Found a synopsis of that section of his adventure on a teaser page from 2015.
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But now I needed to get my skates on, for as I hear so many folks say these days, ‘Winter is Coming’, and that's no time to be in Alaska let alone out in the Aleutians... I did a mighty 12 hour non stop flight from Minnesota to Washington, then the next day a short flight up to Seattle. It was the first of October. This was crunch time. Everyone was telling me that "it wasn't safe to fly in Alaska after September." I was spooked.
I stopped in Seattle for a few days, caught up with Steve and other Searey pilots and spent time with Walter, Ross and Ben to discuss, inspect and fly the Gweduck, which may just be the ultimate adventure plane. (
www.gweduck.com) After so much time in my little Searey, she hadn't let me down and we'd done some great things together, even looking at another plane seemed like cheating on her! But one thing I've decided on this trip is I will not upgrade or change planes until a diesel/JetA1 solution is available, international travel on Avgas is just too hard. Through Asia and the Middle East my average time to refuel was 4 hours of ferrying fuel from petrol stations to inside airfields, sometimes even being made to X-ray the petrol going through security! But I digress...
I couldn't help but think I'd come as far as I should. The Russian permission still wasn't forthcoming and I was nervous about the Aleutians. But then a turning point happened. I met local commercial seaplane pilot Capt. Karen Stemco and she said "you really need to talk to Burke." So I did. A couple of times. He has been a commercial seaplane pilot flying the Alaskan islands for many many years.
He pointed out that he had for years flown out along the Aleutians all year round. It was possible to do, but there was one key ingredient for success. Patience. Yes there will be bad weather. There will be average weather. But in between, there will be glorious days. But if you take your time, accept getting stuck here and there for a few days, then you can make it. But remember he cautioned "There isn't a crashed plane in the Aleutians that doesn't have sun shining on it soon after." Wow. Gulp. Ok.
I slept on it. Then a day later I pushed on. Jumping over Canada straight to Ketchikan, Alaska - then to Anchorage for a few days of final preparations. On leaving westwards for Cold Bay I soon had to divert to Homer (where else would you go while on an Odyssey?) when I found a wall of cloud to the sea en route. My initial instinct was to fly along the cloud looking for a break, then I heard Burke's words... Yes, just go and land somewhere, soon enough this cloud will pass. In these situations I always remind myself I really want to be at my sons 21st (he's 19). The next day it was lovely as I tracked to Cold Bay, where I then got stuck for 3 dreary days, before making the leap all the way to Adak. Where I spent the next 3 weeks!
There was plenty of nice weather in this time, but I was still waiting for Russian permission, and Japanese permission. After a week it wasn't looking good, so I had to come up with a plan B. Luckily in Anchorage I'd seen The Martian, and I knew I just had to go back to the basics and try a new plan. What did I have to work with? I tried to get permission for Midway. But no go. Could I get straight to Japan? No, it would take 22 hours, at around 1800 miles, and I could carry just on 21 hours of fuel.
But there was one option other than returning to the mainland and booking a shipping container.
Attu. The last of the Aleutian Islands. The most westerly point of the US of A. Not quite directly on the way, but if I could refuel at Attu, that would break the leg into a 6 hour and an 18 hour flight to get me to Japan.
But Attu is abandoned; no people, no power, no water, let alone fuel - just rats, big rats, lot’s of them. My Google Earth searching suggested the runway was still there and in OK condition. I decided I could ferry 6 hours of fuel in fuel cans, leave it by the runway, fly back to Adak, wait for the next weather window, then make one really big passage to Japan.
So we did. Flew out at dawn, with 6 fuel containers on the passenger seat and foot well, and 5.5 hours later arrived overhead a wet and rainy Attu. I could see that 2/3 of the cross runway into the wind was usable, and the full length of the main runway was ok. Despite there being no one to listen I made my radio calls, then landed, left the fuel in a small shed by the runway, disturbed lots of rats and took off again to make it back to Adak before sunset. So far so good.
A week later the weather was looking good again, well, as good as weather is out there come late October. The freezing level was down to 2500', and with so much moisture in the air ice was forming quickly, so I decided to just stick at 1500'. The plan was to leave Adak during the day, arrive at Attu, refuel, then take off just before sunset and fly all night; in the dark for 15-16 hours, and arrive into Japan in daylight, after 18 hours non stop and 23 hours flying for the day... What could go wrong?
Well, let's just say I'm here today to write about it, so while it was a very tough flight, it all worked out ok.
