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United States Pilots Association |
In 1999 USPA hosted its first guided tour of members flying their own planes to Alaska where USPA held its annual meeting in Anchorage in June. Several members went on this trip. Beginning on 17 July, 2005, USPA hosted its second "fly your own plane to Alaska" guided tour.
Five planes took this trip. Tour guide Bob Worthington and his wife Anita from NM flew in their Cessna 182 RG. Steve Hamilton from SD and co-pilot Dick Wilson from TX flew in Steve's Cessna 172. Alan and Mary Travis from AZ flew in their Diamond Star DA 40. Carl Poplawsky and Ed Murgia from AZ flew in Carl's Piper Arrow. Art and Candy Stewart from MO flew in their "V" tail Bonanza. The Worthingtons, the Stewarts, and Steve also made the 1999 trip.
There was a general pilot briefing during the Pueblo, CO, USPA annual meeting. Four of the five pilots attended. Each evening during the trip Worthington would hold a briefing to go over the route to be flown the next day, cover weather, and examine potential weather problem areas and to point out places where a wrong turn could be easily made.
We met in Edmonton on 17 July and left the next day. Flew in low clouds and rain to Grande Prairie for fuel and then to Ft. Nelson where we spent the night. On to Watson Lake in better weather, and then to Whitehorse for two nights where we got a car and went sightseeing. Then to Anchorage for two days and on to Homer. We enjoyed Homer with side trips to Halibut Cove and Seldovia or halibut fishing. Three days later to Fairbanks (with excellent photos of Mt. McKinley enroute) and more sightseeing. From Fairbanks the group took the train ride down to Denali, enjoyed a local dinner theatre, and the next day took the six-hour school bus trip into the middle of Denali where we saw every bit of big wild life except for the wolf. Then the train back to Fairbanks where the group gave Anita and Bob signed Alaska T-shirts and treated them to dinner.
Due to bad weather we couldn't depart Fairbanks on the planned route to Whitehorse but learned that by flying NE out of Fairbanks we could intercept the Yukon River and fly it to Dawson City in Yukon Territory, which we did. Nice low level flying up the Yukon River for a couple hundred miles. Dawson City was the scene of the gold rush in the Klondike in 1897-98. The city is amazing, just like it was during the gold rush. At this point the group of five planes began to separate for their own flights home.
Two planes left Dawson the next day (1 August) while three of us stayed another day for sightseeing. These two planes followed the highway to Whitehorse and Watson Lake and then the highway via Dease Lake to Prince George. Here they separated to fly home.
The weather at Dawson City the next day (2 August) was bad, and the route over the road to Whitehorse was not even marginal VFR due to ceilings down to the ground. So we watched a four-engine Connie lumber off the gravel runway to follow the river upstream flying VFR at 1000' AGL. We waited a while and off we went to Whitehorse up the Yukon River for another couple hundred miles. At Whitehorse we refueled and went to Watson Lake and spent the night. It was IFR to Ft Nelson (requiring flying above 7000' with freezing below 6000') so we went down the trench. One plane went down toward Dease Lake on the west trench following the highway, while the other two followed the lakes and rivers to Prince George, ate and gassed up, and continued down the trench to Cranbrook (about 40 miles north of the US border). They stayed in a five star resort, but didn't have enough time to fully appreciate it (requiring another trip back, of course). The next day down to Kalispell, MT, to clear customs, and here they split to head home.
We met at least two "fly your own plane to AK" guided trips at $1,300 per plane just for the guiding. Compare that to USPA's $25 per plane!!!!! All in all the flying was the most spectacular USPA has ever done in AK and NW Canada--especially flying up the Yukon, seeing Dawson City, and flying down the trench. The group enjoyed every minute, and everyone got along fine. No flight problems, and everyone arrived safely at every destination pretty much on time. All planes arrived back home on either 3 or 4 August, making it a 20-21 day trip. The wildlife count included black and grizzly bear (with cubs), moose, reindeer and caribou, bald eagles, all species of sea birds, Dahl sheep, whales, sea otters, and seals. This truely was the flying adventure of a lifetime.
Bob Worthington, SW Region Vice President
