Flying Alaska (Part 5) - Homer to Kodiak

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waynemcc999
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Flying Alaska (Part 5) - Homer to Kodiak

Post by waynemcc999 »


Today, a short episode as we depart Homer on a one-hour VFR flight. Given that overcast skies, probable precip, and freezing temps aloft deny us a tour of Denali, we’re instead headed south to Kodiak Island. Really big bears and pesky puffins await us. Welcome aboard! Wayne, GeezerGeek Pilot
Wayne McClelland
PPL/IR, 2008 Diamond Star DA40-XLS 40.922, KSBA
Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
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dmloftus
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Re: Flying Alaska (Part 5) - Homer to Kodiak

Post by dmloftus »

Hi Wayne,
As usual. fantastic job on the video series. I always learn many new things, especially about international flying. What great friends to share your many adventures with. A few questions/comments:

- 182 vs DA40: I assume you needed the additional useful load for all the gear? What was the total weight for all of the extra equipment you had to bring along?
- Your G1000 would have been handy in the icing conditions with XM. Did you have any type of real-time updates other than FIS-B?
- FAA Weather Cams: I had no idea, this is an incredible resource. Did these cameras ever convince you to change any decisions made with METARs/TAFs/Windy?
- With so much flying a single-engine over cold water, did you consider flying in drysuits? Did you carry a raft?
- At 8:40 in Part 5 there are a bunch of objects in the water. Are all of those sea lions?

Thanks, looking forward to your Glacier Bay video!
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waynemcc999
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Re: Flying Alaska (Part 5) - Homer to Kodiak

Post by waynemcc999 »

dmloftus wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 5:15 am Hi Wayne,
As usual. fantastic job on the video series. I always learn many new things, especially about international flying. What great friends to share your many adventures with. A few questions/comments:

- 182 vs DA40: I assume you needed the additional useful load for all the gear? What was the total weight for all of the extra equipment you had to bring along?
- Your G1000 would have been handy in the icing conditions with XM. Did you have any type of real-time updates other than FIS-B?
- FAA Weather Cams: I had no idea, this is an incredible resource. Did these cameras ever convince you to change any decisions made with METARs/TAFs/Windy?
- With so much flying a single-engine over cold water, did you consider flying in drysuits? Did you carry a raft?
- At 8:40 in Part 5 there are a bunch of objects in the water. Are all of those sea lions?

Thanks, looking forward to your Glacier Bay video!
Wow, David... thanks for watching so diligently, and for the excellent questions.

-- 182 vs DA40: the 182 will of course carry more load, but our primary reason for choosing it for this trip was the possibility of wanting/needing to land on a gravel strip, which we did just the one time at Seldovia (Part 4).

-- XM weather coverage -- seems like for each trip we look to see if coverage would be better with XM than ADS-B/FIS... but at least at reasonable altitudes (5K'+) we've been fine with ADS-B. For our ~1,000' MSL leg to Homer (Part 4) XM might have been a benefit... although it appears that XM Coverage in Alaska is very limited.

-- Weather Cams: yes, these are VERY useful and we indeed checked some of them before most every leg. The Alaska Weather YouTube channel is also quite helpful. BTW, FSS for weather and routing was super useful on our next episode Part 6 (PANC PAYA).

-- ASEL over cold water: well, we expected to always be within glide range of some kind of shore, and therefore did not carry dry suits or a raft (which we have carried on past Cuba and Caribbean adventures). We did have one span (east of Seward) where we were over open water a somewhat tense period of time.

-- Part 5 8:40... there are indeed some seal lions and otters amongst the floating seaweed, but I think it's mostly seaweed.

The Glacier Bay video (should be Part 7) is looking quite cool... but our trip thru the Portage/Whittier gap (Part 6, coming in a week or so) is also quite stunning and flying-wise challenging.

Again, David, so glad you enjoy the videos. When you get to plan a trip up that way, pls keep us in the loop :) .
Wayne
Wayne McClelland
PPL/IR, 2008 Diamond Star DA40-XLS 40.922, KSBA
Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
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