Start &bull Leg One: Whitehorse to Silver City &bull Leg Two: Silver City to Burwash &bull Leg Three: Burwash to Whitehorse I got up early this morning to pick the men up at Whitehorse. We met at 7:30, rode their truck out to the ramp, and started loading. Between the 3 of them, all their gear, an inflatable boat, and my emergency gear, it was an interesting task to just get everything in. I knew we were going to load the thing to the gills, but by the time it was all said and done and the gas tanks were full, it was 9:00 and we were nearly 200 lbs. overweight. But we were in Whitehorse, home of the only 2-mile runway in the Yukon, if not all of the northern provinces, so it was a go. As you would guess, 2 miles of runway was way more than we needed. After the preflight, we were ready to go a few minutes before 9:30. Here I am on the ramp. Kind of empty here at this point, but at least the weather's nice. I started it up, put the flaps at "climb" since "takeoff" would risk a stall with this much weight, and requested a VFR takeoff to the west. I was cleared to Runway 13R, which was about a one-minute walk from where I was parked. Rolling out... Cleared for takeoff... Turning west... Once I left the Whitehorse airspace, I tuned into Edmonton and got a flight following since this is some of the most desolate land on Earth, despite the presence of a road. With that in mind, I had decided to fly IFR... that is, "I Follow Roads." Here are a few shots of me between Whitehorse and Haines Junction. As I came upon Haines Junction, I found myself directly in line with the runway. I slid over to the north a little bit just to stay out of the way of any traffic that might be approaching. You can just see it coming into view here. Here I am buzzing it and getting ready to turn northwesterly towards Kluane Lake. Soon afterwards I came upon Kloo Lake, which is a convenient 20-mile marker for Silver City. I cancelled the flight following and tuned into Silver City traffic and let them know where I was and what I was doing. Here are a couple of shots near the lake. The first is Mt. Decoeli, and the second is the lake. Not long afterwards, Kluane Lake came into view. It's about the bluest lake ever in person, and its rendering on FSX doesn't do it justice. Oh well, you still can't miss it. These next few shots show the lake and the Silver City strip coming into view. The last two shots actually show the beginning of my approach to the strip. I decided to swing wide of it since we were high and heavy... and trees grow high in front of the threshold. If you couldn't see the strip well in the first two shots, you can't miss it here. This is me turning final over the shore of the lake. Here's the final as I'm bleeding altitude. I don't know how quickly though, since I was near capacity and the yoke was in the way of the VSI. See what I was saying about the trees? Never heard any scratches and breathed a little easier once I saw cleared land outside my door window. But I still had to get it down fast and I knew I'd overshoot some of the runway. I actually stalled to a landing... didn't mean to, but at least I only fell a few feet. Here I am not long after touchdown. I pulled off soonafter, let anybody who might be listening know, and parked it. We got off and unloaded everything... I can tell you now that they are going to be 3 sore men tomorrow. I helped drag their stuff down to the lake and we still had to make 3 trips. Afterwards I took half the job's pay and got them on their way in the boat. I guess I'll spend tonight camping out somewhere nearby with my emergency gear, reading my book and eating toasted marshmallows, and fly on up to Burwash mid-afternoon tomorrow. Continue to Leg Two See this topic in the BFU Forum Back to main page