That's the benefits or liability of earning a living as a pilot. 90% of your discretion to fly for the day is gone. Business and transportation must go on, through Ice, snow, sleet or rain. You can't whine like a baby and decide not to fly cause there's a bit of rain or wind (aka developing thunderstorm ) or just because it's crappy visibility (aka can't see your hand in front of your face) No F'ing way are you going to survive 1 day in the business. With time and experience humans can do amazing things and adapt to almost impossible adverse situations when they gotta get the job done.

Read this book: The Last of the Bush Pilots by Hermon Helmericks 1969 It's about flying the real wild Alaska back in the 40's To us run of the mill pilots, it's absolutely wild and crazy stuff, to those with the responsibility of keeping business and commerce moving in a wild and developing land, It's just another day at the office.

exodus wrote:Read this book: The Last of the Bush Pilots by Hermon Helmericks 1969 It's about flying the real wild Alaska back in the 40's To us run of the mill pilots, it's absolutely wild and crazy stuff, to those with the responsibility of keeping business and commerce moving in a wild and developing land, It's just another day at the office.

I did!

That book is what brought me to Arctic Alaska over 30 years ago, and Bud turned out to be my mentor and friend. As I recall, I had been in Barrow all of three days when I flew out to the Coleville, banged on their door and held the book up, and told he and Martha, "You're the reason I'm here." For some reason, they figured if I was dumb and crazy enough to do that, I just might fit in up there.

I still re-read that book every few years just for the joy of reading it, and for getting lost in a whole lot of memories.

Gump

After fitting a new battery to my cessna 170 a [180 hp] , my wife suggested we go for a fly around the circuit . After doing the daily inspection and a ground run to check the battery. Every thing checked out so were on take off on the runway and as the tail came up and we rotated off the runway I saw a white flash just to my left and a Bad vibration that was shaking the airframe. Bird Strike I yelled out . The houses were looming up underneath us so a gradual RH turn was made for the ocean [normal procedure here] A quick look at the instruments and every thing was good,except for this massive vibration. "We'll sort it out at a 1000ft I yelled out. We were over the ocean at 1000ft and all of a sudden the vibration was gone. The instruments showed every thing normal. I was on a RH down wind leg. I told my wife we were going for 1500ft so if the engine quit we could glide back to the runway . Just before we reached 1500ft the cabin filled with smoke and I noticed a column of white smoke coming from LH side of the aircraft . We were on Fire . We couldnt breath so the windows were opened which made it worst.. I cracked the doors open and closed the windows.The smell was very acidic ,not electrical or oil/fuel. Thinking the new battery had collasped I turned all electricals off . I then pointed the aircraft at the ocean and closed the throttles and try to blow the fire out.I was going to land in the water if I saw flames. The smoke cleared and I was at 10 ft above the water heading for the runway. I actually dragged the undercarriage through the mangroves on a RH turn before lining up on the runway. It was a perfect landing ,I cant remember using flap or anything. After pulling up and exiting very quickly ,no smoke . The engine restarted and taxied to hangar with smoke starting to pour from the LH intake duct. The hangar had a fire hose which sorted the problem out . There is a heater intake duct in the LH engine intake duct and about 10 ft of paint soaked paper towel was removed. This toweling had been picked up by the prop and then it flowed into the duct and wrapped itself around the muffler/heater internals . Next day i did a inspection of the runway and found another 3 lots of toweling down on the end of the runway.

GumpAir wrote:

exodus wrote:Read this book: The Last of the Bush Pilots by Hermon Helmericks 1969 It's about flying the real wild Alaska back in the 40's To us run of the mill pilots, it's absolutely wild and crazy stuff, to those with the responsibility of keeping business and commerce moving in a wild and developing land, It's just another day at the office.

I did!

That book is what brought me to Arctic Alaska over 30 years ago, and Bud turned out to be my mentor and friend. As I recall, I had been in Barrow all of three days when I flew out to the Coleville, banged on their door and held the book up, and told he and Martha, "You're the reason I'm here." For some reason, they figured if I was dumb and crazy enough to do that, I just might fit in up there.

I still re-read that book every few years just for the joy of reading it, and for getting lost in a whole lot of memories.

Gump

Way cool Gump, Way cool. That book and it's stories are tales of incredible adventure in a time of little navigational aids. A day and age when being a pilot really described the true meaning of the word. I don't think they make people like that anymore. People who could endure what today's people would see as impossible hardship. Living in a tent house on the arctic tundra. setting down Zero Zero conditions in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm, draining the oil from the engine and keeping it in your sleeping bag so it doesn't freeze then being couped up in your plane to resume the mission 3 days later. What an honor to be connected so closely to that era.

Flying Alaska back in those days. Now that's real back country flying, old school !

Harmon (not Herman) "Bud" Helmericks was the real deal, no doubt. Bud was a good friend to all who flew in that country, and was always ready with a helping hand to those in need, including offering newbies advice to keep them alive.

And there were, and are, many others who operated in that country for years before the advent of modern navaids...Jorgy Jorgensen, Cliff Everts, Dick McIntyre, Merrill and Richard Wien (and of course, their pioneering father, Noel Wien), Peter Merry, Al Wright, and many others. Listen to one of Jorgy's stories of flying a C46 load of supplies out to one of the top secret ice islands in the Chukchi in the arctic night with nothing but DR till they got close enough to pick up a very low powered beacon at the site (wouldn't do to transmit power and let the Russians know you're there), all the while not having enough gas to get back to anywhere close to civilization, and launching on those flights with no idea what the weather was like at the destination......oh, and landing with fire pots for runway lights.

I too was fortunate to start flying in AK long before the advent of GPS, and I flew in some interesting conditions from time to time, but to listen to one of those old timers tell such a story always made me realize just how good I had it....and just how tough those guys were. Wrestling a C46 in the Arctic winds isn't my idea of child's play. Oh, yeah...the pilots were also the ones to unload the thing often.

Or listen to the gent who made the first ski landing on the Greenland Ice Cap in a C130 on wheel skis....turn to an easterly heading (the ice cap is higher on the east side of Greenland) about where they want to build a DEW Line station, lower the skis, set up for a "glassy water" landing and wait for the touch....total flat light....and after the thing stops, unload....that's where the station goes. And the second C130 to land there tore a gear leg off, but it was carrying a dozer to build an ice runway.....

If you ever have a chance to corner one of those folks, pull up a chair and enjoy the ride. You'll get chills up your spine even in the heat of summer.

MTV

or taken off in...

On the ILS in Arcata Ca in a 145 HP 172. Began icing extremely fast. Landed on the Numbers with very low airspeed and the throttle firewalled. Had drinks.

That would be Dec 1 at Hale County. 30 to 35kt wind from the West and neither runway goes that way. Tumble weeds racing across the runway. Huge dust storm. Max aileron, max rudder, and max brakes the moment she touched the pavement.

Took near full throttle and locked brakes (even with the tailwheel locked) to taxi to the fuel. Could feel the 8.50x6's squishing all around. Takeoff looked like an episode from Flying Wild Alaska. Dust storm reached 10,000 feet.

Contemplated landing in the tie down area (only one plane was there), could have put her more into the wind, but that pesky fuel dock was there. Of course since I almost didn't make it to the fuel that might have been the best choice.

Was almost wishing I had a nose dragger. Almost. Smart thing would have been to go to a different airport, but I fixated. Lucky for me I got away with it, but I clearly put a foot across the line of the crosswind capabilities of both me and the plane.

Interesting how the more scary sounding stories are from those flying for a living. Certainly says something about commercial pressures I guess!



Although the above pic is by no means the worst conditions I've landed in, it demonstrates pretty typical conditions for me to be landing in. High density altitudes, cross/tailwinds, clouds, rain, rough and slippery strips are all very normal out where I fly. Can't really recall the absolute worst; you just get used to it (or go home!).

That said, my PC-6 instructor's last words to me before signing me off were "you know it was a tricky landing when you can barely hold your pen straight to fill in the tech-log". I've found that to be true a few times

That is a GREAT pic

Delete

Mine are pretty lame compared to many of the posts here. More of a personal worsts.

But the one that had me working the hardest, was an approach to Orange County, TX where the wind was exactly 90 degrees to the rwy and gusting to 28kts... I was weathered in all around and running low on fuel, so was determined to get her down. First attempt I got blown so far off track it was embarrassing. Second attempt was better, but I clearly remember thinking on short final that "this wasn't going to end well". Carrier landing ensued and I feared for my main spars integrity, but we did get down and no damage was done. That instant coffee tasted good at that FBO after that...

The approach starts at 2:28.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iFx9uaH ... w&index=11

The ones that left me with sewing machine leg.

lowflyin'G3 wrote:The ones that left me with sewing machine leg.

Ya, had a few of those and they weren't even super hard, I was just over my head.

45 deg X-wind at 15-20 into a 1300 grass strip with C-170B with updrafts on approach that with 40 deg of flaps no power and slip ( I didn't say that) could get maybe 40-50 ft/min drop. After 3rd go around left it at tree tops with long power on final. Oh an did mention that I was solo with about 35 hours. The wind shifted after the instructor got out.

This fall I decided to make a supply run into Biglake cause we had stayed at the lodge a few more days than we had originally planned and were out of booze and smokes. I figured I had time to make it there and back before dark. Thanks to the winds aloft, I was about 30 minutes later getting back than I had originally planned. Normally, I have zip lock bags and light sticks in the plane if I am planning an evening flight (you can break the glow sticks, put them in a ziplock bag and make a pass over the lake and drop out a half dozen in a line and it will show you the water quit nicely), however, this trip I didn't have any with me. It took me 5 trys to get it on the water and I was really ready for that drink when I got it tied down to the dock. Making an approach into a short lake surrounded by trees with glassy water at night really SUCKS! The "arrival" was a good test of the float rigging lol

akavidflyer wrote:This fall I decided to make a supply run into Biglake cause we had stayed at the lodge a few more days than we had originally planned and were out of booze and smokes. I figured I had time to make it there and back before dark. Thanks to the winds aloft, I was about 30 minutes later getting back than I had originally planned. Normally, I have zip lock bags and light sticks in the plane if I am planning an evening flight (you can break the glow sticks, put them in a ziplock bag and make a pass over the lake and drop out a half dozen in a line and it will show you the water quit nicely), however, this trip I didn't have any with me. It took me 5 trys to get it on the water and I was really ready for that drink when I got it tied down to the dock. Making an approach into a short lake surrounded by trees with glassy water at night really SUCKS! The "arrival" was a good test of the float rigging lol

Because no good story every started with "While I was eating a salad!"

Saw the carrier about a half second prior to the trap.

Just had gotten my private ticket, maybe 100 hours total time. Was flying a C-150 at 1100 AGL and the engine quits. No warning, just plain stops. No time to attempt a restart or do much of anything but look for a place to land and set it up. Fortunatly, I look down and directly below me is an airstrip, appears to be about 2000' long and maybe 40' wide and has nice big white lines painted down the sides and middle of the runway. Funny I think, I am local to the area, have lived here all my life, and don't remember an airstrip there. But whatever, it's a relief, I have it made.

So I make this big sweeping 270 degree turn to final, and as come out of the turn and line up on the 'runway' I get a better look. I'm at about 300' AGL and now have no other options, it's a rural residental area with lots of houses on 0.5-1 acre lots and fenses and powerlines everywhere.

Suddenly it hits me... im landing on the local dragstrip and guess what? Those 'white lines' panted down the runway? they are 4' tall concrete highway barricades. Yikes! Despite the fact that my heart rate went to about 500 BPM and such, I managed to land between the concrete barricades, wing tips hanging over, without damaging the airplane and rolled to a silent stop.

I don't remember being scared in the air, but after the airplane came to a stop I got violent shakes for about half a minute.

No one was around, so I walked to the nearest house about 100 yards away across a field. Some folks having a BBQ on the back deck. I ask if I can use their telephone, explain what happened. The first thing this lady says (she doesn't believe me) is "Well I didn't hear an airplane..."

Turned out there was a fuel line blockage. Part of the inner rubber lineing of the fuel line had come loose and gotton stuck at the downstream fitting where it completely blocked the fuel flow. Someone else flew the airplane out.

Was that Woodburn, every time I fly over I think....