Christian Pirep 11-07 Dan Huttunen scratched

Hi Sandy.

>11-07) Musher Dan Huttunen, has scratched in Rainy Pass checkpoint. He has 15-dogs, sled and gear. He would like to be dropped off at Wasilla Airport, as he lives there. -URGENT- Assigned to Capt Christian - Need Flight Report<

You need a flight report, you will get a flight report:

Annie and I left Finger Lake at 09:40 in heavy snow and very low visibility and so I stayed low at treetop level. I used the GPS for reference to stay in the valleys and not end up on a hill. It was a thrilling flight and I had to really concentrate on what I am doing.



We arrived at Rainy Pass at 09:56 after 16 minutes flight. I left Annie here and Snowboss said he would take good care of her - he had to swear by his PC-12!

Then it was time for Dan Huttunen, his dogs and sled to board the Bell 412. He asked me: We won't fly during this weather, will we? I relied that of course we will fly and I told him to sit back and enjoy the flight. He took place in the cabin with a backwards faced seat, so he doesn't see what was in front of us and this helped him a lot. It was nearly the same kind of flying back until we had passed Finger Lake again on our left hand side and then I could start to climb slightly and this was also the time as the weather cleared a bit. The rest of the flight was a piece of cake.

We arrived at Wasilla at 10:55 after a 51 minutes flight.

Total flying time was 67 minutes.

Christian

Christian Pirep 9-06 Frank Sihler

Hi Sandy.


As we returned from Big Lake Frank Sihler was already standing by for the flight back home. So I didn't switch off the engines and everything was loaded into the helicopter.


At 11:04 we left for Wasilla and as soon as we were airborne Annie started her interview on this guy.
At first we had good weather, but some time into the flight the visibility dropped significantly down and it started to snow. I had to fly on autopilot, ok, on long routes I always use the autopilot, but this time it was for safety reasons.


We arrived at Wasilla at 11:42 and we got everything out of the Bell. Frank was already awaited by his family and friends.


I used the opportunity to refuel the helicopter and as I was trying to tart the engines everything went ok with No. 1, but as I tried to start No. 2 I heard it looping the start sequence and I know something must be wrong, which was proofed a little time later by FS9 quitting. Ok, I reloaded everything and at 11:52 it was time to take off. Weather was the same bad as before, but we reached Finger Lake without any problems. The visibility improved a little bit in the Finger Lake vicinity and so it was no problem.



We arrived back at Finger Lake at 12:34

Flying time was: 01:20

Christian

Butch Austin has scratched

Hi Sandy.

It was shortly after 8 AM as Annie knocked on the door of my room and woke me up. She told me that the guy from Colorado has scratched. And I asked her, whether she was talking of this man that had this big accident during his ride to Alaska and she replied: Yes, that's he is.
I asked her, whether she has already talked to him or not and if not so she can tell him we will fly him to Anchorage, if he wants.

During breakfast she returned with Butch Austin following straight behind and he asked me, whether I can fly him to Big Lake, because he will stay in Martin Buser's home. I said, that this would not make such a big difference. I told him that we will leave then around 09:30 and that was fine with him.

It was short before 09:30 as he arrived with Annie at the Bell 412 and we started to load everything into the helicopter. I knew Annie had asked him already, but I wanted to know as well why he has scratched, and he replied it was because of his accident. Injuries were probably more serious then he might have thought of. So he decided to scratch from the race at Finger Lake this morning.

At 09:36 we took off and left for Big Lake Airport and it was an uneventful flight at 2000 feet following the 088 radial of BGQ VOR.

We arrived at Big Lake at 10:10 and unloaded everything from the helicopter. Butch was already awaited by some of his friends and so it was time to say good bye to him and wishing him all the best for the future and maybe he will have more luck next year...

Flying time: 34 minutes

Christian

Musher Jeff Holt's Relief Flight

McGrath - Finger Lake - Stevens Int'l

Left McGrath with the DC3 for Finger Lake. Followed the 99deg radial
from MCG VOR. Shortly after leaving MCG we got caught in a snow
storm. Continued IFR. The storm stopped just before crossing Rohn on
our right. Had a great sighting of Puntilla Lake. Circled at Finger
Lake and found enough ice to land on. Jeff's sled & stuff was loaded
first. Then we tied down the dogs. They really had some room above
the wing section! Took off and followed the valley till we had enough
altitude and the set for ANC. We're getting our fair share of landing
at rwy 32 these days. It takes a bit longer with this downwind leg.
Landed and parked in front of the cargo building.
Cheers,
Rudy

Flight : 2-06
Date : 6-3-2007
Name : Rudy Boot
Callsign: Stratman
EMail : rboot2001@...
# Aboard: 15 dogs + Jeff
VFR/IFR : IFR
Aircraft: Maam DC3
Depart. : McGrath-Finger Lake
Destin. : Anchorage
Dep.time: 12:58
Enroute : 1:36
Fuel : 1000 lbs
Route1 : R099 115.50/103 nM
Route2 : Direct ANC
Speed : 140
Altitude: 7000

3 vets for Shageluk checkpoint

McGrath - Shageluk

Flight : 7-05
Date : 5-3-2007
Name : Rudy Boot
EMail : rboot2001@yahoo.com
VFR/IFR : IFR
Aircraft: MAAM DC3
Depart. : McGrath
Destin. : Shageluk/McGrath
Dep.time: 10:35
Enroute : 1:45
Route : Direct, DME+ADF, VOR+ADF
Speed : 135
Altitude: 6000/7000’
Remark 1: Dropped off 3 vets at Shageluk

Christian Pirep to Finger Lake

Hi Sandy.

Annie and I left Willow at 16:04 and flew along the general trail to Yentna and Skwentna to Finger Lake. The weather again was good until we got closer to Finger Lake. It has started to snow a little bit and I had some problems to find the Lodge, but Annie could see it as it was on her (left) side. As soon as we were on the ground it has stopped to snow.



It was a 46 minutes flight, and I am a little bit concerned about the fuel consumption. I better had fuelled it up to the top at Anchorage. I hope I can make it to McGrath without any problems, but who knows what this Iditarod has in the hat for us. I will do the post flight check on the 412 and head to the Lodge for dinner and the night rest. In the meantime Annie is doing her job by interviewing the people around here...

Christian

Christian Pirep Food-6

Hi Sandy.

I don't know, whether Rudy is flying Food-6 as well, but I flew it today.
It was beautiful weather today and I took the C-130 back into the air again to deliver these 63 food bags to Shageluk.
The routing went via Sparrevohn and then direct to SHX. As I arrived I had the impression that the runway was very short and narrow, and I was da** right. I managed it to land safely and taxied back to the ramp and I tried to park the aircraft backwards by using the reversers, but on this gravel runway I had no luck. I then edited the aircraft.cfg file and increased the reverse thrust and this helped a lot.



After unloading these 63 bags we departed for the flight back to ANC this time via McGrath.




It was a rather fast flight and nearing Anchorage I made contact with the tower and requested landing permission. I was sent downwind for an approach to RWY 32, though I had expected RWY 14 as we departed from there. This time we were flying low at an altitude of about 1000 feet with high speed and then I pulled the Hercules up and turned inbound to RWY 32. I climbed to about 5000 feet and tried another Sarajevo style approach. And to give you an impression how it would look like I took a small video of it. That was a very good decision from what I can tell you now! Otherwise you probably wouldn't believe what had happened. I was going down real steep to the runway and at a certain altitude I engaged the reversers and levelled off and landed also instantly. I thought already about a short landing distance, but that short? You will have to see the video the believe it.

Ok, Sandy, flying time was 02:10.

Video is available at TCA-Charter.