Iditarod 2023
Due to a tough fever that caught me since Friday, I'm way behind the mushers, this year!
At the time of this writing they're already past Rohn and the Alaska Range, some 140 miles into the trail while I'm sitting here at Skwenta, at about halfway that distance.
The aircraft:
The Iditaord event means taking the Cessna 185 (the ultimate bush flying machine!) for the long run.
I was thinking about taking the wonderful aircraft delievered to me by Carenado but, as much as I try, I can't live with their panel, the sparse gauges and the location of the VSI in particular. I know it is based on a real model, probably the '74 185 F, but hey, it isn't fun for me.
So after flying the Ceremonial Start from PANC Anchorage to CSR Campbell Airstrip I took my old friend from the Hangar and am decided to go all the way to Nome in it:
It's the Cessna 185 by Abacus, a very simple payware model (one of those no longer available), but one to which I created a new VC layout a long time ago - and I am also flying my own flight dynamics airfile 
This was a project that started in 2010. I bought a real 1984 A185F Cessna Manual and converted all info into a brand new airfile, with AirWrench. I took great care tuning the weight & balance section, so that the resulting CoG would be precisely like on the real bird - and, much to my amazement, it could be done!
Later Glenn Davy (a canadian bush pilot and flight simmer) and I started working on a revision of my first release. We were progressing nicely with more ups than downs.
Then Glenn asked Bernt Stolle, another seasoned pilot and flight simmer - to check our work. It happens that Bernt was also working on a new airfile for the Carenado 185, based on their 206 model. Those set of files, once Bernt completed became the norm - and Glenn and I stopped our work, happilly
Bernt Stolle further released updates to his work; I have an "Upgrade" set and also an "Ultimate_185" set that he released in January 2011 for the new Carenado edition of the Cessna 185, the Bush Flying package.
Still I'm flying my own set of FDs, revisiting that work, those mad times!, and doing some tweaks along the way. I still like them very much.
I now pushed the empty weight CoG a tad to the back. Before that, my Weight and Balance calculator was spot on but the aircraft wouldn't takeoff alone as the real bird does.
Now it does that nicely but the MAC% ended up also pushed back.
I checked Bernt's work, which does a great job on takeoff, and his MAC% is even further back than mine, so I guess there's a trade, somewhere, that we must accept.
Apologies for this extra bit of info
Now to the flights:
Saturday was the Ceremonial Start: the mushers go for a short hop from downtown Anchorage to the Campbell Airstrip - giving a ride on their sleds to the some lucky fans called Idita-Riders. They go through the city greenbelts and parks.
So here I am taking off from Z41 Lake Hood Strip
Anchorage by night is always a feast to the eyes!
That's the Ceremonial Start, right there on Anchorage's 4th Avenue
Flying over the parks
And here's touchdown and Campbell!
Day 2, Sunday, March 5th
It is time to move to Willow where the race will start for real in the afternoon.
So here I am, taking off in the morning from Campbell.
About to cross the Knik river Arm
Arriving at PAUO Willow. Willow Lake is on the left and I can see already the crowd s gathering!
About to land (lame screenshot, sorry!)
Now the race will start for me, too. After all the mushers left the Lake and returned to the airport ... caught a fever and, when muscles allowed me, I also to off and hit the trail!
Taking off from PAUO Willow
The fans at Willow Lake!
Following the Susitna River to Yentna Station, the first checkpoint.
Yentna Checkpoint ahead!
The winding river on this area doesn't make it easy to find the checkpoint, but with my NAV1 on Big Lake VOR, I know it was 22 miles off.
Next leg, Yentna to Skwentna! The landscape is getting better and better! Again, following a river, the Yentna, which is also what mushers are doing down there.
Yentna airstrip in sight.
My kind of place!
Time to get some rest and recover a bit more. From here on it will be a really wonderful section of the trail!
That will be Finger Lake, than the scay Happy River steps to Rainy Pass. The off to Rohn flying low in the Alaska Range between the mountain peaks...
Bis Bald!
