Flying in Alaska

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Jacque

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Jacque
I am considering trying to add a few days of flying around Alaska to my September trip.

I would fly up the coast from Washington to Juneau, Fairbanks, Deadhorse, Bethel, ColdBay, then back down the coast into the lower 48.

Having never flown in Alaska is September a calm enough month to fly VFR in Alaska?

I will be in a PA28R-200. I will have an ATP holding friend flying with me as well. I am not sure about the aircrafts anti/de icing features.

Any advice or cautions would be greatly appreciated.
 
I can't comment on September weather, as my trips to Alaska have all been in June and July, but VFR is quite likely doable year round as long as you are VERY patient with the weather. If you don't get the weather you want, just be prepared to wait a day or five while the weather improves. I've done the Alaska trip three times from the lower 48, two of those were on the coastal route. Learn how to use the Alaska and Canada weather cameras. Remember that alternate airports can be hundreds of miles away, and on the inside passage most airports have high approach minimums due to terrain. VFR is IMHO the best way to fly in Alaska... It will keep you out of the icing (which might start at the MEA's or lower in September), and it is certainly more scenic than flying inside of a cloud!

Study the charts and find all of the glaciers on your route. Then fly over all of them! Also, try to spend enough time around Denali to find a clear day to see the mountain.

I recommend getting a Garmin inReach or similar for your trip. Get walk in weather briefings wherever you can (Ketchikan has a lovely FSS).
 
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As above. That time of year, the weather can be dynamic and anywhere from good to terrible, and that can be in the same day. If you have time to wait out the weather. The PA28 has no effective deice or anti-ice and the type of ice you can get in Alaska which that time of year may be in any clouds, is enough to quickly do in a PA28. Juneau is a more challenging airport weather wise then Sitka, Ketchikan, since it sits up next to the mountains, can trap low clouds. So I would just plan on being patient, and enjoy the flying. My experience in Alaska is mostly IFR, but what I have seen is beautiful.1 (137).jpg
 
There are two things I always advise pilots who ask about going up the coast.
1 do customs, at Campbell River BC. so you can go anywhere in Canada. (like Prince Rupert)
2 Know where Carcross, In the Yukon is and how to get there. It is your alternate to Sitka area.
 
Know, that Sept, can be heavy snow, And icing conditions. 0 -0 conditions are common.
 
Jacque said:
Having never flown in Alaska is September a calm enough month to fly VFR in Alaska?
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Yes. No.

September is a transition month which can be aggravating at times. Most of the weather problems in September will be around the coastal areas and above the Arctic Circle. As Rockymountain said above, add in weather days to your trip.

In the southeast you will have rain showers as the clouds can stack up against the mountains. Getting to Fairbanks the clouds may be on one side of the Alaska Range while the other side will be clear blue skies. I spent a summer in McKinley National Park flying tours around the mountain. The top of the mountain was clear probably about 15 days that whole summer.

Deadhorse/Barrow could be getting snow showers in September. For that matter I have seen snow on the 4th of July.

Bethel is mostly rain showers in September and maybe snow by the end of the month. Cold Bay all bets are off.

Weather cams are just about everywhere in Alaska now. Gone are the days when we used to send a person out to check the weather.

Flying in Alaska is its own set of peculiarities. Never expect the expected, as it can change within minutes. Or it could be beautiful all month. Plan ahead and always have an alternate plan and be prepared to use it.

September is a great time to visit. Just about all the tourist are gone as well as most of the bugs. The bears are eating all they can find in preparation for their winter nap. Knock on the outhouse door before entering, if it has a door. Real Alaska outhouses won't have walls....

Have fun and take plenty of pictures.!!!

edit: oops... forgot to add the wx cams....:oops:

https://avcams.faa.gov/
 
Tom-D said:
There are two things I always advise pilots who ask about going up the coast.
1 do customs, at Campbell River BC. so you can go anywhere in Canada. (like Prince Rupert)
2 Know where Carcross, In the Yukon is and how to get there. It is your alternate to Sitka area.
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I am actually going to enter Canada earlier in the trip in Toronto to see a friend and again in Regina to pick up my pilot friend for the Alaska run. If I do customs in Toronto would that be enough for the other Canada stops?

Thanks again for the advice.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. I am not on a super tight schedule and as such I have 0 intentions of ever challenging the weather anywhere let alone Alaska and it's known icing conditions especially in an aircraft not equipped to deal with ice.

I have seen the pictures of the glaciers and the landscape and have always wanted to see it for myself. Ideally I would like to park the PA28 and get a bush plane to do some back country exploring but that is not feasible this time around.
 
September in Alaska will offer days of nice weather and weeks of bad weather. Being grounded waiting out the weather is common. Not common enough, because historically the accident rate goes up in September. What I consider VFR in mountains that I know is different than what a visitor may think. Keep that in mind when asking for advice from locals.

Your trip’s weather is a roll of the dice. Weather prediction here is difficult. We joke that it starts raining in late August and stops when the rain turns to snow. We do get some nice days in October after the leaves drop. Rivers drop, too, exposing lots of sandbar opportunities that had been underwater all summer. But the days are getting shorter by then. This is my 52nd autumn in Alaska. I have a pretty good idea what it’ll look like! ;)
 
Jacque said:
I am actually going to enter Canada earlier in the trip in Toronto to see a friend and again in Regina to pick up my pilot friend for the Alaska run. If I do customs in Toronto would that be enough for the other Canada stops?

Thanks again for the advice.
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Yes, once you're in, you're in (until you leave, then you gotta get back in again). From Toronto/Regina, you'll be much closer to the Alaska Highway route. It is a completely different set of scenery vs. the coastal route, and it is also a safer route (particularly for a first timer).

Getting a bush plane for exploring is a great idea. There is an outfit located in Talkeetna that rents bush planes and float planes for training. I had planned on using them on our last trip, and they went out of their way to be helpful. (in the end, I didn't fly with them due to a last minute weather decision to skip Talkeetna, but I would go back in a heartbeat). They have lodging on-site too. https://www.alaskafloats.com/

(edit - corrected the link to the correct place!)
 
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Jacque said:
I am actually going to enter Canada earlier in the trip in Toronto to see a friend and again in Regina to pick up my pilot friend for the Alaska run. If I do customs in Toronto would that be enough for the other Canada stops?

Thanks again for the advice.
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Yes, after you do customs, you are free to go any where in Canada..
That said.
Any border crossing is an individual issue. Anytime you cross the border either direction -- Do Customs.
 
In Alaska snow is known as "termination dust" every thing stops until we get skis on and there is enough to operate.
 
What's your "time budget" for this trip? How many weeks (or months)? The various places you've listed are pretty much literally the four corners of a VERY large state, where it takes a lot longer to get from one place to another than it looks on the map. Canada is also vast. Vaster that it seems on the computer screen.

You should read @Katamarino 's posts here about his massive tour of Alaska by 182, you'll learn a lot about what there is to see and do in various places.
(Anybody got the link handy?)

I normally fly out of Anchorage, in a 172 (nothing "bush fancy").
My experience there is that: it will either a) rain for all of August, or b) rain for all of September, and there's no way to know whether it'll be a) or b).
But if you can be lucky with the weather, it's a beautiful time of year to fly, and to visit in general. Most "touristy things" shut down on September 15th.
Fall colors become spectacular in October around my part of the state.

I'm in the midst of an Al-Can Highway flight right now, actually, heading southeast towards Wisconsin... I'm writing this from a fuel hangar in Ft. Nelson BC!
The Highway Route from here through the Canadian Rockies to the eastern border of Alaska is very well-known and (IMO) easy to fly. Navigation = "follow the road". There's a sequence of airports that you can hit like ducklings in a row, all with long runways and fuel, and spaced ~200-250 miles apart. Clear US customs at Northway, AK (but remember there's no fuel there).

I've never done the coastal route, but it has always seemed less friendly to me... more bad weather on the coast, and fewer options if something goes wrong.
 
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