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Floats to Alaska 2016

Folks


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My Cub in the hangar at Baker MT. Again, many thanks to Roger Meggers and his son Darin, for their support and help. Great members of this wonderful Supercub community. My cub had the privilege of sitting next to the awesomely restored Supercub serial #1 by Roger and Darin Meggers.



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We got an early start. Photo by Mark. Tried to get out before it got hot and bumpy. This was in the heart of a heat wave where daytime temperatures were over 100 degrees, with lots of humidity to boot. Uhhhhh............ I sure miss Alaska........



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Hot and tired, but flush with excitement from a journey successfully completed.



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My Cub back home, safely tucked away in my Hangar at Poplar Grove.


First and foremost I'd like to thank the Lord for Blessing me with the opportunity to take this trip. But that also includes all the friends and family that supported me (many of you financially - thanks to the leadership of Doc Randy - I know.....you don't know what I'm talking about....), you see I consider my friends and family to be my greatest Blessing of all. I have been so tremendously Blessed to have a great family, and great friends. Thank you.​

Thank you for following my adventure, I hope you enjoyed it, perhaps learned something, and didn't get too bored.​



Bill​

PS - I may try to do an "after action" report with gear reviews, cabin reviews, aircraft thoughts etc. Might take a few days.
 
Bill,

Congratulations on completing a phenomenal trip, dealing with unexpected happenings, but hanging in there to complete the trip of a lifetime!

Not many have done a trip like yours, not to mention having built the magic carpet to take them safely there.

Amazing journey! Thanks for sharing.

MTV
 
Thank you for following my adventure, I hope you enjoyed it, perhaps learned something, and didn't get too bored.

Not for nothing Bill, but you're taking too much responsibility for keeping things exciting for the rest of us. You deserve a nice boring trip!
[emoji23]


Rene
 
Random Final Thoughts

Bugs - not nearly as bad as I expected. It seems the Se part of AK is not as bad as some other parts. Only used bug spray twice and the headnet a couple of times as well. Worst area was the Hunlen Waterfall area near Nimpo Lake in BC.

Customs - Smaller customs stations do not get, or follow, eAPIS, thus you need to call them directly and tell them you are coming. You still have to file eAPIS but they don't pass the word on. If the place you are clearing customs has a 24 hour control tower the customs there probably works 24/7 and they might get the eAPIS but I got the impression that they have no word either, they are just there 24/7 anyway so a drop in to clear customs is no big deal. If you do not call in advance at the smaller stations there will not be anyone there. You will have to wait and it could be a LONG while as you are now an un announced drop in, = Bad.
Don't forget that customs is not a 24/7 operation in most places. Thus if you want to clear really early or late, it ain't gonna happen and that could add a day to your schedule.

Tom Bass website, here.....
http://www.publiclakecabinsak.com is critical for this trip. Tons of info there. I can't imagine how much time and money he has invested in that site, so if you go there be sure to send an email saying thanks. It is awesome!! Thank you, Tom Bass.

Most of the time the best fishing was at the inlet to the lake.

The EXPED SYNMAT 9 DLX sleeping pad was excellent. Link here
https://www.campmor.com/c/exped-synmats-9-pump-dlx-sleeping-pad-91306

I REALLY liked the chair that Mark hooked me on to. The Helinox is light, strong and comfortable. Highly recommend.
http://www.helinox.com.au/camp-chairs.php I have the Camp Chair. Mark had the Chair one. I think we both agreed the Camp Chair is better. The Chair One is lighter and smaller but it sits pretty low to the ground and is a little less comfortable because of that. The Camp Chair sits at about normal chair height and is more comfortable.

Jetboil - I brought two of these, so I could cook two things at once. I reasoned that I would likely do a fair amount of cooking inside to get out of the rain and that I might want more than a one course meal. LOVE THEM. Jetboils are great. Never leave home without it.

Survival vest - get one and wear it. But if doing the floatplane thing you might consider putting some stuff in waterproof baggies. i.e. - it will be great when you swim to shore to have all that survival stuff but could be pretty useless if it is water logged.

Extra Charger/battery - got a battery about the size of a pack of cigarettes from Best Buy and was able to use that to recharge my iPad, iPhone, etc. It would charge 4 or 5 items (or one item 4 or 5 times) and really came in handy. I used it to recharge my iPad/foreflight on the long days in the air. Having a port or two in the panel would also be handy. On a trip like this you might have 6 or 8 items to charge. Camera, iPad, iPhone, DeLorme, GoPro, etc.

Delorme - the InReach is excellent. Worked perfect. You basically have three options. SPOT, DeLORME, and Spidertracks. You can research them here with the search feature here on SC.org. I had SPOT last time and it worked. I used the INReach this time and I think it was much better than SPOT for a very small increase in cost. Well worth it for my family and friends to track by (and also in the flip mishap).

Parking - A number of the cabins I visited only had room to park one floatplane. Thus if you wanted to do this with a group of floatplanes you would want to do a little homework to try to figure out which cabins had room to park several floatplanes.

The Forest Service Cabin Website notes in several places that the boat at the cabin requires a "long shaft" motor. I used my short shaft (15") on 8 or 9 boats and it worked fine on them all. I do not think you need a long shaft motor.

Fly Rod - It seemed that a lot of the lakes and fishing areas had trees right up to the water which made the fly-rod a little less useful (unless you are really good with a roll cast). Generally I think I would leave it out next time. The spinning rods worked just fine. However; if your whole purpose is to go fishing, and all else is just an afterthought, bring it.

Fuel - don't count on "call out" fuel unless you make a reservation in advance. There are only a few places where you can get fuel 24/7 in the SE.
Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka have 24/7 FBO operations. Petersburg, Wrangel, etc the fuel is sold (as an afterthought) by a commercial operator. That is not his primary business so it may or may not be available. Just a heads up. Generally they do good and are available but..........

Floats - I still just love the manual float retract system. Simple and light.

Rain - be sure your aircraft cabin is water/rain proof. You may fly in the rain a lot and having a leaky door seal can be a big pain. Or a leaking roof, or a leaky window etc etc

Trash Bags - be sure you take some and use em. I was sometimes a little surprised by the trash folks left. Most cabins were excellent but sometimes, especially the cabins that you could hike to, were less than perfect. I suspect that the folks that toted it in decided that they did not want to tote it out so they convinced themselves that the next visitor would really appreciate the half empty bottle of Ketchup.

Delorme - I mounted it right on the inst panel. That helped me to remember to turn it on/off and also to send the messages. Perhaps I should have mounted my float pump on the inst panel as well.

Fishing Net - I brought one. Don't bother. Used it once and it took a long while to untangle/unsnag the lure the fish managed to spit out. Bottom line - ya just don't need it, Unless you are catching Salmon. You may not be able to land a 6 pound Salmon without a net, as it will break your line when you try to lift it out of the water. So, as always.........it depends.

Maps - The Forest Service Dept puts out a map of all the SE Cabins.
http://www.nationalforestmapstore.com/product-p/ak-1.htm
If you are thinking of someday going to one of these Cabins - get this map.
This map is pretty important for folks that might be tracking your trip as well. That way they have an idea of where you are when you say you are going to the Eagle River Cabin. Otherwise they are out of the loop. They are printed on a waterproof paper and are well worth the investment. I wish I had provided them for many of the folks that were tracking me. I think it would have made it a lot more interesting for them.

Garmin/Foreflight - The Garmin 796 with the topo maps was awesome in the USA/Alaska. Foreflight was much better when in Canada. Perhaps I did not have all the right maps but I thought the Garmin products for Canada were lacking whereas Foreflght was great in Canada.

I put 60.6 hours on the plane prior to the flip and 81.1 after, and a total for the trip of 141.7 hours
I stayed in 17 different Cabins and visited a total of around 30 (not 100% sure of that #, will double check)
I did not eat a single Mountain House Meal.
After landing at home at the end of the trip I weighed everything that came out of the plane for Mark and I (except the paddle on the float, headsets, wing ropes and the ropes on the floats). Came in at 275 pounds. Thats a lot of junk. We did have about 3 gallons of fuel left in one 5 gallon jug. This was all camping gear, airplane gear (ropes, bumpers, grease, couple qts of oil, etc), clothes, tool kit, tie downs, outboard motor etc etc. Add two people and fuel and you can see how quickly it can add up.
It took 36.6 hours to get to Anchorage going up
It took 29.4 Hours to get home after leaving the last Cabin at Humpback Lake and heading home.
I burned roughly 1020 gallons with an overall average burn of 7.3 GPH
Least expensive fuel was at Roundup, Montana at 3.90 Gal. Most expensive was in Cordova AK at 6.95 Gal

Hope this helps

Bill




 
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Bill, thanks for the summary you've been an encouragement to many of us. Thanks for the great information. I second the Bushwheels suggestion.
 
Tom Bass website, here..... http://www.publiclakecabinsak.com is critical for this trip. Tons of info there. I can't imagine how much time and money he has invested in that site, so if you go there be sure to send an email saying thanks. It is awesome!! Thank you, Tom Bass.
Bill,
After reading several of Tom Bass's articles in Water Flying magazine, I'm planning on installing the Topo charts in accordance with his recommendations. His photographs are very convincing. In one of his articles he states "Do not load the 24K charts because the detail is more than you need for aviation use." On the other hand when reviewing various forums on the topic, everyone seems to like the 24K charts for the added detail. Now I'm confused since the whole idea of installing the Topo charts is for more detail since the normal Garmin GPS charting is at best, very poor.

Do you have any input of the 24K or 100K being preferable? Did you add the Topo to your system? It not a cost question as they each are $100. The 100K covers the whole country while the 24K only is regional. So unless one is planning to go a long way from home the 24K may be suitable.

Thanks, Having been there, I've enjoyed reading your journal. It brings back old memories.
 
Pete

Thank you for following up, I think you asked me that before and I forgot to respond. I loaded the 100 K topo map and it is outstanding. The level of detail makes difficult navigation in critical terrain far far far safer. Having seen both levels of detail (100K, and standard Garmin) I can't imagine flying in Alaska without the 100K detail. I did not try the 24K so I can't respond to the effectiveness of that. But the 100K was worth every penny. It would also have great value for any trip to Idaho.

Hope this helps

Bill
 
Thanks Bill, There is always the nagging question that if the 100K is that good, will the 24K be four times better?
 
Bill Rusk we missed you at the Juneau airport as I saw you got mail there from UPS.

On my trip from Rochester NY to Anchorage going up the trench and the Alcan highway to TOK and down to anchorage then out to the Peninsula back to the coast over to Watson Lake and down the trench to JC back to Rochester NY.

144 tach hours
1038 gals of gas
Average GPH 7.21 Not bad for a 180 HP!
48 fill ups.
GPS says minimum of about 12530 miles
Great fun and times with my son in law.
All over 4.3 weeks

GREAT TIMES!!!!!!!
 
Folks

After returning from last years "epic" journey and adventure in Alaska I had a little down time and so I made a movie of the trip. The movie was done as a way to try to say "Thank You" to all of the folks following my trip, and those who were so supportive after the bath. The movie was placed on DVD and sent out with a sincere Thank You letter to followers and to "The N316BR Support Group". I am still learning about editing, video and computers so this is NOT a Spielberg or Capra quality event but, hopefully it is not toooo boring. I have been encouraged to share it with all my Supercub.org friends so here it is.

Some notes -
The only way to find the movie is via this link. There are 3 ways to post a video on YouTube.
1) Public - anyone can see it and it can be found by searching YouTube
2) Private - the only one who can see it is you and only when logged into YouTube on your account
3) Unlisted - these videos will not show up when searching YouTube. The only way to see it is via the link or by typing in that specific address. Most of my videos are unlisted. If you search Bill Rusk and go to my YouTube account you will not see the unlisted videos. You have to use the link or that specific address in the link.

This is a 40 minute movie so I recommend Irish Coffee. You will need the alcohol to get through it, and the caffeine to stay awake. If you have a way to play YouTube videos on your TV, in my opinion it looks better there. Some of the scenery in the SE is pretty impressive (I wish I could capture it) and it looks better on the big screen TV.

A central theme of the movie is the incredible group of compassionate, kind and honorable folks who are a part of Supercub.org. So, once again, THANK YOU to all my friends at Supercub.org. You are the best folks I know and I am Blessed by your kindness and friendship. I respectively ask that you NOT post this link in other forums, EAA websites, etc. Lets keep it in the family. Thank you.

Bill


 
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Incredible Bill, excellent job on the production side of the video! The content is even better! Thank you so much for taking the time to produce and share with us.

Kurt
 
Great job bill thanks for bringing back the memories If you look in the dictionary under fortitude there should be a picture of bill Rusk
 
Awesome Bill. Getting the float rating this summer.


Sent from my iPad using SuperCub.Org
 
I found it Bill! That was so good. At the end I was thinking "no...there has to be more". I felt like I'd only been watching about 10 min. What a beautiful trip. I found the verse, Romans 1:20. That video was it.
 
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