They already beat you to it Don...

I'm looking forward to the show to see the gang and shots of home. I just hope Discovery doesn't turn it into a joke like the other shows.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6528

Gump

Looks interesting! I will be watching.

the show on gold mining is right in my backyard, just 30 miles up river (Gump, you saw the bridge and the river when we went to 33 mile for lunch) and I know all of the real miners in the district and the show makes these six people seem like real idjits. Nobody can be that stupid and still be alive.
Mildly entertaining between the groans of "oh bullshit" and "that ain't right".

If the one on flying is this bad they will have them falling out of the sky left and right and fllying backwards with a load of live wolverines in the plane. There are a couple of pretty girls on the crew so that is a plus

Hey Shane...

We're gonna try and do a Haines run on the boat next Fall (Oct/Nov). We'll give you a head's up when it gets closer.

Gump

been watching the gold show pretty close... Seems if they shoot the old man they'd be a lot better off...He's definitely got gold fever so bad he does what he wants whether it makes sense or not..If anyone on this crew will cause someone to get hurt it'll be him..YOu know they'll find gold by the time the show ends, i mean if you dig deep enough in the ancient creek beds it'll be there. Anyway it's nice to see ALaska on TV for a change...

The state would have denied a permit to the Discovery Channel TV miners for an overweight load on the bridge outside of Haines shown in the new cable TV show, a spokesman for the department said.

But the TV miners never asked for a permit to put an overweight load on the bridge.

The bridge is inspected every year, but the department will conduct an emergency inspection to see if its condition has changed since it was last checked in May.

"DOT&PF issues overweight permits based on bridge information gathered during inspections and the weight distribution of each specific load. No request for a permit to cross this bridge was requested and thus no permit issued," said Roger Wetherell, spokesman for the department.

"DOT&PF’s commercial vehicle experts have reviewed the video and have determined that if a permit had been requested it would have been denied," he said.

"As seen in the video, the bridge sustained the load. However, its condition is a concern to the department. An emergency inspection will be scheduled to determine if the bridge’s condition has changed since its May 2010 inspection," he said.



"Additionally, DOT&PF will be contacting the Discovery Channel to discuss this issue with them."

The Discovery Channel publicity said the bridge appeared "close to falling down" when the TV miners drove over it. I took that to be a false statement designed to make the TV show more interesting and the crossing more dramatic.

•According to records from the Department of Fish and Game, the TV miners did not obtain a required fish habitat permit before they dug a 350-foot channel from Porcupine Creek to the mine site. There were no barriers to prevent fish from moving into the channel and there was no fish screen on the water pump intake.

The TV miners did secure an overall permit for the project, the state records show and that there was an existing water right associated with the mining claim. The excavated channel was filled in after the fish biologist visited the site. The miners then dug a hole in the gravel to use groundwater, which was less expensive and did not create fish problems.



This comes from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.
Alaska placer miners have it tough enough as it is. Then comes a reality show that makes a mockery of mining in Alaska.
The old man was in the Circle Mining District during the 80's. He was known a gentleman miner= One that does more talking about mining than actually doing it.
I had better stop now....

Back when I was on SDPD one of my old partners and several other cops got the bug and took a leave of absence to work one summer on a claim in Alaska... They didn't have the sophisticated equipment these lunkheads on the show have so they didn't get enough to make all the sacrifices worth it. I panned a lot years ago around here and in the Sierras but mining is a tough go and the old timers who have been at it for years and years are the only ones who make a go of it, I'm told. But of course if you have those heavy diggers and can get down to bedrock you'll do a lot better than my old buddies, so they'll probably find gold.. I hope not in any quantity for Alaska's sake since if they do it'll start another rush by people who should well enough stay home and find a better job...that said Panning is fun but in my case it's strictly recreational..and I haven't done it in a few years.. By the way if they needed a permit to cross that bridge with their shit and it would have been denied what are they gonna do when time comes to haul it all out of there. I'm sure DOT will be watching them closely. Does anyone know how this all turned out..since it's probably all over and done with by now , and all took place last summer...

It was sort of entertaining to see all the flack come down the line about this nonsense and the Haines DOT station got to answer a lot of silly questions, all just a tempest in a teapot. The excavator hauled was not the one that crossed the river, and it was not all that heavy but a little switchy changy on the TV made it seem like it was.

I can't speak to permits from the fish and frog people but the rumor mill has it that they staged a pretty good argument for the camera.

Old Papa John, the real miner they talk to has dug holes all over his claims there and says that every time he spent piles of money and finally got down to bed rock he started pulling up fragments of milled lumber left overs from the chinese miners that would sink a shaft to bedrock and then run a drift all along following the contour of the bedrock. They had tunnels running all over the place many many years ago when the region was being heavily mined.

It would have been nice if they had spent some more money locally but the whole thing was kept pretty quiet, I mean we all knew it was going on but still pretty quiet.

We will have to see how it all plays out in the end.

Hey Gump, it would be nice to see you again, watch the fall weather on the water it changes really fast and good hidey holes are few and far between in upper Lynn Canal

Hey Shane...

We'll be on the blue canoe!!!!

Gump

You can bet they're going to over-dramatize whatever they show of Alaska bush-flying, probably at the expense of the pilots' reputations.

On the other hand ... If the Discovery folks can film a show about Alaska crab fishing, consisting of episode after episode of basically tossing crab traps overboard and then picking them up later to see what they caught in the traps, and have that show become top rated and run for 5 or more years, showing the same fishermen (less one or two that went on to the great crab pot in the sky) throwing the same damn crab traps in the water and retrieving them, thousands upon thousands of times ... then it oughta be a no brainer that a AK bush pilot show would last at least as long and have at least as good ratings.

nmflyguy wrote:You can bet they're going to over-dramatize whatever they show of Alaska bush-flying, probably at the expense of the pilots' reputations.

On the other hand ... If the Discovery folks can film a show about Alaska crab fishing, consisting of episode after episode of basically tossing crab traps overboard and then picking them up later to see what they caught in the traps, and have that show become top rated and run for 5 or more years, showing the same fishermen (less one or two that went on to the great crab pot in the sky) throwing the same damn crab traps in the water and retrieving them, thousands upon thousands of times ... then it oughta be a no brainer that a AK bush pilot show would last at least as long and have at least as good ratings.

Doubt that much will be shown to hurt the pilots reputations. They put a clause in where they get to review each episode so nothing is shown out of context that could be used against said pilot.

too bad they didn't use Lonnie to show what can be done by a great back country pilot.. maybe have him land on a gravel bar in about 10 feet or something.. Then take off using the water as a runway...

akavidflyer wrote:They put a clause in where they get to review each episode so nothing is shown out of context that could be used against said pilot.

They better DAMN sure make that clause completely enforceable and bullet proof. I could tell you stories...

A bush pilot focused show could be spectacular... the key would be to make up really good camera mounts on the airplanes, and get really sexy air-to-air from dedicated camera ships/helo's/other bush A/C.

iceman wrote:too bad they didn't use Lonnie to show what can be done by a great back country pilot.. maybe have him land on a gravel bar in about 10 feet or something.. Then take off using the water as a runway...

Nothing against Lonnie, he is a great stick in a cub (way better than I'll ever be) and the vids are super cool. There are plenty of pilots all over the world that work airplanes off of short stuff, without the luxury of picking days where the wind is in their favor or having the sun at the perfect angle for the camera shot, and usually with a load in the airplane. They don't make many movies about it. He'd say the same thing, I'm sure, and can no doubt do it as well.

It would be cool to see the guys up north do their thing in a real working environment, I hope the show does that without a bunch of the fake arguing and bullshit that goes on with those other programs.

gb

gbflyer wrote: I hope the show does that without a bunch of the fake arguing and bullshit that goes on with those other programs.

Yes. And if they do accomplish this, that the show remain successful without that element to "entertain" the masses.

The "reality" is that it's a whole lot of hard physical work, flying in absolute shit conditions, in shit airplanes, living in shit conditions, for shit money. No one wants to watch a TV show about that.

The magic is the characters who actually do it for a living and the people who call the place home, and the interaction between the two groups. There isn't a day go by that I'm not "flying" the Kobuk River as I go about my Lower 48 business, sitting there time traveling...

Gump

I thought Lonnie flew a Maule in Rocks aand Props..

I finally caught the promo on Discovery last night...looks awesome. Anything to enlighten the scaredy cat couch potatoes about the realities of airplanes.

I guess we should be prepared for an influx of new users around here after this thing airs...