Well, time is passing quickly.  Just one week from today, I will be leaving southern California and flying to Redding to pick up Jim.  The next day we'll head over to Boise and spend Saturday with Earl and Carol.

Something I don't believe I've mentioned is that Earl and Carol are my in-laws.  Debbie, my wife, and her brother and sister spent much of their childhood in Anchorage.  All of them are going to be in Anchorage over the 4th of July for a family reunion.  I believe Debbie said it was something like 17 years since their entire family has been together in Anchorage.   Should be good fun.

Debbie's brother, Thad, and his wife, Kim, will be in Anchorage early.  Kim is running the Anchorage Marathon...makes me tired thinking about it.

Okay, update on paperwork:

Visas and Invitations:  Tandy and Ken Wallack at Circumpolar Expeditions had our visa invitations in about two days.  (Sure wish I knew about them from the beginning.  I spent two months working on this and made zero progress.  If you are planning a trip to Russia, definitely keep them in mind.)  They have our passports and, as of this morning, are expecting them back next week.  The only other outstanding item is our invitation from the governor of the Chukotka province.  This is different invitation than the one needed for our visa.  We have learned that some people call this a "Border Permit" and some an "Invitation".  Whatever it is, Tandy and Ken are working on it. 

Flight Number: We faxed our requests to Moscow for our assigned flight numbers.  According to the FAA website (see "Obtaining Flight Permission") you must make this request at least 5 days before your flight, but no more than 30 days.  Earl still hasn't received anything back.  After faxing mine, I received a fax a couple days later.  It was more like a telex and simple stated, "Be advised, VFR flight is possible with an escort navigator only.  We await your decision."  That threw us for a loop as we didn't know about this requirement.  So, I gave Moscow a call and got Mr. Velikotsky on the phone.  He is a very friendly person and spoke English well.  He explained that the Russian air traffic controllers didn't speak English very well, so every plane flying the route has to have a Russian navigator on board.  Of course, we would have to pay for that person's round trip, first class airfare, a daily salary, expense account and accommodations.

I called Brian Staurseth and Charlene Derry at the International Division of Alaska FAA to see if this was they understood and just forgot to put something on their website about it.  They confirmed it is not a requirement and contacted their counterparts in Moscow.  Apparently, someone didn't get the memo and it is being worked out.  We will probably have to re-file, but we should have time. 

If I haven't mentioned it, the folks at the Alaska FAA have been tremendously helpful...can't say enough good things about them. 

TSA Waiver:  Since September 11, we need an assigned number from the U.S. government to fly our aircraft to or from the U.S. (see "Required TSA Waiver").  We faxed a form to their office that included our flight dates and route(s).  I got mine back in about 3 days.  Not sure if Earl got his back yet.  

Packing.  Jim, Earl and I have had a couple conference calls and several emails going over what we are bringing.  The list is getting longer.  Jim and I are determining how much our stuff will weigh.  N28WF will carry 610 pounds with the tanks full.  Jim and I will take up around 475 pounds of that.  That leaves 135 pounds of gear.  We can probably take a little more gear as we won't need full tanks.  We just need to get to Boise, then we'll transfer a lot of Jim's gear over to Earl's plane as it can carry much more than mine.  

We think we've rounded up all the emergency gear requirements for Canada and Alaska.  Earl is preparing each of us a bag with our two-weeks food supply.  He has a vacuum sealer and is preparing single serving portions of a variety of foods.  The vacuum packer is a good idea for a number of reasons--when you are done, your food is wrapped in water proof packages, in single servings and is less bulky than their original containers.  

Earl was stranded on a hunting trip for four days in Alaska.  One of the things he noticed was that if you have a big bag of something, you tend to eat through the whole thing, instead of just taking a serving at a time.  

I should tell you a little more about Jim and Earl.  Interestingly enough, both have been ministers for most of their careers.  They are not, however, what you might consider a typical preacher.  Between the two of them, they hunt, fish, fly planes and helicopters, drink scotch, camp, hike, work on cars, and many more atypical ministerial activities.  In all that, they have pretty neat families and have impacted hundreds of lives, young and old, through the years.   Both are ministers for the United Church of God, an International Association.  On this trip, however, they are on vacation!  Still, the way I figure it, having a couple ministers, who have some very influential friends, on a long trip like this, might not be too bad. 

One other thing about these guys is that they like to tell stories.  As a matter of fact, Earl has written and published a book about his father, Charlie  (see www. westernstories.com).  Charlie was a true cowboy at the end of that era.  He is still alive down in Texas.  

Aircraft:  N9188W, according to Earl, is humming along quite nicely.  N28WF just came out of annual this week.  It was a fairly clean bill of health.  For all you non-pilots, every aircraft in the U.S. has to go through an annual inspection a minimum of once per year.  These are very extensive inspections of every system on the plane.  It is always a nervous time for an owner as she or he awaits the results.  This is a time when you can hear things from your mechanic like, "your engine has to be overhauled", "your wing spars are corroded beyond repair" or other items that can make you take out a small second mortgage on your house.  However, because of these inspections, airplanes that are 40 or 50 years old fly every day.  

I was out at the airport last night giving N28WF a badly needed bath and a polish.  I'm hoping with some wax on the wings, I can pick up a knot or two of airspeed on the trip.  That is probably wishful thinking as once I get into bug country, she'll probably be carrying 50 pounds of dead mosquito carcasses, creating 5 knots of drag!

All-in-all, we are in pretty good shape.

More to come.