Alaska 2012 - Day 18
Homeward Bound and the wrap-up  |
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For the trip home, we actually had great weather, other than some heat, and it really made it a totally uneventful trip, which is just what we needed at this point. Checking our route, we went Hillsboro (KHIO) -> Bozeman (KBZN) -> Aberdeen (KABR) -> Home (KLUM), and other than a forest fire TFR, there was little in our way. This routing gave us the ability to start in Hillsboro, climb to 9,500' msl, and fly the entire day at 9,500'...never once having to cross higher mountain peaks. It was a very great route to get us home, and was as direct as possible. Other than the 2 hours we lose due to time zones, it would have seemed super short. Had we been traveling West, there would have even been lots of time left in the day once we made our destination. |
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As we landed at home, the hobbs had clicked over 59.3 hours since we left on this trip to Alaska. We'd traveled many THOUSANDS of miles, and seen so many different types of sights. We'd flown in weather that was unlike anything I'd flown in before, and we had a trip that despite some of the flying being complex, we had pulled off with very minimal pre-planning, due to our going with Let's Fly Alaska. If you're ever interested in going on such a trip, I'd highly recommend them...it was their planning that made this trip what it was. Also, if you ever plan to do Alaska, don't be fooled like I was last year when I planned the trip, that 10 days will be enough. It isn't...plain and simple. You need 14 days to see what you'll want to see, and that won't allow for extra days of being stuck on the ground nor the extra days getting to the Northern US where you can launch from. Alaska is a big committment in time, as far as trips go, but it's also got big rewards for you. After we got home, we were amazed with all of the pictures we too, the things we saw, and the fact that our little homebuilt RV-10 took us there! To celebrate, I made this video, which actually features photos from every one of our 50 states: |
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