AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2024 - 65

Our route follows the " inside passage, " the scenic
waterway protected by a long series of barrier islands
and favored by mariners in everything from sailboats
to cruise ships.
It seems incongruous to see the Caravan's floats
over high mountain passes where snow remains on
some of the north-facing slopes all year. On this latesummer
day, the often cloud-shrouded Coastal Range
is crystal clear and the Whistler Blackcomb ski area is
plainly visible on our right side.
About one hour from Ketchikan, after three
hours of flying, we cancel IFR, click off the autopilot,
and drop down to 1,000 feet to follow the canals the
rest of the way.
We've not seen any other airplanes for the last
hour, and the radio has been mostly silent.
Southeast Alaska is the place the modern ADS-B
system was first tested and proven, and the Caravan's
Garmin 750 shows the benefits of in-cockpit weather,
traffic, and terrain warnings that so many pilots-
myself included-have come to depend on.
At Ketchikan, the harbor is bustling with cruise
ships, boats, and floatplanes, and the nontowered airport
is a beehive of activity, too.
The Ketchikan Flight Service Station does an
excellent job of keeping track of the airplanes in the
area and providing advisories, yet the procedures feel
slightly foreign. The FSS isn't " controlling " aircraft
with vectors and clearances the way U.S. air traffic
controllers do. Instead, pilots self-announce their
positions while approaching or departing the island
runway and work out their own separation.
We get in line behind an airliner and a Cessna
206 landing south. Once on the ramp, we top off the
Caravan and then keep going.
We follow the channels and waterways to the
northwest at 1,000 feet while dodging a few bald
eagles ( " Alaska pigeons " ) as we wind our way toward
Sitka, the historic island known to the aviation world
for the high-quality spruce wood that was used for
decades to produce relatively strong and light loadbearing
aircraft spars. The route brings us to the
open ocean at the edge of the continental Air Defense
Identification Zone boundary for international
flights. Fishing boats ply the area for salmon that
are about to start their life-capping dashes up steep
rivers and streams to spawn.
Even at 8 p.m., we're two hours from sunset and
continue our whale search. Our route takes us along
the rocky and dramatic coast where black cliffs on
heavily forested, volcanic islands rise almost vertically
from the cold ocean. We're now over Alaska's
unsheltered " outer coast, " but the ocean is calm and
the air a mild 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Flying a seaplane over long stretches of water
sometimes provides a false sense of security. If seas
are rough, the waves can be too tall to touch down
without severely damaging or destroying the floats and
sinking or overturning the aircraft. But under these
conditions, the Pacific resembles a placid lake.
At Sitka, we have our choice of touching down
in the water at the seaplane base or a hard-surface
airport runway, and that's an easy decision. The airport
keeps the metal floats out of corrosive saltwater,
and fueling the airplane is easier and less expensive
on dry land.
The magnificence of the Gulf of Alaska is
jaw-dropping in its scale and contrasts. The
mountains spill glacial runoff into the Pacific Ocean
while their nearby peaks are shrouded in clouds at
more than 18,000 feet. Despite the harsh weather,
a chronic shortage of hangars compels many Alaskan
pilots to leave their airplanes outside year-round as
they do here near the gravel runway at the Lake Hood
Seaplane Base.
Securing the Caravan on the ramp overnight, we
marvel at the otherworldly scenery we've overflown
during this idyllic day and discuss our plan for
tomorrow, which promises to be even better. I turn
on my iPhone to check the forecast, and the first thing
that pops up is the delivery notification for my tardy
package. It had arrived at the FBO less than an hour
after we departed.
AOPA PILOT / February 2024
65
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2024
