Grindin' it through the bush!
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:18 pm'Lo all!
Well; Ive been having my fill with sleek cigar tubes recently, so I thought I'd visit me old friends at BFU to see how they're doing. So I dragged the old bird out of the hangar; dusted her off and got ready for some serious deep-woods bush bashing!
My target for the day was a small logging camp deep in the Yukon. With no aids - not even a pink pinprick on the FS map - and just an old scrap of road map to go by; this one was gonna be fun!
The nearest recognizeable place I could find to the camp was in Alaska - some incomprehensible name with 30 or so letters.
Fortunately; the route wouldn't be too hard - the camp's down a fijord; the only difficulty would be to figure out which fijord to fly down.
So here we go......
Getting the DC-3 ready for flight. Hello again, old friend. 
Takeoff into the dark predawn in a light rainstorm. Daytime's just tooooo eazzzzzyyyy!
The problem with taking on the Yukon in a 60 year old airplane is that there's a decidedly upward component to the terrain. Much more of an upward component than the Dakota has, as a matter of fact. If the ground's going up faster than you are; philosophically it can be said that ergo; you're going down.
Fast.
There are certain elements of clouditude as well; just to make things more fun. It is, however, very pretty up here.
Above the clouds into - more or less - clear skies. Ho hum.
A short while later sees me whizzing down a fijord in "Wooohooooo!!!!!" mode. Of course; the $64,000 question is 'is this the right fijord?' Guess we'll find out soon.
Oooo - pretty. I almost entered this shot.
There it is - spang on target. Am I good or am I good? 8)
...and they want me to land on THAT?
...well, I guess that's why they said 'light aircraft and floatplanes only'. Oh well - mee with a full load of beer as well.
Landing - another shot I didn't quite enter.
Dayum - touched down right on the first bits of gravel; finally got her stopped less than 30 feet from the end of the ...er... "runway".
They've got the steaks grillin'; I've got the beer - time for some major relaxin'!
Cheers!
Well; Ive been having my fill with sleek cigar tubes recently, so I thought I'd visit me old friends at BFU to see how they're doing. So I dragged the old bird out of the hangar; dusted her off and got ready for some serious deep-woods bush bashing!
My target for the day was a small logging camp deep in the Yukon. With no aids - not even a pink pinprick on the FS map - and just an old scrap of road map to go by; this one was gonna be fun!
The nearest recognizeable place I could find to the camp was in Alaska - some incomprehensible name with 30 or so letters.
Fortunately; the route wouldn't be too hard - the camp's down a fijord; the only difficulty would be to figure out which fijord to fly down.So here we go......
Getting the DC-3 ready for flight. Hello again, old friend. Takeoff into the dark predawn in a light rainstorm. Daytime's just tooooo eazzzzzyyyy! The problem with taking on the Yukon in a 60 year old airplane is that there's a decidedly upward component to the terrain. Much more of an upward component than the Dakota has, as a matter of fact. If the ground's going up faster than you are; philosophically it can be said that ergo; you're going down.Fast.
There are certain elements of clouditude as well; just to make things more fun. It is, however, very pretty up here.
Above the clouds into - more or less - clear skies. Ho hum. A short while later sees me whizzing down a fijord in "Wooohooooo!!!!!" mode. Of course; the $64,000 question is 'is this the right fijord?' Guess we'll find out soon. Oooo - pretty. I almost entered this shot. There it is - spang on target. Am I good or am I good? 8)...and they want me to land on THAT?
...well, I guess that's why they said 'light aircraft and floatplanes only'. Oh well - mee with a full load of beer as well.
Landing - another shot I didn't quite enter. Dayum - touched down right on the first bits of gravel; finally got her stopped less than 30 feet from the end of the ...er... "runway".
They've got the steaks grillin'; I've got the beer - time for some major relaxin'!
Cheers!
