There's been a lot of "negative energy" on the site in the past couple of weeks, even the suggestion to talk about the female anatomy feel short so I thought I'd try and lighten things up my sharing a story. I call it "loaded for bear". I hope you enjoy it.

Loaded for Bear

It seemed like a simple enough task; chase the large silver-tip grizzly away from the camps garbage pit. At least the task seemed simple enough to the foreman who merely had to delegate the job to someone else. The trouble was, he always saved these sorts of tasks for the last person(s) who screwed up, and more often than not, that was Johnny and I, and so it came as no surprise when we were assigned the task of ridding the camp of the bear.

Now that we had to do the job the challenge began to come into sharper focus, we had no trucks or cars, no guns, and a very limited amount of courage. Clearly what we needed was a plan.

I’m getting a little ahead of myself here because you are no doubt wondering where is this guy and why is there a grizzly in his camp? Well the year was 1969 and I was working on Alaska’s North Slope. I was part of a large team trying to determine where the best places to drill for oil were located. The state of Alaska was opening the Slope up for drilling and would soon be leasing the drilling rights to vast tracks of land to the highest bidder. The oil companies were all in a mad rush to determine what land they should bid on. To determine where the oil was located, survey teams would go out and stake what was known as a “shot line”. Portable drilling rigs would be airlifted in by helicopter and a series of holes would be dug at regular intervals along the shot line. Then an explosives crew would fill the hole with a specific charge size while seismographic transducers would be spread out over a wide area. Cables from the transducers would run back to a centrally located, air delivered shack (think high tech camper slung in by helicopter). When everything was connected up and folks were clear the charge would be detonated.

Shock waves travel at different speeds depending on what they pass through.. By “mapping” the area below the surface the oil company geologist were able to ascertain the most likely spots that oil would be found. This data was a closely guarded secret and would be used to acquire the best possible drilling sites. When I say closely guarded I mean it; it wasn’t all that uncommon to have aircraft fired upon if they wandered to close to a competitor’s site and there was always an undercurrent of mistrust and hostility between the companies. Companies doing this included British Petroleum, Chevron, Texaco and others. I was working for Columbia Helicopters who was under contract to Geophysical Services Inc who was under contract to Texaco.

Our base camp was a gravel strip known as Kad River which was about 40 miles east of Deadhorse and about 5 miles inland from the Beaufort Sea. The camp consisted of a half dozen sleds with tents erected on them (our living quarters) a cook shack, a generator shack and a metal outhouse/shower facility. There was a gravel helipad, bladder bags used to hold Jet A and a maintenance tent. The only other features were the garbage pit, a small NDB for non-precision approach guidance and a powder shed by the river. There were no roads, trees, permanent structures, telephones, TV’s, radio stations, women or booze. The camp routine was work, eat, sleep, repeat.

As so it came to pass that one morning we awoke and there, sitting in the middle of the garbage pit, was the biggest damn bear I’ve ever seen. It seemed perfectly content to be there and did not seem to be the least bit bothered by all of us some hundred yards away.

The boss said “it’s gotta go” and selected Johnny and I for the task (it’s a whole ‘nother story about what we had screwed up which qualified us for this “special” assignment).

Johnny was ex French Air force and a remarkably talented pilot. We quickly hit upon the idea of “herding” the bear from the air. We reasoned you can herd cattle why not a bear?

So we fired up our bird (we were flying a Fairchild/Hiller FH-1100, which was one of the losing entries in the Army’s LOACH program; Hughes won the design with their model 500) and took off.

We buzzed the bear from about 50’. It just sat there. Johnny got lower & lower and pretty soon we were eye-ball to eye-ball with the bear; that got its attention and it began to walk away. Johnny kept on him and pretty soon the bear is running. We experiment; we can herd him to the left, we can herd him to the right, we can make him go forward and we can make him go backward. Hey, this is kinda fun; and then, like a bolt out of the blue it hit us “why not chase the bear through the Chevron camp?” Those Chevron guys were always kinda pissy anyway. Besides, we wouldn’t leave the bear there, we’d just run it through their camp (you’re probably beginning to see why Johnny and I were always on the boss’s shit list).

So that’s exactly what we did, we ran the bear through the Chevron camp. You should have seen those guys scatter! The radio came alive but in the interest of civility I can’t repeat what was being said. Needless to say we herded the bear a couple of miles past the camp and then returned to base to a tumultuous welcome; seems word of our adventure had reached camp before we did. The only person who didn’t seem amused was the boss. Go figure. From that moment on Johnny and I were heroes to the Texaco crews but didn’t dare show our faces around the Chevron crews. Mercifully no one got the N# (something to be said for small registration markings) and there were several other blue and white FH-1100’s on the Slope. The boost in morale made it all worth while however I’ve never found anyone impressed with the footnote on my resume saying I’ve got aerial bear herding experience!

I sat there one day east of Deadhorse watching a Columbia Helicopters Shithook towing a 20 ton hoverbarge. One of the damndest things I think I've ever seen. Way cool. Bet you could herd a whole bunch of bears with that thing.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:I sat there one day east of Deadhorse watching a Columbia Helicopters Shithook towing a 20 ton hoverbarge. One of the damndest things I think I've ever seen. Way cool. Bet you could herd a whole bunch of bears with that thing.

Gump

Check out http://www.colheli.com/colheli.html and click on the "world famous hover barge tow photo" and you'll see what Gump is talking about..Truly an amazing photo

Ken, that was a pretty good one. I would have loved to see the Chevron boys scattering like a covey of quail....lol

As for the hover barge.....holy crap!!!!!! That photo was simply amazing.

WrenPilot wrote:
The boost in morale made it all worth while however I’ve never found anyone impressed with the footnote on my resume saying I’ve got aerial bear herding experience!

From all the bear problems that have been in the Anchorage paper lately, you might contact Fish & Feathers.......they need some help with the bears apparently......

GumpAir wrote:I sat there one day east of Deadhorse watching a Columbia Helicopters Shithook towing a 20 ton hoverbarge. One of the damndest things I think I've ever seen. Way cool. Bet you could herd a whole bunch of bears with that thing.

Gump

That's a CH-46, the baby Chinook. Marines call em phrog's, I have no idea what that means. This one is , I think a BV-107. The civilian version.
Small point really, but it's like comparing a C-120 to a C-185 because they are both conventional geared Cessnas.
The Navy used to tow anti-mine barges behind CH-53's, may still do it, I'm not sure. Anyway, I've seen a picture of where the cable that was attached to the barge broke. It wasn't a pretty picture.

Well, for most folks every little airplane out there is a "Piper Cub" so why not everything flogging thru the f**king air looking like a Chinook be called a Shithook?

Gump

Gump,
I love the way you think. One day I hope to meet. You sound like one of the "grumpier old men".
BTW, they are only a few helicopters that can have a mid-air with themselves and that's one of them.

a64pilot wrote:Gump,
I love the way you think. One day I hope to meet. You sound like one of the "grumpier old men".

I'm sure getting that way it seems. And, as a reminder to all the young "Old Pros" out there, just remember...

Old age and treachery overcome youth and skill every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVBjBClB ... re=related

Appreciate the steady stream of Lonesome Dove references and clips, Gump.

Have you seen this sign hanging in Jackson Hole Wyoming: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2364/210 ... 9d.jpg?v=0

Scolopax wrote:Appreciate the steady stream of Lonesome Dove references and clips, Gump.

Have you seen this sign hanging in Jackson Hole Wyoming: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2364/210 ... 9d.jpg?v=0

Hey.... That's hittin close to home.

Long long ago we herded Kodiak brown bears with an HH-3 helicopter and flash- bang grenades...Did you know that Kodiaks can outrun helicopters?

faintfuzzy wrote:Long long ago we herded Kodiak brown bears with an HH-3 helicopter and flash- bang grenades...Did you know that Kodiaks can outrun helicopters?

Hmmm..must have been a fast bear; isn't the HH-3 a variant of the CH-3? (Sikorsky Jolly Green Giant)