Wow, great bump!!

aftCG wrote:I just got home from my first two week shift of flying sleds for "new Yute". What a scream. I just packed in a 15 year career at Boeing to do this and I have zero regrets.

A tale as old as time! I was in your position (although I avoided Bethel) about 3.5 years ago. Have fun and thanks for bringing this thread back up.

Thanks aftCG , I enjoyed the post . Jim D. used to be the agent at Russian Mission , not sure he still is . But if you run into him tell him Doug from Kansas says hello and hopes he is well.

I’ve got time in 69M and 77J. It’s good to see that they’re soldiering on.

brown bear wrote:Thanks aftCG , I enjoyed the post . Jim D. used to be the agent at Russian Mission , not sure he still is . But if you run into him tell him Doug from Kansas says hello and hopes he is well.

I know Jim, too. A great guy, for sure.

brown bear wrote:Thanks aftCG , I enjoyed the post . Jim D. used to be the agent at Russian Mission , not sure he still is . But if you run into him tell him Doug from Kansas says hello and hopes he is well.

I have heard mention of the agent at Russian Mission. I was only there once when I was on a ride along during one of my first days. I expect to be released to fly there next shift, so I'll get to know the agent soon enough.

PA12_Pilot wrote:I’ve got time in 69M and 77J. It’s good to see that they’re soldiering on.

I put about 80% of my hours on 69M in my first shift, timing it out for annual before switching to 96M for my last two days before coming home. They both trim very differently but are otherwise very similar planes (unlike 9AK which flies nicely but basically has a compass and oil pressure gauge for a panel).

I expected a lot more grief from family, friends, coworkers for quitting a stable job and doing this but everyone (thankfully including my significant other) have been very supportive.

aftCG wrote:

brown bear wrote:I expected a lot more grief from family, friends, coworkers for quitting a stable job and doing this but everyone (thankfully including my significant other) have been very supportive.

I, too, was a responsible adult before I started flying for a living in AK. Easily the best work decision I’ve made.

If you want to learn more about the people you’re hauling pick up a copy of “Wise words of the Yupik: we talk because we love you” by Ann Fienup-Riordan. The book explains a lot about the Yupik, who approach life differently than the typical gussack. It helps to have the context of the people around you. You can get the book at Title Wave.

PA12_Pilot wrote:

aftCG wrote:

brown bear wrote:I expected a lot more grief from family, friends, coworkers for quitting a stable job and doing this but everyone (thankfully including my significant other) have been very supportive.

I, too, was a responsible adult before I started flying for a living in AK. Easily the best work decision I’ve made.

If you want to learn more about the people you’re hauling pick up a copy of “Wise words of the Yupik: we talk because we love you” by Ann Fienup-Riordan. The book explains a lot about the Yupik, who approach life differently than the typical gussack. It helps to have the context of the people around you. You can get the book at Title Wave.

Yes!!! Thank you for the book reference. I had made a few searches for native Alaskan history and could only find kid's books and musuem stuff.

More sled porn from my past. Yute air and a Tucker Aviation bird that used to take our family out on yearly beach combing trips. Growing up seeing all the old Yute Air, Armstrong Air and Manokotak Air sleds working the skies around DLG made me really eventually wanna fly one. After almost 1000 hrs I defected down the ramp to Penair and their Piper fleet. While I do kinda like the sled…….If I had to do air taxi work again I would take the fixed gear PA-32 Saratoga.

TVATIVAK71 wrote: While I do kinda like the sled…….If I had to do air taxi work again I would take the fixed gear PA-32 Saratoga.

Why do you say that?

I once asked Orin Seybert, the owner of Peninsula Airways that question, and he rattled off a whole series of arguments in favor of the Pipers. I can’t recall them all, but high on the list was much more robust landing gear and Lycoming engines.

MTV

Bathman wrote:

TVATIVAK71 wrote: While I do kinda like the sled…….If I had to do air taxi work again I would take the fixed gear PA-32 Saratoga.

Why do you say that?

It’s just a personal preference gained after years of flying Saratoga’s and Cherokee 6’s in western AK. I was unsure about those damn low wing Piper’s when I switched jobs but once I got some time in them I felt that the Saratoga did a better job in every condition the Sled flew. Both planes have their qualities but their purpose is the same, to haul people, pampers, groceries and soda to the bush communities. Lots of longtime sled operators also had low wing Pipers as well (Yute…the old one,Armstrong). Kinda a Chevy vs Ford thing. So to keep this thread true I’ll refrain from explaining the many details of my choice.

But when you learn to fly in a small Cessna then hangout around a Sled it’s like a beast. Sounds like a beast when idling. Many aspiring young pilots in Alaska yearned to fly one. I’m glad to say I did. Whenever I fly to Bethel, many times I see the same 207’s I flew decades ago. Kinda neat!

Yute currently operates two Lances. I will be getting my checkout this week. About 25 knots faster than the sled. They are prohibited from certain rough runways. Not because the gear is weak but because the prop gets chewed to crap.

100s of hours in both and I enjoyed flying the Sara better. I agree - better for the mission.

It feels like just a few months ago I flew a sled, but it’s been 8 years. Can’t say I miss the sled a lot, but I really enjoyed flying to many different villages. I fly for a very different “Eskimo” now.

Just learned a couple of days ago, N9582M, went into Lake Powell with load of French tourist. 4 survived, 2 died.
One of the 207's Lake Powell Air had 36 years ago when I went to work for them.
Tom

I thought I'd ask this here because most of the people who stop by this thread have served time in Bethel. Is there a repository of crash sites? I'm asking because I was on a trip yesterday which took me from Newtok to Nightmute, and had to route a curved path to the east to shoot a gap between rising terrain and a cloud layer when I spotted something.
I turned back and it was a crash site of what I think was a C206 (didn't quite have the stretch of a sled). Whoever it was hit the ground in full send mode. The tail was about 50 yards away.
Out of respect for any family members I won't post pictures of the wreckage but if you pull up a sectional of the area west of Bethel that includes a line from Newtok to Nightmute there is a quadrant which says Nelson Island on it. Note the giant "1", small "8" denoting highest terrain value. The wreckage could easily be spotted if you mark the lower left corner of the giant "1" and went there.

After circling it once I made a low pass with my gopro running. Pretty poor outcome on the video but the maneuver logged on my Foreflight located the point very closely.

I got back to base and said "hey I found a crash site" and pointed to it on the map. I was expecting a "yeah that was old Bob in 2002" or a "holy crap, what?" but got neither. The Kuskokwim delta is an aluminum farm and from what I gather so far no one keeps track.

Sort of tangential, when I landed at PAQH today there was a CAP plane (an Airvan). I considered approaching them to ask if there was some sort of running record of crash sites on the delta but they took off before I could get unloaded. Subsequently they flew at 2500' to Bethel which put them above at least two cloud layers, so "way to go" on the CAP effort there. Must have been some kind of currency training. They were certainly not searching for anything.

The paint on the crashed plane looked better than the plane I'm flying, so it can't be that old. So to the previous inmates of Bethel, is there some record of crash sites on the delta?

Edit: Just found a web site with exactly what I was looking for. Found a T207 crash site and a midair between a 207 and 208 but they were further south. The site I located was much closer to Mertarvik.

In Kodiak, the Coast Guard kept a map of known wrecks. That said, i found a very old wreck they didn’t have on that map. While tagging bears with a helicopter, we stopped there in investigate. Very old wreck, but in poking around, one of the crew found a cowboy boot…..with foot bones in it.

The Troopers put a lot of information out to the public trying to find out who it was. After a couple months, the Trooper working the case called me and said “I just got a phone call from Los Angeles. Guy read about this in the LA paper, and told the Trooper: “That was my Daddy you found”. Long story, but crash happened in the early fifties.

I would never count on CAP to do anything but build time at taxpayer expense.

Don’t give up…..it may not have been found, though sounds recent. I found the one in Kodiak because a bear I was tracking was bedded down in the cockpit….or what was left of it.

MTV

I found a few more sled pics. Nothing as cool as others posted already.