Anyone interested in joining my wife and I for our bucket list trip from Texas to Alaska and back? Will be a first for my wife and I. We will be flying our M7-235C. Would like to camp a few nights along the way and hit a loge or hotel every few days. We would enjoy traveling with a group. We are planning on taking our time and enjoying as much along the way as well as when we get there!
If anyone is interested in planning something out - reach out and let’s make it happen.

Can't join for the trip as I will be flying up in May and back in October, but I fly for The Farm Lodge in Port Alsworth, AK in the summer. It's a very unique (socially creepy-ish, naturally stunningly beautiful) little town that I would highly recommend visiting. It's about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, most of the flight is through Lake Clark Pass which for many visitors is the highlight of their entire Alaska trip.

The Farm Lodge has very reasonable nightly rates (my parents visit every year) including all meals. It's actually cheaper than Anchorage if you look at hotel prices in during the summer. I can give you tips on where to fly your M7 to see bears, go fly fishing, fly in the caldera of volcanoes, see moose/caribou, etc. Or, if you're tired of flying yourself around, book a float flight (request me as your pilot), and we can go see the grizzlies at Katmai, see Dick Proenekke's cabin, fish all the hidden gem lakes, or anything else. It's a pilot's paradise. Also some local hiking and fishing where flying or vehicles are not needed if you just want to stretch your legs.

The lodge is right on the runway and they will arrange for a tie down spot if you fly in. Even if you don't want to overnight in PTA, I highly recommend a day trip. There's a coffee shop, food truck, mx, AWOS, and 100LL.

Don't hesitate to reach out if you are planning to make it out this way. Identifier is TPO or PAKX (two runways).

All within 10min flight of PTA:

I would invite you to stop at Cut Bank MT coming and going. Customs. fuel, camping on field, showers, courtesy cars. I also know of a nice B&B in the area about 300 yds. from a grass airstrip.

I'll second Port Alsworth, AK. Cool place and a beautiful flight. Kinnecott and Mccarthy, AK in Wrangell St. Elias NP are hard to beat for sheer, stunning beauty and they have backcountry airstrips with cabins that are free on a first come/first served basis. Some of the highest peaks in AK with the second highest in North America just across the border in Canada.

https://www.nps.gov/wrst/index.htm

https://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisit/ ... ooklet.pdf

I live in Juneau, happy to offer any advice for SE Alaska if you come (or go) this way. Biggest thing is respect the weather like you never have before. It'll be the most fantastic trip you ever take by air. Feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions either in the preflight planning stage or in the execution.

James
907-617-9568

My wife and I are interested in a trip like this. We also have a M7-235C, We live in eastern PA, Cut Bank would be about 20 flying hours for us. You can email me with some of the details that you are thinking about at garyraser@outlook.com or give me a call at 610-587-0123 and we can see how it goes from there.
Thanks,
Gary

There are some threads on the forum about flight routes to AK. My bucket list includes such a trip from NC through Cut Bank along the Alaska Highway once the COVID nightmare is over. Montana Maule is a great resource for Cut Bank knowledge. I have a 2001 version of the "Logbook" published by the Alaska Airmen's Association, which has an incredible amount of useful, although dated, information. They are quite hard to find and expensive now. The parts of my route in Canada and Alaska are recommended in that publication. They have a good website, too. AOPA also has good AK flight planning information.

I prefer to fly no more than 6 hours per day and my flight legs are about 2 hours each, which is about 180 nm at an average ground speed of 90 kts with the big 31" tundra tires and a fuel burn of 9.5 gph. I expect the trip to take 7 days without weather delays and up to 14 days with weather delays. Here's the route that I would try to take, but I learned from my 2016 Idaho trip that you have to be flexible with route and stops because of weather:

KMRN-KDVK-KMTO-KOTM-KSUX-KPIR-KGCC-KBIL-KLWT-KCTB-CYYC-CYEG-CYQU-CYYE-CYQH-CYXY-PAOR-PANC

Early June is a good time to fly to AK since Spring thaw has melted most of the ice and tourists aren't yet in full bloom. Mosquitos seem to thrive all year long but they can be particularly bad near water in the Summer. Spend some time developing a list of survival gear. There are some good threads on the forum. Bring camping gear in case you can't find a place to stay overnight. I found that reserving hotel rooms ahead of time wasn't a good strategy due to route alterations around weather. If you must reserve a room, make sure that they allow cancellation up to the reservation time without a penalty. Since I was flying alone in 2016 and weight wasn't an issue, I filled all 4 fuel tanks at each stop. You never know if fuel will be available at your next planned stop or you might have to divert to a location that doesn't have fuel because of weather. I found that stopping at airports with weather reporting and maintenance facilities was a good strategy in case you have to land in IMC or have an aircraft problem. Make sure your GPS navigation database is up-to-date and covers the areas where you will fly. Have a backup GPS in case of problems. My iPad/ForeFlight does a good job of that but it's not legal to use for IFR so I also have a Garmin GTN 650 that I keep updated. I brought along VFR Sectional Charts to back up my iPad/ForeFlight subscription. Fortunately, I didn't have to use them on the Idaho trip but you have to plan for the possibility of flying without a GPS or EFB in case of a problem. It will cost you a lot more to fly yourself to AK than to take a commercial flight unless you plan to camp at each overnight location. Fuel is a major cost but lodging is the big one. Seven days of overnight lodging for a private flight vs. one day with no overnight for a commercial flight each way makes a big difference. There are lots of other things to plan for like ADS-B Out in rule airspace in the USA and adding a Canada subscription to ForeFlight. The list goes on.

Hi Jam00,
I tried sending you a PM but I don’t know how to get it to send.
We are interested in a trip like this. You could contact me at 610-587-0123 or garyraser@outlook.com
Sure sounds like fun
Thanks,
Gary

Your PM will stay in the Outbox until it is read.

Does anyone think Canada will let anyone in? They have pretty strict Covid restrictions in place.

Rezrider wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 3:44 pm

Does anyone think Canada will let anyone in? They have pretty strict Covid restrictions in place.

I just checked yesterday, as I need to fly back up there for work soon. It’s pretty simple for flying through. There are fewer points of entry open to choose from, and you have to enter in the morning, so you can get as far as possible the first day. Your stops must me limited to those that are operationally necessary, such as re-fueling, and stopping for the night. They might be a bit stricter if you are going purely as a tourist, as opposed to going for work, but I didn’t get the sense that they were putting a lot of effort into distinguishing between reasons for travel for light aircraft. For cars it’s much, much tighter.

Call CANPASS at 888-226-7277 and ask; that way you have the info first-hand.

New to the Maule group, looks like a lot of great info to be had.
Tried Canpass this morning and only a recording available basically say 14 day quarantine, didn’t sound possible for this summer. Anybody have any new info? Thanks Kevin

Only letting essential travel across the border or if you can prove AK residency or work. Last I heard that was extended until 22 May.

New to the Maule group, looks like a lot of great info to be had.
Tried Canpass this morning and only a recording available basically say 14 day quarantine, didn’t sound possible for this summer. Anybody have any new info? Thanks Kevin