WE ARE NEVER FLYING AT NIGHT AGAIN | Cordova to Sitka Part 2 

Your cool confident demeanor would be welcome in any cockpit. I learn so much watching these. Great job team!

This reminds me a lot of back when I operated floats out of Juneau. We often dealt with the same kind of weather (although never at night)

Excellent demonstration of the critical role of a two pilot crew in conducting contact flight under the shadow of a high threat environment....the preflight route briefing would be great to see as well...true, .not for beginners yet a great display for all to see a flightcrew at work.....the cold water immersion suit is a mixed blessing as egress underwater or post impact with terrain unless well practiced is time consuming.....well done

I was white-knuckled just watching the video. Nice job.

@7:45 -- what about talking to controller makes it so relieving? They get to hear you screaming right before you slam into a mountain!! Hahha this dude is hilarious. Please be my CFI

Awesome guys, good job. Got caught in a similar way in the UK a few years back. Didn't want to collide with rising ground, did a 180 (I'm only VFR) went back. Got the plane in the hangar and by the time we closed the doors vis was 20yds. That why i was feeling it with you. Cheers.

it never became dangerous because you kept it safe! Pretty simple really. Good coaching and coaxing.

Really enjoyed the video- but I don't like that feeling! Distances in Alaska are great, and often there are very few alternatives! I once lost an oil return line, and entirely by luck I landed before my engine seized (still had 1 and 1/2 qts of oil in the sump. Because of my personal experience, I don't fly over water unless I can glide to land! A dry suit will keep you alive for an extra hour before you then die. I have carried a small 4 man life raft but I'm not sure that would do any good but prolong things. Fair winds and VFR!

Edge of my seat the whole time

This guy is a master. Amazing how he calmed and directed what was destined to be a crisis situation.

Great Pilotage Jon! A+ decision making w/ the Pop Up IFR call and not going to 6000 for icing conditions. I have a lot to learn!

Glad you arrive well

WOW, I had this strong urge to go outside and kiss the ground after this one. I am a low time VFR pilot and watching this I got those butterflies in the pit of your stomach feeling, that feeling when you are looking over the edge of the Hoover dam (went there when it was still open to look over) the tingling feeling like you just took a slap to the, well you know. I like how you both kept your calm in a very tense situation. Thanks for the informative and enjoyable posts. I love them, keep em coming. P.S. However, thanks to you, I will no longer being flying within 4 hours of sunrise or sunset, any visible precipitation, any wind, nothing less than full tanks, forever in a survival suit, a CAPs system and the Coast Guard in tow both in the air and on the sea.

Tricky flight. Now we get an idea of how things can go wrong quickly. Calm thinking and practical menuevers are vital.

This is exactly why I'm still on the fence for renewing my expired PPL. I live in Alaska now and every bone in my body wants to be in the air again, but I read regular stories of thousand+ hour pilots that get in to trouble fast up here. I've never flown with glass, it makes everything look so much easier than it used to be, but nothing about rapidly changing conditions and terrain is easy. Great job working the challenge & really enjoying these Alaska series.

That was tense. I need a drink!

Kind of intense... Good Job

Never a quiver in your voice, nice easy professional and confident directions to Steff. Great video.

Really great idea there to get ATC involved. 👍🏻

I wish there was a fuel injected engine in the upgraded 170. No possibility of carburetor icing is one less issue to manage. A heated pito would be nice, too.

Talk to the local pilots. They do this all the time. Scum running just below the clouds. Of course it helps if you are familiar with the area that you are flying in to pull it off. Great job on working together. Keep the blue skies above and many miles to come in your adventures.

Enjoyed! Thanks for posting

Cute gal...wish her all the best

Glad you made it safely and your in a very cool B&B! Enjoy your trip, day by day.

Ouch! I guess the takeaway was 'Don't try this at home, folks'? Glad you made it in one piece.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lots of ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... :(

Awesome, thanks for the videos.

A brilliant 2nd edition that didn’t disappoint! You work great together and your adventures make great viewing. Being only a low hours private pilot, I wish I had an airline pilot in the right seat sometimes! It was fascinating seeing your experience and skill take over when it got a bit sketchy 👌👍

Glad you two are still bee bopping along. btw, I love turning on the CC and see what it makes up from the radio talk. (gawd i'm a cheap date)

Whew!

Well, that made me really anxious for you two. Luckily you had each other to deal with this situation and excellent navigation and flying. No night flying for me either. I need a drink after this.

Way to keep your cool and leverage all your tech. I would have been nervous feeling like I’m hanging on the prop. Epic journey! Thank you!

Great job you two! Good CRM!

In the famous words of Owen Wilson: "Wow".

Another great video - and great flying. Thanks for sharing. BTW - a few years back I flew the Alaska highway (from Melbourne, FL - and back) in a C-172, but didn't have the balls to take this route along the water. Now, I think I know why! :^)

Good job...Cautious awareness makes for another day alive.....because stupid decisions can win you stupid prizes. Like a free trip to the morgue.

This makes me want to fly all the more.

You made me feel that I was part of your experience. Not too many posting on RU-vid can pull that off.

Great job staying calm and maintaining situational awareness👍🏼

Alaska Flying at its best!!!

Nerves of steel. :)

Awesome job, guys! So appreciate the ride along. God Bless!

Calm, cool, and collected. Good job. Also enjoying the outtakes at the end. Just binge watched every video on this channel in the past couple days.

That was super interesting! Great work and thanks for sharing.

Bad ass Great job

Great Job

Very professionally handled, great instructional work, Jon.

CRM at its best ,thx for share,have faith in your plane

That looked like HARD work....

Great pilotage there Stephanie! Certainly some real , ummm, pucker factor there!

Most excellent. New subscriber here. Thanks for the videos.

That terrain map is pretty handy.

I stopped flying night because of a similar situation. Wasn’t in full IMC, but visibility went low enough and there was no terrestrial lighting to use as a ground reference. Flipped on the landing light to see I was going in and out of small clouds that were not supposed to be there. It was scary enough for me. I didn’t have the benefit of any type of glass. Best I had was a non-WAAS GNS 430. I was IFR rated, but was in a non IFR helicopter with no autopilot. Was not cool.

im glad you debriefed it at the end of the video...i was gonna say, alaska, marginal vfr at night in mountain terrain, cant be the smartest move. good on ya.

Nice work! Alaskamazing!

Now try it with Paper Charts/Approach Plates, Steam Gauges and a red lens Flashlight...LOL

Yeah you’ve been rather bold flying that route. Topeka Ks to Glennallen Alaska took 30 flying hours going via Alcan Hwy. The roads great to land on for weather and breaks. Not many spots to land on the water route south. You’re learning Alaskan flying is so different from Florida flying. Great videos and editing. Lots of history to see flying the Alcan route. Nothings worth making history on the water route.

That orange Cessna in the back that’s my grandpas plane that I fly in

Glad you made it, lol...looking forward to more videos.

Great communication between you guys 👍🏽

Really excellent job and video. ATC trying to send you to 6K and icing at night is a classic NTSB case. Good call as PIC. Every student should watch this video. BTW you have bigger stones than I do, I never would have left the ground.

Very good video and interesting stuff (especially the chat between the two of you) Well done, between you, on what turned out to be a difficult flight and what I expect was a tricky edit.

Sketchy approach to say the least .... nice job guys !!

I've landed in worse vis, with a cross wind. On my fourth try. With military grade avionics. In simulation. lol Good job guys!

Awesome job guys.

Great video. Thanks for sharing it.

Amazing thanks for sharing 🤗😊

Glad u guys made it in ok. You encountered my #1 fear of flying XC at night. Encouraging me to start my instrument training pronto.

Does Steph have her instrument ticket? If not I bet that flight convinced her!

Awesome vid, I was nervous even knowing you survived. Also, always wondered what language those flight controllers used. I can hear bits of English but the rest is incomprehensible.

I busted your ballz some time ago in a video where you criticized the guy who stalled practicing for STOL and put his plane into the deck. You reviewed the incident with the “driving instructor” (CFI) mentality, even though these guys are flying “NASCAR” so to speak. Now you see what it’s like flying at the edge of the envelope. Sometimes you fall off. If you would have fallen off on this flight, I’m sure one of your CFI RU-vid buddies would have detailed what went wrong when things got “dicey” or “sketchy.” Just keep that in mind when you offer your perspective/criticism for how someone is flying. Don’t take this wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this vid and Welcome to Flying in Alaska!!!

Excellent way to handle that!

Do I hear a little flight chops at 0:04? Haha, love your videos so much!

You guys did great! Really enjoyed the VID. Thanks for sharing. Don

Wow, wow...take a look at these comments! Goes to show what the audience craves, “life and death moments”. If only you can repeat this similar scenario on all videos the subscribers rate would overflow...lol. However, rather you stick to your game-plan because I am enjoying flying with you both and wishing you always a safe trip....GREAT VIDEO!😎🇺🇸

Why not be on VFR flight following on the trip before the pop up was needed?

I like it! U2 an item? Ja Ja

And I thought landing on a slippery runway was stressful. At least I was quite sure the worst thing was that I would slide of the runway with a prop strike. This probably would make me throw up. 🤮And I had CAVOK and great visibility so I could always divert! 👍😃

Single engine piston (not fuel injected) over very cold water. you guys have guts. Just wish that Foreflite worked in Africa as well as it does in the US. Cant get any IF stuff loaded which would help with the unpredictable weather conditions in Tanzania

Look at the good side. You didn't start icing and have your tablet die with 200ft ceiling having to go missed.

So when you're doing this type of flying, how much does it help having the second pilot and how do you divide the workload?

Great job? MVFR is tough. For me it usually gets worse before it gets better. I can't imagine life before Foreflight.

7:48 hehehe

2000’ with limited VFR? Just curious , what was the MEA for the area you were in ?

Having been a commercial pilot in Ak since 91, all I can say is flying imc in anything less than a twin turbine is a foolish endeavor.

Is that what they call Scud running

Sorry , Meant MEF (Minimum Elevation Figure) for that area ?

Drop in rpm

Love the video but consider removing background music when speaking. It's interfering with voice reception and recognition

My question is why didn’t you guys already have an IFR clearance when flying around terrain like that at night?

I tried to find an email for you on your website, I have a heated/cooled hangar in central Missouri with enough free space for your plane, and truck/camper. I don't know how to contact you? hoping this reaches you.

Was she a student???

You’re on a boat? Where’s your flippy floppies?

I watched that with clinched butt cheeks. You both did a great job!

What VFR...you can't see crap.

Where was the scary part?

Please tell me why you would even put yourself iñ that position . Hurry hurry hurry got get there . I use to like your videos after that No you had her life in your hands think about could have turned out bad Glad you guys are ok . Out

Disorientation.