AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2018 - 85

"If something was
going to break on
this trip, be glad
that it happened
when and where it
did," said aircraft
salvage expert
Dee Wygant. "I've
got more Husky
parts than just
about anyone
outside Afton,
Wyoming."
the light tailwind changes to a stiff
headwind. Groundspeed falls from
100 knots to 75, and a precautionary
landing for fuel becomes a real possibility. Then a light rain begins to
fall, and so does the ceiling.
The lakes get bigger over this
section of the Trench; whitecaps
and wind streaks indicate it's
blowing more than 20 knots on the
surface, and a direct headwind. I
start thinking through contingencies: I can land at a gravel strip
on an Indian reservation, but I've
been cautioned only to do so in an
emergency, since I'm not likely to
receive a warm welcome.
The Husky is equipped with
31-inch tires that would make it easy
to land on a beach or sandbar. But
if, for some reason, I'm unable to
restart the engine, no one will know
my whereabouts. I can avoid shutting down by keeping the engine
idling and set the parking brake,
but it's easy to imagine things going
wrong in this scenario. I continue
recalculating my fuel reserves and
ponder how stupid it would be to
run out of gas with 10 unused gallons sitting in the baggage area.
Finally, the headwind relents,
the rain eases, and my groundspeed
increases. I land at Mackenzie with

comfortable reserves after four
hours, 20 minutes in the air, but it's
cloudy, spitting rain, and so cold ice
cream doesn't even sound tempting.
The forecast calls for dreary
weather throughout the coming
week, but there's a good chance it
will be better just an hour south
at Prince George. The weather is
technically VFR, but it's raining so
hard when I get near Prince George
that I end up tracking the localizer
needle for the last five miles and
follow the ILS to landing.
From Prince George, the
"lower" Trench follows the mountains to Cranbrook near the U.S.
border. But the clouds are thick
and low in that direction, and the
weather briefer recommends a
more favorable route to the southwest. I head that direction and land
at Kelowna; then I file an eAPIS
customs notification form and
Canadian flight plan, cross the U.S.
border near Omak, Washington,
and land at Spokane International
Airport to clear Customs.
The rest of the trip across the
mountain west brings strong winds,
rain, and turbulence. But the wind
direction becomes favorable, and
the sky clears near Salt Lake City. I
stop at Spanish Fork, Utah, for the

night. First light the next morning I
catch a tailwind and ride it over the
Four Corners, Albuquerque, and all
the way to the airplane's home base
in the Dallas suburbs.
I started the trip wearing wool
socks, a thermal undershirt, and
jacket. In Texas, it's 92 degrees on
the ramp, and it feels like a different
world. In 35 flight hours, ground
speed ranged from 48 to 135 knots,
and cruising altitudes were as low
as 1,000 feet in southwest Alaska
and as high as 13,500 feet over the
Rocky Mountains. There were sublime moments- such as the first
half of the Trench route-and worrisome ones, such as the second
half of the same flight.
At the beginning of the fiveday flight, I regarded it as a
marathon, not a sprint. By the end,
I realized it was really a series of
sprints. Each leg was unique, and
in total, they called upon just about
every piece of aviation knowledge
or skill I'd learned in many years
of flying. They also introduced me
to some colorful and resourceful
characters I never would have met
any other way.
I'd do it again tomorrow. AOPA
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org
www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 85
http://www.aopa.org/pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2018

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