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Alaska 2025
- Thread starter aturner
- Start date
I just checked up on you on Flightaware. You are doing awesome!
What a fantastic adventure.
Wishing you the best...
What a fantastic adventure.
Wishing you the best...
I assume your map above is planned fuel stops.
Note that you will have to clear Canadian Customs. Dawson Creek doesn’t offer that service. I’d suggest Lethbridge Alberta CYQL, Calgary Springbank Alberta CYBW, or Regina Saskatchewan CYQR as limited airports in Canada offer AOE services.
Looks like an awesome trip!
Note that you will have to clear Canadian Customs. Dawson Creek doesn’t offer that service. I’d suggest Lethbridge Alberta CYQL, Calgary Springbank Alberta CYBW, or Regina Saskatchewan CYQR as limited airports in Canada offer AOE services.
Looks like an awesome trip!
Look closer; the airport ID isn't visible, but appears he'll clear at a border strip just north of Cut Bank, CTB.
Ok. Sweetgrass, airstrip is a bit rough but would do. Custom agents have to drive about 1/2 mile to the strip, give plenty of prior notice.
If you have Canpass you can clear at Milk River CEW5, just across the border from Cut Bank. The gentleman (with no shirt) we met said he hadn’t seen customs at the airport in 10 years. With Canpass, you can leave one minute past your appointment time if customs doesn’t show.
They WILL check for survival gear, and with proper planning and paperwork you can bring survival firearms!
Four RV-10's made this trip in June, 2023. 12,000 miles. 70 Hours.
We could not get across the Brooks Range north of Bettles primarily due to weather. Also, +1 for the CanPass.
We could not get across the Brooks Range north of Bettles primarily due to weather. Also, +1 for the CanPass.
[email protected]
Well Known Member
Got a group of 3 RV’s that are going to do a similar trip in July!
Thanks for the good feedback. I hope you don’t mind that I’m a week behind in reports, I haven’t been on the internet much. I will try to catch up with a step by step account here, if you want a more up to date account, Instagram “streamdoctr”
Cut Bank Montana sits on the high plains near the Rocky Mountain Front, just east of Glacier National Park. The airport was built during WWII as a bomber training base and one of the large hangars is still in use. It is about 1700 miles and eleven hours from Clarion Pennsylvania and about half way to Fairbanks Alaska. Which makes for a good overnight stop. We had to deal with headwinds, turbulence, smoke, and low clouds in the midwest, but the ride across Montana was serene.
We took advantage of the beds at the Cutbank airport terminal, a neat old building, and spent the night there. A bit seedy and perhaps not for everyone, but we appreciated the courtesy car and the easy in and out. The next day we cleared Canadian customs at the border strip Whetstone / Del Bonita. Very easy and no questions about survival gear. Next time though think we will follow the good suggestions above and clear at an airport where I can take on fuel. Ran into some fierce, fierce winds in Canada, with more than a little turbulence rolling off the mountains, as well as smoke and fires, but made it to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. With only a minor incident. Next post for details.
Preflight, Clarion PA
Cut Bank Montana sits on the high plains near the Rocky Mountain Front, just east of Glacier National Park. The airport was built during WWII as a bomber training base and one of the large hangars is still in use. It is about 1700 miles and eleven hours from Clarion Pennsylvania and about half way to Fairbanks Alaska. Which makes for a good overnight stop. We had to deal with headwinds, turbulence, smoke, and low clouds in the midwest, but the ride across Montana was serene.
We took advantage of the beds at the Cutbank airport terminal, a neat old building, and spent the night there. A bit seedy and perhaps not for everyone, but we appreciated the courtesy car and the easy in and out. The next day we cleared Canadian customs at the border strip Whetstone / Del Bonita. Very easy and no questions about survival gear. Next time though think we will follow the good suggestions above and clear at an airport where I can take on fuel. Ran into some fierce, fierce winds in Canada, with more than a little turbulence rolling off the mountains, as well as smoke and fires, but made it to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. With only a minor incident. Next post for details.
Preflight, Clarion PA
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Curious about where all that smoke in the eastern US is coming from? We saw the source for a lot of it on our second day out. Dozens of fires burning in the Canadian prairies and along the Rocky Mountain front. From Cutbank we cleared customs at Whetstone, had lunch and a fuel stop at Dawson Creek, and then followed the Alcan (Alaskan Highway) to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. Landed with winds 22 kts gusting to 32. Seven and a half hours of headwinds, turbulence, smoke plumes, but also amazing mountains, lakes, and wilderness landscapes. We were generally close to the Alcan and noted a half dozen nice looking gravel airstrips along the way. Next time we will go slower and camp at a few of these. The Airport Chalet is conveniently located just across the street from the airport in Whitehorse and has a restaurant - very convenient for weary pilots and their families. Whitehorse is an interesting town that also deserves a return visit.
A bit of an incident at Dawson Creek. We needed to clear the ramp for an inbound firefighting helicopter that needed fuel. Josh opened the passengers door to help pull the airplane across the ramp, and a gust of wind wrenched the door from his grasp, snapped the eye of the strut, and opened to the limit of hinge travel. This happened to me once before - similar circumstances with high winds, and on that prior occasion the hinge was bent and had to be replaced. So my heart was in my throat as I inspected the hinge. We were very, very lucky - no damage to the door or hinge. Our trip could have ended right these. These RV-10 doors are the fragile underbelly of an otherwise sturdy airplane. Treat them with great care. Next up: crossing the border back to the US and Alaska.
A bit of an incident at Dawson Creek. We needed to clear the ramp for an inbound firefighting helicopter that needed fuel. Josh opened the passengers door to help pull the airplane across the ramp, and a gust of wind wrenched the door from his grasp, snapped the eye of the strut, and opened to the limit of hinge travel. This happened to me once before - similar circumstances with high winds, and on that prior occasion the hinge was bent and had to be replaced. So my heart was in my throat as I inspected the hinge. We were very, very lucky - no damage to the door or hinge. Our trip could have ended right these. These RV-10 doors are the fragile underbelly of an otherwise sturdy airplane. Treat them with great care. Next up: crossing the border back to the US and Alaska.
The third day out took us from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. Nice weathr and an epic flight through the Ruby Range in the Yukon Territory. Our route took us along the northern edge of Kluane National Park. This is the core range of the Wood Bison, a distinct subspecies of the American Bison. There are about 7000 free ranging Wood Bison in the Yukon. A time lapse from the rear seat:
We had hoped to clear customs at Northway, but the Alcan customs office told us that they were unable to accommodate that request. So we shifted plans on the fly, literally, and flew to Fairbanks, where we requested the nearly 12000 foot long 20R so as to access the customs office. After clearing customs on the west side, we repositioned to the east side where GA lives. This involves taxiing through a large gate that is activated by five clicks on the radio. Fairbanks tower must be a busy place, with three different runways (in addition to 20R) conducting simultaneous GA operations. It is also an aviation mecca. We watched the lumbering DC-6’s lift off from the long runway, the float planes using the pond in the middle of the airport, the bush planes doing pattern work on the gravel runway, and the endless stream of GA traffic using 02R/20L. All this went on through the evening. The GA ramp is more than a mile long and is absolutely packed with hundreds of aircraft. It also has a pilots campground at the north end, which is where we tied down and pitched our tent for the “night”. It turns out that sunset in Fairbanks is after midnight, and it never really gets dark. Not that it mattered to us, we were exhausted and ready for sleep, dark or not.
TroyBranch
Well Known Member
What a great trip you had. We are heading up second week of July. We don't have enough time to go all the places you did, but we plan to make this a scouting trip to go back again and do better.
Northway is staffed on an “as needed” basis by officers from the Alcan Highway border station. When I called them in the morning, they told me they were short handed and couldn’t spare anyone to make the drive over to Northway. They offered up Anchorage and Fairbanks as alternatives and did offer to let me stop for fuel in Tok if needed. I didn’t need to.
You always have the coastal route as an option in the RV-10. We did that on the return trip - details to follow.
Fairbanks, the land where the sun sets tomorrow, is as far north as we flew on this trip. An arctic low blocked any ideas of venturing north over the Brooks Range. In the the morning, with weather forecast to move into Fairbanks, we broke our camp and flew south past Denali to Talkeetna. Denali was shrouded in clouds, and we threaded the needle on the flight through the mountain pass, following the George Parks Highway up the Nenana River, over the pass and under the cloud deck, and down the Chulitna and Sustina Rivers to Talkeetna. Talkeetna is the small town where Don Sheldon, operating a cub from a short strip in the middle of town, pioneered the art of landing on glaciers. It was cool to see the turbine Otters on skis at Talkeetna, earning their upkeep by flying climbers up onto the Ruth glacier, but other than the airport Talkeetna was a bit disappointing. It was overrun by cruise boat tourists who had ridden the train up from the coast. Restaurants were crowded and expensive, camping and hiking options were limited. Industrial tourism has come to Talkeetna. Not what we were interested in, so after tent camping one night in the city park we packed up and headed south to Wasilla and then east up the Matanuska River and over the Matanuska Glacier, squeezed over Tahaetna Pass with low ceilings, and on east through the Copper River basin and up the Chitina River to the old mining town of McCarthy. The approach into McCarthy is spectacular, with the huge Kennicott Glacier filling the windshield and rising into the heavens. McCarthy sits in the center of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, an immense tract of 13.2 million acres. The topography here ranges from sea level to 18,000 feet. We made camp at the airport, had a nice dinner in town, and the next day hiked up to the Kennicott copper mines a few miles up the road. We spent time scrambling over the Root Glacier, in awe of the massive river of ice. McCarthy is far enough away from a paved road that it is a bit of the old real Alaska and should be on every pilots list of places to visit. The old mill is fascinating , the glaciers are amazing, scenery awesome, and the local restaurants aren’t bad after a long day of hiking.
Im enjoying your write up and pictures. I would love to fly up there and experience it all. I do not have my instrument rating and dont see it in my future so I guess I will be satisfied reading accounts like yours! Have fun.
Yep, great trip report and pics! But seriously, don’t let the lack of an instrument rating stop you from doing an Alaska trip, you don’t need it. I just returned from my little AK run, 67 hours round trip from Texas, I flew no night nor IMC. Sign up for CANPASS and go!
Yeah, I thought the same; I dropped into Talkeetna for early dinner while it was fairly quiet, no crowds or lines… nice. But, a few days later I stopped in before noon thinking I might get a hotel room and do laundry… nope! Booked solid. And then the train rolled in and offloaded hundreds of cruise ship peeps… ugh. Time to grab a sandwich and move on!
