Alaska 2012 - Day 17
Ketchikan to Olympia to Hillsboro 
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The funny thing about this leg, being IFR, over the Canadian and Southern Alaska coast, is that this was the most scary leg for me of the entire trip. When you talk to many people, they recommend that you do not go to Alaska on this route, because it's often IFR. But that's how the trip is planned to be flown, by Let's Fly Alaska. In fact, a requirement of their trip is that the pilot be IFR certified. Yes, there were the group of swifts that went VFR, but that required them to do an extra TWO eAPIS filings to get both out of the US into Canada where they'd clear customs, and then again back IN to the US where they'd have to clear customs again. But for us, it was IFR, nonstop, to Olympia. In the end, it turned out to be one of the SIMPLEST flights of the entire trip. We filed for 7,000', then asked for 9,000' when we clearly had good conditions, and at 9K it put us often on top, or in the tops, but it was mostly clear or scattered ceilings...so we had an excellent view of the mountains and Canada as we flew down the coast. Being at 9,000' also gave us lots of good glide distance should we actually have an engine problem. So it was pretty comfortable doing this leg, and somewhere around 4.5 hours later, we landed in Olympia with about 12 gallons of fuel remaining. That RV-10, she's a beauty! |
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Topped off with fuel again, we headed south to Hillsboro, but since we were a bit ahead of Ed, we decided to take a mini detour and finally get to see Mt. Ranier and fly around Mt. St. Helens. Ever since the thing blew it's top, I'd wanted to see that mountain, and now was my chance to get up close and personal. We flew right around the rim, in the bowl, and got some great shots of the steaming bulge in the center. That bulge from the sounds of it, used to be a few hundred feet lower, but has since swelled up again, so perhaps it won't be all that long and the mountain will once again blow it's top. After checking out the mountain, we had an uneventful trip to Scappoose for fuel and on to Hillsboro for the night. |
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