Ferry Adventure: PA-12 to Alaska Part II (storms, smoke, wires, and such)

PA-12 Part 1:    • Aircraft Ferry Adventure: First Ever ...  

In this half of the trip, I start in Toad River, BC and finally get the airplane delivered to its new home of Birchwood, AK. Along the way, I had to battle scattered storms in an environment lacking RADAR coverage or any weather reporting stations along the route. This lack of the ability to check the weather meant that I had to land at Whitehorse while a storm was parked right next to the airport and the crosswinds were gusting heavily. Then it was battling low ceilings and major headwinds out of Whitehorse to the border crossing in Northway. The last hurdle was some thick smoke that limited visibility down the Glenallen Highway. Along the way was lots of beautiful scenery and tons of lessons learned.

I will note that it appears that a note was added to the VFR sectional stating: "Caution multiple uncharted power lines and cables across the Matanuska River" after the accident I mention in the video, because that's definitely a note I would have seen and would not have flown low over the river had it been there at the time.

It is also interesting that 2 years later, the NTSB still has not come out with a final report on the accident, especially considering how obvious the cause seems to be.

Another Note: After recording this, I realized that I could not have heard about the accident until after I had completed all of my runs to Alaska that year as the accident was in November and all my trips were complete by the end of October. I say in the video that I didn't change after hearing of the accident because I was thinking of the next ferry I did to AK where I had to run a PA-11 down the Copper River because of weather, but this would have been before the accident, and so I think I can safely say that I haven't done any low altitude flying without a thorough recon after learning of the accident. I had everything recorded before realizing this, and didn't feel like going back and changing it.

In any case, the point remains the same: do a thorough recon of the area before you fly low. You never know what wire you might not see in real time.

Dedicated to the memory of Joshua Seagrave


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