Greetings from Homer, Alaska

<p class="MsoNormal">Greetings from Homer Alaska.<span > </span>I arrived here this morning on the 20^th leg of Larry&rsquo;s Alaska Marine Highway Tour.<span > </span>It&rsquo;s cold (16) F with a 3100&rsquo; overcast, so I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll be spending the night camped out on the spit, like I did thirty years ago.<span > </span>I think I&rsquo;ll hitch into town and find a cozy motel.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Having spent the last nine months flying Econ flights out of Minneapolis in the A318 and ERJ-145, it was a pleasure to get back to the Alaskan panhandle in my trusty DHC6.<span > </span>I started this tour in mid-November, but I&rsquo;ve been working on it pretty regularly the last couple of weeks.<span > </span>It&rsquo;s a lot of fun, mainly because the Orbx scenery is so good, but also because I spent 12 days last summer cruising these waters, so a lot of the sights are now very familiar.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I also am having a good time with the Aerosoft DHC6, Extended Version.<span > </span>It is not the easiest airplane in my hangar to fly.<span > </span>Of course, like any good masochist, I have Econ mode and crash detection turned on and the difficulty settings cranked up to 11, so I can&rsquo;t get by with sloppy flying.<span > </span>Nonetheless, the ILS only works if you treat it with a lot of care and respect, the engines spool up and down very slowly and break into flames if you start them wrong.<span > </span>Added to that, I am using that day&rsquo;s real weather on every flight, so I&rsquo;ve had to fly in some pretty snotty winter weather.<span > </span>Also, there&rsquo;s the fact that many of the airstrips on this tour are not equipped with a full-up ILS.<span > </span>Although many of them have an LDA or LOC/DME, or NDB approach, all of which require a good deal more attention than a &ldquo;real&rdquo; ILS.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, unlike the MSP Econ Hub flights in a well-equipped commercial jet passenger aircraft, flying to/from a variety of Midwest airports, which are usually routine IFR flights with good radar-based ATC and reliable ILS approaches, the Marine tour flights are something of a dog&rsquo;s breakfast.<span > </span>Every day is a new adventure.<span > </span>Some days the weather is good and the scenery is beautiful.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Two weeks ago, I made a late afternoon flight in pretty good weather from Hoonah into Skagway (900012).<span > </span>The sun setting below the cloud layer lit up the west facing walls of the mountains behind Skagway at the head of the Taiya Inlet and contrasted with the artificially-lit and detailed scenery at the airstrip, providing for a stunning VFR approach guided by the VASI.

<img src="coppermine/albums/userpics/10009/22/MYJETLINE-PC-2019-dec-22-017.jpg" alt="On final at Skagway" width="1080" height="675"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Two flights later, I had to find a way to get into Yakataga (900014), a primitive gravel strip on the beach facing the full wrath of the Gulf of Alaska.<span > </span>Fortunately, the strip has an NDB transmitter, but no published approach.<span > </span>The weather was 137/7, 4 SM, LT RN, ceiling 005 BKN.<span > </span>So, I filed IFR and let ATC guide me on two attempts to get in.<span > </span>But, since there was no radar coverage, the best they could do was guide me toward the strip at an altitude of 5200&rsquo; and hope I could see the airport and make a visual approach.<span > </span>After my second IFR go-around, which brought me too close to terrain for my tastes, I cancelled IFR and was told to &ldquo;maintain VFR&rdquo;.<span > </span>Sure, have a nice day.<span > </span>So, I contemplated a return to Yakutak, but decided to make use of a break in the overcast to get under the overcast and grope my way to the airstrip at 700&rsquo;, using the NDB for direction.<span > </span>This strategy worked and I made a good landing and the unlit, snow covered strip, trusting that my tundra tires wouldn&rsquo;t break through the snow crust.<span > </span>That probably won&rsquo;t work in Flight Sim 2020.

<img src="coppermine/albums/userpics/10009/22/MYJETLINE-PC-2019-dec-30-010~0.jpg" alt="ATC won't let me drop below 5200'" width="1080" height="675">

<img src="coppermine/albums/userpics/10009/22/MYJETLINE-PC-2019-dec-30-016~0.jpg" alt="There it is." width="1080" height="675"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The DHC6 is a phenomenally capable aircraft.<span > </span>It can carry up to 21 passengers and a half ton of cargo and still operate from short airstrips.<span > </span>Of course, when I know I am going to have to operate in or out of a short strip, I don&rsquo;t commit to a full load.<span > </span>A case in point was the flight I made yesterday from Valdez into Whittier (900017).<span > </span>The strip at Whittier is an 18 meter wide, 451 meter long gravel strip built out into the bay with a sharp step about halfway down the runway and a NOTAM advising that for an approach over the water (Rwy 22)<span > </span>&ldquo;go around unlikely&rdquo;.<span > </span>The DHC6 manual lists the required landing distance of a minimally loaded DHC6 at sea-level in a dead calm at 1400&rsquo;.<span > </span>The strip length (451 meters) is 1480 feet.<span > </span>However, the forecast conditions were for a tailwind component of 3.5 kts., increasing the required landing distance from 1400 ft. to 1512 ft.<span > </span>Add to that my experience landing on Rwy 22 at Whittier: <span > </span>if you aren&rsquo;t slowed down when you hit that step in the runway, you&rsquo;re likely to ground loop the aircraft.<span > </span>Based on those facts, landing even a lightly loaded DHC6 at Whittier exceeds the aircraft&rsquo;s published capabilities.<span > </span>So, it looked like I was going to have to change horses to complete flight 900017.<span > </span>I knew from experience that I could land a DHC2 on that strip.<span > </span>However, my original objective was to complete the whole tour in the same airplane, and I know that the DHC6 has some capabilities that are not reflected in the published specs. <span > </span>So, I made my approach at about 200&rsquo; AGL, at full flaps and almost full throttle, stabilized at about 80 Kts.<span > </span>At minimum weight and full flaps, Vref is 60 kts.<span > </span>Upon crossing the shoreline, I cut the throttle to idle and after crossing the runway threshold, at about 25&rsquo; AGL, I reversed the props.<span > </span>This stalls the aircraft onto the runway and immediately starts braking the roll-out.<span > </span>It&rsquo;s dicey, and the reversed props almost caused a tail strike on the roll-out, but I got stopped right at the base of the runway step.<span > </span>Whew.

<img src="coppermine/albums/userpics/10009/22/MYJETLINE-PC-2020-jan-5-013.jpg" alt="On final at Whittier. Full flaps&amp; throttle at 80 KIAS" width="1080" height="675">

<img src="coppermine/albums/userpics/10009/22/MYJETLINE-PC-2020-jan-5-021.jpg" alt="76 KIAS and 112'" width="1080" height="675">

<img src="coppermine/albums/userpics/10009/22/MYJETLINE-PC-2020-jan-5-022.jpg" alt="63 KIAS and 73'" width="1080" height="675">

<img src="coppermine/albums/userpics/10009/22/MYJETLINE-PC-2020-jan-5-023.jpg" alt="Success!" width="1080" height="675"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today&rsquo;s flight from Whittier to Seward (900018) and from Seward to Homer (900019) were routine landings, with the Homer landing aided by a LOC/DME approach.<span > </span>Tomorrow, it&rsquo;s off to Kodiak and then out into the Aleutians.</p>
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Thanks Larry; it's good to get the feedback. I guess I write these "flight reports" largely for my own edification. Some of them, like my explication a few years back of the down in the weeds details of the "RNP" approach can get a little technical, but I'd like to think that a few of our pilots or readers find them interesting. I enjoy flight simulation partly as a vehicle for learning things about aviation, and the ex-Air Force Officer and college professor in me just has to share what I learn. Maybe in my next life I'll be a pilot. But by then, most flights will probably be flown by AI systems.

I find the match between the Orbx scenery and the actual scenery to be surprisingly good. In fact I have side-by-side photos of one feature as viewed in Orbx/FSX and from the balcony of our cabin which shows just how accurate some of the rendering is. Every time we would disembark at a new port, I could take a look at the scenery around the dock or anchorage and pretty much immediately point the direction to the airstrip and I'm generally able to navigate VFR by comparing the Orbx scenery I see out the window of my simulated aircraft with the real-world sectional of the area.

Mike