Back in the air - IFR to Homer

Day 12: Seward to Anchorage to Homer

It rained all night. By morning we discovered a bit of a leak in the tent rain fly, and the and foot box of sleeping bags a bit wet - luckily the down inside still dry.. need to fix that fly. The plan was to get rid of the rental car and resume travel in the airplane... the weather was supposed to clear out today. Supposed to!

We quickly tore down camp, ate breakfast in the nice large rain shelter, and hit the the road to try to return rental car at the main Anchorage (Ted Stevens International) airport by noon. I'd rented the car there despite leaving the airplane parked at Merrill field to save money ($40/day rental vs. $150...). A slight logistical pain, but now I had an excuse to fly from Merrill into Lake Hood (or Anchorage International), so I didn't mind. We got back to Merrill field around 1130, where I loaded the airplane as my wife drove the rental car back.

It was apparent the weather wasn't clearing out as quickly as forecast - it was supposed to be nice by now. Instead a cold front form a weakening low was slowly meandering north, now just past Homer. Anchorage had a ceiling around 900' broken with overcast just above. The weather was clearing from the south with our destination, Homer, reporting 2000' overcast. Another excellent briefing from the Kenai FSS suggested that even low-level VFR wouldn't work out as an area between Kenai and Homer tended to have very low ceilings in this circumstance. This leg, however, was one of the few where I could fly IFR without worrying about icing due to the lower terrain and minimum altitudes along the route.

The next step was getting from Merrill to Anchorage International. Geeky as it is, I thought it would be fun to land at Lake Hood strip, and then depart from Anchorage International. The two are joined by a taxiway that crosses a road.

At Merrill, I requested a special VFR clearance to get over to Lake Hood Strip. Many other operators were also requesting SVFR to get out of town. It was a good 10-minute delay waiting for IFR arrivals before the tower could launch departures, and the ensuing antics were amusing... a Cessna 180 requested SVFR just after me, and soon he asked that he'd be a flight of two with his buddy if that would speed things up. A couple of minutes later, another pilot called in and asked if they could be a flight of three... some impromptu formation flying briefings were happening, I'm sure. The controllers, however, did not mind and I'm assuming they all went on their merry way. Welcome to flying in Alaska!

The flight to Lake Hood was perhaps the shortest I've ever done. Its all of 4 miles. Takeoff, "cruise" at 800' for all of 30 seconds, with a little turn to give a tall building and radio antenna some room, and then you're on base to the Lake Hood Strip, swooping in low over Lake Hood before turning a nice, tight, half-mile final.

The controllers gave me helpful directions to taxi across several roads -- some with pilot-operated gates (click the mic on a certain frequency to open them), and then across something of a railroad crossing triggered by taxiing your airplane close to the road, with the arms that go down and everything. Again, very geeky to be excited about that, but I'll bet you would be too when you saw it for the first time. I taxied over to a GA parking area that I'd previously scoped out on the international airport side, reachable for a pedestrian - maybe 200 yards from the car rental area, which worked out well for our purposes. By the time all that was done, I'd "flown" 0.4 loggable hours for a 2-and-a-half minute flight.

After picking up my wife, and IFR clearance, we went through another taxi-gate to the "big" ramp with B747 freighters parked left and right, presumably exchanging their goods, or just stopping for fuel between their exotic ports of call in Asia and elsewhere in North America.

Lets review that depature one last time!

The flight to Homer was straightforward if lacking a nice view - we climbed into the clouds at 1,000', getting a bit of a break between layers once but otherwise just plain gray, sometimes rainy sky, though it was pleasantly smooth, cruising at 6,000'.

Sometime after passing Kenai, another aircraft from Anchorage passed me by somewhere in the gray ether, a Piper Navajo I think. A Mooney passed by a Navajo: sad, right? Well I was flying slow to save gas! ATC asked me to slow to minimum speed. I'd soon figure out why: Their radar coverage went down to 5,000' or so by Homer, so it was one airplane at a time on the approach. I slowed down to maybe a hundred knots, loafing along thinking I'd get my approach clearance soon enough. Then, 20 miles from Homer a "lifeguard" (air ambulance) flight checked on, also going to Homer.... there was no question there -- they have priority over me. Just as I thought I might have to hold, I was given holding instructions.

"Mooney five one mike, hold as published at the Homer VOR, expect further clearance at 2150, time now 2130".

Here I am, instrument rated for 11 years, practicing holds every 6 months as a currency requirement, and I get my first real hold, ever. I wasn't going to complain, I would have had to practice a hold next month to keep my currency once again anyway. After this excitement quickly wore off I realized there was no hold published at the Homer VOR, at least on any of the charts I had. Some back and forth with the controller produced a bizarrely-worded clearance that would make me actually think about the proper hold entry (parallel, thanks for asking).

As I finished the entry, the lifeguard flight landed and I was given approach clearance -- a DME arc to a localizer back-course. The winds were slack, but this was a few less miles to fly than the front course. More good practice, right? I flew a decent enough approach and broke out at 2,000' or so.

Back on the ground, we walked to downtown Homer, about 2.5 miles. At first I have to admit based on that walk of shoulder-less road, wondering if this town was worth the stop. Those feelings were quickly admonished when we came across an Eagles' nest near the center of town. A pair of Bald Eagles had raised two offspring there over the spring and they were the stars of town, as you couldn't miss them. A couple of friendly passerby's gave us the story: The two babies were now adolescents, nearly grown. One had flown by itself already and was off somewhere else. Both parents were sitting in a tree a hundred yards or so from the nest waiting for the other baby to fly. It would take a few test hops - getting maybe a foot or so off of a branch next to the nest, but wouldn't yet commit to flight. Apparently this had been the scene for some days, and people were wondering if the remaining Eagle would take flight, or eventually be abandoned as the parents moved on. A nearby marine life visitor center was another interesting diversion.

Adolescent Bald Eagle, Homer

Turning to lodging, we had a recommendation for an outfit that rented cabins but didn't receive a call-back. Homer, however, is full of B&Bs and a few minutes of walking and looking later we had a wonderful place not far from the ocean, perched over an art gallery.. my wife was pleased! The gallery and three-room B&B were owned by a very talented local artist, who from the appearance of things was also a successful entrepreneur. A rare(?) combination.

Homer seaplane lake

An Australian couple, retired, traveling with their mid 20s daughter occupied in room next door. They know how to travel and are enjoying retirement: Airline Melbourne to Seattle, the marine highway into Alaska, to King Salmon (according to them, a dissapointment), Homer, a week exploring the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage, then across Canada and eventually home after visiting New York & the U.S. east coast in a month.

Fire Hydrant art, Homer

We took a walking tour of Homer and settled on a nice local pub for a most excellent burger & a brew for dinner. Between the local characters and art scene it was easy to see how Jewel got her start here.It was apparent between accomodation and dining that we had just missed the tourist wave.. life was quiet here, and presumably would be much more so once winter started to set in.

After dinner, a brief foray to the beach, where locals drive their trucks down to enjoy evening bonfires. Still plenty of light at 10pm, and the weather had finally cleared to the south and west allowing for a nice sunset, and interesting view of the volcanoes of Augustine Island and Mt. Iliamna poking up above the horizon on the opposite side of the Cook Inlet. The tide goes up and down over 30 feet here at its extreme. Amazing.

Tomorrow, Seldovia.