Flying Wild Alaska – A day in my life
Traveling around Alaska with my job I have the pleasure/pain of flying all over the state in various aircraft. Most days I have an early morning departure from the main Anchorage airport, Ted Stevens International Airport flying Alaska Airlines from my base in Anchorage to one of several ‘hub’ airports. It has been from the southern end of the Alaska in Ketchikan, Sitka, or Juneau to the “island”; Kodiak or out to the delta area of western Alaska to Bethel or Dillingham. For my trips farther north it has been to Fairbanks, Barrow or Kotzebue in the arctic regions of the state.
Once I arrive in a hub airport I go over to one of several smaller carriers which are the typical “bush” plane operations which may use both float planes and more conventional small aircraft. Some carriers use turbine engine planes which carry more passengers or more cargo depending on the pilot’s mission for that particular flight. Most days the pilot will make multiple flights either bringing people in and out with whatever cargo they have or they fill the plane with cargo of all sorts to take into the villages. Cargo can range from the necessities of food, medicine, and parts to fix things to supplies for building things or items for the local ‘store’, items like diapers, food, clothing, and much, much more. I have seen everything including the kitchen sink being flown into the villages.
Discovery Channel has a program running now called “FlyingWild Alaska” which follows the Tweto family who own Era Aviation and the pilots who fly for them. It is entertaining and gives a unique look at life in rural Alaska. Check it out on your cable on the Discovery Channel. My work allows me to fly with many of the ‘bush’ pilots that fly in & out of these small remote villages. Some are featured on the show and yesterday I had two flights from Kotzebue with one of them, Sarah Fraher. Yes she is a female pilot and well qualified flying in all sorts of weather.
My day started out driving to the airport in medium snowfall leaving my house at 4 in the morning. Anchorage was rather pretty with the lights all over the place as I drove through downtown on the way to the airport. Town Park aglow in lights with the falling snow was quite the sight.
Alaska Air left on time for Kotzebue and as we climbed to altitude the pilot came on briefly to give us the weather in Kotz and what was expected when we arrived. Other than that it was a pretty quiet flight up allowing those who wanted to sleep to have that time. Our approach to land had us flying out over Norton Sound landing to the East on runway 9. Making the approach over the water you cannot see any lights or objects until you are making the touchdown, then it is a blur of blowing snow as the 737 jet reverses engines to stop the plane. Very few landings in Alaska are what would typically be found elsewhere (Lower 48) as the runways are narrow and shorter than most so many flights will use the engine reverse thrust mode after landing to quickly slow the plane. Many people here refer to them as “carrier” landings since it seems like with the quick stop it is similar to the cable landings on an aircraft carrier.
There were seven people from my company flying to Selawik to look at several projects going on or in the design stage for a future project. We headed from the terminal across the parking lot to the Era flight operations to check in for our flight to the native village of Selawik. Our pilot this morning was Sarah and we were flying in a Cessna 208B Caravan.
It was blowing snow and about 18 degrees outside with the wind blowing about 25 knots. It was dark (this area of Alaska only has about an hour and a half of daylight this time of year) and the flight over to Selawik was uneventful as we were loaded with eight on board and also the left side of the airplane’s seats were removed and was filled floor to ceiling with boxes for the store in Selawik which had not received any freight in over two weeks due to weather. Sarah and other bush pilots would ferry 5 or 6 more flights of cargo this day before we were to be picked up at 5:30 pm for our flight back to Kotzebue and the Alaska Air flight back to Anchorage.
We landed and were met by one of our water plant operators who drove one of us who recently had hip surgery just over a mile to the water plant. The rest of us walked in the early morning snowfall. We decided to walk across the river instead of climbing up and over the “Rainbow Bridge” which crosses from the airport area to the main village.
Walking across fresh snow and the blowing drifts were much like being on sand dunes except here at times you may sink up to your knees or more in places. It can make for a tiring walk and quickly show you how out of shape you are. Between trips to the airport and to inspect various areas where the different projects were being worked on I would guess I had walked about 5 miles in the somewhat deep snow. It was a good workout for sure.
The village was lit up nicely in several places with Christmas lights and a few trees could be seen in some of the houses which was nice to see in what one would think of a far away place. We broke into several groups where the design team started doing their work in the water plant, the construction group we inspected the work that had been accomplished before the holiday break and also attended meetings with the City and the Tribal administrations giving them updates on work completed, what was coming right after the new year and also future projects that had recently been funded scheduled for next summer.
We came out of the City meeting around 12:40 pm just in time to “see the sun rise” and by the time we returned from looking at the utilidor project on the island the sun was setting about an hour later.
It was a busy day but everyone worked well in achieving all our goals for the day and we headed to the airport but the snowfall had increased and the wind was blowing about 45 to 50 knots feeling like little darts hitting you in the face as you walked towards the wind.
The runway had about 4 inches of fresh snow when the plane landed. It was Sarah returning with a plane full of cargo and she told us our plane had turned back due to weather. If we wanted to get out of the village tonight to have our baggage ready to load once the freight was off loaded so she could get back into the air as quickly as possible as the runway almost had too much snow without it being plowed to take off again. She used a short field technique to get the plane airborne quickly and out of the dense snow on the runway. The snowplow could not keep up with it between the flights that had come and gone bringing in much needed supplies to the village.
The hour flight back to Kotzebue was a rough bumpy ride. The conditions were deteriorating and Sarah was concerned that icing would build up on the wings as she kept turning the landing lights on and off every few minutes to check to see what was building up on the wings. As we approached the airport there were several planes flying toward the same point and as the blinking strobe lights in the darkness danced about it looked like we may all meet or cross paths. I knew everyone was talking with each other on the radio and were all lining up for their landing approach but several of the people with me were not sure what was going on and you could see heads bobbing back and forth as they tried to look at the strobe lights on the other aircraft and figure out exactly where they were in the darkness in relation to our position.
All of the aircraft made their approaches and landed safely but there was laughter and story telling as each tried to explain what they thought was happening. Concern for some, a pretty light show for others and a couple people oblivious to it all trying to grab a quick nap since it had and was continuing to be a long day.
There was no time to grab a meal before our Alaska Air flight landed so it was another no meal night for the return home to Anchorage. This was also a “Combi” flight which is a 737 with cargo pods up front with only the rear half of the cabin for passengers. This meant no first class upgrades for anyone of us so a pack of pretzels and coffee or cola was all that was on the dinner menu tonight.
The flight home has a stop over in Nome from Kotzebue so there is the delay sitting there while they off load passengers and then swap cargo pods and then board the new people going to Anchorage. We landed about 11:45 pm in another heavy snowfall making the walk from the plane to the terminal building both cold and interesting as everyone walked across the tarmac from the rear of the plane steps to the building.
Total effort for the day = leave the house at 4 am
Two Alaska Airlines 737 Combi flights
Two Era Cessna 208B flights
Two ATV rides in the village
½ of a Quizznos sandwich (gave the other half to one who left her food on a seat in Kotzebue)
2 – bottles of water
1 – bottle of Coca Cola
1 – Nutty Bar
2 – snack bags of pretzels
Anchorage – Kotzebue – Selawik – Kotzebue – Nome Anchorage
Arrive Anchorage = 11:45 pm
Arrive home after slow ride in beautiful snowfall = 12: 35 am
Total work day = 20 hours 35 minutes
Are we having fun yet?
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