From McCarthy, there are basically three ways to get to Seldovia, the sleepy fishing village near Homer at the bottom end of the Kenai Peninsula. 1. If it’s clear and you have a capable plane, just fly high over the mountains and go straight from A to B. But the mountains are big and it is cloudy a lot. A lot. Pretty much all the time.
So two, you can head down into the Chitna River valley and follow that downstream to the confluence with the massive Copper River, and follow the Copper upriver to Gulkana. From Gulkana, you can follow the highway to the Anchorage area, then south over the flatlands of the Kenai Peninsula to Seldovia.
Or three, the scenic route – and of course this is what we did. Graeme said the flight over glaciers into McCarthy was the absolute best flight of his life. This was number two.
We flew down the Chitna River into the Copper River Valley. It is fun and very Alaskan to fly low in the valleys, with barely a glance or a worry as to the clouds and peaks above you. We did need to sneak over a low pass (about 3,000 feet) near the well-known Thompson Pass. But once over the pass we could glide into Valdez and land for fuel.
After Valdez, it was a stunning tour over Prince William Sound. It just doesn’t get any prettier, with the famously calm waters and the juxtaposition of bright green trees, cobalt waters and bright white glaciers. We drew arcs and circles in the sky as we flew over Columbia Glacier and explored some of the fjords, before squeezing through Portage Pass into Turnagain Arm.
There are webcams in many of the passes in Alaska, and there are a couple in Portage Pass. I remember a few years ago using the webcams to determine that the low ceiling was in fact high enough to let me fly through the pass. I flew into Anchorage and picked up my son and his girlfriend, then set off and flew through Portage Pass. I didn’t realize it, but it scared my son. It looked for all the world like Portage Pass was a dead end, clogged with clouds. It is kind of a dead end, especially the way I flew it. Even though the pass a hard left at the “dead end”, I flew to the right toward the Portage Glacier then an arcing 180 degree turn left. That way if the pass is plugged I’m already set to just keep going back the way I came. If there is a clear hole in the pass, then I’m ready to take it. To a passenger apparently it looks like I’m randomly searching for a way through the rocks and ice that clearly doesn’t exist.
Once through Portage Pass and into Turngain Arm, it’s pretty easy to fly straight ahead to get past the Chugach Mountains on the left, then turn right and fly low over the trees to Homer, then a short 5 minute flight to Seldovia.
We ran into rain and low visibility so we landed at Soldotna to let it pass, then took off again. I thoroughly enjoyed the landing at Seldovia with its 1,800 foot gravel runway. The last time I was here was with my loaded 210, along with a little “landing anxiety”. Now with my 182 it really isn’t an issue.
West Coast Flying Adventures 