Northwoods Air Service PAEN C207 Shake Down Flight

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Flew our Piper Aztec over to our Kenai office to spend a few days getting it up and running and to do a quick shake down flight with the C207 Bush we picked up.

Weather was pretty crappy so didn't plan on going far. Just run up the coast towards PANC and come back. Visibility was low with low clouds so we were hugging the ground the whole way.











Taking off from Kenai Munciple where our little office is over here with a brisk 10 Kts crosswind. Probably could have picked a better day for this from the looks of the skies.











Heading out North towards PANC just for a short bit then gonna turn back and run down the coast back home. Short flight like I said.

C207 is a sweet ride, I really love this plane. Glad we were able to pick one up.











Really nice change of pace flying over here. Kind of nice not having mountains to run into







Turning back towards the coast now to make our way back to PAEN.







Heading out over the coast now, seeing the oil rigs out there doing their thing.











Nice view off to the west there. This plane is a joy to fly even with the crappy conditions. Some good power to cut through the winds.











Almost back home now turning on final for PAEN, now with a nice 19 kts crosswind. Gonna be crab on the menu for lunch it seems :/







Ahhh ya!







Got her down safe, really nice plane. Look forward to making my way over here often to fly.







Parked and tied down. Nice short flight.

[Deleted]

" Kind of nice not having mountains to run into"

Man, couldn't have said it better myself!!!! GREAT PIREP Todd! Thanks for this.

I'm still trying to "settle" on a location. My problem is I'm too much of a "Canuck" (spelled "H-O-S-E-R" for you Bob ) and want to fly in Canada. But there are very few really well done airports in Canada, particularly outside of mountainous regions. I HATE mountains (at least for flying in FSX) so I either go to Alaska for bush flying or eastern Canada (where there aren't very many really good airports) if I want out of the mountains. I've done a couple of flights now out of Prince Rupert and both have ended badly (this is mostly because of the way ASN handles clouds, not so much the flight itself). So I'm still on the hunt. Homer was one of the nicest locales for any ops I've had to date. It's possible I'll head back up that way, but we'll see.

Great stuff Todd. Thanks again (oh and you got me interested in the 207 again - thanks a bunch )

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Hey Glenn thanks!
Ya I will say i do love mountains but I also like to fly in areas like this that are flat and that actually freeze in the winter. So Homer up through Kenai is a really good spot that I wanted to make sure I put a base. Plus its close enough to run flights down to Kodiak from Homer. Really like the terrain in that area.

I totally understand about you wanting to fly in Canada. You are a Canadian afterall. Have you thought about the area that SAK covers around and south of Whitehorse? I its YT but isnt that technically Canada? Might be an option. I have taken quite a few flights from Whitehorse to Watson Lake and its a pretty nice tundra kind of area.

Oh and on the 207, man I love that plane after watching the Flying Wild Alaska show.  I know probably not that realistic of a show but they flew the heck out of the 207 and that thing is a work horse.  Of course I have a 185 up there too for off airport stuff but I do love that 207.

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That's definitely Canada alright, and it's pretty nice. There is a real scarcity of airports and not even a whole lot of water for seaplane flying there though. Virtually no airports have ILS' so I'd be restricted to NDB approaches, although probably there are now some GPS approaches available. Still though, the airport scenery is dumbed down a fair bit compared with most of the Alaskan strips. The other thing too, which really pisses me off, is Canada is one of the few countries that don't put their approach charts online. So if you want to fly IFR here, you need to buy the charts, which I can do as we have a supplier right across from where I work, but it's expensive. Anyway, I'm still thinking on it so we'll see but that whole Kenai peninsula is pretty nice and I have both Homer and Kenai payware airports (another reason to go there). I may have to re-initiate my dual citizenship .

[Deleted]

Hah awesome. Well I dont think you can go wrong in that area. I really hope ORBX has plans to do some of Western Alaska that includes like the Bethel area and further west but I have no idea if they do.

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I do too, but I think it's a long way down the road. Germany is the next fat region I think. We'll see.

[Bushpounder]

OK!!!

BP;)

[Bushpounder]

Hoser, eh???

[Deleted]

Great. Another one...  .

[scottb]

Nice PIREP Todd! The Kenai peninsula area is a favorite of mine too. I just bought the ORBX Kenai but I haven't been there yet. I need to check it out . The 207 is one of my favorites, Alabeo did a pretty nice job on this one.

-Scott

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It really is a nice place to fly. I agree!