Flying the FULL Alaska Milk Run! Anchorage to Seattle w/6 STOPS!

hey guys welcome to anchorage alaska i'm chris or the jazz guy 13 aviation and welcome to one of the coolest aviation experiences you can have in the world the alaska milk run today and tomorrow i'll be traveling down to seattle washington aboard alaska airlines with six stops in between which include yakitat cordova juno where i'll also be staying the night and then petersburg wrangle ketchikan and finally seattle by the way if you do like my classic full flight video format i will be uploading a separate video for each segment of this trip so just to get that out of the way now currently i'm near downtown anchorage just trying to take in some scenery and surroundings before i head to the airport and i have to admit there's really not a whole lot to do around like my crowne plaza hotel i just stayed at but there is mountains in the distance and some very crisp alaskan air and especially some beautiful weather which actually stuck around throughout my whole trip which is pretty unusual for alaska in mid-summer as usually it's very rainy and cloudy especially along the spine of alaska going down the coast towards seattle well my flight departs in a couple hours so let's head to ted stevens international airport and [Music] [Applause] [Music] cordova [Music] [Music] [Music] all right welcome to anc airport and the south terminal where most of the airlines here in anchorage are located there's quite a bit of local flavor inside this airport as you can see from bears and moose and native alaskan paintings and furs so it's really cool experience to fly out of here and quite a bit of dogs fly out of here as well but let's check in and that would be that very easy experience and now let's head to the security checkpoint and gate c7 post security here's a conico phillips aviation q 400 bound for cooper rook in northern alaska and a beachcraft be 1900 c owned by ace air cargo here's a alaska 737 700 it just came in from dead horse and the royal queen of the skies out of head which anchorage sees quite a lot of because they are now the number one cargo hub in the world largely in part to the you know what i can't say so my gate today is c7 which is located in the sea concourse which has a pretty good view of downtown anchorage out ahead and of course you need your hand sanitizer stations which there's plenty of here and here's my gate near the conversion of all the concourses there's a chance to go up on an upper deck and you can have a pretty good view of the lower level below and there is an eating area up here but it was closed due to you know what but there's some pretty good views and here's a alaska 737 900 which is actually what i'll be flying on first down to cordova as my aircraft was supposed to be 737 700 but got switched out the last second and i did get some pretty good cheesy beer soup and i think walking over here i see something yeah it's a boeing sentry e3 with a radar on top and here's my aircraft which is n237 ak and a four and a half year old 737 900 er well it is now time to board so let's head on down to cordova hey hurry up merry christmas i always find alaska's employees to be one of the nicest and uh this trip definitely was like the icing on the cake for that and welcome aboard alaska 737 900 er up front you'll find 16 first-class seats configured 2-2 across followed by 24 premium seats configured 3-3 across and 138 economy seats to fill out the rest of the plane also three three and my seat will to be 10 a today the seat recline is i mean pretty normal and the but the comfyness of the seat is actually pretty good one of the best in the us and it does have adjustable headrests i love the native alaskan designs on the bulkheads and dividers really sets the tone for the flight on the seat back you'll find the safety card located in the upper literature pouch down below you'll find a universal power outlet and usb port at every seat a small netted pouch for your personal items and the legroom is pretty good very good the arm rests are a little small but uh good enough alrighty folks looks like we have everybody on board we're gonna start preparing aircraft for departure please make sure your seat back and trade people are up all your devices receive power one trick i find if your charger can't fit in the outlet is take a european converter and just use that it'll work as you can see here with my canon battery charger help us get ready for takeoff by making sure your seat belt is securely fastened your seat back and tray table are up and devices are unplugged from seat power all bags and larger items including laptops are completely underneath the seats out ahead are some korean air cargo jets here as well as the north turtle see the safety information card please sit back relax we hope you enjoy our 35 minute flight over to cordova so a little history on the alaska milk run as we head to the runway first off the term milk run actually is used to describe an air route that includes multiple stops along the way and some other notable milk run routes you may have heard of is united's island hopper out in guam in hawaii as well as the africa milk run both on my bucket list of course the alaska route came to be back in the 1930s originally used by bush planes and pilots to transport milk mail furs and medicines down and up the coast of alaska to many isolated towns alaska airlines first used to operate the milk run routes with 737 400 combine aircraft which can hold half cargo and half passengers in their cabins but recently they switched to the 737 700s and sometimes 800s and the 900 i'm currently on so that's a little history of the alaska milk run and now let's take off for cordova so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right so we just reached our cruising altitude of 23 000 feet now there won't be any service on any lake of this flight except the last but here's a look at the trade table anyways which is nicely sized there is free in-flight entertainment on alaska uh wi-fi does cost money as usual on most airlines it is a bit uh less than most but there is free texting and obviously my favorite is the flight map which also includes information and weather which you can see it started to rain again in a couple days there are a ton of movies on board and not as much tv shows but still a good amount of tv shows as well below that you can find kids genres and games and lots of other sub genres of movies and tv shows if you have a specific choice please wrap up anything we're working on we get to put away laptops and laundry items for landing we'll be coming through the cabin and collecting all service items anything that you'd like us to take before we knew it the 30-minute flight was just about wrapped up and we already started our initial descent into cordova like most of the isolated towns we'll be visiting on this milk run cordova is largely involved in the commercial fishing industry specifically salmon and a lot of different species of salmon and i would probably say most of the people here are involved with fishing in some fashion or other and usually the prince william sound and the copper river delta are the two bodies of water most often fished and by the way that right there which we just passed over is cordova the airport itself is actually located out towards the east of the town which has an absolutely amazing approach as you can see past these mountains that are literally at the same level you're flying at which is just crazy passing over the government slew now i hope i'm saying that right which is the very shallow body of water we just passed over and now on final approach for runway nine at cdv welcome to cordova the local time is 3 57 pm please keep your seat belts on our pilots will turn off the seatbelt sign when it's safe to get up please leave your things where they are until you've reached the gate if your phone is closed you can take it out of airplane mode upon deplaning you'll be provided a state of alaska declaration from form regarding in preparation for exiting the aircraft please wear your face covering and wait to stand until the row in front of you has moved down the aisle please keep your face covering on while passing through the airport thank you for flying alaska airlines today we hope to see you again soon flight attendants repair doors arrival cross check and welcome to cordova and its population of around 2 100 people so on each leg of this milk run uh the plane usually stops and waits for about 45 minutes to deplane passengers and then get new passengers and once everybody is off the plane you can move around like i am here and oh that had to hurt oh i did get a chance to get off the plane and film the outside a little bit as well as walk through the cabin and check out the lavatory in the back for a bit which is nice it's pretty it's a decent size a pretty typical of 737's no changing table as usual there's some toiletry items in the bin and the sink and has good water pressure and here's a look at the aft galley which is a pretty nice pretty nice galley [Music] but it was about time to now head to yakutat so we had to go back to our seats and wait for the new passengers to arrive i did get this drink back in anchorage as it was a strawberry lemonade i definitely liked it as you can see and sooner than later the new passengers were boarding the plane there was a few not a lot welcome aboard alaska united fight 66 with service to yakitori juno in seattle as you heard the flight attendant just say this particular flight will be going to yakutat juno and then all the way down to seattle which actually makes this kind of a part one for this milk run if you do want to do what i did and stop at all the six stops on the route and i'm actually missing sitka but if you want to go to all six stops you do have to stop it probably in juneau or someplace and spend the night and then pick up the rest of the route from that city there is no flight that goes to all six stops so here we go off to yakate [Music] [Music] [Music] so cordova to yakita is about a 30 minute flight about the same as anchorage to cordova so yeah that 23 hours is uh no not even close i did test out the harriet tubman movie just to see how it works up here and it worked pretty good and i checked flight tracker again a few minutes later and yeah i was all whacked out we're not going back north so onward to yakate if you guys do want to follow my travels live as they happen i do post stories on my instagram which is the jazz guy 13 aviation but i do know some of you like to be surprised so just laying the option on the table [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and just like that we're already on final approach for yakutat airports runway 11. so just like cordova yakita definitely attracts the fishing geeks i guess you could say i found a ton of people with uh you know you could tell they were going fishing which is to be expected they do have the largest wild stock steelhead population in alaska with the sitak river as well as all your salmon like king salmon sockeye pink and cajo welcome to yakata the local time is 5 30. you don't say keep your seat belts on until our pilots have turned off the seat belt sign please leave your things where they are until we've reached the gate if your phone is closed you can go ahead and take it out of airplane mode on behalf of over 22 000 employees at alaska airlines we'd like to thank you for flying with us today it sure was a treat to see everyone's faces on board we hope that you all stay healthy and we see you on one of our flights too all right welcome to yakutat airport or yakutat shackport as i like to say uh yakitat has a population of around 660 so i mean it's to be expected uh it sits roughly 212 miles northwest of juno which is our next stop and like the last time we could get up and stretch after we landed and everybody deboarded which by the way were a bunch of fishers and i really do like alaska's mood lighting as you just saw these scenery is also tremendous here in yakitat as all these isolated cities are but couldn't really have too much fun here as the passengers already started boarding uh oh man that looks like a nice place to stay the yakita lodge seattle we want to thank you for being mindful of others maintaining social distance by finding your seat this was probably the only town that i didn't have service which sucked a little bit but at once everybody boarded the agent came through once again to make sure everybody who's there supposed to be there and then she left and the stairs pushed back and we are about to head to juneau the capital of alaska one final thing about yakitat as we head back to runway 11 is it's actually one of the wettest cities in the us along with ketchikan which will be the last stop on the milk run but yeah so this weather you're seeing right here is extremely unusual which just made this trip so much better and we're off to juneau which is also about a 30-minute flight all three of these flights are a very similar length unlike what will come tomorrow so let's enjoy this last flight today over to the capitol and as a reminder [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so so our approach today is for runway 8 at jnu we'll be passing over glacier bay followed by gustavus then the icy passage funtur bay state marine park the favorite channel followed by alkay bay before finally turning and landing into jnu now obviously the milk run is a big treat for af geeks like myself but really it's a necessity for the people of these small towns because they are isolated that you cannot drive here from canada or the mainland and the only way in or out is by ship or plane so it is an extremely important part of these alaskan towns along the coast now this approach is probably my favorite of the entire milk run so i hope you enjoyed some of the views and it'll just get better if you've noticed just a few seconds ago we passed by a glacier which is named mendenhall glacier which you might find in a lot of alaskan cruise books because it's a very popular tourist attraction here in juneau and i was actually supposed to visit it in may on a cruise here but obviously the c word ruined that and this time i had to go again so very soon you will see mendenhall glacier welcome to juno the local time is 6 pm please keep your keyboards on our pilots will turn off the seatbelt sign when it's safe to get up please leave your things where they are until you've reached the gate if your phone is close you could take it out of airplane mode thank you for flying alaska airlines tonight we hope to see you again soon stay safe out there [Music] i cannot leave this plane without mentioning the crew who were absolutely amazing on this flight with your video thank you as you see they were incredibly gracious and allowing me to film some different shots throughout the different towns and throughout the plane and i just have to say thank you so much and the next crew was also really up there as you will soon see so that will conclude part one of the alaska milk run that flight will now be going down to seattle tomorrow i'll be going to petersburg wrangle and ketchikan before also hitting seattle but now i'm going to head to my hotel and to mendenhall glacier and to check out some of this beautiful town so stick around [Music] so [Music] [Music] and welcome to mendenhall glacier and nugget falls if you do come here on a cruise or vacation you definitely have to go to the falls it is not that far of a walk i would recommend some good shoes and do bring a jacket the glacier you can also go inside of it but you do need a guide and most of the things were closed here including that visitor center up there now an interesting story about me getting here and leaving here i actually took the only lyft driver in town there was no service here so i called him back he gave me his number and i waited here as the night started to come for a good you know hour and i was starting to get pretty nervous there were some very kind folks that offered to take me back to my hotel but i declined because i thought this guy seemed very legit so and he did actually come but i was sitting around a bear yeah those two people saw a bear so i was sitting in alaska with a brown bear nearby for an hour waiting for this guy oh but anyway the next day here we are back at juno airport and about to head on part two of the milk room i am already checked in for my flights but i still like to print a boarding pass and especially for this trip i just can't go without printing out a milk on boarding pass it is a very simple process as usual so five stars i love the local flavor inside of juno's airport they you gotta put the brown bears and the polar bears because it's so that's what they're known for after just going through security we now enter the air side six gate concourse that's it and i decided to head over here to the tavern to uh have a nice sandwich a drink and of course plain spot [Music] here's an alaska air cargo 737 700 heading down to seattle of all places here's a coastal helicopter coming in from probably some glacier or mountain and there goes the air cargo plane off to sea tech behind that is another 737 700 this being the northern bound milk run heading up to anchorage and coming from petersburg juno is also a big seaplane base and alaska seaplanes is kind of just like the coastal helicopters they go to some pretty remote and weird interesting places and now i'm heading to my gate which is gate 2. we won't be boarding soon but my plane will be arriving very shortly there goes the northern bound milk run pushing back and now taxiing off for anchorage and there is my 737 700 which just came down from anchorage it is n614as which is a 21 year old plane built in december 1999. and the time has come it's now time for milk run part two now during these days uh alaska does board from back to front to promote social distancing and welcome aboard alaska 737 700 on this plane you'll find 12 first class seats up front configured 3-3 across followed by 18 premium seats which are the first three rows behind first class and the exit rows and finally 94 economy seats to fill the rest of the plane all configured three three across the cabin definitely feels older as it should the overhead bins are uh normal size and you got the classic 737 overhead controls the seat back has a literature pouch up top with the safety card inside legroom is pretty good on alaska and economy there's also a small netted pouch below for your personal items a universal power outlet and a usb port at every seat the arm rests do have a recline button and are kind of small but the seats do have adjustable headrests and they are quite comfortable also found on the seat back is an ipad holder or phone holder which is kind of the replacement for the ptvs and just like that we're ready to push back for petersburg we're happy to have you with us today captain martin and first officer david and corey and with me are jenny and martin safety is our highest priority we appreciate your attention while we share some important safety information safety information right in front of you it shows what to do in the unlikely event of an emergency all right and we're off to russia no not saint petersburg petersburg alaska i mentioned earlier that tourism is big here in juneau which it definitely is uh fishing would also be the other big economy here in juneau along with various government jobs but downtown juno which i haven't shown yet but you will see soon is located at the base of mount juno with a population of around 32 000 and now here we go off to petersburg god [Music] so [Music] and so we continue our trek south juno to petersburg is about another 30 minute flight and we are now cruising along at just 16 875 feet but i think as you can see the weather is even better today than it was yesterday it is just incredible so as we approach petersburg airport will be landing on runway 5 from the west which means we have to circle around and come on in that way now petersburg itself has roughly a population less than 3 000 and is again largely involved in the fishing industry which is home to icicle seafoods actually specifically petersburg fisheries it's located halfway in between juno and ketchikan which means our next stop will be a very short flight and the town of petersburg is located here on the north end of the midkoff island something that you'll come to notice if you do the milk run or maybe you notice here already a lot of these small shack ports have very short runways and so there's not a whole lot of room to you know glide and have a nice landing um so they're all rough and so welcome to petersburg airport uh just like the last time when everybody deplaned we got to have the chance to go up and stretch and move around and i just have to say this crew again was tremendous uh they let me to get some shots here outside the plane and i just have to say there's something about just even stepping out onto this stairway you're in the middle of nowhere basically and if you're used to being in the mainland like me i mean this is just crazy seeing mountains everywhere around you and basically just a little shack thanks one of the flight attendants his name's martin and you'll come to see you later he's he's one of the best flight attendants i've ever had uh he passed out alaskan glacier water to the entire cabin whoever wanted it which is really nice and you can see the people are starting to come and once everybody was on board the door closed the stairs moved away we'd like to uh walk through the continuation and the safety demonstration has started with the flight attendants and the engines start up again and we will be off to wrangle next which will only be a 15 minute flight this is definitely the shortest flight i'm about to go on just hopped on runway 23 here in petersburg and will be taking off in the direction that we came from so off we go to wrangle so [Music] [Music] 15 minutes and guess what yeah we're already descending into wrangle i mean i swear we only cruised at probably a couple thousand feet it definitely seemed like that but anyways our approach into wrangle airport this afternoon will take us over the eastern passage which we're over right now and we are now on final four runway 28. ladies and gentlemen good afternoon and welcome to the wrangle the local time here is 3 31 pm as we taxi over to our game please remain seated and keep your seat belts on when it comes to get up power plastic once again folks welcome to wrangle hope you have a great rest of your day if you are continuing on thanks for watching after we finish your planning here we will begin 40 process right away thank you and welcome to wrangle alaska with a population of around 2 300 people it is located on the northern tip of wrangle island and what a surprise fishing is the biggest industry here as well the flight attendant just asked all of us to close our window blinds but yeah i gotta film here in rango i just decided to stay in my seat this time wait out the new passengers and wait for them to board now alaska does block middle seats during the seaward outbreak but i did have two empty seats next to me for the majority of these flights which was really nice right now ketchikan is clear and uh temperature is 71 degrees catch again and with the stairs moving back we're ready for ketchikan it'll be about another 15-20 minute flight so very short which means low altitude which means good scenery so let's head over to ketchikan and airplanes are secured we're happy to have you with with us and hope you enjoy our 23-minute turning back onto the runway now we actually will have to taxi down it all the way to the start of 28 where we landed on as you can see turn around and then take off for ketchikan and as i said earlier with the hard landings it's the same with takeoffs every takeoff on the milk run is pretty much a max force takeoff even if you're not filled because they're so short which is obviously awesome for f geeks [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and after a 23-minute flight this time just a little bit longer than last we're landing here on to runway 29 here in ketchikan welcome to hitchcamp for the local timers 450. just keep your seatbelts on our playlist we'll turn off the seatbelt plan to get up if you are continuing on a slice so here in ketchikan since they have a secure terminal alaska gives you the option to de-plane and head inside the terminal for a bit which i obviously had to and before i left the entire flight crew including the pilots recommended to me jalapeno popcorn here in ketchikan says it's ketchikan's specialty they say so i had to go to this one shop which i actually met the pilot there and we got jalapeno popcorn together walking around this airport it kind of reminds me of juno just a bit but a little smaller and one big notable difference between the two is ketchikan has a inter island ferry an airport to city ferry that leaves from gravina island or revelation island and it crosses the tan gas narrows channel with passengers and vehicles and here's an alaska 737 800 coming in from seattle and we'll head back down there tomorrow morning i picked up some soup along with the popcorn and now we'll be heading back to my aircraft for the last leg of the milk run any other way shortly on flight time today for one hour and 40 minutes once you get our problem against your arrival time as well as you just heard the captain this will be an hour and 40 minute flight which is the longest and let me just say once you get up there to you know the normal cruising altitude of planes it feels pretty weird after you know cruising down at a couple thousand feet for multiple flights and them being only 15 to 30 minutes as i've been saying in every town that we visit here on the alaska milk run they're all involved in the commercial fishing industry and ketchikan is no exception some other facts about ketchikan it has the world's largest collection of standing totem poles was named after ketchikan creek which runs through the city and has a population of about 8 200 people so i definitely need to come back here but for now off we go to seattle my life [Music] so [Music] all right and now for the moment of truth let's find out if these jalapeno popcorn from ketchikan is worth the craze from the flight crew [Music] and the verdict they are excellent definitely worth a try if you get to ketchikan airport shortly into the flight the flight attendants came by with the cabin service which as i said at the beginning is the only segment of this milk run that they give you a service and i got a vancouver napkin this time they always give you a napkin from one of their destinations i also got a biscoff cookie and a small can of coke just about halfway through the flight and we're now passing by the same coastal mountains but these are part of canada towards the end of this flight i actually went to the back of the plane and to the other side of the plane also and get some other shots and i ended up talking with martin boy was he he's definitely one of the best flight attendants i've ever had and he actually sent me some footage here for the video so enjoy [Music] [Music] [Music] as we approach seatac airport's runway 34 left i can't help but recollect about what just occurred over the past two days not only is the milk run vital to these small alaskan coastal communities who are cut off from the rest of the world by roads but it's just such a treat for any enthusiast whether it is for aviation or winter sports or hiking fishing whatever floats your boat alaska is truly the last frontier and is one of the most beautiful places i've ever visited and the milk run is by far the best aviationy experience i've had thus far thankfully in all caps the weather was on my side so i got to really have a full effect that the milk run disposes upon you but even if you do come like during the normal dreary rainy weather i'm sure you'd still get some feeling of how awesome this set of flights really is this beautiful seattle sunset though uh and the fact that i had two amazing crews and a special shout out to martin honestly just topped it off and like i said in anchorage was the icing on the cake for this trip hopefully the alaska milk run sticks around for another 90 years and more i know i will definitely be back oh ladies and gentlemen good evening and welcome to seattle the local time here is 8 26 p.m hey guys as we taxi to our game please remain seated and keep your seat belts on when it's safe to get up the fellas around that seatbelt on behalf of the entire crew tonight two pallets up front two or three of us in the cabin i would like to thank you for playing with us today and we hope to see you again soon awesome thanks so much welp i really hope you guys enjoyed this short film today and thanks so much like i said in the beginning i will be uploading each segment of this wonderful trip separately in the full flight video format with subtitles and the natural sound i ended up getting over four hours of footage that i had to condense for this video so you'll be sure to see some things i wasn't able to include here but again thank you so much for watching and catch you guys on the next one [Music] you

Channel: thejazzguy13 Aviation

Views: 62,362

Keywords: Alaska Milk Run, Alaska Airlines, Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport, Seattle Tacoma International Airport, Cordova Airport, Yakutat Airport, Petersburg Airport, Wrangell Airport, Juneau International Airport, Ketchikan Airport, Anchorage to Seattle, Alaska B737-900ER, Alaska, Alaska B737-700, airports, airplanes, flights, travel, milk run, trip report, full flight, thejazzguy13 Aviation, aviation, 737, Anchorage, Seattle, ANC, SEA, CDV, JNU, YAK, PSG, WRG, KTN

Id: lXq_ReFYhDM

Length: 65min 7sec (3907 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 31 2020