Sean got his cub in Maine and John got one in Chicago during the winter. Now it’s time to get the machines up to Alaska!
Sean will fly 92D to Wisconsin and link up with John in 97B.
From there the plan is to work our way West and North as weather allows and then follow the Alaska Highway up to Alaska. John will then fly out to Bethel.
Follow along!
A quick meeting over a beer at the Anchorage airport and the adventure begins!
Sean met me at the Silver Gulch brewery and off he left for his flights to Boston. He will fly to LA and then to Boston where he’ll take a bus to Maine. I’m off to Seattle and then to Minneapolis for a ride to Duluth/Superior.
The excitement is building for both of us. We are a bit nervous, but anxious to finally take the reins of the planes that have been on our minds all winter.
Stage One begins- Alaska Airlines to the East!!
After red-eye runs on the airline, it was a long day for both of us. I was sleeping in my friday night fish fry with my family, the browns after arriving into Wisconsin. Sean, on the other hand, was delayed getting into Boston for 4 hours because of snow and didn’t arrive into Portland, Maine, until even later.
Funny, that I’m whining about a long night! My 12 hour ride to Minneapolis and my short ride to Superior amounted to about about 16 hours or so. The return trip will be days and days to get back!!
All I know is zombieland turned to slumberland and I was out like a light.
Today is prep day for me and Sean meets his aircraft for the first time!
Good weather today! We’ll keep you posted!
Sean is off for Wisconsin!
After a bit of a late start, Sean headed West, crossed the border and just after sunset landed at Pembroke, just West of Ottawa.
He is pretty happy so far. The border crossing went off without a hitch and the plane is running great and sipping just under 9 gallons per hour.
After 325 miles today, he is hoping to get an early start tomorrow and try for Superior, Wisconsin. It’s going to be a bit of a long day for sure!
More later!
Sean arrived into Superior, Wisconsin today and it was too nice to stay and chit chat. Off for the wild blue skies were both Cubs, bound for Alaska.
First Stop was Thief River Falls for some gas. It was a beautiful day, but the heat of the day made the air just a bit unstable. Unfortunately it was too late to cross the border, so we decided to head West as far as we could. The air was a bit hazy in a wierd way. You would have thought it was fog, but it was just a frozen haze.
With Minot in the GPS, we headed West and arrived about a half hour before sunset. We were flying IFR most of the way (I follow Road) as all roads in Northern North Dakota lead to Minot.
Tomorrow the border crossing awaits as we finally head north bound!
The morning started yesterday with a bit of maintenance on the planes and then a bit of a wait for the weather in Regina to improve. It was a pretty foggy day in Regina-town, but after awhile we decided to head North to the little town of Crosby, North Dakota. The little town is just near the border and allowed us to fuel up and file all of our border crossing items online in the little office.
After a bit of canned salmon for lunch, the weather improved and we were off for Regina. We have to have all kinds of paperwork for the border crossing, but a quick call to the Canadian folks before we started and after we landed and that was it. I was actually a little bummed that they didn’t look!!
In Regina a couple of Canadian gals got us going with gas and we were off to the North again to North Battleford about 200 miles away. When we got there we decided we had enough time to make it to Lloydminster which had much more in the way of services, a hangar, and a hotel. It was forecast for snow and bum weather, so a nice hotel was almost a mandatory.
This morning the weather predictions were on track and snow and low ceilings have us on the ground and chilling out. It may improve during the day, so we are good to go.
Sean got his first taste of Poutines and gravy– A Canadian staple and one he was chomping at the bit to try! (Even though his pronunciation is a bit off)
Here are yesterday’s photos. We flew by hundreds and hundreds of oil wells and miles and miles of cattle acreage. Flat as a pancake, but some places were reminiscent of the tundra in winter!
Sean – Started in Portland, Maine
As tired as my butt was yesterday, I have nothing to complain about!
Sean started flying nearly a thousand miles before I met up with him. Here are his photos to date.
Does anyone recognize my tribute to The Great White North?? HaHa!!
1963 PA-18-150
1957 PA-18A 180HP
