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[OM] Up up and away

Subject: [OM] Up up and away
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2018 15:04:30 -0800
I finally got in the air today. We went flying in what would appear to
be a beater of Cessna 172. As is pretty typical around here, while the
paint is beat up, the engine and structure is sound. It was one of the
better running and flying 172s that I've been in. I figured that as
long as the wing didn't fall off during preflight that it would be OK.
;)  The engine was smooth.

My previous comments about Merrill Field are reinforced and confirmed
a few times over. That place is certainly not for the faint of heart.
Rule of thumb is to do your run-up either at the tie-down or while
waiting in line on the taxiway. By the time you are anywhere near the
runway you need to be ready to boogie. There is the "normal" way of
doing things and then there is the "Alaskan" way of doing things.

Speaking of...

What I didn't know is that Merrill and Lake Hood are Class D airspaces
with special exemption for non-radio equipped aircraft. The airspace
segments are rather funny because the concept of layer-cake is kinda
true except for this "tunnel" coming in to the airport. So you
effectively have Class B/C/D/E intermingled with restricted airspaces
caused by the military base and the mountains. And right now, with one
runway at Stevens under repair, all the heavy departures are over the
city, so that puts an additional crimp on things because of wake
turbulence descending into the student pilot practice area.  So, there
are airplanes in the pattern that are controlled by the lights. It
explains the wing-wags.

We flew up the Eagle River Valley. Went over the house. At 2000 MSL,
the valley definitely feels tight. We turned around in the second to
last wide-spot. Light wind, so there was no turbulence in the
mountains today, but had we gotten a downdraft, that narrow valley
gets VERY tight in a hurry so we flew conservatively to make sure we
didn't get ourselves caught in the box canyon. We kept a minimum of
500' below our wings, but that does mean that you are not far from the
dirt off the right wingtip. A tight left-hand 180 would put us right
over the river and safety.

I took a bunch of pictures with the E-3. Obviously through the
plexiglass, but who cares. I'm not looking for photographic
perfection. I was enjoying the views and the smell of 100LL.

AK Schnozz
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