01-24-2010, 10:50 AM
Hi guys.
I don't know when the Bell 412 PJ-DAB has seen the Caribbean at last, but it seems to fit really good into the Alaskan environment.
It will be used for straw and dog food stocking during the stocking flights and for picking up dogs and scratched musher as also for cleaning out checkpoints along the trails of the Iditarod dog sled race (learn more about the Iditarod here, or here).
Yesterday we had to deliver 10 bales of straw and 10 cases of HEET to Finger Lake Checkpoint. The Bell was parked at the TCAA operations center at Stevens Anchorage airport and we had to transfer over to Merrill Field. We departed PANC at 21:56 Zulu and arrived after 5 minutes at Merrill to pick up our load. We didn't shut the engines down. We kept them running at low idle for a couple of minutes. At 22:06Z we left Merrill for Finger Lake Checkpoint. We first climbed to about 1000 feet, but later we climbed higher to 3500 feet to be able to clear the terrain en-route. The weather was quite good, but we also had some clouds at our altitudes and so we had to fly through the one or other cloud...
[attachment=1066]
[attachment=1067]
[attachment=1068]
Then we had a visual on Finger Lake and could start to descend.
[attachment=1069]
[attachment=1070]
[attachment=1071]
Here you can see the cabins at Finger Lake.
[attachment=1072]
After we had unloaded the straw bales and HEET we headed back to Merrill. Well although traffic at Ted Stevens had decreased it still has a lot of traffic. In the background you can see the Callsign of Dynasty 5213, a B744 from China Airlines approaching to PANC RWY 07R.
[attachment=1073]
And on approach to RWY 14 there is an other Asian carrier: Cathay Pacific Flight 96 from Hong Kong (Kai Tak in tis case as I have Kai Tak from 9 Dragons installed
) to Anchorage.
[attachment=1074]
[attachment=1075]
After we had passed PANC we arrived at Merrill for an uneventful landing.
[attachment=1076]
I think next assignment will be Straw-8 from Merrill to Rainy Pass and a Repo-flight (Repositioning flight) to McGrath. We will make this flight later on today.
Here is a little flight summary for you guys:
The flight from Stevens to Merrill lasted for 5 minutes. The flight from Merrill to Finger Lake 39 minutes and the return flight to Merrill 38 minutes. Giving us a total flight time of 1 hour and 22 minutes.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this flight report. Don't be shy and show us your flight reports as well. And hey! They are not limited to Airalaska pilots. Every pilot within TCA and its departments can post flight reports or stories. I think that is one of the reason why we have this great forum.
I don't know when the Bell 412 PJ-DAB has seen the Caribbean at last, but it seems to fit really good into the Alaskan environment.
It will be used for straw and dog food stocking during the stocking flights and for picking up dogs and scratched musher as also for cleaning out checkpoints along the trails of the Iditarod dog sled race (learn more about the Iditarod here, or here).
Yesterday we had to deliver 10 bales of straw and 10 cases of HEET to Finger Lake Checkpoint. The Bell was parked at the TCAA operations center at Stevens Anchorage airport and we had to transfer over to Merrill Field. We departed PANC at 21:56 Zulu and arrived after 5 minutes at Merrill to pick up our load. We didn't shut the engines down. We kept them running at low idle for a couple of minutes. At 22:06Z we left Merrill for Finger Lake Checkpoint. We first climbed to about 1000 feet, but later we climbed higher to 3500 feet to be able to clear the terrain en-route. The weather was quite good, but we also had some clouds at our altitudes and so we had to fly through the one or other cloud...
[attachment=1066]
[attachment=1067]
[attachment=1068]
Then we had a visual on Finger Lake and could start to descend.
[attachment=1069]
[attachment=1070]
[attachment=1071]
Here you can see the cabins at Finger Lake.
[attachment=1072]
After we had unloaded the straw bales and HEET we headed back to Merrill. Well although traffic at Ted Stevens had decreased it still has a lot of traffic. In the background you can see the Callsign of Dynasty 5213, a B744 from China Airlines approaching to PANC RWY 07R.
[attachment=1073]
And on approach to RWY 14 there is an other Asian carrier: Cathay Pacific Flight 96 from Hong Kong (Kai Tak in tis case as I have Kai Tak from 9 Dragons installed
) to Anchorage. [attachment=1074]
[attachment=1075]
After we had passed PANC we arrived at Merrill for an uneventful landing.
[attachment=1076]
I think next assignment will be Straw-8 from Merrill to Rainy Pass and a Repo-flight (Repositioning flight) to McGrath. We will make this flight later on today.
Here is a little flight summary for you guys:
The flight from Stevens to Merrill lasted for 5 minutes. The flight from Merrill to Finger Lake 39 minutes and the return flight to Merrill 38 minutes. Giving us a total flight time of 1 hour and 22 minutes.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this flight report. Don't be shy and show us your flight reports as well. And hey! They are not limited to Airalaska pilots. Every pilot within TCA and its departments can post flight reports or stories. I think that is one of the reason why we have this great forum.
