Pingo's Cabin

The bonus flight in the Alaska International series this Summer is to a cabin which can be located on the Fairbanks sectional chart about halfway between Minto (51Z) and the small community of Tolvana to the magnetic south. It lies on a branch of the Tolvana River, a few miles north of a small lake.

Using FSSC and AFCAD I developed scenery for this cabin, which I've interpreted as a pretty nice Forest Ranger's station, complete with radio tower and front porch. I added some improvements too: a fictional 2000 foot gravel runway running north and south, and a post office across the way from the cabin.

You can download the scenery here.

The easiest way to find the cabin is to depart Fairbanks, Alaska and intercept the FAI VOR 262 radial outbound for 46 NM. There are several forest service lookout towers in the area, and a 200 foot antenna tower just west of the cabin (but not on
the sectional), which you should be able to see as you approach from the east. The elevation is 530 feet MSL.

Though the area is not particularly mountainous, it is certainly rugged and hilly. A few STOL practice landings in Fairbanks would definitely be worth the effort. Trees all around the runway, and near both ends increase the pucker factor in a considerable way.