July 2, 4 and 5
(Flying With Travis)
There is so much more we could have seen in Alaska before
heading to Anchorage, but Travis told me it looked good for room on a trip if I
wanted to fly with him on Monday. I
wasn’t ready to head to Anchorage yet and had more to do, but I did want to get
on some trips with him if possible, so I thought we better head into Anchorage
on Sunday. One can get stuck for weeks
trying to get through the passes from the west if the weather is low, and it
appeared the pass we wanted to take was open and we headed for it. Talking with FSS and checking the wx cams was
a big help, and of course the Ipad with the GPS input showing me exactly where
I was on the sectionals was invaluable.
How they did it years ago with only a chart I don’t know, but I know I
would not have trusted it without someone showing me first. Flying the pass was a real highlight. There are many aircraft scattered through the
passes – even some DC-3’s and Convairs I am told, but it is easy to see why
because one must really know which valley to take and sometimes the right one
is not the bigger one that looks like it goes somewhere.
When I flew in Alaska in 1983 I flew out west mostly over
the tundra. It is miles and miles of
nothing higher than a bush over most of the tundra, and the few places there
are small hills are well known. Bush
flying in Alaska is different than flying in the lower 48, that’s for sure, but
even in Alaska flying in the tundra and flying out of Anchorage is as different
as night and day. They are two different
worlds, and a pilot who only works in one area feels completely out of place in
the other. Travis has flown in Alaska
for 3 years, and has been fortunate enough to have worked both areas – the
first years in the tundra and the last year or more in Anchorage flying the
mountainous areas. It was fun for me to
get to see that part of Alaska bush flying, which I had not experienced before. .
Travis was busy working until the week before they left, and
as it turned out it was good I came in when I did because I got to fly with him
on three different days – even on the last trip he made. I could tell he was sad to see it all come to
an end.
The first day we did a flight to Tatitlek and Chenego Bay,
which is a run Alaska Air Transport (who he works for) regularly. They run several flights a week there and do
scheduled seat fares to and from those villages as well as move mail and haul
supplies. It was interesting seeing the
connection the aircraft has for the village – that is their only personal tie
to the outside world, and at each of the two villages there were around 30 or
40 people to greet Travis and look for mail they were expecting, and/or pick up
the groceries or other supplies Travis had for them. Travis talked to them while unloading and
loading, but there wasn’t too much time to chit chat because the airplane is
kept busy most of the time and he must move on.
At the second village we ended up waiting for a few hours while the one
passenger did some work at the hospital.
They usually cannot wait, but in this case because of maintenance due
they could not return later, so we got to spend a few hours at the
village. We watched the commercial
fisherman in the harbor (about 15 big fishing boats) fishing the salmon run
coming into the bay, which was really interesting. They took a small boat and held the end of a
net while the big boat left out a large catch net maybe ¼ mile in a
circle. Than they hauled it in and at
the end dumped their catch into the boat.
It was fun watching. One could
also hear them yelling when they made a big haul. Travis tried some fishing too from the dock
with the fishing rod he brought, but didn’t get anything. We also saw a whale in the bay.
We ate lots of salmon, and they get tired of the salmon, but
it was great for us. They freeze and can
salmon each year.
The second trip I did Jolene went along as well and was to a
village in the interior, and the third trip I went on was to Middleton Island,
which is a small island out in the ocean.
There are many old WWII military facilities scattered throughout the
state, as we saw on this island, but today we took a Fish and Wildlife person
out to study birds and also took in supplies and mail for their camp. From
there we went to Yakatut on the coast and it was extremely windy and
gusty. It was pouring rain thoughout
most of the trip, and landing a Navajo on the soggy grass strip after a fly-by
seemed like a handful. It was quite soft
on the take-off but the winds were blowing right down the runway, and after
getting bounced around a bunch we headed to Chenega Bay for his last stop of
his career with AAT. It proved to be a
good one. They have company routes to
get into all these places with strict rules to follow. At each point they have a visual aid to
continue and descend to a certain altitude.
The visibility was poor and it was interesting to observe the
procedure. We got to 500 feet above the
water and could continue as he found the next point he needed to continue. It was right on their company minimums and we
were hugging the one hill so if he started losing visibility he could turn
around and go back and wait or return to Anchorage. We didn’t have much reserve fuel to wait and
make another attempt, so he needed to go back to base if he couldn’t get in
this time. He was talking and showing me
each point on the way in and when we rounded the last turn there was the
airstrip in front of us, and then his last decision before landing was making
sure he could turn in the go around if required, and the ceiling was low over
the mountain but he could see enough of the mountain to make the decision and
we landed in pouring rain and taxied back.
From the smile on his face I think it must have felt rewarding to be
able to complete the mission in those conditions on the last trip he was
scheduled to fly. It allowed me to see
again what it takes to make a good Alaskan Bush Pilot J. When we returned and he landed at Merrill
Field for the last time I was glad I could share this last flight with him,
especially with the challangeing conditions he had to work with. When we returned I noticed he put in a
transponder code and when he called in they came back with “radar contact – fly
the Campbell arrival” and that was all that needed to be said. Each based aircraft there has a discreet
code, so when they dial in the code ATC already knows who they are and where
they are based etc. This is all VFR –
they do not like to use IFR more than they have to because it jams everything
up, of course.
I also got to talk with the owners of Travis’s company. Dan and Josie own and run the company and they
seemed like great people to work for.
They had lunch and a cake for him on his last day, and I could tell they
will miss him and he will miss them. Dan
was a 777 Captain for United and after the pensions were taken away, he got fed
up, quit, and moved to Alaska to fly. In
the end he bought the company he was working for. As I mentioned before aviation in Alaska is
different in many ways from other places, but Dan and Josie run a pretty tight
ship and are very safety conscious and never push the pilots to take flights,
and also are adamant that the dispatchers do not try to do the same. It is a cut throat business, and of course if
you don’t take the flight someone else will, but they don’t let that influence
them, so it was good to hear that. ROGER
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| Typical Load Including Propane Tanks |
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| The Final Landing in Alaska - (for now anyway) |
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| Getting Ready to Head In To Find the Village Strip |
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| Looks Like an Easy Trip - No Low Clouds Today |
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| Some of the Scenery Along the Way |
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| Need to Get Down Through This - Over the Water Of Course |
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| Flight Track on The Bulletin Board Showing Someone Making Several Attempts Before Getting In. |
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| Takes Some Work To Strap Down Sometimes |
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| People at The Village Waiting For Mail, Groceries and/or a Passenger |
