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Alaskan journey takes flight from Vernon airport

Five single-engine aircraft will depart from the Vernon Airport at 9 a.m. Monday for a two-week Alaskan trip
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Dave McElroy is planning to head from Vernon to Alaska with four other pilots.

A high-flying adventure awaits some pilots.

Five single-engine aircraft will depart from the Vernon Airport at 9 a.m. Monday for a two-week Alaskan trip.

“What an opportunity for us,” said Dave McElroy, a member of the Vernon Flying Club who is organizing the trip.

The group, CanAlaska Squadron 2016, is comprised of pilots from Kelowna, Langley, Kamloops, Revelstoke and Windsor Ont. They will be joined in Fort Nelson by a sixth member from Yorkton, Sask.

The group will fly more than 8,000 kilometres as they cross northern B.C., the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alaska. They will stop along the Fraser, Mackenzie and Yukon rivers fly alongside the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

“There is nothing I saw when flying around the world which is grander than the scenery in Alaska and the Canadian far north: monstrous rivers and mountains, glaciers, the expanse of the tundra and frozen oceans,” said McElroy.

Members of the public can see the squadron off from the Vernon Airport at 9 a.m. Monday.