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Well we are in Olympia, WA about to launch for Alaska in the Bonanza. Hopefully wheels up around 10:30 tomorrow headed to Prince George, BC. Some crazy flying to get from Houston to Olympia, but we make it okay.
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It's a beautiful thing to see, an airplane with a painted cowl and a navigator with a color coordinated outfit.
Have a wonderful and safe trip.
Stay away from those rock formations that protrude into your air space.
JIM :)
That looks like fun! As a fellow Bonanza owner, I would advise keeping those tip tanks full at all times and make certain that there is not too much dust on your instrument scan :). While most of my experience is with Anchorage (year around) even the jet can really bang around when dropping into the Anchorage Bowl. Brian E (FT) and Larry B (AS) I am sure would agree....ahh fire island! Just watch the weather and you will have fun.
Jerry, great pics. Great paint job on the Bonanza, (brings back good memories). You guys be careful and have a great trip. You are living my dream.
A mouse in the woodwork told me that Jerry and Rae are on their adventure with a group of aviation pals. For the first timer to Alaska flying this is a great way to explore our most beautiful state. Having made a few single engine trips north ourselves we have and will in the future keep it a strictly VFR operation and will try and fly in the company of others. The beauty of the area would instantly become threatening if you couldn't see it. That said, we'll head our old Cessna north at the drop of John's Captains hat.
Rae & Jerry - have a great time! We will keep you in our prayers for your safety! Ed & I truly enjoyed our trip there last summer. As Dan & Jo say, make sure you get to Talkeetna and take a flight up to Mt. McKinley. Breath taking! Of course the whole state is breath taking. Except for alot of the (Hotels) we stayed in. Bed and breakfast are your best choices. God be with you!
Sandy & Ed
What gorgeous pics, keep sending please so we can all enjoy this journey vicariously!
Debi
Jerry,
The Bonanza looks great with the new paint! I'll bet that Alaska is out of this world from the air! I know that we are super impressed with the beauty of the state from our perspective. Each new area seems more beautiful than the previous one.
We are in Valdez now; just made the ferry trip thru Prince William Sound. Too beautiful for words.
Enjoy your trip and be safe!
I saw the video of you guys flying up a river canyon. Its beautiful country. The engine sounded pretty loud, I guess thats why you have head sets. I can't imagine seated for 7 hours in a single engine airplane but the view definately makes up for it. Are you flying near where Ken, Janet, Tuga , and Karen ar traveling?
I think we are "close" by Alaska standards, but not in reality. We just landed in Fairbanks this afternoon and we are headed to to Deadhorse and the North Slope in the morning. We flew up the glacier this morning. Way cool.
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Beautiful pictures.
Earthbound. Bummer.
No doubt about what this is.
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Jerry, is that your personal fuel line for the bus and plane, from Alaska to Houston ?
Gary S.
Jerry,
We enjoyed seeing the pipeline; we saw the terminus from the Valdez-Whitter ferry. I thought that it would be much larger than it actually was.
There were about 9 large storage tanks. Wish we could have seen a supertanker loading up, but it was not to be.
Beautiful pictures!
Tuga,
We just flew down the road you guys were on the runs to Haines. I didn't realize it until we had the preflight briefing.
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Jerry,
We will be here in Copper Center for the next couple of days. Ken and Janet have driven on ahead of us to Haines; he wants to make a halibut fishing trip. Louise and I are going to drop off Cricket (her cousin) and his wife Annie in Glenallen. They are flying home Monday from Anchorage.
We are looking forward to the drive to Haines where we will meet up with Ken & Janet.
Alaska is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Each new site that we see eclipses the previous one. Its awesome!
Thanks for the updates with images Jerry. What an incredible trip!
Jim
On the glacier cruise today.
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Hi Jerry. And I thought Glaciers were extinct!
Jerry great photos and from a unique perspective.
Jerry you got guts to do this trip in a single.
Jack,
Review the statistics relating to piston singles versus piston twins and then report back on the relative safety of one versus the other when there is an engine problem.
And when reviewing the numbers keep in mind the likelyhood of an engine problem in a twin compared to a single is not twice as great as we smart alecks would suggest, but is approximately 4 times greater probably due to increased complexity, and more difficult fuel management.
I think multi engine planes are great when flown by two person professional crews. Not so great when flown by single pilots who are not professional.
BTW I shot from the lip when I threw out the numbers above because I think I read them in the past, but am too lazy to verify them. If I am wrong I will accompany you to the woodshed without complaint.
I don't remember all of the numbers either but I have flown in the rockies with a anemic single(Malibu) and also with a P-Baron,I can tell you that I was much more comfortable in the Baron even though it might be false security.I have flown commercial to Anchorage and I only remember seeing white mountain along the route.
Apples and oranges. A Malibu with two people and full fuel is at gross unless all occupants are jockeys.
A P-Baron has much more available HP, and especially in the climb it will make the Malibu seem anemic. Over the Rockies as much as I am not a believer in a twin I would feel a whole lot more comfortable in the P-Baron and the margins is provides. The reality is if I had to spend a lot of time over terrain not suitable for a landing I would feel most comfotable in a turbo-prop or jet, single or multi.
I am Jealous. Between Jerry and Tuga and Louise I don't know who to be most envious of...........Like Pete said, you guys are living my dream.
Jerry,those colors on that plane look like OSU to me , am I right?
Gary,
Don't mistake JDUB's new paint job for some Okie college related theme. He is a really big fan of Halloween hence the black and Jackolantern orange which matches the Great Pumpkin Scout. Although on the OSU thought, I wonder if the paint makes the plane a little more "poke-y"?
I read the following book a couple of years ago. For a non pilot who loves the outdoors, it is a great read. I suspect for you pilots particularly with Alaskan flying experience, it would be sensational. First flying game warden in Alaskan history and his stories of dropping in on frozen rivers and herds of caribou in a white out blizzard are amazing.
It occurred to me that his plane would have to have a minimal horsepower threshold just to carry around his huevos given some of the stuff he got into and lived to tell about.
Alaskan Tales of a Legendary Wildlife Agent and Bush Pilot (Alaska History) Sam O. White
Rearden, Jim; with a foreword by Richard Wien
Book Description: MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., Inc., 2007. Soft Cover. Book Condition: New. 1st Edition. Brand New. Stated First Printing. Sam O. White was a tough, deep voiced, six-foot tall, two hundred pound former Marine, lumberjack and guide. From 1922, for half a century he crisscrossed wild Alaska by foot, with pack horses, dog teams, canoe, riverboat and airplane. He helped map the Territory. He trapped fur. He became the worlds first flying game warden. White wrote exciting tales about his Alaska adventures. Those writings make up the bulk of this volume. 410 pgs, 77 photos, maps, Soft Cover.
Sam White is one of the many Bush Pilot ledgeds in AK. I knew Jim and Richard while we lived in AK. Got bitten by the flying bug up there in the early 70's. The bug let go of me when I left AK in 2000. Flew wheels, skis and floats. Ended my flying with more hours on floats than land plane hours. Knew alot of guys that flew the bush to make a living. Some of those went to meet the maker while flying.
Okay, to answer some of the questions, yep I did it in a single. 7310 miles worth. And about 55 flying hours. The longest leg was 4:20 and at one point I flew almost two hours without seeing the ground. I did see some cumulogranite sticking up, but I was at 11,500 and they were quite a bit below me.
I had another two hour leg where I didn't see a road, house, car or other sign of civilization. That was scary. But I was flying along a river most of the time and I would not have turned down a water landing if needed. I had a hour leg of scud running thru a river valley that was pretty spectacular and three IFR legs that included one IMC takeoff and one actual approach. IFR in Alaska is very different than here in flyover country. The lack of radar causes all kinds of issues. Manditory reporting points, time delays on the departures for sequencing or for the proceeding flight to reach radar coverage and blocked out times for scheduled airline operations.
I did however buy this book and thought about it often as I was flying about in the hinterland and I am encouraging MangoMike to author a bus version since he has had the same life experiences.
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Some cumulogranite near Yukatat
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Best Flying Day - Monument Valley
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And yes the plane has a fairly Oklahoma State centric paint scheme.
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On of our guys sent me a few new pics today.
Jerry,
I don't know you, but really enjoyed your pictures and following your trip. What model's your V35? I had a '66. Thought I needed more levers and now have a '66 Baron with 15,700 hrs on it for the last 10 yrs. So if you're above the single engine service ceiling in mountains in a natuarrly asparated twin, and an engine lays an egg, you're going to hit the ground at a higher speed than a single due to higher stall speed. I'd take a V 35 anyday. Baron costs 3x to maintain for a few extra knotts. I used to fly my V35 into a friends farm strip that was 1,500' with only 1,200 mowed, no problem! I think a V35's as good at short fields as a Cessna 182 and a lot faster. After the V35 I bought a low time Aztec, good plane, then bought the B55, an x-freighter; much better quality and have never cancelled a trip in 10 years for a mechanical. Hard to beat a Beech!
John Grissinger
Kansas City
John,
Mine is the V35A (closest in this pic). The other plane is a Stretched Deb (A36). We have put a bunch of hours on this plane, but no where near what you have on the Baron. J. Mac McClellan, the editor of Flying Magazine, until this month, said in his closing editorial that his favorite plane to fly after all these years was the V35. It has been a good plane for us.
Trukman, This pic is for you.
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Get the trukman a paper bag to blow into.
I don't think we could get him back in the plane again.
For the new guys in the crowd, I flew for 35 safe years with the mindset that I do not want to see another plane near me or up close and personal. Then I get a ride in Jdub's doctor killer enroute to Oshkosh with about 100 of his closest friends and these guys get giddy when the space separation gets down to 3 feet!:confused: Bad enough, it's a single yoke and Mango had to set up front so he wouldn't barf in the bag leaving the Trukman with no means of disaster recovery.:p
There's nothing that will pucker you up more than a 100 of the Beech finest lined up on the runway for departure when they all push up the throttles and the dance begins!
If your not a pilot, it would probably be exciting..... Jdub's daughter Abby set beside me and snored while I wore out my neck muscles.
Pretty exciting.
I was too dumb to be scared.
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Lined up 3 across and taking off every 4 minutes.
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Abbie was petrified.
Thanks Jerry, beautiful plane! I'm jealous! John