Winter Rivers Tour

[SuberAvid 617]

I know I should be working on taxes but you just don't get weekends like this one very often.  I have been wanting to do this circuit for a long time but have not found the time, conditions, fuel, or something, so have never done the entire loop.  The trip started at Wolf lake, up the Matenuska River, up Ccaribou Creek, through the pass, west to the Little Nelchina, across to Tyone Creek, down Tyone creek to the confluence of the McClaren River and the Big Susitna River, down the Big Su past the Black river, west from the Big Su to Big Lake in the Talkeetnas, south back to the Big Su, down the Big Su and then east to Fog Lakes, south to Stephan Lake, out that drainage to the Talkeetna River, down the Talkeetna river to the Sheep River, east across the Sheep River and continuing east along theTalkeetna Mts and across all of the Montana, Kashwitna, Willow, Deception, Little Su, etc. creeks and rivers to home.

 

Ended up with 5 hours on the Hobbs and had just a great time looking at the moose and caribou (could not find a wolf though).  Fortunately with skis on, every lake is a potential break area.  I want to do the loop in the summer too but will have to plan out where I can land because it seems my bladder likes to take a break about every hour.

 

I got a chance to test out some buckshot loads with 18" cyl. bore and 28" full choke to see if there was a difference at 50 to 60 yards for airial gunning.  (It seems the long barrel/full choke has a slight advantage.) 

 

Picture as I came over the pass from Caribou Creek had me worried everything was going to be fog covered and at the first lake I am sitting right on the edge of the fog bank but from there west it was clear.  The second lake (with deeper snow) is out near the end of Tyone Creek.  I tested out my InReachSE by sending Leni a message from there.  The third lake is big Lake, (out of sequence last picture) up on a bench in the Talkeetnas with almost no vegetation (above tree line).  It was pretty windy there and the lake looked pretty rough so I didn't land.  The next pictures on the ground are at Fog Lakes (still was hard and wind blown).  This is where the guy I am wolf hunting with had an adopted old squatter cabin that the State decided they had to get rid of so they burned it.  It is a real shame since these cabins are usually left unlocked and with some minimal supplies for anyone who gets stranded to use.  We still can use the one up on Big Lake but as mentioned, it is a lot more exposed location and a further point to base out of. 

 

The flight was just awsome as I said before, the hardest landing was back at Wolf Lake on the glare ice.  A guy in a PA12 came in in front of me (unusual because I am about the only one who uses the lake for flying off of straight skis) but he had built a similar trailer as mine to winch his plane up onto the trailer for transporting to his hangar.  Another cool thing is he had the ice brakes on his skis that Leni was telling me about which are a lever arm with sno machine studs on the end which deploy through a little hole in the ski bottom.  They worked really well and he was able to stop without the required 180 like I have to do on the ice.  Leaves a nice highly visible set of sctratch tracks in the ice.

 

This was the first flight I made since adding VG's to the underside tips of my wings at mid chord.  I can't say I could tell any difference in the flight characteristics or cruise performance.  The only thing I seemed to notice was that it seemed to give a more pronounced buffet at the point of stall when I was doing a hard slip.  I may be just my perception though.  Plan to add them to the underside of my wings next.

Edited 3 Mar 2014 by SuberAvid

[RDavidson 183]

Great pics!

[dynomike 91]

awesome pictures.the skis really open up some runways

[horsepower 24]

Super pics and fun flying.Randy

[ChrisBolkan 130]

Wow!

[Bandit 286]

I like it! Isn't ski flying great!

[akflyer 1427]

Looks like an awesome day! Great pics mr!

[marshawk 82]

Very cool,it's awesome to be able to go for a 5 hr flight without having to pack fuel

[SuberAvid 617]

It is nice to have the fuel range.  I had about 5 gals left when I landed.

[lostman 198]

That's awesome! One of these years I will get up that way to do some flying. Not sure I'll make it in the Avid but sure want to! Those pictures are great. The flying I did last weekend over the snow covered Rockies sure made me wish I had some skis so I could check out a few places while I was overflying. I just don't see conditions for them most of the time so I'm not sure they would be worth it where I typically am flying.

 

Randy out of curiosity, did you fly the plane without the muffler or have you always had it on there? The Stratus engine I'm running isn't too terribly loud but I think it could be baffled down a little more. It's just running the Stratus baffle under the engine. It sure is a strange sounding Soob!

[jjbaker 73]

Awesome writeup and tons of cool pictures!

[EDMO 1078]

Kenneth,

       donno what John had on his exhaust - the stainless Stratus muffler system is supposed to add 10 hp??  $400 last time I looked.

EDMO

[SuberAvid 617]

I've always run it with the muffler; it is an FMF muffler with aluminum body and had the stacked plates that can be added and deleted to adjust backpressure.  I ran it with the plates for a while and built a deflector shroud to keep the exhaust off of the under side of the plane but was still getting some exhaust smell on occasion so I pulled all the plates and made a plate with a 1 3/4" down pipe and bolted it on.  I couldn't tell any difference in the noise level and it ran the same.  I don't know how it compares to the Status pipes and muffler though since Jack doesn't have his flying yet (hint, hint).

 

I had a  Pilot ANR headset I bought when I first got my Avid MKIV after flying it about twice and enjoying ringing ears for the next 12 hours.  They worked well for a lot of years but the rechargeable batter finally gave out on them and I ended up getting a transformer adapter from Radio Shack and plugging them into my auxiliary power port in the plane to run on plane power.  Still worked well.  Back in Jan this year I ran across a local guy selling a Bose A20 headset for a deal I couldn't refuse.  I had never been able to hear the wind noise in my Avid+ until now.  Best muffler ever.

 

 

Love seeing those pictures over the Rockies.  I didn't fly when I was living in Utah so only got to see those from commercial airline altitudes.  Would love to fly that area and Idaho sometime, it is beautiful country!  It would be soo cool to do an AFF flyin down there on a Idaho/Utah tour and up her on an AK tour.  Guess that will happen when we are all retired like Ed and rich like???

Edited 13 Mar 2014 by SuberAvid

[Av8r3400 1179]

...Leni.

[akflyer 1427]

Ha! Not hardly!

[EDMO 1078]

On my money, you would be lucky to tour the airport!!!!

EDMO

[lostman 198]

I have the semi-retired part down (at least right now since the wife is working and I'm not), but the money part is another issue. I'm selling my motorcycle and other plane to help pay for some of the Pursang. That's the only way we could do anything with it.

 

I also am working on a deal so that I am able to hangar the airplane instead of tying it down outside. Back to flight instructing for the local airport to pay for hangar space. I wouldn't mind keeping the plane outside, but it leaks like crazy when it rains. I found that out in Utah when we had one of the hardest rains I've ever seen on the desert. It was coming up sideways with 60 MPH winds, it drove it all over and inside the plane. It's still drying out I think! It soaked the wood (pressboard type) that John used for the floors and they are all sorts of warped and ruined now. I have to replace them with ply now. I'm thinking Luan with one layer of fiberglass over them to help keep that from happening again.

[wypaul 448]

Well don't order a 1/2 sheet of plywood from Spruce or anywhere for that matter that it has to be shipped.  Made that mistake with ACS and about died when I got the bill, to their credit they did make it right even though a good deal of the blame rested on my shoulders.  Seem to recall the freight was about $175.00...  I know you said Luan which you can probably get locally.  They do make a nice dense plywood for underlayment  for new floors but I don't think it comes in anything less than 1/4".