We went to a pub and had a couple of beers. Then took a taxi to the World Baseball Challenge. Japan and Chinese Taipei were playing. As we got out of the taxi--the organizer of the event, Jim, met us in front of the gate. He introduced himself and asked us where we were from and gave us his business card. I don't think many people were showing up by taxi and he thought we might be somebody. We saw Jim being interviewed on TV later that day.
Kevin started his blog yesterday...I will continue to fill in the the beginning but follow Kevin for the rest of the story.
Here is a link to Kevin's page:
http://kevin-flying2alaska.blogspot.com/2011/07/arrived-at-prince-george-canada.html
Thursday 28 July 2011
Friday 15 July 2011
Monday 7/11/2011 First Leg Pre-Border Crossin
Monday 7/11/2011 departure day
0700 breakfast at the hotel -- we shared a table with two couples one from Denver flying a home built RV(#?) and another couple from Mississippi flying a larger RV10.
0745 to the airport to take care of the rental car, gate key, and preflight the plane. We are ready ahead of schedule and take little time to check out the other planes getting ready.
0900 briefing starts right on time. Weather looks good for the flight. We are instructed that we will be flying @ an altitude of 1200 feet to Skagit airport for lunch. Once again they go over how the group will fly together as a flight. Our number for this first leg is seven (out of eleven).
1000 departure from Olympia.
the engines start and one by one each plane announces "ready for taxi" on the flight's radio frequency. Once all eleven planes check in the flight leader calls ground control for clearance to taxi to the runway for the flight. The flight leader starts to taxi and two falls in behind, followed by three etc. At the runway each plane does their run up, once complete the planes announce to the leader "seven ready", "three ready", etc. When all check in the leader calls tower and request clearance for all eleven plane to take off as a flight. When cleared the planes conga onto the runway the leader moves off to the left and two moves to the right, three moves to the left behind one (leader), and four moves in behind two. The leader starts to go as his wheels leave the ground two starts to go. As the planes on the runway take off--the next planes have room to start moving into the line up on the runway. Within a few minutes all eleven planes are in the air and quite spaced out. As plane number seven we should have plane six front of us off to our right at a 45 degree angle about 1/4 mile away. Plane number five should be almost directly in front of us about 1/2 mile. Five is 1/4 mile at a 45 degree angle to the left of six. If this sounds confusing... It surely was. We started out spaced about a mile apart and had to tighten up into this formation. It never felt dangerous. But having eleven planes that fly at different speeds try to slow/speed up to the same speed took a lot of work. It was one of the busiest flights I have ever been on. It took all of our concentration to focus on the planes around us, watch for speed changes, and altitude. I did sneak a peak at some of the sights we passed.
1115 landing at Skagit, Wa.
By the time we arrived at our destination we in pretty good form for our first time flying together. We had detailed instructions for landing too. We took off on the left side of the runway and we were to land on the left side. Just as six would land on the right. Out of our eleven planes only one did a go around and he ended up landing right behind ten. We did the taxi conga line over to the tie downs in front of the restaurant. As we got out of the plane I asked Kevin if he saw downtown Seattle? Or the aircraft carrier we flew over? I new what his answer would be before asking. All he saw were the planes in front of him for the whole flight. He was concentrating so hard there was no scenery between the two airports. I was concentrating almost as hard but the Space Needle just caught my eye...a few more minutes and I would have missed it too. We flew right over the aircraft carrier, the lead plane pointed it out about four minutes before we passed over--so I was looking--big ship hard to miss.
1140 lunch
Our lunch was preordered most of us forgot what we ordered two months ago. While we were waiting for the food we started our debrief about the flight. Some pilots were thinking others should have done better when in fact all could have been better. Everyone was very professional and handled the discussion very well. The leader thought the flight went very well for never flying together before. He said on previous trips some pilots had yelling exchanges after the first flight as group. On our first departure we had left when the plane in front of us had left the ground...this time we were to count to ten once the plane in front started to roll. This would tighten the group up sooner.
1230 pre flight briefing.
Our flying order has been changed due to the fact that one of our group forgot to file with TSA before leaving and we were planning on crossing the border at 1300. As this the leader was explaining this -- another pilot spoke up -- he too missed that part of the instructions. After a heated one sided discussion that pilot had to scramble to file just as the other did. They would have to cross the border on their own later--It takes a few hours for the electronic filing to go through. We continued with the briefing now in the eight spot.
1245 engine start.
Everyone checked in ready for taxi. Then again ready for departure. We taxied into place and one by one each plane counted to ten then gave full power. All nine planes were off and scrambling to get into their assigned place. We climbed to our assigned altitude of 1200 feet. The plane in front of us (number 7) had some difficulty with his flaps and did retract them for sometime which slowed us and the trail plane up quite a bit.
1300 border crossing
Once the flap issue was figured out we proceeded across the Canadian border at about 1300. Not long after the crossing we turned up a canyon and basically followed Fraser River all of the way to Prince George. The first three quarters of the flight we stayed well below the canyon walls which did take some getting used to for most everyone. Getting used to flying this way was the intention for this leg of the trip. Once again flying as a group was very difficult for some pilots. The plane in front of us never quite figured it out and there was no way for us to stay in the correct position behind him. The trail plane behind us even tried calling "Number Seven" on the radio to suggest joining the group, but there was no response. About halfway we finally gave up on staying in position behind Number Seven and focused on a position behind Number Six. We still stayed behind Number Seven but in a position as if Seven was where he was supposed to be. So we let Seven roam from one side of the canyon to the other and from one altitude to the next, all the while staying focused on a position behind Six. Once we focused more on Six things smoothed out for us and Trail.
Closer to Prince George we climbed to above the sides of the canyon and there were a few less heading changes (except for number Seven). We went through one good rain shower about twenty miles from Prince George which cleaned some of the bugs off the planes.
1500 landing at Prince George.
Once Prince George was in site were reminded of our landing instructions. The runway at Prince George is about 13000 feet long making it very easy for our flight to land as a group. We kept our eye on Number Seven and landed behind and to his right, he looked ok during this landing. The whole flight looked good, there were no "go arounds" for this landing. As we taxied off the runway we were following Number Seven, to his right, with the group conga line when his engine stopped. There was a call on the radio, "I think we ran out of gas." ...
See Kevins blog for the rest of the story.
0700 breakfast at the hotel -- we shared a table with two couples one from Denver flying a home built RV(#?) and another couple from Mississippi flying a larger RV10.
0745 to the airport to take care of the rental car, gate key, and preflight the plane. We are ready ahead of schedule and take little time to check out the other planes getting ready.
0900 briefing starts right on time. Weather looks good for the flight. We are instructed that we will be flying @ an altitude of 1200 feet to Skagit airport for lunch. Once again they go over how the group will fly together as a flight. Our number for this first leg is seven (out of eleven).
1000 departure from Olympia.
the engines start and one by one each plane announces "ready for taxi" on the flight's radio frequency. Once all eleven planes check in the flight leader calls ground control for clearance to taxi to the runway for the flight. The flight leader starts to taxi and two falls in behind, followed by three etc. At the runway each plane does their run up, once complete the planes announce to the leader "seven ready", "three ready", etc. When all check in the leader calls tower and request clearance for all eleven plane to take off as a flight. When cleared the planes conga onto the runway the leader moves off to the left and two moves to the right, three moves to the left behind one (leader), and four moves in behind two. The leader starts to go as his wheels leave the ground two starts to go. As the planes on the runway take off--the next planes have room to start moving into the line up on the runway. Within a few minutes all eleven planes are in the air and quite spaced out. As plane number seven we should have plane six front of us off to our right at a 45 degree angle about 1/4 mile away. Plane number five should be almost directly in front of us about 1/2 mile. Five is 1/4 mile at a 45 degree angle to the left of six. If this sounds confusing... It surely was. We started out spaced about a mile apart and had to tighten up into this formation. It never felt dangerous. But having eleven planes that fly at different speeds try to slow/speed up to the same speed took a lot of work. It was one of the busiest flights I have ever been on. It took all of our concentration to focus on the planes around us, watch for speed changes, and altitude. I did sneak a peak at some of the sights we passed.
1115 landing at Skagit, Wa.
By the time we arrived at our destination we in pretty good form for our first time flying together. We had detailed instructions for landing too. We took off on the left side of the runway and we were to land on the left side. Just as six would land on the right. Out of our eleven planes only one did a go around and he ended up landing right behind ten. We did the taxi conga line over to the tie downs in front of the restaurant. As we got out of the plane I asked Kevin if he saw downtown Seattle? Or the aircraft carrier we flew over? I new what his answer would be before asking. All he saw were the planes in front of him for the whole flight. He was concentrating so hard there was no scenery between the two airports. I was concentrating almost as hard but the Space Needle just caught my eye...a few more minutes and I would have missed it too. We flew right over the aircraft carrier, the lead plane pointed it out about four minutes before we passed over--so I was looking--big ship hard to miss.
1140 lunch
Our lunch was preordered most of us forgot what we ordered two months ago. While we were waiting for the food we started our debrief about the flight. Some pilots were thinking others should have done better when in fact all could have been better. Everyone was very professional and handled the discussion very well. The leader thought the flight went very well for never flying together before. He said on previous trips some pilots had yelling exchanges after the first flight as group. On our first departure we had left when the plane in front of us had left the ground...this time we were to count to ten once the plane in front started to roll. This would tighten the group up sooner.
1230 pre flight briefing.
Our flying order has been changed due to the fact that one of our group forgot to file with TSA before leaving and we were planning on crossing the border at 1300. As this the leader was explaining this -- another pilot spoke up -- he too missed that part of the instructions. After a heated one sided discussion that pilot had to scramble to file just as the other did. They would have to cross the border on their own later--It takes a few hours for the electronic filing to go through. We continued with the briefing now in the eight spot.
1245 engine start.
Everyone checked in ready for taxi. Then again ready for departure. We taxied into place and one by one each plane counted to ten then gave full power. All nine planes were off and scrambling to get into their assigned place. We climbed to our assigned altitude of 1200 feet. The plane in front of us (number 7) had some difficulty with his flaps and did retract them for sometime which slowed us and the trail plane up quite a bit.
1300 border crossing
Once the flap issue was figured out we proceeded across the Canadian border at about 1300. Not long after the crossing we turned up a canyon and basically followed Fraser River all of the way to Prince George. The first three quarters of the flight we stayed well below the canyon walls which did take some getting used to for most everyone. Getting used to flying this way was the intention for this leg of the trip. Once again flying as a group was very difficult for some pilots. The plane in front of us never quite figured it out and there was no way for us to stay in the correct position behind him. The trail plane behind us even tried calling "Number Seven" on the radio to suggest joining the group, but there was no response. About halfway we finally gave up on staying in position behind Number Seven and focused on a position behind Number Six. We still stayed behind Number Seven but in a position as if Seven was where he was supposed to be. So we let Seven roam from one side of the canyon to the other and from one altitude to the next, all the while staying focused on a position behind Six. Once we focused more on Six things smoothed out for us and Trail.
Closer to Prince George we climbed to above the sides of the canyon and there were a few less heading changes (except for number Seven). We went through one good rain shower about twenty miles from Prince George which cleaned some of the bugs off the planes.
1500 landing at Prince George.
Once Prince George was in site were reminded of our landing instructions. The runway at Prince George is about 13000 feet long making it very easy for our flight to land as a group. We kept our eye on Number Seven and landed behind and to his right, he looked ok during this landing. The whole flight looked good, there were no "go arounds" for this landing. As we taxied off the runway we were following Number Seven, to his right, with the group conga line when his engine stopped. There was a call on the radio, "I think we ran out of gas." ...
See Kevins blog for the rest of the story.
Sunday 7/10/2011
7/10/2011 Sunday
Still much flight planning going on. Breakfast at the hotel. We see a few of our fellow travelers there.
10am we head to the airport to refuel the plain and use the wireless Internet with our iPads. A few more travelers arrived from distant origins, the hanger is getting busy. We had a couple of hot dogs, popcorn and soda before going to museum of flight also located @ Olympia airport.
12:30 The museum is small but it has some interesting exhibits. They have four working planes on display, which with the right amount of donation are available for rides...including a P51 Mustang ($1200/30 min).
13:00 After the museum we drove to downtown Olympia, described as hippyish by a fellow traveler, it felt like a dirty version of Haight/Ashbury, we did not lingere. Closer to the water front there was a farmer's market going on with local entertainment, food, and artists. The water front was picturesque and busy, people were out enjoying the mild Sunday weather. Large cranes used to load and unload ships were sitting idle on this Sunday afternoon, along with massive stacks of timber waiting to become lumber.
1530 headed back to the cave even though we were not required until 1700. The caterers were there setting up for the evening festivities. We were treated to a nice dinner with a slide show/DVD of previous Alaska group trips. As dinner concluded the first briefing/seminar began.
1830 The briefing was an over view of the trip and how we would be flying together. We were not flying in true "formation" but would be flying much closer than most of us are use to. We would be flying as a "flight". A flight of planes (11 in our cases) gets clearances as a group, for example cleared to take off--all planes start taxing on to the runway-- 1st lines up on the left side of the runway, 2nd to the right side, 3rd behind the 1st on left., etc. As the the 1st plane starts to go the 2nd counts to ten and starts to go, then 3rd and so on. This is a very efficient way to get all eleven planes in the air quickly and it looks very cool! Landing is the same way.
Once the briefing/seminar was over we dispersed back to the hotel to tie up a few loose ends with the trip planning over the slow connection, with plans to meet back at the hanger for the the AM weather briefing.
Still much flight planning going on. Breakfast at the hotel. We see a few of our fellow travelers there.
10am we head to the airport to refuel the plain and use the wireless Internet with our iPads. A few more travelers arrived from distant origins, the hanger is getting busy. We had a couple of hot dogs, popcorn and soda before going to museum of flight also located @ Olympia airport.
12:30 The museum is small but it has some interesting exhibits. They have four working planes on display, which with the right amount of donation are available for rides...including a P51 Mustang ($1200/30 min).
13:00 After the museum we drove to downtown Olympia, described as hippyish by a fellow traveler, it felt like a dirty version of Haight/Ashbury, we did not lingere. Closer to the water front there was a farmer's market going on with local entertainment, food, and artists. The water front was picturesque and busy, people were out enjoying the mild Sunday weather. Large cranes used to load and unload ships were sitting idle on this Sunday afternoon, along with massive stacks of timber waiting to become lumber.
1530 headed back to the cave even though we were not required until 1700. The caterers were there setting up for the evening festivities. We were treated to a nice dinner with a slide show/DVD of previous Alaska group trips. As dinner concluded the first briefing/seminar began.
1830 The briefing was an over view of the trip and how we would be flying together. We were not flying in true "formation" but would be flying much closer than most of us are use to. We would be flying as a "flight". A flight of planes (11 in our cases) gets clearances as a group, for example cleared to take off--all planes start taxing on to the runway-- 1st lines up on the left side of the runway, 2nd to the right side, 3rd behind the 1st on left., etc. As the the 1st plane starts to go the 2nd counts to ten and starts to go, then 3rd and so on. This is a very efficient way to get all eleven planes in the air quickly and it looks very cool! Landing is the same way.
Once the briefing/seminar was over we dispersed back to the hotel to tie up a few loose ends with the trip planning over the slow connection, with plans to meet back at the hanger for the the AM weather briefing.
Wednesday 13 July 2011
Olympia Sat. PM 7/9/2011
7/9/2011 Saturday PM
Landed in Olympia and taxied over to the Let Fly Alaska man cave. This hanger has toys we have never even thought of--- from a late model Bentley to the popcorn machine it was incredible. 18 inch tile covered the entire hanger with nice area rugs in the sitting areas.. The kitchen had built in cabinets, HE washer and dryer, commercial style hot dog cooker, four flavors on the soda machine, ice cream bars, candy bars, chips, etc. It was like the mini mart without the register. In between the Bentley and the Bimmer was his Bonanza. The Bonanza has been tricked out with every bell and whistle (just like the hanger). We were starting to see the pattern...this guy likes top of the line toys. Oh I forgot about the mega fast high speed Internet.
We had a 45 minute pre briefing with him outlining details to be completed before the Sunday hanger dinner and briefing. Kevin had homework to do before returning the next day. We hopped in the Mazda 5 rental car and headed for the hotel.
The hotel was nice and the food was except able. The Internet connection was spotty and painfully slow, making Kevin's homework frustrating. Having to file the government customs paper electronically and checking our route and weather on this slow connection wasted much time.
Still have not figured out how to add pics to the blog from the iPad.
Landed in Olympia and taxied over to the Let Fly Alaska man cave. This hanger has toys we have never even thought of--- from a late model Bentley to the popcorn machine it was incredible. 18 inch tile covered the entire hanger with nice area rugs in the sitting areas.. The kitchen had built in cabinets, HE washer and dryer, commercial style hot dog cooker, four flavors on the soda machine, ice cream bars, candy bars, chips, etc. It was like the mini mart without the register. In between the Bentley and the Bimmer was his Bonanza. The Bonanza has been tricked out with every bell and whistle (just like the hanger). We were starting to see the pattern...this guy likes top of the line toys. Oh I forgot about the mega fast high speed Internet.
We had a 45 minute pre briefing with him outlining details to be completed before the Sunday hanger dinner and briefing. Kevin had homework to do before returning the next day. We hopped in the Mazda 5 rental car and headed for the hotel.
The hotel was nice and the food was except able. The Internet connection was spotty and painfully slow, making Kevin's homework frustrating. Having to file the government customs paper electronically and checking our route and weather on this slow connection wasted much time.
Still have not figured out how to add pics to the blog from the iPad.
Monday 11 July 2011
Let's Fly Alaska
(First time blogger, long time blog avoider)
Background...
Last summer I was asked to "copilot" a trip to Alaska in a turbocharged 2006 Cirrius SR22 (sweet plane). The flight would start in Novato, Ca. and fly to Oympia, Wa., where we would join a group of eleven planes that have similar speed capabilities (150kts)and another group of six planes flying at slower speeds (120kts). Most of us were meeting for the first time . Together we would fly to Alaska. The trip is organized (to the tiniest detail) by a company called Lets Fly Alaska, based out of Olympia Wa. Both my pilot and I have been receiving instructional emails since last fall from Let's Fly Alaska on how to set up our border crossing etc. (lots of hoops to jump through and if you do it wrong...)
Saturday July 9, we met at Gnoss Field, in Novato, Ca. weighed our baggage and everything necessary for the trip (15 days). With two guys and limited baggage we are not able to carry full fuel. Not carrying full fuel requires careful, detailed flight planning...this will come into play on the first day of our group flight!
After careful planning we departed for Olympia. The haze over the Central Valley was more than usual,15-20 miles. The snow capped peaks of the Sierras poked through the top of the haze. We stopped in Redding, Ca. for fuel, temp was probably 95 degrees (feel like temp = 110). Departing Redding we pretty much flew IFR off and on the rest of the trip to Olympia. IFR meaning in this case ... "I Follow Road" (Interstate 5). We left the haze behind us at Mount Shasta and had a very scenic trip through Oregon and Washington.
Will try to catch the trip on the next entry. Meanwhile...follow our progress on the map link below:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0mlMdvtN6LbyUJQugfK74oZWyGziLsnyV
Background...
Last summer I was asked to "copilot" a trip to Alaska in a turbocharged 2006 Cirrius SR22 (sweet plane). The flight would start in Novato, Ca. and fly to Oympia, Wa., where we would join a group of eleven planes that have similar speed capabilities (150kts)and another group of six planes flying at slower speeds (120kts). Most of us were meeting for the first time . Together we would fly to Alaska. The trip is organized (to the tiniest detail) by a company called Lets Fly Alaska, based out of Olympia Wa. Both my pilot and I have been receiving instructional emails since last fall from Let's Fly Alaska on how to set up our border crossing etc. (lots of hoops to jump through and if you do it wrong...)
Saturday July 9, we met at Gnoss Field, in Novato, Ca. weighed our baggage and everything necessary for the trip (15 days). With two guys and limited baggage we are not able to carry full fuel. Not carrying full fuel requires careful, detailed flight planning...this will come into play on the first day of our group flight!
After careful planning we departed for Olympia. The haze over the Central Valley was more than usual,15-20 miles. The snow capped peaks of the Sierras poked through the top of the haze. We stopped in Redding, Ca. for fuel, temp was probably 95 degrees (feel like temp = 110). Departing Redding we pretty much flew IFR off and on the rest of the trip to Olympia. IFR meaning in this case ... "I Follow Road" (Interstate 5). We left the haze behind us at Mount Shasta and had a very scenic trip through Oregon and Washington.
Will try to catch the trip on the next entry. Meanwhile...follow our progress on the map link below:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0mlMdvtN6LbyUJQugfK74oZWyGziLsnyV
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