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Valdez preflight

D

DENNY

SPONSOR
I am planning on flying my cub to Valdez Wednesday night. If all go's well we have two other pilots/planes that have not done the Whittier route. Any pilots new or old that have not done this route and want to see it in good weather before trying to get to the Valdez fly in this weekend are welcome!! Look at/return by Thompson Pass if people want. We lost a new pilot few years ago due to inexperience and bad weather. Here is a chance to go with someone that has done it before on a good day. If your CFI has not done it or needs money (they all do) bring them along. Plan to have pilot brief 17:45 Wednesday Birchwood pilot shack if predicted weather holds. Wheels up at 1800. Please reply if you are interested.
DENNY
 
KevinJ
Right now it looks like you should be able to get in on Friday going through Whittier. Extended forecast in the Valdez area are notorious for being wrong. For years Thompson Pass weather was what you got for a Valdez report I think it is still the same today. Windy is pretty good 48 hours out. Thursday we will have a better ideal of what the conditions will be. The Cams are all up and working so that will give some real time info. What are you flying? Have you been to Valdez in the past?
DENNY
 
I'll talk to you offline Denny. Will probably take you up on an exploratory flight tomorrow.
 
Thanks for the response Denny. Theres an old cub parked up N of anchorage I’m looking to steal. It is a stole competition, correct?;-)
 
I may come in Thurs eve or Fri a.m. Undecided as of yet. Will have our shepherd dog w/me, so that complicates things a bit.
 
This is a great idea Denny! There is a DOT Road camera at Thompson Pass that has the ground wind speed, I use that along with the camera. While we want to see everyone here, please do not push the weather. Denny is correct, ever since they took weather reporting physically out of Valdez it is now done as part of the Valdez Forecast Area and that is huge and includes Thompson Pass. So if it says "Chance of Rain" that means that there is a chance of rain falling somewhere in that forecast area and the odds are pretty good they are right. You can also see this in predicted temps on iphone apps. The temp is always predicted to be colder than it will be in Valdez because they include the pass. We have never had good weather predicted for the fly in and one year we were basically rained out. I have finally stopped obsessing about forecasts and like Denny says two days out it starts to get real.
 
Today the weather is not looking good at Valdez now, so not a great time to be doing a preflight with new pilots. I am still planing on getting Cub in just not sure when.
DENNY
 
I made it in last night with a few other competitors. Right now some broken clouds but I can see blue skies over Valdez. DENNY
 
Joe’s cookout. Tons of food and a good turnout considering the crummy weather….
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The drive from Anchorage today was a lot harder than the scud flight on Wednesday. Lost water pump and fan belt on the F350 80 miles out of town. Lucky for me a good buddy is Ford 7.3 diesel expert. He picked up parts from NAPA and was able to get to me within two hours. Pulled me to a rest stop and we swapped out the water pump. Made it in for the end of Joe’s party. DENNY
 
​Good guy for 7.3 fixin’, etc. Maybe you already know Justin.
https://differentstrokesofalaska.com/about-us/


DENNY said:
The drive from Anchorage today was a lot harder than the scud flight on Wednesday. Lost water pump and fan belt on the F350 80 miles out of town. Lucky for me a good buddy is Ford 7.3 diesel expert. He picked up parts from NAPA and was able to get to me within two hours. Pulled me to a rest stop and we swapped out the water pump. Made it in for the end of Joe’s party. DENNY
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They are the go to guys in Anchorage when you can’t figure out your 7.3 problem. Weather still kind of rough right now in Valdese we may do the competition tomorrow on hold waiting for news. DENNY
 
Just got word from Joe. STOL Competition is postponed until tomorrow. Beach landing for today is canceled.
DENNY
 
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The weather service tells us our best chance for the weather window is between noon and 6pm Sunday. We are going to run the Flour Bombing at noon, STOL at 2 with Gary Ward and Mark Sexton flying aerobatics around that. 21 planes here and a lot of spectators as well. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come to Valdez!
 
Are the mask required?thinking of flying over tomorrow, what time would arrivals be allowed? Thanks if anybody can respond that would be very helpful. Tom
 
Go to the Facebook Valdez flying page and look at today’s schedule. Avoid the aerobatic demonstrations and you should be fine for coming in. No rain this morning we can see all the mountain tops around Valdez, we do have high cloud cover, Thompson Pass should be doable. DENNY
 
Cubcrafters Carbon Cubs with slats looked like they were putting up some impressive numbers considering the relatively calm winds. ~50 foot takeoffs and ~50 foot landings for Butch Kingston and Toby Ashley. That's with 35's and belly pods.
Impressive! Shorter than Dan Reynolds in the Chinook! Looked like butch, who won, was running a baby bush with a big shock on the tailwheel stinger too. From what I saw it appeared to be the best performance of any class.

Almost makes me want to convert my FX3 order into an FX2 to ditch the CS prop for slats! I've already been advised by more than one person to do just that, but am probably too tempted by the 135 mph cruise siren song. I'm guessing Butch would dominate with any plane you gave him though, it's the indian, not the arrow. Well done to all competitors, fun to watch!
 
KevinJ said:
Put a little nitrous in that fx3 and it will really work;-)
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Congrats on a strong showing today by you and Denny and congrats Kevin for taking 2nd in your class in a borrowed airplane no less! Impressive!
 
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The super secret nitrous valve under the front seat confirms it's "not your mother's EX2"
 
Power and light weight to take off is one thing, but consistently posting landings in the 50s is just incredible.
900 lbs?

And I love the fact that most of the time both Toby and Butch leave the ground from a 3 point.


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org
 
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