Flying to Russia. . .

Geoffrey Barnes wrote:

Fine, but you also have to get out to the tip of the Aleutians to begin
with.


From the last island in the Aleutian chain to the Russian mainland is
well over 400 miles. And that island only has a military base on it and
they won't let civilian aircraft land there anyway. From the closest
civilian runway in the Aleutian chain to mainland Russia is over 1000
miles. Even if I had the range and wasn't worried about a water
landing, I wouldn't cross there because of the very bad and rapidly
changing weather.

What I am talking about is starting from Wales, which is about 100 miles
NNW or Nome. That water crossing never puts you more than 15 miles
from land. However, from what I have read about Little Diomede Island,
if you have to make a forced landing there, you are almost certain to
destroy the plane. While the weather there is just as bad, you need
less than an one hour window to make it from Wales Alaska, to a runway
in Russia. In the plane I want to do it in, you only need about 25 minute.

If you fly at 12,000 feet or higher . . .


Of course, at that altitude you have other things to worry about, too.


Other than needing O2 what? I would only do it under good VFR
conditions in the summer time. There is still be the possibility of
icing, but is that going to become a big enough problem in a 30 minute
flight that it will force you down?

--
Chris W

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Chris W wrote:

What I am talking about is starting from Wales, which is about
100 miles NNW or Nome. That water crossing never puts you more
than 15 miles from land. However, from what I have read about
Little Diomede Island, if you have to make a forced landing
there, you are almost certain to destroy the plane. While the
weather there is just as bad, you need less than an one hour
window to make it from Wales Alaska, to a runway in Russia. In
the plane I want to do it in, you only need about 25 minute.

Think about how you are going to get to Wales in the first place
though, because quite frankly there isn't really much special
about flying from Wales to Siberia other than the administrative
hassle. You're going to experience a lot more "risk", as far as
terrain goes, getting to Nome than you will from Nome north and
then west. Going north from Nome you can follow the road to
Teller, and then you fly right over Brevig Mission on the way to
Tin City and over to Wales. There's only a 45 mile or so stretch
there with no place to land.

But to get to Nome you'll have to go to Kaltag and from there
to either Unalakleet or Shaktoolik, both over 60 miles.

And the only way to get there is probably flying down the
Yukon River... for example between Tanana and Ruby.

Another thing you'll need to plan very carefully is where you
can and cannot buy av gas. For example, I'm sure you can buy it
in Nome, Unalakleet and Galena, maybe in Ruby, but I doubt
you'll find any at Shaktoolik, Teller, Brevig Mission or Wales.
Hard to say about Tanana or Kaltag.

One thing you need to know as far as gas goes too, do *not*
look it up in some reference guide and then depend on what
it said. Get somebody on the phone in each place and verify
they have gasoline and will sell it to you on the day and at
the time you need it.

--
FloydL. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

Floyd L. Davidson wrote:

Think about how you are going to get to Wales in the first place
though, because quite frankly there isn't really much special
about flying from Wales to Siberia other than the administrative
hassle. You're going to experience a lot more "risk", as far as
terrain goes, getting to Nome than you will from Nome north and
then west.

That was really the point of my first post. The trip from Nome to
Russia, via Wales is really pretty low risk in comparison.


Another thing you'll need to plan very carefully is where you
can and cannot buy av gas.

Since my plan is to fly this trip with a jet fuel burning Deltahawk
diesel engine pulling an RV-7, I won't have to worry about av gas and
with a 700+ NM range I could go straight from Anchorage, but that would
require a lot longer water crossing that I would want to attempt when
there is no need to. From everything I have read burning jet fuel will
make a trip through Siberia much more practical. I don't want to just
fly there, turn around and come back, I hope to spend at least 2 weeks
all over Siberia.




--
Chris W

Bring Back the HP 15C
http://hp15c.org

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