Some of you Old Farts that ran around AK should have run into him!

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/adn/ob ... =143124861

GT

Met Stinky several times in Nome while I was waiting on weather. He would take off and return a few hrs later. Asked how the wx was and he would say terrible. Then he would load up and leave again. I am sure Gump has run into him in the ice fog or the BOT a time or two..........

A fine pilot and gentleman indeed. Nome is an interesting place to live. I count it up there as one of the events that formed my character a bit.
Stinky flew countless hours in some of the most beautiful but treacherous country. God rest his soul.

Lots of his family still up in Kotz and points elsewhere...

Good guy, and one of those pilots who seemed immune from the bad weather. You'd always think you'd have to go out and find him when the weather cleared up, but he'd show up unscathed each and every time. Just goes to show that "limits" are what we make them.

Gump

Gump - Stinky's son, Russ, here. He wasn't immune from weax - he just knew it and the land around it better than most as he flew it from a very early age. Bill Munz took him under his wing when he was young and taught him all the trails. Bookwalter took a liking to him too. Archie and Stink raised hell in Kotz back in the day. My grandpa had an old PT-17 that Dad first flew on the 4th of July when he was about 12. His respect for weax, equipment and what a lack of respect or over confidence in either was instilled in him at a young age as my Grandpa Russ use to send him to retrieve folks from wrecks when he was a cocky 15 yr old. My dad lost most of his good friends to aviation but always believed in taking care of the people - just ask Jorgy. He didn't make it as a business man, even Boyuck said he couldn't say know to someone in need of a ride - just the way he was. But aside from his flying, and after the FAA finally gave up on chasing him around for whatever - he rose to a man of even greater distinction in Nome and the region. He helped people - just like we all should. He worked hard - just like we all should. And he laughed - just like we all should.

Tough year up here btwn Richard Foster, Dad, Dick G, Atlee and T. Smith.

Here's a link to his vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA9Li5_JgGY


p.s. I bought the 14 he used to use polar bear hunting and that paid for his first 185 (185SH)...he and I spent the past 5 yrs rebuilding it and bombing all around FAI and OME - fun. Atlee and Stink wouldn't let me get the extended gear - they didn't believe in it.

Your Dad was a good man Russ. He and the likes of Bud Helmericks, Archie Ferguson, and the other Far North aviation pioneers were my heroes and inspiration, and the very reason I went there to fly.

Unlike a lot of the new generation of pilots up there, there to build time and get the hell out, those wonderful old farts were there because they loved the land, loved the people, and loved to fly. As did I.

Gump

Stinky was an excellent pilot, but he was also a true friend, the type that you rarely find in life. I cannot think of anyone who could handle a single engine Cessna like he could. The video Russ posted doesn't do justice to his abilities, you simply have to have been there to see it.
When I first came home from my freshman year at college with a brand new private pilot's license, he was always there to teach me something. I credit his advice with keeping me alive over the years. Almost ten years to the day later, I flew my 206 in his missing man formation.
He will be missed but his legacy will last for a long time to come.

stinky wrote:Gump - Stinky's son, Russ, here...

p.s. I bought the 14 he used to use polar bear hunting and that paid for his first 185 (185SH)...he and I spent the past 5 yrs rebuilding it and bombing all around FAI and OME - fun. Atlee and Stink wouldn't let me get the extended gear - they didn't believe in it.

Russ- thanks for the vid- enjoyed it thoroughly. Great that somebody made all those movies back then and saved 'em.

Pretty sure 185SH was at Northland Aviation this week when I was in for annual. Didn't know the significance of SH until I read your post just now. (I had the red and white 170B getting worked on).

Denalipilot

stinky wrote:Gump - Stinky's son, Russ, here. He wasn't immune from weax - he just knew it and the land around it better than most as he flew it from a very early age. Bill Munz took him under his wing when he was young and taught him all the trails. Bookwalter took a liking to him too. Archie and Stink raised hell in Kotz back in the day. .

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

Probably the best stick and rudder guys, best "natural" pilots, and best shit weather pilots I've ever flown with were the Native guys and gals from the Arctic and Northwest Alaska. I'm sure it was from being born in the back of a C207, and spending such a large part of their lives in the air. They know how to feel an airplane. And the air sense they developed from so many thousands of hours of riding in the back before they flew themselves really showed.

I learned so much, and had such a great time... What a privilege, and what an adventure being able to fly with that whole bunch up there. I am a pretty lucky guy.

Now on the other hand... I worked for Flight International for a while, and we inherited a group of former Russian fighter pilots and tried sticking them in C207s and Navajos.. What a bunch of ham-fisted nightmares that was.

Gump

Gump - Thanks for the kind words. Were you Munz or Foster orr?

Sourdough, see you soon in 96H.

And Denaliair - I would have loved to have seen it. I think I saw your 170 when we were shooting that hydromulch. Was SH still green and yellow? I thought it was back east somewhere but will ask McIntyre about it tomorrow. That was us throwing up those silly gates and the arch this summer for DoT. Dad talked me thru over the phone how to pull apart that prop governor on that DC-6 prop after Cliff donated it. If he hadn't left us when he did, he was sked to be out there with us all summer long - just like he worked with us in OTZ, DIO, OME, Safety and Solomon over the past 5 yrs.

I've got about 2 hrs of that Foster vid and there's quite a bit of neat stuff in there - including some Russian planes coming thru. You can thank Richard Foster for archiving it and then handing it off to me years ago. By the way, please keep the Foster fam in your prayers as Richard's daughter Tiffany was just killed the other night.

Safe flying and keep 'em smiling - Russ

DonC wrote: I am sure Gump has run into him in the ice fog or the BOT a time or two..........

Speaking of the Bottom Of the Trough....

All this talk of Old Farts and Points North has got me terrible homesick. Need one (or all) of you Nome guys to go in to the BOT and have a beer or two for me and Don in there tonight. We'll be with you guys in spirit.

Gump

I will drink to that............

GumpAir wrote:

DonC wrote: I am sure Gump has run into him in the ice fog or the BOT a time or two..........

Speaking of the Bottom Of the Trough....

All this talk of Old Farts and Points North has got me terrible homesick. Need one (or all) of you Nome guys to go in to the BOT and have a beer or two for me and Don in there tonight. We'll be with you guys in spirit.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:

DonC wrote: I am sure Gump has run into him in the ice fog or the BOT a time or two..........

Speaking of the Bottom Of the Trough....

All this talk of Old Farts and Points North has got me terrible homesick. Need one (or all) of you Nome guys to go in to the BOT and have a beer or two for me and Don in there tonight. We'll be with you guys in spirit.

Gump

Ever know a guy named Don Hardin up around Kotz? Flew a 206 in and out of Lik camp in the late 70's, just wondered if he was still around.

Don Hardin sounds familiar, but ain't ringing any bells. I asked a couple other old Kotz guys and they said the same thing. Of course most of us say the same thing looking in the mirror every morning...

Gump

stinky wrote:And Denaliair - I would have loved to have seen it. I think I saw your 170 when we were shooting that hydromulch. Was SH still green and yellow? I thought it was back east somewhere but will ask McIntyre about it tomorrow. - Russ

This one was blue on white. It may have been 180SH instead of 185SH, but Jon will know for sure. Those are my initials too, so I was joking with him about how it was all ready for me.

-Denalipilot

Thank you Russ for the video. Your dad was quiet a guy.

Regards...Rob

Wow,

Stinky was 13 months younger than me and died on my 63rd birthday. This story is what BCP is all about. The rest of our conversations are superfluous. Fun to poke, tease, challenge and learn....but of little consequence compared to what I've just read.

Watching the video and reading the comments has made my own life seem insignificant by comparison. Never met the man.....never flew the backcounty of Alaska...never will be a bush pilot: except in my dreams. Men like Stinky are my heros...to have touched so many lives.... to be so well remembered.

Somewhere this very moment, I am sure....his spirit soars with those who preceded him. Blessings to those who knew and loved him.

Bob