Bluegrass Airlines, January 2008

Pacific Alaska Airways

By Allan Lowson

(image copyright Bjorn Larsson www.timetableimages.com)

Pacific Alaska Airways

Pan Am bought Alaskan Airways in 1932 from North American Aviation and renamed it Pacific Alaska Airways, initially to provide services from Juneau to Fairbanks and then on to Nome and Bethel. These services linked with the Alaska Steamship Co. steamer service from Seattle to Juneau up to 1940 when authorisation for a flight link to Seattle was given. Pacific Alaska Airways used Lockheed 10A aircraft for these services. The original intention had been for Alaska to be part of a Great Circle route to the Orient. Landing rights could not be obtained for Siberia and Japan, so the long-range flying boat service across the Pacific had to be continued.

The flights below came from the May to October ’38 timetables, but we can be bold and fly them through the winter gloom. Alternatively you can shift the calendar forward or back a month or two to get more daylight for the flight across Alaska.

Pacific Alaska Routes

These routes were taken from the Official Aviation Guide Pan American timetables for May to October 1938. Flat is the only field that lacks night-lighting, so aim to be there between 1100 and 1500 at this time of year.

Times in this timetable are based on Meridian times of 15^O intervals or one hour; 135^O being one hour earlier than Pacific Standard Time, 150^O being two hours earlier etc. So check your map co-ordinates before setting out for the airfield.

Juneau-Fairbanks (Route 114)

Heading	Distance	Down (Tue/Sat)	City Name	ICAO	Up (Sun/Thu)	Heading	Distance
326	0	1300	Juneau	PAJN	1400	-	143
281	143	1420	Whitehorse	CYXY	1130	144	427
-	427	1630	Fairbanks	PAFA	0730	092	0

Fairbanks-Nome (Route 114 Wednesdays)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
244	0	0800	Fairbanks	PAFA	2000	-	195
-	195	0930 arr	Ruby	PARY	1830 dep	062	0
248	0	0950 dep	Ruby	PARY	1810 arr	-	257
-	257	1230	Nome	PAOM	1330	066	0

Fairbanks-Bethel (Route 114 Thursdays)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
217	0	0800	Fairbanks	PAFA	1930	-	234
224	234	1030	McGrath	PAMC	1630	036	72
-	72	1130 arr	Flat	FLT	1530 dep	043	0
208	0	1145 dep	Flat	FLT	1515 arr	-	149
-	149	1300	Bethel	PABE	1400	028	0

Flight Simulator Files

The Lockheed Electra 10-A is available as L104NWA.zip at avsim.com. There is a Pan Alaska (an error in the airline name!) scheme somewhere on the web as L104PAA.zip, but it may have been lost with the closedown of FS Berlin as an operating site.

Map