The weather is clear and there is only light wind as we leave Waakani half an hour before sunrise. As we get to 13,000 feet, we've got a pretty good tail wind. Our ground speed is over 200 knots.

After about 2 hours in the air, we something not very inviting. A blanket of thick clouds is in front of us. The airport at Yelizovo is not equipped with ILS facilities, and there isn't any place else to go.

As we get nearer to Yelizovo, we decide to trust the GPS system and our maps. We don't have much of a choice on it, as the clouds show no signs of breaking up in the next hour or so.

We contact the tower to tell them we are coming in. We drop into the clouds at about 2,000 feet up, and 10 miles away from the airport. I try taking it down to as low as 800 feet, and we are still stuck in the clouds. We get to about 3 miles away, and the GPS shows we are lined up. Finally, there is a break in the clouds, and I can see the runway just off to out left. We hadn't taken the wind into account, so that's why we were off course a little.

I manage to get over to the runway, and set down, and we taxi to the fuel stand to gas up and go right back up. Half an hour later we shoot back up through the clouds to 13,000 feet, and head for Alaska. The target is the Kodiak Islands, but we are running out of daylight very quick. It's getting darker our as the sun goes down, and we decide to make a run for the Cosco Cove Coast Guard Station.

The weather here is even worse than in Russia. The clouds are still there, only now there are howling winds and lots of freezing rain. We crank the heater up in the cabin to try to keep the windshield from icing over.

It's tough to see where we are going to land. Visibility is about 50 feet, it seems, maybe even less. Although we are down out of the clouds, it's hard to pick the airstrip up. The mountain to the left of us doesn't make me any more comfortable, either.

There's a 27 knot crosswind and I finally find the airfield. It's a rough landing, but everything survives. There's a small crew on hand here at the station, and they let us come inside for the night. Hopefully, the weather will be better tomorrow, and we can get to mainland Alaska.

LEG	Start	Start Time	Land	Land Time	Distance	Trip Time	Fuel Used
1	RJCW Waakani, Japan	20:53 GMT 11/20/01	UHPP Yelizovo ,Russia	01:05 GMT 11/21/01	798 NM	4 hr 12 min	226 gal
2	UHPP Yelizovo ,Russia	01:35 GMT 11/21/01	ATU Cosco Cove,Alaska	04:30 GMT 11/21/01	531 NM	2 hr 55 min	162 gal
Day Total					1329 NM	7 hr 7 min	388 gal
Trip Total					22,680 NM	147 hr 55 min	7882 gal

Pictures

On the ground at Yelizovo	On our left as we leave Yelizovo
At Cosco Cove Coast Guard Station in a storm

Where we've been so far

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