NunavutPA-12
FRIEND
67.8N,115.1W CYCO Canada
I have a big (for me) flight in the works for later this month.
Our cabin is 100-miles south of here, on the edge of the tree-line, just east of the Coppermine River and 20-miles south of the arctic circle. We normally access the cabin during the summer months with the PA-12 on straight floats. In late September I change over directly to wheel-skis until June.
Now a 100-mile flight would not be much of an expedition for most on here, but this is some of the most-remote country on the continent. I’m well-aware of the risks involved. You Alaskan guys know what I’m talking about! I think I’m well-equipped and prepared.
The baggage compartment (unfortunately I have no extended baggage) is chock full of survival gear and the back seat will be loaded up with the generator, a couple of boxes of groceries, wing and engine covers. So there’s no room for a passenger. I’ve been working on my wife for the past week, trying to impress on her the need to carry all that stuff at this, possibly brutal, time of the year on a flight over very remote country.
Today, the local store had Valentine’s Day flowers so I bought her some roses. The trip is now on! Hell, I could have got permission to go to Bangkok for a month!
So now, over the next week, I’ll be digging out the airplane and checking her all over for this flight near the end of the month, when we get a few days of decent weather. If I go to all this trouble, I’ll be staying there for at least a week. I have a little Yamaha Bravo snowmobile down there and an ice auger so maybe I’ll try a bit of fishing. There will be caribou around, I’ll have my rifle but probably won’t hunt because I won’t want to carry the extra weight home or, alternatively, leave the meat there and have it go to waste. I have a chain saw but the cabin is heated with a little oil stove. I have no desire to cut the few measly trees, and besides – having constant heat all night long is just so luxurious.
Normally, I stick close to home during the winter months but this trip will put me 100-miles from the nearest human being. Should be fun!
Oh, and I’ll be 70 in May so I think it’s time to git ‘er done. I'm stoked!
Our cabin is 100-miles south of here, on the edge of the tree-line, just east of the Coppermine River and 20-miles south of the arctic circle. We normally access the cabin during the summer months with the PA-12 on straight floats. In late September I change over directly to wheel-skis until June.
Now a 100-mile flight would not be much of an expedition for most on here, but this is some of the most-remote country on the continent. I’m well-aware of the risks involved. You Alaskan guys know what I’m talking about! I think I’m well-equipped and prepared.
The baggage compartment (unfortunately I have no extended baggage) is chock full of survival gear and the back seat will be loaded up with the generator, a couple of boxes of groceries, wing and engine covers. So there’s no room for a passenger. I’ve been working on my wife for the past week, trying to impress on her the need to carry all that stuff at this, possibly brutal, time of the year on a flight over very remote country.
Today, the local store had Valentine’s Day flowers so I bought her some roses. The trip is now on! Hell, I could have got permission to go to Bangkok for a month!
So now, over the next week, I’ll be digging out the airplane and checking her all over for this flight near the end of the month, when we get a few days of decent weather. If I go to all this trouble, I’ll be staying there for at least a week. I have a little Yamaha Bravo snowmobile down there and an ice auger so maybe I’ll try a bit of fishing. There will be caribou around, I’ll have my rifle but probably won’t hunt because I won’t want to carry the extra weight home or, alternatively, leave the meat there and have it go to waste. I have a chain saw but the cabin is heated with a little oil stove. I have no desire to cut the few measly trees, and besides – having constant heat all night long is just so luxurious.
Normally, I stick close to home during the winter months but this trip will put me 100-miles from the nearest human being. Should be fun!
Oh, and I’ll be 70 in May so I think it’s time to git ‘er done. I'm stoked!
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