About 15 years ago, the Alaska Airmen's Association and local pilots pioneered a VFR route in the remote regions between their state and Russia, just across the Bering Sea. The route was completed in 2001, but it's challenging, and nobody has flown it in about 10 years. That changed last month, when Marshall Severson and Dan Billman, who both live in Alaska, completed the trip. Severson, 62, retired last year as an FAA flight services manager, and Billman, 66, works for the FAA as asafety program manager, according to the Alaska Dispatch News. Both pilots had worked on the original project to create the route. They prepared for three months before making the flight, according to the newspaper, and said their expenses equaled roughly the cost of "a month onthesunny Mediterranean."
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/ga-pilots-fly-alaska-to-russia-route