Fairbanks to Yetna, round trip

[formerpacerdriver]

Me 'n my buddy Kevin flew from Fairbanks (25AA Skyflight) to Chena Marina for fuel, then through Windy Pass to the family cabin on the Yetna River upstream of Swentna.


It was very pretty Friday, and I wasted a little avgas flying up some glaciers into the mountains under Denali (Pics coming soon). After that, straight to the river landing and an adult beverage.

Still lots of snow for ski flying up the Yetna, but looks like it's melting fast.

Trip home was "less pretty" with a large low and MVFR threatening, but Windy Pass was in our favor this time... 160 MPH GPS speed over McKinley Park/Healy area, with 16" Manifold pressure and 2100 RPM. Whole lot of shaking going on, for a few minutes south of Healy where the mountain waves came crashing down.


So worth it.

[crbnunit]

Nice! How was Windy Pass?

[MAU MAU]

Thanks for the trip report and great pictures!

I hope to make it up to beautiful Alaska someday.

[Mountain Doctor]

Is it legal to have that much fun in Alaska?

[crbnunit]

Yes, surprisingly enough, the federal government's reach has not progressed this far north. Our right... Our FREEDOM to have fun has yet to be suppressed or prohibited! Come and visit while you can!

[formerpacerdriver]

Crbnunit,
Windy Pass was not too bad - the turbulence was officially light, with no heads on the ceiling nor anything flying about the cabin (which is my understanding of "moderate"). Just had to throttle back once in a while to slow down for a bit, to make sure the wings stayed in place.

The waves over Healy were the ones I like the least - they feel like a great hand grabs the plane and moves it in the air, as opposed to just a bumpy ride.

I flew through once with another plane, me at 3500 feet and he at 5500, and compared notes. I wanted to know whether high was less bumpy than low. Both of us were getting tossed a bit, one not worse than the other. I want one more test at 9000 feet vs. 3500 feet. My recollection is that up high has more of the mountain wave feel and less little bumps.

[Andy Young]

A few years ago I was at the Denali Private strip, needing to go to Anchorage (south through windy pass). Down low, it was all socked in to the immediate south (in Windy Pass itself) with strong winds out of the south, but it was clear above, and cameras showed clear at the Summit strip and south of there. So I decided to take off, and see if I could go over the top of the clag. I was able to do it at 12,000 ft, but I had a ground speed of 25 knots! Took me about 30 minutes just to get to Cantwell! Smooth as could, be, though...

[Andy Young]

I should add that after Cantwell, the winds dropped significantly, and ground speed jumped up to 75 knots or better. It kept improving as we went south; otherwise I wouldn't have had the range to even get to Talkeetna!