Fuel 5A

Photo: Unloading the DC-3 at Kaltag.

Boy, do I love those early takeoffs. It's winter at Stevens Int'l just before sunrise. Piloting a fuel loaded DC3 and waiting for clearance to cross runway 6 R & L. You can spot the moon through the morning skies and I'm still waiting for that Asiana 747 to clear the runway. Shoot! There's another heavy on final. So I turn traffic down to 0 % and ground immediately clears me to continue taxiing. They want me to use 6 R !! When will I get airborne? At last we're cleared for T/O. Climb to 6000' and continue your flightplan. Heading in the direction of McGrath with Kaltag as my destination. And those skies are so beautiful. I get my camera ready. To enlighten the picture I decide to switch to Full Screen !! Alt + enter. That was all she wrote. XP or some other Murphy goddess decides my machine can't handle this pixel load. And quits with a question mark: "do you want to inform Microsoft..........."
After the restart continued to Kaltag via McGrath and Galena following the V airway. Visibility was good all the way but had some stiff side- and headwind. Followed the Yukon river nearing Kaltag and did a straight-in landing. Taxied to the beacon and prepared to offload the fuel. Now with a DC3 that's veery easy. Just quick-fix a hose to the discharge valve {lower end of tank-:)} and open the tap!



Since it was getting late, Europe time, I decided to spend the night at Kaltag.



In the morning I woke up with clear skies and no wind ! Planned the flight back to Steven following the Yukon down to Eagle Island and then pick up the 93 deg radial of the Unalakleet VOR. Flew past Takotna and McGrath. Spotted Rui's buildings at the north end of the airport. Flew past Rohn Roadhouse and Rainy Pass on our left and hit the next black-out at Finger Lake. Computer downtime! Looked for the source of the failure. Switched off some scenery of the ANC area, restarted FS and continued the flight to Stevens. Tower gave runway 14 for landing. After touchdown taxied to the fuelramp and shutdown.