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Over the weekend I got Kat to watch Trainspotting as it was on one of the movie channels, hence the (not very) inspired title This past weekend we were completely weathered in with soft wet snow falling from Friday evening until late Sunday evening, and then warm weather up around 30-35F has caused quite a lot of snow to melt making walking across the tundra a challenge as you don’t know if the top layer is solid or you’re going to sink to your knees in soft snow! Keeps Mia entertained though.

But, this afternoon I got up to the airport as couple of planes came in after being on weather hold most of the morning. First up, Grant Aviation just as I was getting to the airport:

I was pretty happy (in a sad + anorak-y way…) as I thought it was a plane I’d seen a few months ago but turned out to be grey + blue, not white + blue Gives me another plane I can repaint in flight simulator (more on that later).

Just as the Grant plane had taken off, I let Mia run down on the river and heard another plane coming in so I was already down on the bank as it came in to land:

This time it was Yute Air, who had remarkably been on weather hold in Bethel. Guess it must have been *really* bad to keep Yute grounded Anyway, it was another plane I hadn’t seen before so was pretty happy as I’d wanted to catch the yellow peril for a while!

I hung around whilst the pilot hauled out a stack of boxes for the store and then loaded up five passengers and got a video of him taxing and taking off (these guys don’t exactly follow all taxi and pre-takeoff checks, or at least gloss over them very quickly!):

But, I got the new graphics card for my desktop PC a couple of days ago and it’s fantastic. I’ve already mailed in the rebate forms which will bring it down to $65, and having used pretty poor graphics cards in the past and then a 6 year old laptop the past 15 months, the jump to the 256Mb nVidia GEForce 8600GT is massive! I’ve got all graphics and scenery details to maximum in Flight Simulator 2004 and it looks a world apart to flying previously. I’m also pretty sure it will run the newer Flight Simulator X, so I might pick that up over the summer.

The past few weeks I’ve also slowly been repainting the Cessna 207 and 208 aircraft for Yute Air, Grant Aviation and Hageland Aviation along with working out their schedules to put into flight sim. It’s pretty cool seeing Bethel airport come alive with the small airlines and having planes flying into the villages around here, just wish there was a way I could add a random element to reflect that their schedules just show *where* they’re flying on any given day, and the times don’t mean a thing!

I’d gone for a walk along the river with Mia this afternoon, and when I got to the airport Arctic Transportation Services had just flown in so I spent a while checking out their plane I’d never been there to see what ATS fly and I was curious after catching Arctic Circle’s Skyvan last year - the pilot said ATS mainly use the Casa C212’s, this one being the C212-200:

The guys were friendly as they were unloading, mainly as Mia did her usual trick of acting cute until people gave her attention. Nice plane though, and about the same kinda size and cargo capacity as the Skyvan’s.

It uses the same engine as the Skyvan’s so also has reverse thrust (as with most large prop-driven aircraft) which makes for pretty cool maneuvering on the ground. The Cessna 207’s have to give it a bunch of power whilst left or right wheel braking to easily turn the aircraft on the ground - the Casa 212 can engage reverse thrust by changing the angle of the propeller to allow the aircraft to reverse like a car.

It was pretty warm down on the river and around the airport at 5F (-15C), but a strong wind brought the windchill to -15F (-26C) as I walked back home which wasn’t much fun. We hurried back as there were a couple of Amazon boxes being dropped off for me at home - I ordered a PC case after resigning myself to the fact I’d be spending $70 shipping on a $30 case But, it looks really good, has a quiet PSU (which I’m not convinced will do the job as with most cheap PSU’s included with a case like this), and means I don’t have to rely on my dying Medion laptop from 2002 for flight sim anymore

This afternoon I took Marie + Pam to the airport as they’re heading into Anchorage for the 3-day Spring break at school. I told them if they forgot my Subways I wouldn’t pick them up on Sunday But, I hadn’t seen this Cessna 208B Grand Caravan that Grant Aviation have before - looks pretty good for a bush plane, though it is ‘only’ 10 years old!

After school, Nick wanted to go out ptarmigan hunting and asked me to join him. An hour and a half or trawling round the tundra and we only saw one flock of four birds which scattered on the first shot. But, ever heard the myth that if you drop your gun in the snow and get it down the barrel it will explode when you fire it? Mythbusters didn’t do a very good job claiming it’s can’t happen as it did!

Nick dropped his shotgun off his snowmobile and packed snow down the barrel, then after cleaning the snow out he held it at arm’s reach and fired it, and sure enough the end of barrel just splinted like in cartoons when a cork is pushed in the barrel of a gun! Thankfully he was okay as the pieces didn’t break off much and he held it far enough way, but I’d guess the metal barrel must have frozen with the snow packed in it for a few minutes, so when the gun was fired and the heat travelled down it caused the metal to expand quickly and just plain broke. Easy enough to replace, but still a bit extreme!

We’re both convinced we saw a wolf a few miles out the village too. Was far too big to be a fox and was grey coloured compared to the red/brown of a fox, and as we tried to chase it down and came across it’s tracks, they definately weren’t fox tracks. Wouldn’t imagine a dog would be that far out the village, and heading out, or would dart off so quickly when it heard our engines, but the locals do talk about wolves in the area, just none real confirmed sightings. Would have looked cool riding back into the village dragging a wolf behind us!

Anyway, I’m painting tables for the next two days at school…

I love airplanes anyways, so usually crane my neck out the window or turn on my scanner to listen in, but today the sky has been abuzz with bush planes (and the larger ATS cargo plane twice - still not sure exactly what it is) flying in + out. I think we’ve only had two planes in the past week as there was either heavy snow falling or freezing fog meaning none of the airlines were flying. I dunno, some days seemed like perfect weather for Yute Air… Still, hopefully we should actually have some mail today. Simple things please you when you live out here

It’s about -4F (-20C) this afternoon, so I pulled on the snowpants, jacket and big mittens and took the snowmobile out for a ride. There hasn’t been that much more snow, so it was still pretty bumpy, but not as bad as last week. I was also a bit more confident in the snowmobile itself, and once the engine warmed up it ran nicely. I’m still waiting on the new spark plugs which is a bit annoying as at low revs it still has problems and cut out at the start of the ride a couple of miles out of the village which would have left me with a none too pleasant walk back, but after checking things over, there was air in the choke. A local out chopping wood had stopped to help too, so is nice to know that at least if something does happen, so long as you’re on one of the main trails you shouldn’t be alone too long.

This was up by the new airport - there’s still a ton of machinery up there, and some weird metal grill contraption running about half the length of the runway. Not quite sure what it is, but don’t think there’s too much more work to be done next summer to get it operational. There were also snowmobile tracks on the river at the end of the runway, but I decided not to try it and swung back across the to of the village instead! It’s still going to be a hairy landing depending on the wind as you’re going to be coming in low right over the river like you do know, but at least the runway is slightly longer - at the moment you’ve got the river waiting at the other of the runway too! When I’d dropped Kat + Pam off a couple of weeks ago when they flew to Bethel, I was speaking with Lincoln up there who was telling me the original runway from the 1950’s was built by the locals with shovels and pickaxes, and had a bend in the middle as it followed the river bank! He said there were one or two ‘incidents’ were the pilots didn’t quite get the bend right coming in to land

But, schools breaks up on Friday and Kat’s looking forward to a bit of a rest! They have a Christmas program tomorrow at school with each class doing a short piece, but other than that they’re just trying to keep the kids from getting too hyper!

So I should have been sitting in Anchorage right about now. As it is, I’m sat at home. Three Yute flights came into the village this evening - the agent in village, Ed, didn’t let me know about any of them. No excuse as to why, nor an apology, but then he called at 7.45p.m letting me know another flight was coming in ten minutes. This was an hour after checking with Yute and being told no more flights were coming this evening before we asked for a manager to rip someone a new one (when the power then conveniently cut out in the village again). Leaving at 8.05p.m for a 8.30p.m flight out of Bethel wasn’t terribly useful anymore. Given the $75 per segment charge from Alaska Air just for making changes to the itinerary, plus a night’s B&B in Bethel, was looking at $350 even before they started charging extra for the flights themselves since I was travelling on air miles meaning limited choice of flights to start with. I would also have been charged $75 for canceling. Will have to see if I get charged for simply not showing up. Getting weathered in during the winter is one thing, and Alaska Air were very accommodating when that happened at Christmas and didn’t charge for adjusting the flights (even though ironically it was Ed that screwed up getting us onto the last flight for two days), but when the man paid to provide airline support in the village doesn’t even bother telling you the flights are coming in + out is another. $230 wasted on booking flights and no checking flight schools in an effort to get away from here. No food for the next week either since I was meant to bring a load back from the lower 48. If Ed doesn’t get kicked in the head clean off his 4-wheeler next time I see him he should consider himself a very, very lucky man.

I’m flying down to Carson City in a couple of hours, whenever the plane from Tunt to Bethel arrives! It’s a Sunday, so probably even further off normal schedule than usual With a couple of hours layover in Anchorage and then in Seattle, should get into Reno around 10.15a.m tomorrow which isn’t all that bad. Made sure I got seats on the Anchorage - Seattle flight well away from the wings to minimise engine noise so I can get some sleep.

On Tuesday I’m due to visit the National Pilot Academy in Carson City, pretty much the main reason I’m heading to the lower 48. I’ve wanted to fly since I was a kid having looked at both the RAF and Navy whilst at high school, but the idea of x number of years military service blindly attacking potentially innocent targets appealed to me as much as the ridiculous cost of general aviation in England making flying out of my reach. The last year or so I’ve been looking into various flying schools across the US, and the National Pilot Academy looks to come out on top, especially given their location. That said, it’s still going to come down to whether I want to spend a few years sitting as a first officer on $20,000 a year not doing a great deal of flying myself with someone like SkyWest, or look at a part 135 operation like the bush flights up here. Both have their own appeals, but quite different approaches to getting there.

Anyway, hopefully everything will go fine on Tuesday and it will at least clear up whether the National Pilot Academy is definately a viable option. The deciding factor is still going to come down to the cost of training - although taking out a large educational loan doesn’t class as bad credit in terms of how much money you owe, the idea of easily looking at $300-$400 a month loan repayments whilst only making $1200 a month is just a little too crippling for the first few years. Although salaries do rise rapidly over time, any time you step into another airline the drop back right down the pay ladder is always a worry. Working as bush pilot up here in Alaska eases that somewhat by both Kat + I being on much higher salaries than in the lower 48, plus the experience of flying up here would be awesome.

But, I’ve setup a little tumblelog at fouldsy.tumblr.com which will let me post quick snippets and photos from my cell phone whilst away since I don’t know whether I’ll easily find internet connections.

Recent Snoopy comics (re-runs from the 50’s or 60’s I guess) have had Charlie Brown getting worried about chanting “Rain rain, go away, come again another day” and finding it suddenly stops raining. Could use him here Really is the wet season as it rarely goes a few hours without downpours. Our down-spout that connects into the water tank became blocked meaning we ran out of water Monday night even given all the rain. Dave and I had already spent 4 hours working outside in the rain on Tuesday so I just dragged the hoses out, got on with it, and filled our tank. I got the spouts cleared yesterday and the rain today has topped up the tank again. Just doesn’t look too good for getting much work done the next few days. Still, logged 28 hours the last couple of weeks which just about breaks $300! Mark has nick-named the sewer line “the Great Wall of Tunt”, and also informs me that it’s hurricane proof. The logic is that since there’s never been a hurricane destroy any of the buildings in Tunt, everything built up here is, by default, hurricane proof. I like that kinda of logic.

But, thanks to Shopzilla continuing their support of the blog with another year’s worth of advertising, and Alaska Air running a very bizarre mileage plan program, I’m heading down to Carson City / Lake Tahoe for a few days towards the end of October. Given the miles I have, I could transfer a few thousand from Kat and buy a few extra thousand to end up with Bethel to Reno round-trip for $235. I couldn’t fly Bethel to Anchorage for close to that! Kat and I are pretty much set on moving to Carson City next year along with Cris + Luke, and I need to check something out before we commit to a few things. More on that later Gives me an excuse to get out the village for a few days, and Joel has kindly offered to accompany me for a drink or two whilst down there…

So, flying out Sunday 21st October on the 8.30p.m flight gets me into Reno around 10.15a.m on Monday, then leaving again 10.45 Thursday morning into Bethel by 8p.m, giving me a night in Bethel and a few hours on Friday to get to the DMV in Bethel for a state ID card, then onto the bank to hopefully get an account open. Gives me something to look forward to whilst up to my knees in water + mud for the next few weeks if nothing else!

No problems on the flight to Bethel at lunchtime, and had plenty of time to pick up some groceries, pet food, and Subways Only had to hang around at Yute Air for an hour an a half as they left an hour earlier than scheduled since everyone was there and the plane loaded. So it ended up being only 23 hours round-trip

Think I’ve also found my new favourite website after picking up a link in Flying magazine - LiveATC.net. It’s been fun after getting a cheap $10 voltage converter to get my radio scanner from England working to listen in to the air traffic around here, but it’s not exactly constant transmissions as it’s mainly just picking up on Common Traffic Advisory Frequencies (CTAF) so is just short messages from pilots announcing their intentions to land at a certain airport or when taking off. LiveATC has feeds provided by people around the world connecting their scanners to the computers and broadcasting them across the Internet. Pretty cool listening to flowing traffic at Las Vegas or Seattle in real-time!

Made it to Anchorage - just have 10 hours or so to kill before getting a taxi to the social security office The power went out as I was waiting for the flight out of Tunt, but Ed helpfully came by to let me know it was coming in. Then went on to tell me how he went caribou hunting and after having shot two or three and started taking parts of the carcass back to the boat, when they returned, 3 of the legs they had removed from one of the caribou were missing. He’s also convinced there are signs of black or brown bear near the airport. Kinda adds a bit more emphasis to the idea of bears in the area, though I’d be amazed if they were coming that close to the village, even if they are desperate for food!

Anyways, I managed a good shot showing the width of the Kuskokwim - no idea the exact distances, but considering we’re flying at 1,200 feet, down at ground level you’d probably be hard pushed to figure out the far side of the river given it’s so flat:

I also remembered to keep my camera out on the flight from Bethel to Anchorage so have a few photos to put into the photo gallery at some point. Even given the $50,000+ worth of debt to cover flight training, 18+ months as a flight instructor, and a starting salary of around $20,000 as first officer for a local or regional airline, sitting in the left hand seat of a Boeing 737-400C on night’s like this would be worth it:

Maybe it’s just a pipe-dream…