N300RE wrote:I consider them bad luck more than I do poor maintenance. The first one was a cowling fire on a 172, the rivets that hold the nose bowl broke causing the nose bowl to rub against the spinner backing plate. Made tons of smoke, landed at an airport and got it fixed. Second was a buzzard that ran into my wing, collapsing the leading edge back to the spar. Third was a flat cam which caused the crankcase to pressure up which caused the vacuum pump seal to blow out and caused the all the oil to pump out. I caught the oil pressure drop and killed the engine before it seized up, and glided to an airport. Fourth was recently I had the stainless prop governor line crack which caused oil to cover my windshield. I found a hay field that was about 1000ft, cut the engine and slipped it in. Stopped about 75ft from a barbed wire fence, replaced stainless line with rubber hose and flew it out next day. For the past 2 years that I've been flying for this company, no other pilots that fly for us have had any emergencys just me haha.

Emory Bored wrote:I've recently heard from my sources that pipeline through put is declining 7.9% per year at this point. Do the arithmetic yerself on that one. According to the original contract the next step is to rip the big tube and it's support facilities out and return everything to it's original state before the oil patch was developed. We'll see. The oil companies would likely try to keep it open for future oil discovery or convert it to natural gas transport. That would be my first choice too.

In any case when the oil runs out there will be an incredible amount of work coming and it will last at least a normal persons working lifetime. I'm sure there will be lots of Helo work and a fair amount of fixed wing too.

I'd sure like to take a quick five year stint up there again. I could money up pretty heavy pretty quick that way.

EB

akavidflyer wrote:

Emory Bored wrote:I've recently heard from my sources that pipeline through put is declining 7.9% per year at this point. Do the arithmetic yerself on that one. According to the original contract the next step is to rip the big tube and it's support facilities out and return everything to it's original state before the oil patch was developed. We'll see. The oil companies would likely try to keep it open for future oil discovery or convert it to natural gas transport. That would be my first choice too.

In any case when the oil runs out there will be an incredible amount of work coming and it will last at least a normal persons working lifetime. I'm sure there will be lots of Helo work and a fair amount of fixed wing too.

I'd sure like to take a quick five year stint up there again. I could money up pretty heavy pretty quick that way.

EB

I was in a meeting with the Big wigs from ConocoPhillips last week and they said with the reserves we have now, and the new technology for recovering previously thought un-recoverable, or un-economic to recover oil, that they are planning now for a minimum of 40 more yrs here at Kuparuk. The increased work load we have now doing maintenance, and the projects that are working and being planned, damn sure show that they are here to stay and they are spending a ton... an obscene amount of money to prove it.

I am not worried in the least about my job going anwhere before I get lucky enough to walk into the bosses office, take a big shit on his desk and tell him I am outta here to go play the rest of my life LOL

mtv wrote:

N300RE wrote:Thanks for all the good input, so far it sounds promising as far as getting a job. If I have to stick it out in some shit hole for a little while, then I will.

If that's your attitude, DON'T go to Alaska. There are NO shitholes in Alaska unless you decide there are. My parents told me when I was growing up that you can find something good about every place, and you can find something bad about every place. If you choose to look at the negatives of a certain place, or view a work site as just some shithole you have to tolerate to get where you want to be, you're going to miss some of the best country and people on the planet.

There's a gent who posts on here periodically who went to Alaska to fly, and he's been on the YK Delta for a couple seasons now. He sends the most glowing reports of the flying there one could imagine. He describes seeing moose and other critters and the villages of the Delta.......Yet many would call that a shit hole.

Read some of Gump's descriptions of flying out of OTZ......and the people of that country. Sure, it's challenging flying, EVERYwhere in Alaska is challenging flying, some more than others, but the point is, there's always something to like about every place, especially in Alaska. But, some would call Kotzebue a shit hole.....

I mean no offense toward you in this little rant.....I just saw too many people come to one of the "shit holes" I worked in with the attitude that this was just something they had to tolerate to get to a "real" job. And, they totally missed all the fantastic stuff and people that were going on around them at the time.

If you do go to Alaska, go with the notion that wherever you wind up, there's going to be some fantastic flying, some really good people and things to see that very very few on this earth have ever seen. If you do that, you'll love your time in Alaska, and you'll maintain your sanity.

This from a guy who lived and worked in Cold Bay for three years. I always heard people refer to being "stuck" in Cold Bay.....but what fantastic country! I wouldn't trade that time for anything......

Good luck.

MTV

flightlogic wrote:When I went to Nome... friends thought I was nuts. When I lived in Klawock...no one had heard of it.
When I was in Chignik... it was pretty lonely.
BUT... I met fascinating people at every stop. I learned what it was to be the minority member in the village.... a big surprise for a regular white guy.
Would never give back what I experienced all over Alaska. If that does not suit your personality, stick to the lower 48. And by the way.... no one I ever met got a job by writing to them. You had to be standing there... ready to go to work in the morning. That's just Alaska.

907Pilot wrote:I have been lurking a lot lately and am curious about this. I have been curious about going into flying commercially for a while now but I hear such varied stories about the stability of the job. I have one friend that flies for PenAir that has been trying to convince me for 2 years about how solid the work is. But then I get so hopeless when I poke around a little.

Are winter layoffs bad?

And for the record - I love Alaska. I love every part of Alaska. I love working and I love flying. I will be taking a GIGANTIC pay cut to leave my current career of 10 years to go flying. I would do it right now if I could, but I know at the very least I have to stay in my current job to get all of my debt paid off or I won't be able to afford flying as a job.