Lake Louise Trip

[SuberAvid 617]

Finally getting back to winter again and weather was perfect on Friday so I towed the plane to the other side of the runway and slid it off the trailer onto a rather rough but solid Wolf lake.  I thought I would do some scouting for wolves in Unit 13 so pointed the nose up the Matanuska River and headed out.  The air was pretty smooth and only had me down to about 55 mph at one point but once I got to the Matanuska glacier and turned into Caibou creek canyon the wind eased up pretty quickly. 

 

I flew over the mine and it looked pretty tucked in for the winter, went through the pass and started sliding down the valleys at 100ft AGL throttled back to around 70 mph and leaned to 1425 burning about 2.6 gph; I love it.  Plenty of moose here and there scattered along the creek bottoms.  Landed at the lake where I shot my caribou last year; took a break and shot some pictures; no people, no sounds, just stillness and solitude. 

 

Airborn again I flew west to the Black river and finally found some caribou.  There were a lot of old tracks all over but no animals until out to the Black River.  Flew down it until I decided to turn and fly up the Tyone River to Lake Louise.  Found a few more small groups of caribou along the way.  A huge valley there and some different mountains than I usually see.  The Wrangle's Mt Sanford and Mt Wrangle and Alaska Range mountains from the south side.  Flew up Tyone lake, Susitna lake and landed on Lake Luise to take another needed break and some photographic proof.

 

Time was 4:30 then and the sun was begining to set so I had to beat cletes toward home.  Pointed the nose back at the Talkeetna's and upped cruise to make a little time and get some heat on my hands since it was about 0 and I had been taking pictures out there on the lake with no gloves (I should know better).  Started climbing to get through the pass  The Talkeetna's are so beautiful and rugged, I decided since I was pretty high I would just push it up a little more (about 6500') and fly up the canyon to cross into the Chickaloon River rather than flying directly to the Matanuska.  It is pretty impressive and the pictures just do not do it justice.  Crossed the knife edge ridges to the Chickaloon and flew down it to the Matanuska and home.  Made up a little speed on the way back that I lost on the way up as I hit 115 ground speed flying down the valley.  Always fun landing on the polished ice of Wolf lake and having to spin it 180 to stop before hitting the far bank.

 

Hope that's not too many pictures.  Man, you just can't beat days like that!

[dynomike 91]

nice pictures randy ,what camera are you using?

[wolves200 31]

WOW! nice pictures!!!

[lostman 198]

Beautiful! Living the dream. What carburetor are you using on your Subaru?

[marshawk 82]

Looks awesome ,it doesnt get better than blue skys and skis

[EDMO 1078]

Suberavid has the Stratus with dual bing carbs - donno what size - I have a 2 barrel Holly on my Soob.

Great Photos Randy!

EDMO

Edited 3 Feb 2014 by Ed In Missouri

[lostman 198]

Just wondering how he leaned back if he's running Bings?

 

I agree, great photos! Make me want to go flying, but without cabin heat it's too cold!

[C5Engineer 1170]

Ken the Hacman works on bing 64s too.

[lostman 198]

Thanks Joey, that makes sense. I figured that might be the case. Looks like it would definitely be worth installing on the Pursang then!

Edited 4 Feb 2014 by lostman

[Bandit 286]

Nice!

[looped 0]

suber these pictures are beautiful, I took my family to Alaska this summer and fell in love, these pictures only reinforce my desire to return as soon as possible . thanks for sharing   

[SuberAvid 617]

Mike,

 

The camera is a Nikon Coolpix 6500.  There are the first pictures I have taken with it; my previous camera was a Coolpix 3600, and it suddenly stopped working about a week ago.  I wasn't too pleased about that since it was only about 5 yers old but I liked the camera and this newer one was more powerful in pixels and optical zoom and was about $100 less than I paid for the previous one so I decided to go with a new one rather than get the old one fixed.  They have very long battery life even in -0 conditions and good vibration dampening and the size is very compact so it works well for me for flying and hunting.  Hope this one lasts a bit longer though.

 

Kenneth, as Ed and Joey said, I have the dual Bing 64's on my Subaru with the Hacman mixture control I got from Green Sky Adventures.  I uses the altitude compensation diaphram of the Bing 64 carb and by tapping into the manifold vaccume and outside atmosphere, using a very fine valve, it lets you manually adjust the diaphram pressure and therefore raises or lowers the needles.  I originally ordered it because I was having trouble keeping my EGT's under 1500 in the cold winter temps and thought this would help.  I talked to hacman and they said the control will only lean from the jetting you have in the carbs so I ordered larger main jets (165's) as well and put them in at the same time.  The combination works perfect and I can dial in the EGT temps precisely and it holds perfectly.  As I gain altitude I can continue to lean it to keep the temps where I want them.  It really makes a difference in the fuel burn as you get higher in altitude.  It is well worth the cost of about $165; one of the best mods I have made to the original configuration of my engine.  In the picture of my panel you can see the red mixture knob below the throttle.

 

Hope you all get a chance to come enjoy Alaska; and fly here some day.  It is really aviation paradise.  I keep thinking man, winter flying in AK is the best; but then summer comes along and I think man, summer flying in AK is the best.  I feel pretty blessed to be able to do them both.  But as we all know, flying Avids and KF's is the best no matter where you get to do it!

[6320012s 12]

I'd love to see your gps track.  

[Av8r3400 1178]

So with the hacman, if you leave the mixture set at full rich, will the carbs adjust themselves as normal?

[SuberAvid 617]

No, the Hacman makes it competely manual mixture control.  It stays where you set it so you have to watch your EGT's and remember to richen it up again as you decend in altitude.  The EGT's don't fluctuate anything like a 2 stroke though.

[SuberAvid 617]

I'd love to see your gps track.  

Dave, get that thing back in the air and let's go fly it together.