Airplanes and old cars at Carcross
On August 26 I drove to Carcross for an event arranged by COPA (the Canadian Owner and Pilots Association, Yukon Flight 106) and the Klondike Cruisers car club. For the Cruisers, there was a poker run which started at the Yukon Transportation Museum, with numerous stops on the way to Carcross – I thought about firing up my friend’s ’83 Mustang convertible and joining them, but that quickly got too complicated.
It was a spectacular day, with clear skies and the temperature hitting 27°C/81°F. As usual, there was very little traffic on the South Klondike Highway.
I reached the Carcross airport at 11:40, and there were quite a few planes and a few cars there – most of the cars arrived a bit later. The first plane I looked at in the line was a home-built Zenair – N7092B, a Zenith Super CH 701. It was built in 2003 by David Pippert of Wall, South Dakota, and he’s still flying it. I chatted with him for a few minutes – he’s made a lot of modifications to it to make it better and better for bush flying. Very cool!
I took a photo of the line of planes and cars then headed over to Harry and Yvonne’s schnitzel truck before it got busy. The schnitzel sandwich was wonderful, as always 🙂
C-FBVA is Alpine Aviation’s 1967 Cessna STOL U206B Stationair. The “U” is for “utility” – this model has a pilot side door and large clamshell rear door serving the back two rows of seats, allowing easy loading of oversized cargo.
CF-ZGJ is a 1971 Cessna 150L owned by Florian Gehmair of Whitehorse. The 150 was the most-produced two-seat civilian aircraft in history, with 23,839 built between 1957 and 1977. It was the primary aircraft for many pilot training schools.
C-GUEG is a 1976 Cessna 172M Skyhawk owned by the YXY Flyers Association. Though production was halted from 1986-1996, they’re being built again and with over 44,000 of them built, it’s the most successful aircraft in history. It was a Cessna 172L that brought me to the Yukon in 1985, on my Flight of Discovery.
C-GQHC is Alpine Aviation’s 1977 Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub. Alpine just bought it last May – it looks very different than it did when I photographed it on floats 13 years ago!
C-FICI is a 2005 Sawyer SL-300 owned by Rod Rombough of Carcross. The aircraft was built by Clifford Sawyer, but Google was no help in helping me learn anything about it.
One more plane – C-GYDB is a 1969 Cessna 150J owned by Ben Moffatt of Whitehorse
It’s a shame that so many invasive plants are so attractive – like this Tall hawkweed. Until I realized it was an invasive, I almost transplanted some into my new flower/shrub garden (my “bee garden” – I’ll tell you about that huge project here in a few weeks).
After only 40 minutes I was already “timing out” and as much as I enjoy being around planes and old cars and the people who love them, I knew I had to go. I got one photo of these convertibles – a Cadillac and a Mustang – and headed for my car.
A final shot of the Carcross airport as I pulled away.
It felt like a very long drive home… 🙁
After 5 weeks of not being able to write a post, I have 3 or 4 things I want to tell you about (and have in the blog as my journal) thanks to a session with my osteopath.
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Shame that your energy and well being were off again…knowing the pleasure you always take in any airplanes that you see. What a nice flight in that must be in a small plane, great views.
Only a flight can really show people how incredibly vast and un-peopled this place is.
Thanks Murrster, old pilots, old drivers and the things they drive and fly, had a flight from Whitehorse to Fairbanks with a stop in Dawson City with Air North to recover a bus in Fairbanks, it was a DC-3 the original workhorse of the North, a flight never to forget especially the Dawson gravel airstrip landing and take off , take care from Nova Scotia eh🧑✈️
Hi Paul. I was lucky enough to get some of those bus-shuttling DC-3 flights as well – I see in my photos one from Dawson to Whitehorse and one from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. I see that you haven’t had a particularly nice summer – ours has been near record-breaking warm.