Looking across Merrill Field towards the Mountains this morning

Early start again this morning, not as early as some we have done in the last couple of weeks. We arrived at Merrill Field about 8:30 am local, and while Feroz checked the plane out and went to fill up (it is nice not having to hand pump fuel!) I filed a flight plan for the trip down to Ketchikan, about 730 miles south east. I was sorry to leave Anchorage, It seemed like a town with more to offer than I had seen, I will have to come back some day.

Plane fueled, the flight plan I had filed gave us a 10:00 local departure time, IFR climbing up to 10,000 feet for the flight. The weather in Anchorage was cloudy and the tower told us to expect turbulence to the south of the field.

Will and Mike in Oscar Juliet, normally our “partner” aircraft…. they normally took off after us and always seemed to arrive a few minutes before us, would not be with us on this leg. Will’s Bonanza was still in the shop having the cylinder replaced on the engine and a couple of other bits done, but we hope to see them soon as they are planning to catch up with us in either Seattle or Billings. Hopefully, the three Bonanzas will be able to arrive at Oshkosh in loose formation in four days time. It seemed strange not to hear either WIll or Mikes voice over the radio… we always compare their reported timings to way points to see how we are doing…. its not a race….. but there has to be some challenge! (Note to Wendy – Will’s wife…. he promised only to get the cylinder done and not have lots of accessories fitted….. but he did spend an awful long time in the pilots shop!)

It was Feroz’s leg to fly, so we strapped in and I called the tower for taxi clearance. We were offered runway 07 for departure and cleared to taxi to the hold. As we taxied out, tower contacted us and said the international airport wanted us to take 25 as there was severe turbulence reported just to the south off 07. So we did a 180 degree turn on the taxiway and were cleared to hold short for 25. After a few minutes at the hold, our clearance came through “as filed” so there would be no changes to the route I had planned. We were cleared to line up on 25 and depart, turning on heading 270 when able, then climb to 10,000 feet.

Lake Hood on the right, Anchorage International on the left. Taken through the right window of the aircraft.

The outbound track took us over Lake Hood and the seaplanes and through the approach to the international airport. As we passed 2000 feet we started to get some light chop which increased to moderate turbulence passing 3000 up to 5000. At 6000 we were in clear air and Anchorage Centre vectored us on to a joining point in the airway above. We passed 7000 and encountered more turbulence  as we entered cloud, but around 9000 feet we burst out into brilliant sunshine. Continuing the climb up to 10,000 the ride smoothed out and we initially had a headwind that kept the ground speed down to 100 knots. This was soon to change as we passed over the first line of mountains, and we caught a ride with a tail wind that saw us maintaining 160 to 169 knots nearly all the way to Ketchikan.

The views from 10,000 feet, although above the clouds were spectacular. I’ve posted a few below….

Climbing up through the clouds to 10,000 feet

Popping out "on top"

That cloud looks rather "solid"!

The "office" for the last 25 days

more "solid" clouds.... don't fly into these!!!!

Its always a privilege to be able to see views like this no matter how many times I fly

Our track on the airway. The white in the top right corner is the mountain in the previous photo.

Even bigger solid clouds, topping out at 17,000 feet

As we turned inland about 200 miles from Ketchikan, the clouds below us started to break up

Eventually the clouds disappeared altogether

We could look down on huge cruse ships that looked like toy boats trailing a wake for miles in the still waters

Eventually we cancelled IFR and went VFR for the approach... this was taken about 40 miles out

Around 70 miles out I asked to cancel the IFR flight plan and we were cleared to 8000 and asked to take up the hold. We had hardly gone round the hold when we were cleared to 7000 and asked if we could see the field. We could, so Centre handed us over to Tower and we were cleared for a visual patten for 29. We had to report entering downwind and pass behind a hill, turning left base, we were shadowing a float plane also on left base for the water way.

The runway was long and we had quite a long roll out to reach the other end for the taxiway, which as you turn of the runway desends down a hill and continues down as you parallel the runway. The apron is nearly 50 feet lower than the runway!

The ground marshaller guided us in and as we shut down, one of the fuel guys came over and asked if we wanted fuel. I said yes, and within a couple of minutes, a bowser pulled up and was pumping fuel into N722P’s four tanks. Hans & Hans had arrived a few minutes before and were enjoying an impromptu picnic on the tail of their Bonanza.

Impromptu picnic!

Fuel truck topping off the Cessna before coming to us

One of the "toy" ships..... a bit bigger when seen from the ground!

The airport is separated from the town by a deep stretch of water that allows cruise ships to dock. To get from the airport you have to take a ferry, which lasts about 10 minutes and costs $5. There were three crews that had arrived within 30 minutes of each other, so we all assembled in the FBO’s office (Fixed Base Operator) who, like many good FBO’s always have hot coffee available, and this was no exception, but to top it off, they had a popcorn machine as well!! Several bags of popcorn were washed down with coffee before we set off for the 2 minute walk to the ferry terminal.

As we were getting on the ferry, seaplanes were landing and taking off past us

I think I might have to try this one day!

Last truck squeezed on to the tiny ferry....

... ramp lifted up clear.....

.... safety fence closed.....

.. and were off for the 10 minute crossing

As we were crossing, this one was landing directly towards us!

A five minute taxi ride got us to the hotel. The temperature difference to Anchorage, which is now getting into its Autumn season, saw most of us sat out on the deck of the hotel in the sun watching the seaplanes take off and land, with the occasional Alaska Airlines Boeing dropping in and departing again from the airport directly across the water from us.

Sitting there watching the sun go down and seeing the moon cross behind the hills….. this has got to be one of the most wonderful places on earth.

Next update from Seattle…..

Resume own navigation and watch for traffic.

S