N6979P: Skagway, AK to Talkeetna, AK

[Scav]

Hi folks,

So apparently another user here had the same idea as mine today and we're both doing Alaska series in the Comanche. I don't mind sharing the airspace, so here's my series so far.

I was originally going to follow the inlet south to near Juneau, then cut back north along the coast line, but weather reporting was marginal and some unforecast precipitation and moderate icing turned me back inland.



Runup.



Runup.



Exiting the inlet.



We'd only been in the air barely 15 minutes before the weather closed in around the inlet. Carburetor icing became bothersome and as soon as the words 'I have a very bad feeling about this' were uttered, the decision was made to turn back and attempt the inland route. An emergency stop could always be attempted at either Haines, Skagway, or Whitehorse.



Klondike Highway.



Casual danger dialogue:

"I did not leave the seat up."
"Yes. You. Did."

[LZ-WIL]

You let the girl be PIC in this weather?!?

Joking...

Nice shots, you really got some weather development there.

Cheerz,
Will

[Scav]

You let the girl be PIC in this weather?!?

Joking...

Nice shots, you really got some weather development there.

Cheerz,
Will

LOL, yes. Only, nobody let her do the flying.

Thanks for the props -- I have to admit flying south along the inlet I must have been running into an insane headwind because as soon as I turned around I was overflying Skagway in no time. From there, it wasn't much trouble to get over the cumulogranite and activate my backup flight plan from there after overflying Whitehorse.

Anyway, after the friendly argument about the toilet seat and dealing with icing, I have the next set:



Travelling across the Yukon after getting out of Skagway / Whitehorse was a whole lot of this . . .



. . . this . . .



. . . and this.



The crossing from Canadian airspace into U.S. airspace took a lot less time than expected. IMC throughout most of the passage (made for some great cloud surfing), but the above shot was permitted by weather while crossing the Wrangell range from the north.



And here we are stabilized on the approach after getting vectored a really close shave to the terrain surrounding the region.



Hey -- what's going on at 11 o'clock low?





These guys pretty much exploded right in front of me, not ten seconds before landing. They made a huge, coordinated, formation buzz of my aircraft in a sweeping clockwise ascending turn. It was one of the most terrifying things I've seen on a computer screen, and I've played DOOM.



There. I think we'll save the overflight of Denali for the next day after we do some laundry and rent a car.

[Orlaam]

Very nice!

I used to fly Alaska a lot in FS9. For some reason I don't as much now. Good area for performance though, never very much autogen lol