Here I
am, back in Galena for another summer of fun in the sun. There wasn’t much snow here. It is already dry. If we don’t have all the rain we had last
summer, it could get busy in a hurry.
I’ve
been here a week already, and just returned from my first break. My last post was a real quickie…I wanted to show
you the latest project Kitty and I are working on. We put our bird house together in two
days. This was the first project that we
have really jelled on. We were on the
same page with this project from the start.
It was fun and she’s not done.
There will be many more layers added by the time I go home again in two
weeks. Stay tuned for the final pictures
then!
I have
been asked several times for more helicopter pictures. This time I’m going to do something a little
different. To be honest with you, I’ve
gotten tired of taking pictures of N32AT.
You can only click the shutter for one machine so many hundreds of
times.
I dug
into the archives and found pictures of past helicopters I have worked on during
my career. Most of these were taken
since I came North to Alaska. I have
many earlier pictures to show but must get them into a digital format
first. Yes, I started taking pictures of
helicopters back in the stone age…well before the age of the internet and
digital photography.
N415AL
is the first Bell 407 I went to the bush with in Alaska. This machine was a workhorse. The crew I went out with flew this bird 1000
hours in four months. I had four hours
every night to take care of any maintenance needing to be done. My rotating crew of three pilots flew from
0600-0200 every day. We were moving
people, supplies, and drill rigs around the tundra supporting a coal exploration
camp just outside of Point Lay Alaska.
The camp was called Deadfall. You
don’t get much more remote than this place.
I normally don’t show pictures of people but I want you to meet
Sjan. She was one of the pilots working
with me. I have been doing this work for a long time and she was one of the
best longline pilots I’ve seen. I
watched this young lady assemble a drill rig so precise that the riggers could
line bolt holes up as she descended.
That’s good flying.
Check
out this little Robinson R22 trainer. It
got rather beat up by a student that decided to deviate from his flight plan to
show off for some buddies. This is what
happens when you show off before you know how to fly. This was from back in St. Louis shortly
before I made the journey north.
What do you do in Alaska when it’s cold out
and there’s no room left in the hangar?
You put the jammies on the helicopter and let it stay outside. Yes, I said jammies. Cold weather covers are standard up
here. You never know when bad weather is
going to hit and it is easier to remove snow and ice with protected surfaces.
I know
this is getting long so let me leave you with some more Robinson pictures. Back at Spirit of St. Louis airport, I worked
for a flight school for about one year.
We were right on the runway. One
of the perks was getting to watch the Blue Angels practice for the big
airshow. Imagine being right next to
these guys when they kick in the afterburners.
Yeah, it was cool.
You
know, I’ve done this a long time. I’m
ready for new and different challenges, not in aviation. With that being said, it’s been a good and
interesting career. Enjoy!
My BO105CBS4 resting with Mount ReDoubt in the background. |
ArcticArtique.BlogSpot.Com
It’s
Time For Me To Fly
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