Normal Approach to Birchwood Alaska in the R22 Helicopter 23 May 2010

I added another video to "My Video Series" on YouTube

It was a nice day to get out and have some fun flying a helicopter. Notice the Cub landing ahead of me on final to 19R? I'm following landing 19L. Notice the other R22 helicopter in the field? That's Dusty teaching a student how to hover an R22 helicopter. My wife Mary was my passenger who shot this video while I made the approach and transitioned back to the NE ramp to land and shut her down.

Crow Pass Hike "Girdwood to Eagle River" Alaska - It took us 14.5 hours

When you can't fly a helicopter for various reasons here in ALASKA the next best alternative is hiking this beautiful land with your family

"Click on photos for a closer look"

Me, Crow Pass (3500 ft) (Mile 4) on our way down to the Eagle River valley in the back ground. Lessons learned: My back pack was too heavy for a 26 mile day hike. My right knee became irritated at 19 miles, too much weight due to the size of the water bladder. Next time I'll carry less water and resupply more often with the water filter. The SPOT is spotty when in the trees. It needs a clear view of the sky to transmit your current position. Next time I'll hold it straight up to the sky when I'm in a clearing to make sure the OK message gets out to my wife. She became a little concerned when she didn't get a message for a couple of hours while I was in the trees on the Eagle River side of the trail.

Laura (our daughter) at Raven Gorge (mile 7) it was a beautiful day for a hike. By that I mean a little sun but mostly clouds and no rain with a dry trail. Too much sun will sap the energy right out of you.

Laura (mile 10.5) what a trooper, her left knee gave out on her with about 9 miles to go, she persevered! Eagle Glacier and Lake behind her.

Me and my trusty .357 magnum, is that a bear over there? (mile 10.5). Eagle Glacier and Lake behind me pretty close to where we have to ford the river.

Raven Gorge (mile 7) Can you see the rock that looks like a bear?

Me and John (our son) (mile 5) John did a good job on this hike with plenty of energy to spare.

Laura and John on the way down after summiting Crow Pass (mile 5)

John enjoying the sun (mile 11ish). Is that a bear behind you?

Crow Pass (mile 4) - Elevation 3500 ft, Raven Glacier behind me. Do I look wet? It's because I just climbed 2000 ft from the trail head to this point. Probably the hardest part of the hike, the next hardest is crossing the Eagle River (ford site) at 13 miles. And overall just having the strength and endurance to hike all 26 miles. I really love this hike when everything goes well. It's a challenge to mind and body!

Laura

Raven Glacier (mile 4) This is what you see at the top of Crow Pass

Moose antler we found at Turbid Creek (more like a river) (mile 9.5) Notice where the porcupines gnawed on the horn? They eat the horns for the nutrients.

Raven Gorge (mile 7) This is an amazing site, the photo does it no justice. It's a very sharp, sudden, deep, rocky cavernous drop off. I'm guessing 75 to 100 feet. A hike to this gorge alone, and back to the Girdwood trail head would make an excellent day trip.

Raven Gorge (mile 7)

Raven Gorge with John standing and waiting; he's ready to move on and make some progress.

A Squirrel! This was the only wildlife we saw, oh and a couple of rock squirrels at the top of Crow Pass. This was near Yakedeyak Creek (mile 20) some of these so called creeks are actually little rivers. We don't have too many photos on the Eagle River side, mainly because my knee and Laura's knee were hurting, and we just wanted to make it to the Eagle River Nature Center (mile 26). Next time I'm traveling a lot lighter and the goal will be 10 to 12 hours. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment :). Overall this is a great hike, I love the challenge!

Robinson R22 Helicopter - Aerobatics "Cool Cuts Showcopters"

This video shows the capability of the Robinson R22 helicopter. Technically it's not aerobatics per say like a fixed wing airplane; it's what the helicopter is capable of in normal flight. Autorotations, flying backwards (the rotor disc doesn't care which way it's flying), turning, climbing descending. It's pretty cool how they do all these maneuvers in formation. I'd love to see this demonstration in person. You can tell these guys have 1000's of hours of experience. The lead pilot is a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot, Jim Cheatham. Excellent demonstration, check it out, amazing!

Side Note: I was sad to find out that Showcopters were a Salinas, California based team headed by Jim Cheatham who died in March 2009. Once an instructor at Verticare Helicopters and Airplanes in Salinas, Cheatham eventually took over the fixed-wing and rotary flight training, sales and service business. He started Showcopters in 1996, and soon the three-ship team -- flying Robinson helos -- attracted a following at air shows throughout the country. Helicopter Association International did a nice little write up on Jim Cheatham and so did Vertical Reference here. I would have loved to seen their demonstration in person.

Jim Cheatham;  January 5, 1942 ’ March 11, 2009

Obituary:

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Local business owner Jim Cheatham died suddenly in his home early Wednesday morning. Cheatham experienced a minor heart attack and corrective angioplasty one week prior.

Cheatham was recently in the news regarding how his business was devastatingly affected by the economic crisis. A significant factor of his business collapse was the abruptly canceled helicopter contract with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department. Cheatham was left with massive overhead for the nearly one Million dollar specialized aircraft. Just another victim of major budget cuts.

Born in Laveen, AZ on January 5, 1942, Cheatham later served as an aircraft mechanic and helicopter pilot in the United States Army, completing tours in both Viet Nam and South Korea.

Jim Cheatham moved to the Salinas area in 1967, working for Clevenger’s Air Service. He purchased the company in late 1970 and changed the name to Verticare Helicopters in 1971. During his 42 years flying out of the Salinas Airport, Cheatham utilized his piloting skills performing in airshows, cropdusting, aerial photography and filming, charter services, and flight training.

Cheatham is survived by his significant other, Cheryl Harris (Big Sur, CA); sister Janice Shoemaker (Boerne, TX); children Jodi Serrano (Sacramento, CA), Captain Amanda Evans (Osan AFB, South Korea), Stacey Wilson (Soledad, CA), Kylie Pachuilo (Salinas, CA), Amy Hayes (Yukota NAS, Japan), and Burton Cheatham (Salinas, CA); and seven grandchildren. He will be greatly missed, as he was adored by his family.

A Celebration of Jim’s life will be held in the Verticare Hangar (240 Mortensen Ave) at the Salinas Airport on Monday, March 16th at 11:00am.

-WATCH FOR THE WIRES-

..."and if you do hit them, keep flying the helicopter"...

-Jim Cheatham

RIP

Helicopter Operations - Deer Recovery / Live Capture - New Zealand

Interesting video of Kiwi's using the MD500 for deer capture in New Zealand
The pilot in this video is Morgan Saxton who died in 2008 when his R22
went  down in Lake Wanaka. RIP M Saxton.

How the Proper Attitude Helps Your Training and Career

This was such a good post from Mauna Loa Helicopters I thought I would post it here!

From: Mauna Loa Helicopters in Hawaii  March 27, 2010

Winston Churchill once remarked that, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Does it ever! Having a positive attitude can lead to your ultimate success in helicopter flight training much more than intelligence, than circumstance, than skill, education, money or background. A positive attitude towards your flight training can spark positive outcomes and extraordinary results. And that same positive attitude can and will give you an edge through your entire flying career.

It’s practically unheard of in our flight school to encounter an individual who simply does not possess the ability to fly a helicopter. Granted, it has occurred that the occasional student will give up and drop out, but that decision to quit has much more to do with the student’s attitude than it does with his or her skill.

The reverse also is true: a student faced with seemingly insurmountable hurdles can overcome those barriers and achieve success with a positive attitude.

In the time that I have been with Mauna Loa Helicopters, I’ve come to know dozens and dozens of would-be professional pilots. From the 17-year old fresh out of high school right up to and including a gentleman in his late sixties, all express a desire to master helicopter flight. And over the years it has become increasingly clear to me that those individuals who possess the right attitude have an overwhelming advantage over those who are taking up space and wasting time. That’s because the quality and effectiveness of training absorbed by a student is directly proportional to how involved that student becomes in the process.

When a student shows up late for a session, unprepared, distracted and perhaps tired from a late night out, the behavior demonstrates a casual attitude towards the mission at hand. Even if that student manages to ultimately graduate and land a flying job somewhere, the lackadaisical attitude will haunt his or her every working moment.

Compare that behavior with one that I see in a current student in Honolulu. Brad (not his real name) is a reasonably bright guy who exhibits a genuine curiosity towards his training. He frequently comes to the school, even if he’s not scheduled with an instructor, simply so he that can concentrate on his studies. I found out yesterday that he’s been taping his flight lessons so that he can listen to each lesson later to try to find ways to improve what he’s doing. With a winning attitude like that, Brad can expect great things in his future. Even though he just soloed, he’s already a professional at heart.

Adopting a proper attitude and focusing on your training in a positive manner can and will work wonders. Remember: excellence is not a skill, it’s an attitude.

P.J. O’Reilley
Honolulu Manager

Day 5 on our Journey from Torrance California to Alaska in a Robinson R22 21 May 2010; The Final Push

It's another beautiful day on our journey north here in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory; the sun is out with a slight chill being that it's early morning. After a shower I pack all my stuff into my back pack and we are out the door. We walk over to the restaurant where we see Jon and Floyd finishing up breakfast. I order up a nice egg skillet breakfast of eggs, hash browns, cheese and peppers plus orange juice and sourdough toast. During breakfast I give US Customs a call with a planned arrival in Northway, Alaska around 10am accounting for the hour we'll gain as we cross the border into Alaska. With the helicopter topped off with fuel, flight plan set, and our call made to US Customs we are ready to go. I call the tower and ask for a departure from our present position at transient parking. This first leg into Haines Junction will be more or less west following the road, Highway 1, through the valley. It's such a nice sunny morning with very little wind and high wispy clouds. Jon and Floyd aren't too far behind us in their MD500. There's a reason we need to stop at Haines Junction. This particular leg from Whitehorse to Northway is a very long stretch. We have to top off our tanks in Haines Junction to have any chance at all of making Northway. Haines Junction doesn't officially have avgas fuel but we heard a rumor about a guy there that will help out helicopters in need of fuel. We'd given this guy a call the night before to see if we could get some fuel from him. As it turns out he's more than happy to help us out and informally sell us 10 gallons of avgas. That's good news because if we couldn't get fuel from him we would have to stop at a gas station at Destruction Bay or Burwash Landing along the Kluane Lake. The winds are light as we meander along through the valley following the road. No tail wind today so far, and if anything we start to pick up a slight head wind. Jon comes on the radio and asks our location. "Hey Jon, we're about 20 miles out from Haines Junction." It appears they are closing in on us fairly fast. At about 5 miles out from Haines Junction they are right on our tail. Corey gets on the radio and says "Hey why don't you guys come up alongside of us and we'll take your picture." We'll need to get this done pretty quickly because we're just about to land at the Haines Junction airport. I slow it up to 70 knots and keep it nice and steady straight ahead. This lets Jon slowly move in closer with their 500 to within 50 feet or so. We snap several photos when I have to descend for a landing and they peel off to the right and northwest bound following the road towards Kluane Lake.

 Jon and Floyd fly up along side of us just before we land at Haines Junction in the Yukon

After landing and shutting down at the Haines Junction airport, Corey runs into the building and comes back out with two 5 gallon red plastic gas containers and pours them into the tanks. Now we are topped off and ready for the rest of our journey to Northway, Alaska. At least we won't have to worry about fuel on this leg which was a concern because it's such a long stretch. Thank you guys at the Haines Junction airport for the 100LL avgas!

On approach to the Haines Junction Airport, Yukon Territory

After fueling up we are ready for the push into Alaska and our visit with US Customs. I hit the bathroom real quick and then we are off departing to the northwest. We basically follow the road along this very long valley which holds Kluane Lake. We notice that we are picking up a definite head wind now.

The very large Kluane Lake, it never seemed to end

 We have a steady head wind blowing 8 to 10 knots right down the valley in the direction we are moving which really slows us down. Checking our ground speed with the GPS we see that we are going to be an hour late at this rate. We start to worry a little about our appointment at 10am with US Customs and have no way of calling them. There's not much we can do about the head wind except to keep on trucking. It's a good thing we got fuel in Haines Junction because there is no way we would have made Northway, Alaska at this rate. We cross over to the west side of Kluane Lake and continue up the long valley following the Canadian Highway 1. It's pretty here but the valley is long and it never seems to end. We are flying direct to Northway Alaska; that keeps us fairly close to the road along the valley floor. If we didn't have to check in with US Customs we could have headed straight to Glenallen, Alaska cutting off quite a few miles, but in actuality I'm not sure this would have been possible considering that it's nothing but rugged wilderness through the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve with no airports to refuel at. Looking at some of the photos of the park, I'm not sure it's an area I want to navigate through with the little R22 helicopter.

Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve

After what seems like ages we finally cross the Alaskan Border. You can see the border from the air. There's a long straight right-of-way cut out of the wilderness along the Alaskan/Canadian border. The Kluane Lake Valley seemed endless. Maybe it's because we are anxious to get home and that dam headwind doesn't help our cause; headwinds are frustrating for pilots. Come to think about it we've been accustomed to moving right along at a pretty good clip during the trip, our average ground speed has been 100 knots on our journey so far. The head winds we are experiencing today slows our ground speed to 75 knots, which is really slow and puts us behind schedule with US Customs. Overall though we feel like we are making progress now that we have crossed the border into Alaska. Wow, we've made it through Canada and back into the USA! We cross over a couple more ridge lines and see Northway in the distance. Northway is the principal port of entry for light aircraft entering Alaska from Canada and the lower 48 states. When we are within ten miles I make a call telling Northway Radio we are 10 miles out, inbound for landing. I'm sure Customs is listening on the same frequency. We hope they're listening because we are late and we want them to know we'll be landing soon. Shortly after I make my call I hear Jon come on and say they are ten miles out also. What the hell is going on, once again we are ahead of them, I can't believe it. After Jon's radio call they gain on us and we let them land ahead of us. I'm scratching my head, we've beat them the whole way we've been traveling together. Why? I'm guessing it's mainly because they stayed really close to the road while we flew straight as the crow flies, a zip line if you will between destinations. We flew a little higher in general avoiding surface winds, this may have helped our speed also. In any case I'm happy with this R22, it flies smooth and has plenty of power. It's not a dog ship. We have one R22 that just doesn't seem to have the power our other two R22s have. It's known as our dog ship, not sure why nor do the mechanics seem to know why. We finally land and there's the Northway US Customs agent to greet us. The agent meets with Jon and Floyd first. I mill around stretching and walking as usual. I notice the runway looks brand new, it's been repaved recently. I found out there was a massive earthquake in November 2002 with a magnitude of 7.9 that destroyed the airport. That's why it looks brand new, it's been rebuilt. We find out the avgas truck is broke down, we'll have to pick up and move the helicopter over to the fuel truck when we're done with customs. After the agent is done with the MD500 crew, Jon and Floyd, it's our turn. He wants to see our pilot's license and medical certificates. After that he wants to see our passports. I go to get my passport; I forget for a minute that I moved it to a more convenient spot for retrieval. For a nano second I panic, I can't find it, did I leave it somewhere? My mind is flooded with all these scenarios that end badly with Customs. There it is, right where I put it. I should have left it where it was! Whew! I give the man my passport. I hate it when that happens. After all the paper work; Corey had to fill out some form for a fee which the owner has to pay, figures. Then the custom's agent brings out this geiger counter that he starts waving around the helicopter from one end to the other. Not only are they worried about nuclear proliferation, but certain drugs and other illegal things will set off the bells and whistles on this thing. The whole time he's using this meter it's chirping away. He says it's detecting the natural radiation that's all around us. That was a surprise, I never expected a geiger counter. We are cleared and done with US Customs our main hurdle for the day. By-the-way he wasn't too concerned about us being an hour late. They understand flying schedules aren't a perfect science; an ETA is just that, estimated. Corey goes ahead and moves the helicopter over to the fuel truck. Jon and Floyd have been topped off with jet fuel and they are ready to get going. We say our good byes and they are on their way to Delta Junction, this is where our paths part. I'm sure if we were heading to Delta Junction we'd be there in time to greet the MD500 as they were landing :-).
 

Jon and Floyd; Salmon, ID where they started their trip

I’m kidding folks, I’m not completely naïve to what they are doing, they’re taking their time along the road “time building” as we helicopter pilots call it. Jon is learning some valuable lessons from Floyd who has been around the block a time or two and has loads of experience with the MD500 in the Army with special ops. He got out of the Army after 10 years. He then did contract work in the desert, namely Iraq with private sector security forces. I’d like to fly with Floyd myself. It was interesting listening to him tell his stories and talk about his exploits. I was doing the same thing with the R22; I was “time building”. It may not be an MD500 but it is helicopter time. The company I train with was gracious enough to allow me to go on the ferry flight and bring up an R22 from the factory in Torrance, California at a significantly reduced cost per hour. I gained 35 hours of very valuable cross country time and experience, I’m thankful for that; thank you Alpine Air Alaska. It was definitely a confidence builder. So, after we are done refueling we head over to the hotel that's nearby to pay. The guy that refueled us gives us a ride in his golf cart; it's kind of tight with three guys, so I'm hanging half way out on the way over. It's not much of a hotel, really old and not any souls in there except one other caretaker. I'm willing to bet the hotel won't last much longer. And from what I hear there's not always a guarantee they are going to have avgas. After filling up my water bottle inside the hotel, using the bathroom and Corey is done paying for the fuel we are ready to depart on our way to Gulkana Airport. Pretty soon we'll be back in familiar territory. What I remember most about the leg from Northway to Gulkana is the magnificent beauty of the Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve. As we go around, just inside the border of the park on our way to Gulkana, we could see Mt Drum and Mt Sanford, which are truly spectacular.
  

Mount Drum - Wrangell-St. Elias

Mount Sanford -Wrangell-St. Elias

After an hour and a half we land and hover-taxi over to the self serve fuel pumps at the Gulkana Airport just a few miles north of Glennallen. Corey tops off the tanks while I use the bathroom. It's nice and warm. The sun is out and I mill about for a little while. I'm feeling good. We are almost home with one last leg to go. We jump in, fire up the helicopter and depart straight out from the fuel pump ramp. I have to clear some power lines due west, so it's altitude over airspeed to clear the lines and we are on our way. We more or less follow Highway 1 out of Glennallen back to the Anchorage area. We have a strong headwind that really slows us up and it's turbulent but the sun is out and it feels warm. I've been fighting turbulence 90% of the time on this trip; it's something I won't miss. I try and make good time but because of the turbulence I have to slow it down. However, I have gained some very valuable experience when it comes to turbulence, winds, and the weather in general on this trip. I have a better feel for what the helicopter can handle. The turbulence may have been rough but well worth the experience.We pass Sheep Mountain Lodge, a place I've been wanting to visit for lunch someday in the helicopter. It has a nice little landing strip. Then we pass Chickaloon, which means we are getting close. Eventually we break out of the Matanuska Valley and transition midfield over the Palmer Airport, twenty minutes to go. Dusty one of our instructors is out giving instruction in one of the other R22s and recognizes my voice on the radio. "Welcome home 99507" he says over the radio. Thanks Dusty. A few minutes later I call Birchwood traffic, "Birchwood traffic, helicopter 99507 is five to the northeast inbound for landing." As we land Mary, my wife shows up to give me a ride home. She’s been keeping an eye on the SPOT and has a good idea when I’ll land. The SPOT did its job! Mission complete and what an adventure! I'm more than tired but feel good - the trip was a success! I wanted to log it here so I won’t forget and of course to share it with all of you too. I hope you enjoyed our little adventure; I enjoyed sharing it.

Hobbs schedule for the day:

Whitehorse Airport, Yukon, Canada (CYXY) - Haines Junction Airport, Yukon, Canada (CYHT) 1.1 hours

Haines Junction Airport, Yukon, Canada (CYHT) - Northway Airport, Alaska (PAOR) 2.4 hours

Northway Airport, Alaska (PAOR) - Gulkana Airport, Glennallen, Alaska (PAGK) 1.5 hours

Gulkana Airport, Glenallen, Alaska (PAGK) - Mission complete; Birchwood Airport, Alaska (PABV) 1.8 hours

Total 6.8 hours 486 NM's

Day 4 on our Journey from Torrance California to Alaska in a Robinson R22 20 May 2010

We awoke to a grey, cloudy, and rainy day with low ceilings. Definite marginal visual flight rules (MVFR) weather. The system we could see off in the distance to the north as we approached Fort St. John the night before had definitely moved in. We were up by 6am. I took a quick shower to wake up and then we went to eat the continental breakfast provided by the hotel. The continental breakfast provided by this hotel the Lakeview Inn in Fort Saint John was mediocre. I see Jon and Floyd are already up and on the computer looking at the weather in the lobby. Jon is also taking care of eAPIS in preparation for their arrival back into the USA via Northway, Alaska. In hind sight I should have been doing the same thing, but I chose to wait until we got to Whitehorse in the Yukon. The good news is that we see the weather hasn't completely marooned us; it’s definitely MVFR but looks doable. We check out, and all four of us catch a taxi back to the airport. It feels like winter again, cold, grey and wet. We put our order in for Avgas 100LL and Jon and Floyd put their order in for jet fuel for the MD 500 from Shell Aviation. They said they would handle Jon and Floyd first with the jet fuel. I went to the rest room to use the bathroom one last time before we jumped in and flew off. When I come out they are refueling our helicopter. Oh no! We don't want jet fuel in our helicopter. I ran across the ramp as fast as I could to the fuel truck refueling our helicopter. It's the Avgas truck; the guy could see I was panicked for a second there. He told me he couldn't get the jet fuel truck started so he decided to refuel us first. Whew! I just got my exercise for the morning and my blood pumping. If I wasn't awake before the scare I'm definitely awake now. There were a couple of fueling attendants along the way that asked me if the helicopter took avgas or jet fuel and one of them assumed it took jet fuel. They had never seen a Robinson R22. It was the little misunderstandings like this, that took me by surprise. I assumed every fuel attendant would know what kind of gas the R22 uses. The one thing we did after each refueling was test the fuel for water and sediment religiously and look for the color blue which told me it was 100LL avgas. We didn't know anything about these fuel stops so we didn't take any chances. It's something we are taught during training, always check fuel first thing in the morning and after each refueling. With our preflight done, fuel topped off, flight plan filed, and our gear stowed below the seats we are ready to depart for Fort Nelson. I strap the SPOT on my ankle, turn it on and enable the tracking feature. I crank up and get the rotor up to speed. We let Fort St. John Radio know we are departing to the north and ask them to activate our flight plan. They ask our cruising altitude. They know it's MVFR weather and want to make sure we stay out of the clouds. I tell them 3000 feet. Jon and Floyd lift off shortly after us in the MD500. We decide to head direct to Fort Nelson. The fueling points in Canada are getting further apart and we want to make sure we have enough fuel to make it. But we have a dilemma, the cloud ceilings are low, can we make it over the mountains? Following the road allows us to stay lower in the valley and out of the clouds, but we may not have enough fuel for this route. We calculate looking at the maps that if the ceilings get too low we have a way out to the west through several valleys and intercept the road, Highway 97. As long as we can see over each pass as we proceed north we'll keep heading straight to Fort Nelson. We are off and heading due north. At first the ceilings are pretty low forcing us lower to the ground for some distance, scud running is the aviation term for this. For awhile we were being forced to within a few hundred feet of the terrain. Some parts of this weather system had very heavy, low lying clouds that we had to skirt around. In this area there are several very high antennas lurking about that we have to look out for. I slow it up to give us a little more time to see and avoid these antennas. Our visibility is about 3 to 4 miles with light rain and we are within a few degrees of freezing temperatures. We are within weather minimums, but it's just that, bare minimums. We press on in these conditions for about an hour, then the clouds starts lifting a little. Which is good because we see mountains ahead. The temperature is close to freezing. Not good with all the mist and moisture around us. Yes, our situation is a little dicey but there are plenty of fields around to land in if things get worse. We keep heading north staying just below the clouds and watching for antennas. As we near the mountains we notice the clouds lifting with the terrain giving us just enough clearance to make it through the passes. The tops of the mountains are obscured, but we calculate it's doable. Again there are valleys to our left (west) giving us a way out to the highway. As we climb to head over the passes we also pick up a tail wind that's helping us right along. The way I was taught to fly the R22 is hold 21 inches on the manifold pressure (MP) and very my speed to gain and lose altitude giving us the best range and fuel consumption. I slowly climb and descend as needed to clear terrain with airspeed. Things are looking better; we've been able to clear the saddles and ridge lines between the peaks as we head north. The tailwind is helping us out, but it's bumpy. The ceiling has lifted some more and it appears we are out of the worst of the weather. We make it over a couple more mountain ridges and saddles and eventually we see ahead in the distance towards the lower areas where Fort Nelson is located. We are constantly gauging the distance and time via the GPS and the amount of fuel we have left. It's looking good with the tail wind we have. About 3/4 of the way to Fort Nelson we know we are going to make it. I also have to go pee when I spot a nice little river bank to land on, I tell Corey we need to land so I can get some relief. I welcome the opportunity to land and get out. I circle once then approach into the wind landing next to the river on a gravel bank. If there's one thing I hate it's flying with my legs crossed. I feel much better now with the pressure off. I get back into the running helicopter and put my headsets back on; Corey's been holding the controls, I take off into the wind following the river until I clear the trees and turn back north. After about 30 minutes we clear the last of the mountains and slowly start descending into Fort Nelson. It was hairy for awhile there but we luck out and were able to make a direct flight through the mountains into Fort Nelson. At ten miles out we get on the radio and call Fort Nelson Radio. The winds have lightened up a little but are still blowing. We come straight in and hook around into the wind and land on the ramp. We get on the unicom and call the fuel truck; dam that was a long leg, 2.6 hours on the hobbs. It's the long legs that kill me in the little R22. I'm finding if I can stop more often, and stretch and walk, I can handle the long days of flying a lot better. There are quite a few helicopters on the ramp; I'm wondering what they all are doing here. The only thing I can think of is all the natural gas fields in the area that might require helicopters. We saw endless right-of-way’s cut out of the woods with natural gas piping systems all through our flight from Fort St. John. There's something missing however, where are Jon and Floyd and the MD500? Did we actually beat them here? A few minutes later we hear a helicopter, it’s them. I smiled to myself; we actually beat the MD500 here to Fort Nelson. I didn't say anything and neither did Jon. It might be because they decided to follow the road and we flew direct through the mountains and picked up a nice little tail wind. I was impressed with the Robinson R22.

Fort Nelson

After refueling, walking around a bit to get the blood going, and taking a bathroom break we are ready to go. This time our destination is Watson Lake in the Yukon. I feel like we are making progress, we are almost into the Yukon Territory. It's still grey with a slight drizzle and cold, and it still feels like winter. I pick her up and we depart to the northwest direct to Watson Lake. We have been using the heater today for the first time, since it's new, we initially smell it burning off the newness. The R22's heater handles the extreme cold of Alaska quite nicely, however we won't fly when temps are below -10°F. This is a very long leg to Watson Lake from Fort Nelson; if the winds don't cooperate we'll have to land at a gas station and get some premium auto gas. The Lycoming engine can handle this but it'll run a little rough, and no more than 10 gallons or so, it's not something you want to do all the time, only in a pinch. We notice the cloud ceilings are lifting a little but are still fairly low. The mountains and terrain are a lot higher during this leg. We make it over a couple of passes but can't continue straight due to the low ceilings and the mountain passes being too high. We turn left (west) and follow the valley for a ways before it looks clear enough to go direct again to Watson Lake. We make it over the next mountain pass but then have to veer to the west again before we see another pass we can get over to the north. We play this game for about 30 minutes with the clouds. Then the ceiling starts to lift some more and we could finally head direct again towards Watson Lake. We gain a little altitude and start crossing mountain passes with no problems. Another plus is the winds are picking up from the south, very nice; we are moving out now at a pretty good clip. If this keeps up we'll have plenty of fuel. The ceilings and weather are starting to break up and we start seeing blue skies here and there. Things are looking good with a nice tail wind of 20 to 25 knots. So now we are able to fly direct to Watson Lake. It's weird but at this point in the trip I start to hear the same rhythm from the Lycoming engine and the rotors. When we started from Torrance the engine and rotors were just a cacophony of noise. But after a few days I notice a definite chorus that's playing over and over. It's the only thing to listen to. I brought my iPod Nano with lots of music and a chord to plug into the audio jack I thought the newly rebuilt R22 would provide; no such luck. They didn't touch the avionics. Our newer R22s have audio jacks. Oh well, I get to hear the music from the engine and rotors through my headsets. As we approach the Liard River area and see a small little landing strip I start to hear some crackling in my headset, someone is trying to talk but I can't quite hear them. As I pass the landing strip I hear "Jeff, where are you guys?" Hey that's Jon! "Hey Jon, we are just passing the Liard River landing strip and about 46 miles out from Watson Lake." Silence for awhile, "Jeff, you guys are way ahead of us, we are about 65 miles out from Watson Lake." I can't believe we are that far ahead of the MD500, but we are. We've been flying direct to Watson Lake the best we can considering the weather. They have been following the road, plus at our altitude we picked up nice tailwind, but it's turbulent. All of this put us way ahead of Jon and Floyd. I wasn't in a race with the MD500, but I was certainly amused at the thought of being first to Watson Lake in the Yukon. We finally land and park near the self service pumps. Dam these long legs are killing me today, but I'm on quite the adventure. We just did another 2.6 hours and I'm happy that we didn't have to stop at a gas station for auto gas. A couple of people have asked me how we would have gone about doing that? Pretty simple really, we would have landed as close as possible to the gas station in a field or parking lot clear of vehicles and keep a close look out for power lines. Remember it's a pretty remote area so a spot to land shouldn’t be too hard to find. We'd borrow a couple of 5 gallon gas cans and put fuel in the helicopter, pay the man, and say thank you very much and off we go. But we don't have to because the man upstairs is looking out for us with all these tail winds, pushing us right along. The sun is coming out and it's feeling a lot warmer again. After we are just about done refueling Jon and Floyd show up in the MD 500 about 15 minutes behind us. They park so close to us I'm worried my rotors won't clear their rotors when we start up, we spin our rotors to make sure they are clear. I'll have to be careful when I pick up. Now Floyd, the Apache driver, is starting to look impressed with our little R22. He comes over and starts looking the R22 over. I'm just happy to stand and stretch, that's two long runs in a row and we aren't done yet, we have one more leg and maybe one more after that. I haven't eaten much since breakfast so I scrounge around in my back pack for a little snack and find another peanut bar; I had thrown in few before we left Torrance. We'll have to wait until we get to Whitehorse before we can eat; there is nothing here but a little terminal building. It's about 2pm Canadian time. I've been sipping on water along the way from my trusty water bottle that I fill up at each fuel stop. We've been following Highway 97 for such a long ways more less that it's a mile stone when it turns into Highway 1 in the Yukon Territory. I'm enjoying the warmth of the sun but have to run inside the little terminal building to use the bathroom before our next run. When I come back out I look the helicopter over and check the fuel, everything looks good. We are ready for our next leg into Whitehorse. We crank up and get the rotors up to speed; Jon, you sure parked close to us with that MD500, he knows I like their machine. I pick up very carefully and immediately slide left and back. Whew! That was close; the last thing I want to hear is splintering rotor blades. I talk to Watson Lake Radio and tell them we are departing to the west, wow, more west then north now, and to please activate our flight plan. We are on our way once again.

Watson Lake

Things are looking better this leg weather wise; the sun is out now and we have a nice little tail wind although it's bumpy. We hit direct to on the GPS, enter the ID for Whitehorse (CYXY) and then enter. We are going to make a bee line straight to Whitehorse, west-north-west through the mountains. I love flying through the mountains when the weather is cooperating. I think back to the gold rush days when the miners were slogging through some of these very same mountains enduring hardships, all in an effort to get to the gold fields in the hopes of striking it rich. Now here we are flying through some of those very same mountains like eagles. Which brings up a good point about eagles, they are the only bird that won't move out of the way for us, we have to veer around them. All other birds will usually dive out of the way. The eagle is king of the skies. As we press on towards the mountains the winds are behind us pushing us right along. I've learned by now on our journey, that as long as we are flowing with the winds, a tail wind, as we approach the mountain passes we get a free lift up as the terrain rises. Imagine the winds as a river and we are flowing with the current as we climb up into the mountains. It's a big plus to work on the windward (upwind) side of a mountain or ridge line because of all the extra lift. There were a few times I was suddenly lifted up as I approached a saddle or ridge line at the rate of a 1000 feet per minute giving me a free ride up with very little extra power needed. This little trick worked for me several times with the tailwinds we were experiencing when they were at least 20 knots or more. There is a negative side to this; that same river current of wind swirls and flows down the mountain on the downwind (lee) side. You flow along with these currents more or less and try not to fight it. I think we were close to the Teslin Lake area when I cross a ridge line that drops off steeply into a valley in front of us. There was snow on the peaks all around us and along the ridge line we were crossing and very green down in the valley, it was a beautiful sunny day. We've just crossed the ridge line when suddenly we start to descend at a very high rate of speed; feels like a roller coaster that just topped out and on the way down. I take a quick glance at our VSI (vertical speed indicator) and it's reading something like 1200 FPM (feet per minute) descent rate. Luckily the valley is ahead of us that holds Teslin Lake, and we need to descend anyway because our destination, Whitehorse, is at the other end of the valley way out there in the distance. All we can do in this situation is go with the flow. The downdraft I'm in is a good example of why it's so dangerous on the downwind or lee side of a mountain. These down drafts can be very powerful and will over power any helicopter, or anything that flies very quickly. It's been nice having all these tail winds but the turbulence and the gusts all day long are wearing on me. My butt is really starting to hurt again. My wrists are hurting from fighting the gusting and turbulence of the last couple of days. I'm thinking hydraulics for the controls would really be nice to have right about now. The constant gusting from the tail winds forces me to push forward on the cyclic and pull up on the collective with each gust so I can't really relax my hands. We are about 20 minutes out from Whitehorse when I ask Corey to take the controls. I need a break! Note to self; invent hydraulics and comfortable seats for the little R22, become millionaire, then buy a nice turbine helicopter with hydraulics and comfortable seats for long trips. My turn to look at the maps and be the navigator while he flies the rest of the way into Whitehorse. I put my hands on the seats and lift myself up taking the pressure off my butt. It's been three long legs averaging 2.5 hours each today. I'm thankful when we finally land in Whitehorse at the transient parking so I can un-ass the helicopter.

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

The airport’s windsock is a DC-3; It makes loud groaning noises as it rotates with the wind

The sun is out and it's nice and warm, something like 75 degrees, the complete opposite of the weather we had this morning in Fort St. John. Definitely T-shirt weather. We call for fuel on the unicom and wait around for the fuel truck enjoying the nice warm sun.  Wait a minute, where's Jon and Floyd and that cool MD500? They aren't here yet. We here a helicopter coming in, yep that sounds like a 500. Nope, it's not Jon and Floyd, it's a Prism MD500 with a round nose. The guy shuts down and gets out; I take the opportunity to go talk with him. He's from New Zealand, a Kiwi. He starts telling me what they do with the little R22 back in New Zealand. Besides mustering cattle, they hunt and sling load deer, and ag spray with the R22, which isn't completely legal because of where they have to mount the chemical tanks and sprayers on the skids . He finishes up by saying; "You don't want to know what else we use the R22 for." He's wrong, I do want to know. In any case these guys are crazy, watch this cattle mustering for yourself, you be the judge.

R22 Robinson Heli Mustering

The fuel truck finally shows up and tops us off. With full fuel tanks we are ready to go again. I check the oil and notice we are a quart low. I go ahead and add the forth of the five quarts of special mineral oil the factory has given us before we departed Torrance. You're supposed to use this special mineral oil the first fifty hours on the newly rebuilt Lycoming engine. Here comes Jon and Floyd on short approach. They land on the other side of the Prism MD500. Floyd and the Kiwi guy talk 500s for awhile comparing notes. The helicopters are all fueled up. We are starving so we start looking around for a place to eat and notice the terminal. We go inside to check it out, no luck, all the eateries are closed. Someone points across the street to the Airport Chalet a motel/restaurant. I ordered a burger deluxe and fries, the works, lettuce, tomato and onions. These burgers I've been ordering aren't fast food franchise burgers; these are good old fashioned homemade style burgers. I'm feeling a lot better now after eating. We start talking about the next leg of the trip which would take us into Alaska. The days are long at this point and it stays light until about midnight. Get-home-itis is setting in. It's about 6:00pm Canadian time, which gives us about 6 hours of daylight left. The wheels are turning; can we make it before dark? I'm privately dreading this thought, we've already put in a long day, but I flow with the idea of possibly making it home tonight. One thing in our way is US Customs at the border. I haven't filled out the eAPIS manifest yet either. I have their number in my cell phone so I give them a call. It used to be when crossing the border with helicopters you were allowed to land right at the border any time of day in the parking lot and clear US Customs. Tonight however I find out there's construction at the border station and they want all aviation traffic to clear US Customs at the Northway Station, and that it has to be between the hours of 7am to 4pm Alaskan time. Things have gotten serious since 911. They also told me if I didn't have the eAPIS manifest filled out before I got there we could be fined. It appears we aren't going anywhere tonight. The only computer I can find to fill out the eAPIS manifest is in the lobby, and it takes money, Canadian coins; the $1-dollar coin is called a "loonie," and the $2-dollar coin is called a "toonie." It appears the computer takes a loonie or a toonie every 10 minutes. I don't have time nor do I want to mess with converting US money into loonies and toonies. I decide instead when I get the chance to call Mary, my wife, and have her get on the computer for me. In the mean time we decide to stay right there and get a room for the night. It’s close, convenient, and within walking distance of the helicopter and we'll eat breakfast in the restaurant in the morning, which is good, I'm getting tired of eating continental breakfast. After checking into a room we walk back to the helicopters and grab our backpacks, lock the choppers and head back to the rooms. After taking a shower and settling in for the night I give Mary a call. I talk her through logging into my eAPIS account and filling out a manifest for our arrival back into the US via the Northway Station in Alaska. Thirty minutes later we get it all figured out and the manifest is ready to go. Good job babe, thanks, you saved the day! By now I'm wiped out and ready to hit the sack. I'm glad we didn't make a push for the border, in my mind it would have been dangerous pushing ourselves to the point of exhaustion. That's when mistakes are made and accidents happen. I fall asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Hobbs schedule for the day:

Fort St. John Airport, BC, Canada (CYXJ) - Fort Nelson Airport, BC, Canada (CYYE) 2.6 hours

Fort Nelson Airport, BC, Canada (CYYE) - Watson Lake Airport, Yukon, Canada (CYQH) 2.6 hours

Watson Lake Airport, Yukon, Canada (CYQH) - Whitehorse Airport, Yukon, Canada (CYXY) 2.2 hours

Total 7.4 hours 560 NM's

Day 3 on our Journey from Torrance California to Alaska in a Robinson R22 19 May 2010

Our goal today was to get across the Canadian Border and as far north as possible. The sun is shining through the window, excellent, it’s another nice day outside. I think we got up around 5:30am. I take a quick shower to wake up and we head down for some of the continental breakfast provided by the hotel. Our priority when choosing a hotel for our layovers was a continental breakfast, mainly because it made it really convenient for us. But I'm here to tell you not all continental breakfasts provided by hotels are created equal! The breakfast provided by the Comfort Inn's (or that particular franchise chain) were usually pretty good, with waffle makers, eggs, sausage, cereal, juice, coffee, fruit, and the works.

I think now is a good time to bring up some of the little devices I had with me to make life a little easier on the aviation road. One device was Apple's I-touch, 3rd generation, similar to an I-phone except without the phone, and it has Wi-Fi. I had my own cell phone for calling and texting. With the I-touch I could check email and get on the Internet, all the hotels had Wi-Fi, except where we stayed in Whitehorse, Canada.  I downloaded a couple of handy apps for the ferry flight. One was the AOPA's Airports data base made for the I-touch. This really came in handy; it had all the information about each airport such as, frequencies, Google map, runway information, pattern altitudes, time zone, what sectional the airport is on, sunrise and sunset, fuel and more. Also included are the nearest airports, and services such as FBO's, attractions, car rentals, lodging, restaurants, and taxi's. What more could a guy ask for? All this is updated once a month, so it's current information. I used it each night to figure out where we were going to stay. Once you have it downloaded you don't need Wi-Fi to access the data. I can't say enough about this application AOPA puts out for pilots, and it's free. However, I think you have to be an AOPA member to use it. The other application I downloaded and used quite a bit during our trip was Aeroweather; very handy and extremely useful. Oh and I almost forgot, I also downloaded photos of the airports across Canada showing the re-fueling location on the airports. I never used these photos though; we figured it out as we landed at each location, most of the time the tower or the flight service folks would direct us to the fueling point or we'd simply see the self service pumps ourselves if they had them. The I-touch was like carrying my own little mini laptop, very useful. I also use it to download study materials such as the Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI's) and the CFI -Rotorcraft test applications. Plus there is an application for the FARs if your so inclined.

The other little piece of technology I used was the SPOT, second generation. I paid the extra 50 bucks for the tracking feature, well worth the cost of 150 bucks total a year with the tracking feature. Every ten minutes the tracking feature sends out a location/coordinates, and anyone with my SPOT link can track where we are in real time. It's like leaving a bread crumb trail and having flight following all in one, my wife and kids really liked this feature. They could look and see where I was any time of the day. It also has an I'm "OK" button with a little preset message. My message says something like "We are OK, everything is fine" which can be sent to email addresses with a link showing our exact location and also to phones as a text. I would hit the OK button at each refueling point to let everyone know I was okay, and date stamp our time of arrival for later retrieval of the info. It's been fun looking back over our route and seeing exactly where we flew on our journey north. It came with a nice little arm band holder and case. I would strap this around my ankle so it faced the sky, it worked perfectly in the helicopter. You don't need cell phone reception for the SPOT to work, it uses GPS technology, and it’s very handy when I'm hiking in the back country of Alaska where there is no cell phone reception.

Okay, back to our little journey north. Our goal this morning is to reach Oroville, Washington. The flight takes us about an hour and a half. Steve Johnston, the Oroville - Dorothy Scott Airport Manager heard us coming in and directed us to the fuel pump as we approached to land with his hand held radio. Once there my main concerns are Canadian Customs and eAPIS; The Electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS) is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) web-based application. It all started back on May 18, 2009, all general aviation pilots departing from or arriving in the United States are required to provide pilot information, aircraft information, and passenger manifest to the government at least 60 minutes prior to departure. I guess I could see the need, but it sure added a lot of red tape to our journey. I had previously opened an eAPIS account with our basic information before we left on the ferry flight. All that was left to do when we got to Oroville was upload the manifest with our arrival time to Homeland Security before entering Canada, and in our case that would be Kelowna. I would also have to call Canadian Customs (Canpass) and let them know our arrival time into Kelowna, I also found out Customs needed two hours notice, and we had to arrive within a 30 minute window, basically 15 minutes on either side of our projected arrival time. After calling Canpass (Canadian customs) and answering a series of questions about who we were, info about our helicopter, and info on our passports, we were cleared to enter Canada. It was important we get there within our scheduled window. Once there I had to call and let them know we had arrived in Kelowna. We were required to land at the ramp near the AeroShell fueling point, we did have a choice, and that's where I said I would land. I'll add the lady with Canadian Customs I talked with was very friendly throughout the whole process. Our plan of attack through Canada was Kelowna, Williams Lake, Prince George, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake, and Whitehorse. It was a good route because it kept us close to the highway most of the time. There were a few more direct routes we could have taken, but as you know, Canada is a desolate place, with vast distances between communities. I felt staying close to the highway would be the safest route.

Oroville-Scott Field

Our trusty little R22 after refueling in Oroville, WA

We have about an hour to kill before we could leave Oroville and meet our dead line in Kelowna. Next we had to deal with eAPIS. Our problem there at the Oroville Airport was no computer available for public use. So what did we do about eAPIS? We tried the I-phone...a no go, Safari (MAC Internet browser on I-touch and I-phone) wasn't working with eAPIS. We were running out of time and Canadian Customs was expecting us, we were stuck between two countries; we had to leave to get to Kelowna on time and hope for a computer there. I'd like to add that Steve the airport manager at Oroville was a Vietnam helicopter pilot who joined the Army back in 1967 and did his helicopter training at Fort Wolters then Fort Rucker and on to Vietnam. We had a chance to talk for only 15 minutes or so. Anyone who reads my blog knows I'm extremely interested in Vietnam helicopter stuff and here I have a chance to talk with a Vietnam helicopter pilot, but dam we had to leave in order to make our scheduled window with Canadian Customs. We were full of fuel and off to cross the Canadian Border. I picked up the helicopter and made a call to Oroville traffic that we were departing north; the winds were light with a slight tail wind. We find that we are moving a little too fast and have to slow down so we don't arrive too early. At ten miles out we called Kelowna Tower. “Kelowna Tower helicopter 99507 is 10 miles south inbound for landing”. "Helicopter 99507 Kelowna Tower, squawk 5302 (just a guess I don’t remember the squawk) do you have a flight plan?” I suddenly have that sinking feeling. We both look at each other, crap! While worrying about eAPIS and Canadian Customs we forget about Canada’s law that everyone must have a flight plan. “Tower would you like us to return to Oroville and file a flight plan?” “Helicopter 507 that won’t be required, in the future make sure you have flight plan on file while traveling through Canada”. “Okay tower, Will Co, helicopter 507”. Whew! Dodged a bullet!

Kelowna

On our way to Kelowna B.C. Canada near the beautiful Okanagan Lake

We asked for clearance to land at the AeroShell ramp, and after landing I gave customs a call. We were not allowed to leave the helicopter until customs cleared us. We lucked out; when I called them they simply gave us a number and told us to keep it handy while passing through Canada. That was easy enough, one more hurdle behind us. We called for fuel, while Corey handled the fuel I ran into the AeroShell building where they had a very nice pilot's lounge with a computer, lucked out again. I immediately logged into eAPIS and submitted our manifest to US Homeland Security. No problem, it worked and another hurdle behind us. I later talked with the US Customs Agent in Northway, Alaska about our dilemma of no public computer available in Oroville, WA. He told me that we actually had three days to give notice. So technically I could have filled out our eAPIS manifest in Wenatchee, WA or Marysville, CA when I had access to a computer. Any slip in our schedule would simply require a call to Northway Customs in Alaska and they would note it in their system. Okay, so I’ve learned several lessons today, and so far we haven’t been thrown in jail nor did the helicopter get impounded, but what a day, and we are just getting started. I’ll interject my opinion here; we aren’t the ones border control should be worried about, we are following the rules. The bad guys are the one's crossing the border in very remote places flying very low under the radar and ignoring eAPIS all together, nor are they calling Canadian or US Customs. Those are the guys they need to be hunting down. In any case, we had a helicopter full of fuel, all the border security red tape is behind us and YES we have a flight plan filed and are ready for another leg north. Yee Haw... Kelowna was in very beautiful country alongside the very large and very blue Okanagan Lake. We were now headed northwest passing very near to Kamloops and then making a bee line towards Williams Lake. We eventually intercepted 100 mile house a possible fuel stop along Highway 97, but we don't need to stop for fuel due to a nice 20 knot tail wind. Our average ground speed along here was 105 knots, not bad for the R22; we were making good time and will make Williams Lake with no problems and plenty of fuel on board. There were times we left the road and flew as the crow flies but I felt somewhat secure knowing we had a flight plan and the SPOT was transmitting our coordinates every 10 minutes. We were following Highway 97 and moving along with a pretty good tail wind, but it was turbulent. As we approached Williams lake the winds started kicking up to something like 28 to 30 knots out of the southwest. I called Williams Lake Radio 10 miles out and told them we were inbound for landing to refuel. I found the flight service folks or any towered airports wanted us to give them an ETA in Canada, so I tell them we are 8 minutes out. We also had to open and close flight plans all the way through Canada. Actually the flight planning wasn't too bad because once the Canadian Flight Service folks had our basic information it was just a matter of projecting our basic itinerary along the way. Because we were flying a helicopter we usually came straight in to these remote Canadian airfields and normally hooked around for a landing into the wind. What was peculiar about Canada was some of their terminology, for instance, they called patterns, circuits. And being inside the airspace of a towered or uncontrolled airfield was called the “zone”. I was confused by this a couple of times when dealing with the towers in Canada. “Helicopter 507; let us know when you’re outside the zone”. What? We put two and two together and figured that one out eventually. Williams Lake was howling when we arrived. I remember making a left turn into the wind which was something like 25 knots gusting 28 or so. We spotted the pumps and I slowly brought the R22 up to the pumps pointed into the wind nice and slow. I feel the ground, lower the collective all the way and shut down. It's kind of gray and the wind is whipping. It's about 3:40pm Canadian time. Another 2 hour leg behind us and I'm glad as always to get out and stretch, walk around and stretch some more.

 Williams Lake

One of the advantages of traveling north was the amount of daylight we were gaining, the days were getting longer. I believe at this point in our journey it stayed light out until around 10pm. We refueled ourselves at the self service pumps, took care of the flight planning and we are ready to move on to Prince George. I carefully pick her up; the winds are still howling at 25 knots or so and I take off into the wind. I had to maneuver between another fairly large commuter plane and a Bell Helicopter before getting some altitude and turning north along Highway 97. With the tail winds at 25 to 30 knots we are moving along at a pretty good clip. I believe we were averaging 110 knots ground speed most of the way into Prince George. As we neared Prince George the winds started dying down and were almost nonexistent when we arrived Prince George Airport at 5:30pm. We haven't eaten much all day except for our continental breakfast in Wenatchee, so we decide to eat here at the terminal which I might add made a pretty good burger and fries. I normally eat pretty healthy but on the road hamburgers sure sounded good to me. It was also a challenge to stay hydrated; I drank water but tried to time it so we wouldn't have to constantly put the helicopter down for a pee break. There were a few times along the way I had no choice and put her down on a river bank or small little airport somewhere so I could take a leak, either that or explode.

Prince George


We parked near these Canadair CL-215s known as the "Scooper"   Prince George B.C. Canada

The weather is starting to look pretty nice after dinner, the sun is out and it's fairly calm out, it's a beautiful evening. I felt pretty good after having a nice break and a good meal. I'm on one hell of an adventure; life can't get much better than this. Our helicopter is full of fuel and we're ready to go again. We were ready to do one more leg to Fort St. John, north, north east from our present location. We had an old GPS unit in the R22 we were using, they didn't change out the avionics during the rebuild. I flew and Corey kept track of where we were on the charts, that's how we navigated most of the time. I brought my Garmin 296 GPS unit as back up, but we never used it. This evening we headed straight for Fort St. John. It was severe clear and calm so we slowly climb out and gain some altitude. We flew straight through the mountains. It was such a calm evening. After all the turbulence we had put up with the last couple of days having calm air really felt good and appreciated. I flew as direct as possible to Fort St. John only changing course to line up with the saddles between the peaks. I love this kind of mountain flying among the peaks, flying like eagles. When the weather is good, you can't beat it. This one leg stands out as one of the best on the trip. As we head further north and get closer to Fort St. John the skies are looking gray, there's a definite weather system out there on the horizon. It's true what they say; we were definitely in the calm before the storm. Eventually we worked our way out of the mountains and into terrain that becomes slow rolling hills. Within 10 miles of Fort St. John I get on the radio and tell them we are 10 miles out with an ETA of 8 minutes. I hear another helicopter coming in also. When they talk I can hear a definite turbine in the back ground. We come in almost at the same time; they are coming from the southeast and we came in from the south. It turns out to be an MD500, we both land at the ramp area in front of the terminal. I can't quite see who they are but it's apparent they are there for the night also. It's too late to get fuel, it's about 9pm and everyone has gone home for the evening. I keep looking over at the MD500, I can't help it, it's such a sexy machine. It's my dream to fly one someday. I've read a lot about these machines especially how they were used in Vietnam. This particular one had a stretch nose and kind of pointed as opposed to the typical round nose. What a cool machine! Very similar to the photo here, colors and all. 

MD 500E

So here we are at Fort St. John and it's somewhere around 9:30pm Canadian time. The terminal is closed and there’s not a soul in sight. My AOPA data base doesn't do us much good here at Fort St. John. There are a few Canadian towns in the data base but they are only the biggest towns and the info isn't that great. I decided to call my wife, Mary, so she could get on the computer and find us a hotel. I hung up with her while she takes care of this. I dug through my back pack looking for a little snack and find a peanut bar to eat. I sit on the bench in front of the terminal, the sun is still up and it feels half way warm. I felt pleasantly tired, calm, and satisfied. I contemplated the days events and what we just went through; we flew 7.8 hours and accomplished a hell of a lot. There were a couple of fumbles, but it was a learning experience, you live and learn. I also think I'm building some endurance to the seats in the R22. I'm sore but not quite as bad as the last couple of days. My cell rings, it's Mary, she found us a hotel and a cab was on the way. Thanks Hon, excellent job! When we get to the hotel it's not half bad. The only thing I wanted to do was take a shower and hit the sack. After kicking back for the night the phone rings, it's the front desk, they said a Jon Combs is here. What? Jon and I trained together with Alyeska Helicopters in Birchwood, Alaska; I'm still training there working on my CFI rating. Jon is a commercial fixed wing pilot who's also flying helicopters and the last I heard he was working out of Delta Junction, Alaska. As it turn’s out he's the one flying that MD500 that landed at the same time with us here in Fort St. John. He was with another guy named Floyd, who flew these 500s and Apaches with the Army. What a great surprise! I found out Jon and Floyd were taking the 500 back to Delta Junction, Alaska where Jon still works. They had started their day in Salmon, Idaho. It turned out we would be traveling somewhat together along the same route for the next couple of days. It's a small world sometimes...

Fort St. John

Hobbs schedule for the day:

Pangborn Memorial Airport, Wenatchee, WA (KEAT) - Oroville - Dorothy Scott Airport, WA (0S7) 1.5 hours

Oroville - Dorothy Scott Airport, WA (0S7) - Kelowna Airport, BC, Canada (CYLW) 1.0 hours

Kelowna Airport, BC, Canada (CYLW) - Williams Lake Airport, BC, Canada (CYWL) 2.0 hours

Williams Lake Airport, BC, Canada (CYWL) - Prince George Airport, BC, Canada (CYXS) 1.3 hours

Prince George Airport, BC, Canada (CYXS) - Fort St. John Airport, BC, Canada (CYXJ) 2.0 hours

Total 7.8 hours 587 NM's