Post by Pugsley on Mar 15, 2005 17:14:36 GMT
Flying in support of Ramy Brooks (#15)
The 15th of March didn't find me in the best of moods. All I could do was grit my teeth and watch as Sørlie, Baker, King, Seavey, and Buser pulled up stakes at Koyuk, with Brooks still encamped. Buser was holding up very well - in spite of the missing finger. Though I did nothing to disrupt Ramy's train of thought, I sincerely hoped that if he was working on a strategy, he'd pull it out soon.
Seemingly to add insult to injury, one of the checkpoint vets gave me one of Ramy's dogs that he felt couldn't finish. I gave him an affectionate pat on the head - he'd given it all he had. Now it was up to the rest of Ramy's team. He finally checked out at a little after 1 am in the morning, and I got a few hours sleep before a dawn takeoff. We parted company with the Koyuk Checkpoint Officials at 0656 and made our way to the Elim CP.
The higher I got, the worse the weather looked - fortunately, I had an IFR plan ready and wasted no time in getting it filed with Anchorage Center.
I turned to a course of 170 and headed out over Norton Sound, picking up a rather nasty headwind.
I was vectored to Runway 01 and had to compensate for the wind with a LOT of rudder, as the wind kept pushing me to the left of the active - so the landing was very challenging.
After landing, I shut down and got busy prepping things for Ramy's arrival at the checkpoint.
Respectfully submitted from the Iditarod Trail,
The 15th of March didn't find me in the best of moods. All I could do was grit my teeth and watch as Sørlie, Baker, King, Seavey, and Buser pulled up stakes at Koyuk, with Brooks still encamped. Buser was holding up very well - in spite of the missing finger. Though I did nothing to disrupt Ramy's train of thought, I sincerely hoped that if he was working on a strategy, he'd pull it out soon.
Seemingly to add insult to injury, one of the checkpoint vets gave me one of Ramy's dogs that he felt couldn't finish. I gave him an affectionate pat on the head - he'd given it all he had. Now it was up to the rest of Ramy's team. He finally checked out at a little after 1 am in the morning, and I got a few hours sleep before a dawn takeoff. We parted company with the Koyuk Checkpoint Officials at 0656 and made our way to the Elim CP.
The higher I got, the worse the weather looked - fortunately, I had an IFR plan ready and wasted no time in getting it filed with Anchorage Center.
I turned to a course of 170 and headed out over Norton Sound, picking up a rather nasty headwind.
I was vectored to Runway 01 and had to compensate for the wind with a LOT of rudder, as the wind kept pushing me to the left of the active - so the landing was very challenging.
After landing, I shut down and got busy prepping things for Ramy's arrival at the checkpoint.
Respectfully submitted from the Iditarod Trail,