For this flight, you need access to WAC E-15 in order to plot a route that takes you through the river valleys(remember, no higher than 5,000 feet altitude!)
From Sandpoint, head up the valley to Boundary Co, then Creston, up Kootenay Lake to Crawford Bay. Hang a left into this fantastic gorge towards Nelson, then work your way to Castelgar for re-fueling.
From Castlegar, head up Lower and Upper Arrow Lake to Revelstoke. Just past Revelstoke, on the port side, will be a valley that can get you across to Salmon Arm.
At Salmon Arm, hang a right to get you to the intersection of the Thompson River. Turn Left, and follow the Thompson River into Kamloops, for a rest and re-fueling.
Leaving Kamloops, at Copper Creek, turn right into the valley. Work your way towards waypoint FLOON, and then point your nose towards Green Lake and 108 Mile Aiport. From 108 Mile, head to Williams Lake, land and re-fuel. The next leg is a long one, so have plenty of fuel.
From Williams Lake, follow the valley at 325 degrees up through Quesnel to Prince George, hang a left to Vanderhoof, then point your nose to Fraser Lake, then work up the valley to Burns Lake airport.
With the Houston VOR at your port side, approx. 200 degrees, you have to point to the Smithers NDB, and carefully try to get to it while skimming the surface at 700 feet!. You can get there without having to go above 5000' MSL.
At Smithers, work you way up the valley to New Hazelton, then hang a right to Kisplox. From Kisplox, keep left of the river Y, following the Kisplox River, until you get to about 128 deg, 40' W and 55 deg, 47' N, which should put you over a fair sized body of water. From there, using GPS, Stewart(CZST) will be at approx 256 degrees. Point your nose to Stewart, and you had better start climbing to 9400 MSL as you are going to fly over the Cambria Icefield!
It is absolutely stunning to cross the Icefield into the Portland Canal valley, and see Stewart's runway 9400 feet below!
Now, quick, point your nose southward in the Canal valley, and drop altitude quickly to 2000 feet. There's a wide area in the canal valley in which you can do a 180 to get yourself pointing back towards Stewart. Set up and land on runway 36(it's 3900 feet).
The final leg has us heading to Ketchikan. Flight distance is approx. 120 nm, so keep your fuel load at a minimum as getting the DHC8 off Stewart's 3900 foot runway into a 1500 FPM climb will require the aircraft to be light, and will also require lot's of flap.
Take-off from runway 36, keep to the runway heading(adjusting for winds), and climb at 1500 fpm to 5000 feet MSL. Just past Ninemile is a valley to the left, turn into it, and start climbing to 9000 feet. Head towards Bell Island Hot Springs. Once over Behm Canal, descend to 2000 feet, and head towards the approach for Ketchikan.
That's Nelson B.C. (CZNL) below left
Take-Off from Castlegar (CYCG)
Approach to Kamloops B.C. (CYKA)
Downwind of Stewart B.C., in the Portland Canal (CZST)
Stewart B.C. (CZST)
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