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I was in a Juneau diner eating a chicken sandwich when I got the call from my copilot Alex. He was in AVSim Base while I took the Beaver up to Juneau Int'l to get some new skis put on it. He told me that there was a pilot down in Stewart who needed some parts taken to him. He told me that he couldn't do it, so he called me to see if I was interested. I told him I was, and had him sign me up for it. That afternoon I made a 1.8 hour flight into PAKT from PAJN, and picked up the parts there. Here I am at runway 11 at PAKT, ready for takeoff. It was a pretty cloudy day, but they were high enough to make the start of the flight relatively easy.
I pushed the throttle all the way up, pushed forward, then pulled back. Here I am after my front two wheels leave the ground.
After I got airborne, my ADF directed the needle for my only waypoint I would have, BFUn, before going on reckoning with my sectional. That was the original plan anyway. Here I am, lining up for BFUn.
I saw that I would be skirting the border of the Misty Fjords NM, so I leveled off and started cruising at 2200. I would just follow the water to Stewart. Here I am with BFUn in sight.
After a few more minutes of cruising, the clouds descended and I was forced to cruise at 1000. Then, I noticed something wasn't right. My altimeter was all screwed up, even though it was adjusted to the correct pressure. Because I was 1000 feet below where I should have been, and because I had a bad instrument, I decided to divert to Prince Rupert. Here I am moving past the Dundas Islands.
Not long after that, Prince Rupert came into sight. I entered the pattern on base, and then turned final on runway 13. Here I am on final.
I ended up touching down in the rain. Here I am with my tail wheel still elevated.
On rollout, I slowed down fast enough to make the last taxiway. I turned onto it and pulled into parking.
After checking it out for a bit, I realized the only problem with it was the door was slightly ajar, and that screwed up the altimeter. I decided to camp out at Stewart for the night, and wait for the low clouds to lift a bit. The next morning, I woke up, and it was foggy, with almost no visibility. The clouds lifted slowly during the day, and at about 4:30, I decided to go. I ed up the plane, and took off. When I reached 1000 in my climb, I turned and began on my way. I leveled off at about 2500, and headed off towards the Dundas Islands.
I reached them, and turned straight north, and ended up in the Portland Inlet. I decided when I reaced Tree Point, I would turn and ride the border up to Stewart. Here I am moving past Somerville Island
By now, it was getting harder and harder to see. I decided to keep low, so I could see the shore very easily. I descended to 2000, the lowest level I could cruise at until I got out of the momument. Here I am, just cruising. Notice how the road is higher than me.
After I got out of the park, I descended to 500 feet and went on in the rain. Here's another shot of me, cruising.
By the time I made it to Stewart, I couldn't see a blessed thing, other than the building at the airport, which was just a faint orange. I ended up missing the approach twice, since I couldn't see the runway until I was right on top of it. By the time I touched down, the light was fading fast.
The rollout took me just beyond the turnoff to pull into parking. As soon as I got it slow enough, I turned around right in the middle of the runway and pulled in and parked.
I never saw the guy's Piper though. I went inside looking for him, and found him sitting in the lounge. We went out the plane, then went behind the building, where he had pushed his plane to free up a parking spot, and put the parts in. I decided that I didn't want to get back in the sky in the dark, so I just decided to stay in Stewart for the night. The Piper pilot, whose name was Tim, decided to go on his way. I bid him farewell, and went back to the Beaver and ate some of the food I brought with me. Ahh, the life of a bush pilot...
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