Whitehorse or Bust

MISSION OBJECTIVE: “WHITEHORSE OR BUST”

BY JOEY MARTIN AND WILL FRASER

PILOTS: Joey Martin, 150 hour commercial student, & Will Fraser, 150 hour commercial student.

SITUATION: Despite many raised eyebrows, two CPL students decide to take a single engine plane 800 nm to Whitehorse to fulfill their 300 nm cross-country requirement.

DAY: 1

ROUTING: CYYJ-CYBL-CBBC-PAKT

DATE: August 23rd, 2022

PIC: Joey Martin

LESSON: CBP is no joke, file your eAPIS ahead of time

The morning of our first day was promising with clear weather forecast most of the way up the coast. One unfortunate exception was a low ceiling over the North Island. We stopped for fuel in Campbell River to reassess and after confirming the upper limits of the cloud layer, we flew our first of what would be many OTT legs over the North Island and into Bella Bella.

Our quick fuel stop was extended due to the PIC’s lack of preparation for US Customs. After pulling out a laptop on the tarmac to create an eAPIS account and submit our arrival intentions, we called CBP who were kind enough to give us landing rights in Ketchikan and send an officer out to meet us at the airport.

Ketchikan International is set along the city’s harbour which parallels the runway and is next to an incredibly busy seaplane base where the seaplane circuit flies over the airport terminal close and perpendicular to aircraft landing on the runway. Between the barrage of float planes and many Alaska Airlines 737s landing on the 7500 ft runway, the Tower controller announced our presence as a C172 on long final with repeated surprise to the Alaskan aviators. “And there’s a CESSNA long final for 29” would become the slogan of our trip. Taxiing to the FBO was relatively easy although we did get a slap on the wrist for leaving our plane before being met by Customs. We would recommend Ketchikan to anyone who is interested in a longer trip a little less far afield than the Yukon. It is easily accessible in one day’s flying, is very similar to BC Coastal flying (at least in the summer), and gives a taste of Alaskan living without the hassle of cruise ships or expensive airline flights.

DAY: 2

ROUTING: PAKT - CYXY

DATE: August 24th, 2022

PIC: Joey Martin

LESSONS: Nothing is quick in general aviation

We woke up to a great forecast for our flight to Whitehorse. So good, in fact, that we even considered switching pilots in Whitehorse and starting to make our way home to avoid worse weather later in the week. The lunacy of that plan would become apparent to us.

We were first hindered in our departure by a miscommunication with the FBO and an hour on hold with CBSA. We finally took off from Ketchikan with a long climb on runway heading, careful to avoid the “Berlin airlift” of sea planes taking off and landing immediately next to the airport.

The first half of the four hour flight was spectacular with more Alaskan coastal flying over small island towns serviced by enormous runways. Once we cut into the Alaskan mountains, our easy vacation flying sailed into the past as we began to feel the orographic turbulence of mountain flying. We also noticed that 2000’ AGL looks a lot less comfortable when it’s above rugged, uninhabitable northern mountains. Later on, whatever sunshine and rainbows had been forecast for our arrival did not appear as we met the Yukon River.

Going up the Whitehorse valley, ATIS confirmed what we were already experiencing - winds 15 gusting 24 knots but luckily virtually down the pipe. We bounced through the circuit courtesy of terrain east of the airport. Once on final, with a warning of wind shear due to a valley in front of the runway, we made a high speed approach but relatively simple landing. We taxied off to clear customs (no one showed up) and fuel and soon said out loud what we were thinking an hour ago in the plane: “we’re not leaving here tonight”.

We fuelled up and wandered the apron looking for the airport manager, surprised at the relative laissez-faire attitude of what otherwise looks like an international airport. Indeed, security guards actively drove away from the two lost pilots wandering around the secure zone. Once we finally located the helpful airport manager, she informed us of the $6 parking fee and pointed us to the nearby pilot’s bar.

In hindsight, we’re both grateful that we didn’t attempt our ill-advised plan to race to Smithers before sunset. Not only would it have been an enormous day of flying, but we would have missed out on the true prize of the trip - the fantastic city of Whitehorse. The highlight of our night was running into people from throughout our day - at the airport, hotel, and serving in other restaurants - as they finished their days with us at the Dirty Northern pub.

DAY: 3

ROUTING: CYXY-CYDLCYYD

DATE: August 25th, 2022

PIC: Will Fraser

LESSON: If you like flying slow while staring at the fuel gauge, plan to lean for endurance.

We woke up to partly cloudy skies in Whitehorse as we wandered the town for some breakfast and souvenirs. Arriving at the airport, we saw one hole of blue sky in the direction we wanted to go. After dutifully trying to pay for parking - the box was locked inside a construction zone - we were told by the airport staff to just chalk it up as free. A thorough weather briefing, complete with a quick quiz on OTT weather limits, indicated that with some cloud dodging and OTT flight (again very grateful we finished that rating) we could make it to Dease Lake. Our initial plan would have included a fuel stop at Watson Lake to give us some more fuel flexibility, but a call to the airport that morning informed us that the AVGAS pump was broken with no repair for another week. A very important reminder to double check everything.

After some friendly conversation with some American commercial pilots flying up to Alaska to hunt (“well we’re going to file IFR and head out”...must be nice…) we taxied off. We waited for what felt like the world record for longest reversal of an active runway (to our chagrin due both to our fuel state and the quickly closing cloud hole home) and finally departed for Dease Lake.

We proceeded out under the dark skies of the Whitehorse Valley looking anxiously for a path above the ceiling. This obsession, and one failed attempt, ended up costing us precious time and fuel as we continued to try and climb above ceilings that just didn’t seem to top out. Finally, we made it above the ceiling by climbing to 11,800’ with our faithful 30 minute timer runner. We flew over both clouds and mountains to the remote airport at Dease Lake which had a delightful 5000’ mountain obstructing the runway and power lines 50’ to one side. We were greeted by the airport manager who commented on how our airplane looked like it “came out of a kid’s cereal box” and exclaimed “you flew that thing to Whitehorse?!!”.

After a quick stretch and triple check of the fuel, we departed for Smithers. While we initially planned on flying a mountain VFR route, when we were unable to keep our eyes off the fuel gauge (and realizing just how slow flying for maximum endurance is), we opted for the bumpier direct route. The flight that followed did not in any way resemble fun vacation flying as we obsessively stared at our fuel storage and flow gauges while also trying to find a half decent place to land below us. “If we run out of fuel, our wives will kill us,” we thought aloud more than once.

As we flew over the Bulkley Valley, we felt a lot more comfortable as civilization and plenty of landing fields opened up in front of us. We landed in Smithers with one hour of fuel left and a reinvigorated respect for fuel management. There’s no need to delve into the mess that the rest of our night unfolded into, but suffice to say the Bulkley Valley Exhibition books out every (and we mean every) hotel in town, there are no taxis in Smithers, and the town is just over an hour walk down open highway from the airport (trust us).

DAY: 4

ROUTING: CYYD-CYXT

DATE: August 26th, 2022

PIC: Will Fraser

LESSON: Sometimes just landing in a town with a warm bed is a win

We woke up the next morning with a singular objective - get the hell out of Smithers. Before we left, we were treated to some genuine GA camaraderie as various small planes carrying hunting parties and visiting family members arrived. After our tarmac meet and greet, we packed up and flew along the Telkwa River from Smithers to Terrace. This was our first experience on the trip with flying between mountains rather than over them and was a good reminder about how much power it can take to maintain your altitude when squeezing through a valley.

Landing in Terrace, we were eager to get back to the Island. In this case, our sights were set on Alert Bay which we had skipped on our way up due to weather. Unfortunately, Mother Nature again did not want to play ball and after much time talking with the fantastic briefers in Kamloops (who became very curious about if “we had floats” and stated “I don’t like to brief routes that can’t be flown”) we resigned ourselves to the fact that there was no VFR route home for us today.

DAY: 5

ROUTING: CYXT-CYBLCYYJ

DATE: August 27th, 2022

PIC: Will Fraser L

ESSON: It’s not over until it's over.

We woke well before the sun to see yet another doom and gloom forecast. The briefer, however, seemed confident that if we made it to the coast, we could likely fly OTT home with clear skies in Comox securing us a spot on the Island. What concerned us most was the local weather in Terrace was only forecast to get worse (ie. 500’ ceilings). If we couldn’t get out in the morning, we might be stuck for the long haul. We thus made sure to be on our take off roll one minute after sunrise.

As we proceeded towards the coast below the 3000’ ceilings, we began to see glimmers of hope as patches of blue sky poked through the gray morning clouds. We were determined to learn our lesson from Whitehorse and not climb at best angle for the first blue patch we saw. We thus remained disciplined and proceeded above the inland waterways to the coast where we were greeted by a beautiful path to climb to above 8000’ and head back to Vancouver Island.

Of course, our trip just couldn’t let us off easy. As we flew into the clear skies of Campbell River, we were treated to 15 gusting 20-25 knots. Getting on the ground, however, we felt a new levity knowing that somehow, some way, we could be getting home before the end of the weekend. After a fantastic breakfast (highly recommend the perogie eggs benedict), we fuelled up and headed for home. It was not a victory lap, but instead a very bumpy flight down Island. As we approached our reporting point we were welcomed by a club aircraft with “Hey, aren’t you the guys that flew to Whitehorse?”. We finally came into the Cowichan Valley and were happy to be cleared in by Tower to our final destination. Special thanks to the Dispatch team for sorting through our stack of crumpled fuel receipts and many many crossed out lines in the Journey Log.

If you ever want to chat, we can be reached at joeymartin888@gmail.com or Fraser.will@gmail.com or else found around the Club flying extremely local routes for the foreseeable future.