Charging ahead on Day 7

Today we snuck south to Minot, ND behind a Northeastward running cold front.  Customs was a breeze and we made a quick turn for Flying Cloud in Minneapolis.  Why Minneapolis?  "Raisin Canes.  No slaw, extra toast."

The 3-hour instrument leg got us within two flying days of Tampa.  

Where are we going tomorrow?  No idea yet.  Might even make western NC with a healthy flying day.

Whitehorse to Fort Nelson photo

Just a precursor for our five hours of progress on Tuesday.  The Tim Hortons was a success.

Whitehorse photos

Kids at the Whitehorse International customs shack.

We had to get a pic with "Whitehorse" in it somewhere.

Brayden and Carly with a copper nugget next to a cache.

The customs shack, airport sign, copper nugget (and cache), and family selfie at Klondike Ribs and Salmon.

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Day 2 (Monday, 8 June): Tok to Whitehorse

Border crossing screen shot from Foreflight.

Day 2 (Monday, 8 June): Tok to Whitehorse.  Still reporting one day behind schedule.

The plan was to relax and get a start when we felt like it.  Still no rush to get any distance down the trail.  We got the crew ready, got cinnamon rolls from Fast Eddie's for the road, and trekked to the South ramp to load up.  I couldn't take how excessively the aircraft was sitting on the tail, so I went over to 40-Mile to seek some assistance.  Clay, the director of maintenance, was extremely helpful and we were loaded by 0920 for a 0930 departure. It's possible that the extreme weight in the back of the aircraft was caused by the monstrous cinnamon rolls. I've never seen cinnamon rolls that big and will likely never again. Either way, Clay got us straightened out. 

The weather brief was a bit of a challenge as neither Fairbanks nor Northway were receiving weather for Canada.  We had to go off of my googled reporting of the METAR and TAF.  I should also note that Northway FSS opens at 0915 for briefs.  I might have missed it, but I hadn't seen that published anywhere.  

We started out cruising at 3,500 to enjoy the scenery, but climbed to 7,500 around the Sanpete Hill to get out of the rough air down low.  It was too late.  Both Brayden and Carly lost it.  Carly usually takes some motion sickness medication before we fly, but we had forgotten to give it to her until just prior to departure.  

As always in this area, the terrain is strikingly beautiful.  We just did catch a glimpse of the Donjek and Kaskawulsh Glaciers.  I'm always impressed with the number of higher altitude lakes between the border and getting out of the mountains West of Fort Nelson.

The approach and landing was much better executed than the previous day's.  We turned right onto the Apron and requested progressive taxi for customs.  It is located just NorthWest of the terminal and has a small shack from which you can call CANPASS.  I called from the plane and got our clearance number.  Amazing how easy it is.  

The fuel pumps are on the far Northwestern edge of the ramp and there is transient parking there.  There is also transient parking at the base of the tower, but we elected to park by the pumps to avoid another hot start challenge. The walking gate is right next to the fire station behind the customs shed.  Follow the outside of the fence to stairs leading to the terminal.  We had lunch in the restaurant in the upstairs area of the terminal.

After lunch we checked weather and determined that too much of the day had slipped by for us to continue to Watson Lake.  The afternoon building clouds were developing and thunderstorms were decorating the whole route.  We decided to rent a car and head downtown for a hotel.

In our adventures the last few weeks, we've followed a general plan to explore an area.  We geocache.  Now, I've made fun of my parents for years as declared geocache nerds.  They might not have official geocache pocket protectors, but they literally have hats.  We picked it up and are now card carrying dorks ourselves.  Our method is to simply pick a couple caches in an area and by getting those, we almost always visit the best areas of a location.  For example, caches took us to gold dredges, beautiful views, whale skulls, and a herd of musk ox in our Barrow and Nome visits a week ago.  

In Whitehorse, we used the playgrounds on the visitor's center map and a couple caches to experience the town.  The kids got to play, we got some terrific photos from a perch above town, and visited the start of this year's Yukon Quest, which we had watched the end of from the Chena behind our house.

It is noteworthy that we ate at the Klondike Ribs and Salmon restaurant for dinner.  There is usually a line early in the evening as all the tour bus and camper folks push their way into the early bird.  We waited 20 minutes, and it was absolutely worth it.  The food was terrific and the staff was very friendly.  Tammy had a 5-minute conversation with our 3-year old about our trip.  If you haven't been around our 3 year old, 5 minutes can be a long time! Highly recommend it and recommend you go a bit later in the evening.

We checked the all important hours at Tim Hortons and got the kids off to bed.  The plan is to get up at 5 a.m. for a 7 departure to Watson Lake.

Day 1, Fairbanks to Tok

Well, we got a slow start this morning finishing the last couple necessary items to prepare for the trip and close out our affairs in Fairbanks. We also had to taxi to the pumps and get gas prior to departure. We finally said goodbye to Fairbanks at 1210.  

Making it to Tok was a bit of a challenge. There was a lot of build up, virga, and several rain showers. I tried to get on top, and was successful at 9,500 through just North of Delta. At that point we descended and battled the dynamic air and showers all the way to Tok.   

Additionally, all three children had to visit the Gatorade bottle lavatory and one graced his pull-up with a #2. The Stationaire has a great deal of space, but nothing has enough space for all that.

There was a shower over the approach end of 25 at Tok upon arrival with a bit of a down draft. That and a poor approach yielded a positive arrival, noteworthy bounce, and a butter smooth second landing. Nailed it!

The self-serve pump is next to 40-Mile Air on the Notheast corner of the ramp. Transient parking is located on the south side ramp marked by green/yellow cones. There are about 5-6 spots. Only one other spot was taken. Fast Eddies is across the highway North of the field with a restaurant and Young's Motel.

After the hustle of the morning, getting jolted around below the scattered to broken layer, and battling with the kids' personal needs, we were exhausted. We elected to stay the night in a cabin and charge ahead earlier tomorrow morning. The decision allowed us a solid nap and some relax time with no work to weigh us down. Ahhhh.

The 40-Mile 206s and 207 looked great on the ramp. They really highlighted the value of having a smaller nose wheel with 8.50s or 26s on the mains. They're all sitting nice and level while mine is almost a taildragger. Getting the nose strut services last week really put me nose up and the load of stuff exacerbates the issue. Now that the Airglas STC has been modified, I'll have to go to an 8.00 or even 7.00 on the nose.

All in all, we made some headway and shook out some bugs. I don't often have a 3,400 lb load in the airplane and need to acknowledge that when I'm setting up the approach and landing. We'll also get an earlier start to hopefully take advantage of some morning stable air. The wifi is out at the lodge, so I'll worry about weather later. The plan before checking is Whitehorse, Watson Lake, and either McKenzie or ???.

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2015 Family Move Introduction

The goal for this year's family move journal is simple, finish. The summer 2013 journal detailing our family's adventure moving from Fort Leavenworth to Fairbanks, AK was progressing nicely before it abruptly stopped in Dawson City. I attribute two root causes for the failure.

First, I simply ran out of steam and time. It wasn't possible to continue updating while still traveling and enjoying some of the activities along the way. Additionally, my priority was getting to our destination quickly to start work right away, which I did. By the time I got settled into work and thought about finishing, it was eight months later. I could still complete the log now with a majority of details, but the moment has passed.

The second and more important reason for the halt is that I felt my writing abilities weren't sufficient to capture the experience. I couldn't accurately capture the mesmerizingly deep blue waters of Teslin Lake in the Yukon Territory. I'm certainly not good enough to lead a reader through the incredible experience our team had interacting with each other and those we met along the way.

I've now gone back and reread my entire blog from start to the abruptly failed finish. It was immediately apparent that the problem was neither of the above. It was my failure to establish the correct purpose. Rereading the journal became a several hour exercise of map exploration and photo mining. The purpose of the original trip report shouldn't have centered on others, but on us. It's merely a sketched out map of our exploration so we can relive the adventure anytime we wish.

So, that becomes the purpose of our family's trip report from Fairbanks, AK to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL. We'll still be operating our family's 1979 Cessna 206. This year our family will travel together as opposed to splitting up to fly the airplane and drive one car. It was the chance of a lifetime to experience the trip up with my dad, Uncle Norris, and Brayden, but this time it's about our family adventuring whimsically together on a much less constrained timeline.

The weeks leading up to the move have been interesting with us attending the Hudson Memorial Fly-In at Talkeetna, closing out my duties at work, taking a 2100 mile family vacation around the state, and completing an extremely stressful week of closing out our affairs. We had hoped to attend the Skwentna Fly-In on 6 June, but it was adding too much stress to get everything done by early Saturday morning. Thus, our expected departure date is Sunday, the seventh of June.

We've shipped both vehicles and all of our belongings. The plan and packing list differ from 2013 as we plan on camping along the way for a bit of a different experience. Mind you, we're not talking backcountry camping fighting off bears and scavenging for food. We're thinking more along the lines of stopping at some established strips along such as Watson lake with some facilities. We'll also be stopping in some of the more well travelled spots for gas and essentials such as lunch, shower, wifi, and a geocache or two. I understand these are first world needs, but we're in it for the enjoyment of the trip as opposed to cost savings or an off the grid experience.

I completed an instrument proficiency check on Friday night, 5 June, along with an oil change. We're rechecking our packing list today, 6 June, and loading the airplane, a friend very generously loaned us their minivan the past week to complete preparation for the move. We'll also mail a couple packages to our destination and do some flight planning to figure out where to go along the way. In general, we'll playing the route by ear and weather.

The plan as it sits now is to depart Sunday morning with the goal of making Watson Lake for the evening. We'll do lunch in Tok and customs in Whitehorse. That has great possibility of changing as the day matures and I continue to research possibilities. The kids start to get antsy by 2.5 hours into a leg and hit a daily limit at about five hours. Thus, we'll keep legs shorter and won't push too hard at the start. That said, the first day plans out to five hours.