Leg 11 PABN Devils Mountain Lodge - PAGK Gulkana Airport
Dec 8th, 2019
Previous report | Next report
After a few days of watching Dall Sheep skulls and mountains, I wanted to get on with the trek. As there were only jobs for flights east into Canada, I decided to make a short hop over the mountains, into Gulkana Airport.
Looking back at the valley
This may seem steep, but after turning around and taking a run-up, I managed to crest the pass at ~8,000 feet.
For the longest part of the flight, I would be staring at the 16,000 feet high peak of Mount Sanford in the distance.
I had to fly around a little cloud upon arrival the sixth highest mountain in the United States, but then I could land on its side, at ~11,500 feet.
Beyond the mountain, the weather seemed worse than I had expected based on the METAR.
Now in real life, I would divert to the more northerly CZ0 field.
But here I pressed on.
And the weather got increasingly worse. I flew over the airport in thick overcast at 4,000 feet, not daring to descend. Then when I was a few miles out, having finally chosen a divert airport, the skies suddenly cleared.
I swear I didn’t do this. I had X-Plane set to real-world weather the whole time.
After landing, I taxied through the snow to the parking area, to show those tiny wheeled tricycle Cessna’s how a real Bush pilot operates, and then this happened when I tried to park…
