someone you designate that you need assistance), and “OK” (tells someone you choose that you’re doing fine).  An additional feature valuable for our trip is the “track progress” function.  When activated, the feature transmits the device’s location every 10 minutes providing a trail of “bread crumbs” that will depict our route.  This feature is extremely valuable on a trip like this, because the actual journey rarely follows the plan, and difference often provides the best memories.