| ALASKA BOUND One could say the man is focused! Bill McAuliffe, a resident of Love’s Landing airpark in Weirsdale, earned his pilot’s license just a few years ago, then went out and bought himself a kit to build an airplane. He chose the GlaStar, and completed it in 2002. He’s been flying it this year, gaining experience to take his relatively new license and equally new airplane on his dream trip…to Alaska! On July 14th, with a freshly signed-off Annual Inspection in the logbooks, he stowed 156 pounds of camping and fishing gear, food, clothing for several climates and the requisite survival equipment and set off into the early morning skies of a sultry summer day in central Florida. Unfortunately the weather the rest of the way wasn’t very cooperative causing delays, motel stays instead of camping experiences, and the inability to reach some of his planned destinations. But he still crossed the United States and into Canada and made it to Palmer, outside Anchorage. Here he parked the plane, caught a ride on a DeHavilland Beaver on floats, transferred to a jet boat to take him the rest of the way to a lodge and fish camp on the Talachulitna River for a week of sensational salmon and trout fishing. All of this was managed VFR with WAC charts and a Garmin 295 GPS. And no autopilot! On August 11th, exactly a month after his departure, McAuliffe rolled to a stop on the runway in back of his house, tired but happy to have accomplished his goal. He had to pick his way around weather to get back home, but he climbed out of the airplane smiling! Statistically McAuliffe piled up the following impressive numbers: highest altitude flown (to get over clouds) about 10,500 feet; used about 680 gallons of fuel and 10 quarts of oil; covered about 9000 miles in a little under 70 hours in the air. Any complaints? Yes, it’s hard to SIT that long! And all of this was by a youngster age 70-plus! How did he feel setting off on such an adventure? "I compensated for my deficiencies by being the world’s biggest chicken." That translates into being a prudent low-time pilot who made a journey many of us merely dream about. Congratulations, Bill! |
| AVIATION by Judie Betz Ocala Star Banner October 13, 2003 |
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