Earl writes……from Whitehorse, YT to home….

It was lonely when David left for Watson Lake Friday.  But I knew he had to get back to work, and it wasn’t clear when Justin the A&P could get to 88W to check out the magneto. 

David camped Friday night at Watson Lake.  The news on the magneto—mine is toast….it physically separated—the screws backed out and it came apart in flight.  We will have one in Tuesday, July 15^th.  So, I catch up on sleep and rest.

Dave and Judy are in Whitehorse.  They never made it to Fairbanks.  After we parted a week and a half ago, the weather really closed in on them.  So they parked at Whitehorse and toured to Juneau, Glacier Bay and Skagway—and had a good time of it.  They left Saturday morning to fly back down the Alaska Highway.

But, two more very interesting pilots enter our log.  They land in a 1948 Stinson Voyageur.  Terry Richardson, Director of Flight Operations for the state of Tennessee and Jack DaFraytas, his longtime friend.  Jack had been a Marine tactical fighter.  Terry had been a Navy Recon pilot.  They had known each other way back when.  Terry’s first assignment out of Naval flying training was a two year stint flying C-130s in Antarctica.  From there he went on to fly P-3s for Naval Recon.  Now he flies 7 or 8 different aircraft for the state of Tennessee. Two really neat guys!

 The mag came  in Tuesday morning.  Terry, another very seasoned northern pilot and A&P at RODAN, installs, times and really does a great job on the mag.  I took 9188W out and did 3 touch and gos.  Everything was more than in the green.  I pay my bill, a little gratuity included, get a weather briefing, file my flight plan to Watson Lake, and I’m out of Whitehorse about 4 pm.

Weather was o.k. to Watson Lake.  I refueled and filed for Fort Nelson.  Weather wasn’t so good on this leg.  I had to divert around some rather spectacular thunderstorms.  Big cells.  Cloud to ground lightening. (Got some video footage of the lightening strikes.)  By the time I got to Fort Nelson, everything was closed down.  However, I had filled 3 five gallon cans with 100LL in Prudhoe Bay, so I dumped it in and took off.  Airborne, I filed with Edmonton radio for Grande Prairie, AB.  But when I got to Fort St. John, it was getting dark, I was getting tired—I’d been in the air for 5 1/2  hours—so I revised my flight plan to stop in Dawson Creek.  On the ground at 11:10 pm.  Set up my tent by the plane.  And then stood in awe and watched a beautiful display of the northern lights—a fantastic Corona bursting directly overhead—white/green curtains shimmering out over 2/3 of the sky.

Wednesday, it was off to Grande Prairie,  Whitecourt, Rocky Mountain House, and Springback/Calgary.  I called U.S. Customs at Cutbank, MT and gave them a 2 hour lead time notice that I would be there.  After clearing Customs in Cutbank, I called it quits for the day.  Bret Bledsoe was batching it and invited me to spend the night.  I was bad company that night….totally tired for some reason.  Next morning we had a meatless Egg McMuffin and called it breakfast.

I filed to Lewiston, ID—direct via Kalispell and Missoula.  Refueled and spent an hour or so talking with friends Jay and Kay Barnett.  As I taxied out to the active, the air traffic controller came on and asked a favor.  She said there had been 2 or 3 pilot reports of an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) about 136 degrees out of Lewiston.  I was filed for a direct to Caldwell Industrial Airport which was outbound at about 160 degrees from LWS.  She asked me to monitor 121.5 and see if I could find anything.  The reports were about 3 or 4 hours old at the time.  I complied.  I was about 20 miles out when I began to pick up the signal.  One of my nav/coms is weaker than the other, so I switched to it.  I also knew that the antenna was more sensitive to direction than the “main” radio I use.  So, being an  old ham radio operator, I did a little transmitter hunting.  When I first picked up the signal of the ELT, I did 2 360 degree turns to attempt to determine the strength of the signal from whatever direction.  It seemed to be strongest on my route of flight.  About 10 miles further on, it was unbearably strong.  I did 3 360 degree turns east to west and sure enough, there was a small plane on the ground at a grass strip.  I took the coordinates from my Loran C and called Flight Watch and told them of the plane. (I also flew on south and when the signal could be squelched out, I did a couple 360s and determined the signal was from the north….not east or west.) I was 90% convinced that this was the culprit and not a crashed plane.  The pilot probably landed hard and set off his ELT—and not being able to hear it, didn’t know.

It was sure great to taxi off the active at EUL and see Carol waving to me from the Café!

Dave and Judy's 180 (N9370C) in the foreground and Earl's 235 (N9188W) in the background at Whitehorse, Yukon.

This is the sternwheeler "Klondike" at Whitehorse.

Terry Richardson (left) and Jack DaFraytas (right) and the 1948 Stinson Voyager.