>>Subject: Flying to Russia

Hello everyone. Just wanted to let you know that the U.S. and Russia,
after months and years of work, have finalized a VFR routing to
Provideniya, Chukotka--the first "major" town with an airport across the
Bering Sea from Nome, Alaska.

Brian Staurseth at the FAA office in Alaska called me today with the
good news. He will be publishing the notam along with a webpage around
May 1 with details. He was an excited camper and wants to encourage as
many pilots as possible to make the trip. The people in this part of
Russia are quite poor, and there is hope to develop tourism to help the
local economy.

My father-in-law and I have been planning the trip for several months in
anticipation of the deal being consummated. We are planning to fly the
500 nm round trip from Nome around the second week of July. He will be
flying his Cherokee 235 and I will be flying my 1968 Cardinal from LA to
meet him in Boise, and continue together to Anchorage and over to Nome.
Since he's a bit faster, we've already agreed that each day he has to do
the dishes in the morning and have dinner waiting in the evening...good
deal, huh?

We'll appreciate your good thoughts for our trip, especially for good
weather. We hope to put a web page up with details of the trip as we
progress. I'll let you know if/when we get to this.

If you need a little adventure in your life, please consider getting out
your bird, polishing her up and planning a trip to this remote part of
Russia this summer or in the next year or so. Look to the Alaska FAA
website for more information around May 1.

David<<


Marc Wiese