Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2016 17:31:30 GMT -5
Well, headed south now. The first leg was last night going from Homer to Valdez in the 737-700BCF. That flight was short and while a bit of a nail biter at the end with the extremely steep descent to avoid having to circle, it ended well.
This morning we were off again, this time to Yakutat from Valdez. This one would be a bit more "interesting" getting out of Valdez. We could take off into the 7 kt wind and then do a relatively steep turn (for a loaded 737) to head back out to sea, or just go with the tail wind. We were heavy so that had me worried on the 6500 ft runway. Still, the 737 is a pretty capable machine so I opted to go downwind for the straight out departure. Turned out to be a piece of cake as we were in the air and cleaned up in plenty of time. Working our way down the valley then out over to the JOH VOR, we then headed east, climbing to FL290. This part was uneventful although the mountains showing through the undercast as we neared Yakutat sure made for a pretty scene. Weather wasn't too bad at Yak so we shot the ILS for 29. Taxiing back to the ramp we calculated our next run down to Juneau, although apparently there was some delay at Yak for some reason, so I wasn't sure how fast we'd be out of there. Good flight in all, and the next leg was to be my Pete's, my co-joe.
Loaded and ready to close the doors at Valdez
Taxiing out for RWY 24
All ready. 7 kt tailwind. This should be interesting
No sweat. We could see the mountains through the clouds on climb out. Looks a lot like winter!
A bit of cirrus covering the sun slightly as we neared JOH
Nearing YAK we could see the mountains pushing up through the cloud deck
On final for 11 at PAYA
Down and parked.
This morning we were off again, this time to Yakutat from Valdez. This one would be a bit more "interesting" getting out of Valdez. We could take off into the 7 kt wind and then do a relatively steep turn (for a loaded 737) to head back out to sea, or just go with the tail wind. We were heavy so that had me worried on the 6500 ft runway. Still, the 737 is a pretty capable machine so I opted to go downwind for the straight out departure. Turned out to be a piece of cake as we were in the air and cleaned up in plenty of time. Working our way down the valley then out over to the JOH VOR, we then headed east, climbing to FL290. This part was uneventful although the mountains showing through the undercast as we neared Yakutat sure made for a pretty scene. Weather wasn't too bad at Yak so we shot the ILS for 29. Taxiing back to the ramp we calculated our next run down to Juneau, although apparently there was some delay at Yak for some reason, so I wasn't sure how fast we'd be out of there. Good flight in all, and the next leg was to be my Pete's, my co-joe.
Loaded and ready to close the doors at Valdez
Taxiing out for RWY 24
All ready. 7 kt tailwind. This should be interesting
No sweat. We could see the mountains through the clouds on climb out. Looks a lot like winter!
A bit of cirrus covering the sun slightly as we neared JOH
Nearing YAK we could see the mountains pushing up through the cloud deck
On final for 11 at PAYA
Down and parked.
. Taking off from CYVR today for KBGR, then on to either London or Trondheim for Christmas. Stay tuned Scott