AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2016 - 72

Cameron Lawson, an Alaska native,
commercial pilot, mountaineer, and photographer, has joined me on this ferry trip
of a 2001 American Champion Citabria
7GCBC Explorer going to a new owner in
Minnesota. I'm familiar with the Citabria,
and Lawson knows this territory-having
flown over, hiked, biked, and kayaked almost
all of it. Despite an idyllic start, before the
day is over we'll confront low fuel, worsening weather, and other challenges typical of
this region.
I follow the Anchorage departure
controller's clearance and guide the tubeand-fabric aircraft in a right turn to the
southeast; climb to 3,500 feet; and follow
the deep, glacier-carved valleys that lead
to the coast. A pair of F-15 fighters scream
in to land at Elmendorf Air Force Base,
and gargantuan UPS and FedEx cargo jets
leave Anchorage International Airport just
below and behind us. But only 35 minutes
after takeoff from the world's most active
seaplane base, our radio goes silent and
the transponder reply light stops blinking.
We're out of Anchorage radio and radar
range, and ATC won't see or hear from us
until we show up in Juneau about 500 nautical miles away.
72 | AOPA PILOT August 2016

"In Alaska, it doesn't take long to go from
some really busy airspace to being totally
on your own," Lawson says. "The solitude
makes flying up here completely different
than anywhere else in the United States."
Ahead of us lies some of the most spectacular wilderness on the planet-and it's as
rugged as it is remote. The weather is sunny
and mild, but it's not going to stay that way.
A low-pressure system spinning up from the
south is forecast to bring clouds, rain, and
low ceilings in 24 hours. The first sign of
that impending weather change is a strong
headwind at our chosen cruise altitude of
5,500 feet. At our current groundspeed, we
won't make it to our first planned fuel stop
at Yakutat, but there are other options.
We drop down to 1,500 feet and our
groundspeed improves with a light tailwind.
The landscape becomes mesmerizing.
Prince William Sound is a bowl of deep
blue water surrounded by snow-capped
peaks on three sides, and it shows no obvious scars of the massive oil spill that did so
much damage here in 1989. Two gigantic oil
tankers pass in the sound: an empty one sitting tall in the water heading to the Port of
Valdez, and a full one with a low waterline
pointed out to the open sea. Fishing boats

abound as Chinook and silver salmon gather
offshore, preparing for their life-capping
dashes up rushing rivers to their birthplaces.
I'm tracking our progress on the airplane's GPS and an iPad, and Lawson is
doing the same with a VFR sectional and a
wristwatch. We both agree it would be wise
to land short of our planned fuel stop to fill
the tanks and confirm our rate of avgas
consumption.
Cordova looks like our best option, but
the remarks in the FAA's Alaska Supplement
get my full attention: "Steep ridge along
north edge, strong east winds, runway subject to strong downdrafts," the directory
notes. "Busy residential road borders north
side and parallels runway. Unattended.
Runway condition not monitored, recommend visual inspection prior to landing."
We swoop low over the seaside town
of Cordova, where seagulls swarm fishing
boats outside the tiny, packed harbor. Then
we touch down on the 1,800-foot gravel
strip where happily, a fresh sea breeze is
aligned with the runway. The avgas top-off
confirms our 160-horsepower engine burns
slightly less than eight gallons an hour at
cruise, just as anticipated, and oil consumption is almost nil.



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2016

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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201109
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