Back for some more fun

Well, got up at 4am this morning to make the 6am flight to Anchorage. Plane was again full and I had to ride upfront. This time I was the only jumpseater. We got about 50 miles out of Seattle and got a master caution. The left pitot de-ice system was inoperative. The weather in anchorage was going to put us into icing conditions. The crew faxed dispatch and radioed them. Dispatch told us to return. So we came back in and landed. The captain then declared and emergency because we entered the clouds. We landed safely with fire department waiting. They came on board and everything was fine. We switched planes and took off at 8:30. Got up to anchorage. Slept most of the way. Talked with a delta mechanic the rest of the time. Got into anchorage and went and had lunch at the coast international hotel. Met Joel there. We came over to the airport and are now waiting. Already got seats on the plane at 4:30. Saw one of the famous Era pilots in the terminal. The guys name is Ben. He flies the Cessna 207 on the discovery show Flying Wild Alaska. I'm sure most of you have seen him. Joel and I were temped to ask where the cameras were but didn't heckle him. Anyways, king salmon is a blazing -22F. Looking forward to a cold week! Bonfire, fireworks, and -30F tonight with our beer guy Rob. Should be fun. Hope everyone had a happy holidays. Tune in for the next 10 days of fun!

Blizzard!

Woke up this morning for my day off and saw my roommate sitting on the couch. I was like, whats going on? No flying? He goes look outside. Its been a white-out blizzard since 6 am this morning. 30-40 mph winds and dumping snow. Supposed to continue through midnight. Our windows are completely covered in our living room. They projected 8-12 inches but we are already at 18-20 inches. So we may end up with 3 or 4 feet of snow. Crazy. I have never seen snow like this. Its semi warm though so it will probably melt depending on the weather. Both our planes are outside. Going to have to de-ice tomorrow morning. Anyways, hope everyone enjoys their sunday! Go Seahawks!

Friday night out!

Well, last night was interesting to say the least. Joel and i went and had dinner at eddies. I had the belly buster burger. Same one i always get. Never dissapoints. Then we came back up to the apartment. D-rev a flight coordinator has been on duty and staying next door. She is a local and is married with a few kids. She decides to come over and wants to go to eddies for a drink. So we walked over there and she says, why dont we go to Naknek? Joel and i were definitely in agreement. D-rev offered her car to us anytime we want as long as we put gas in it. So she went and got her car and we headed to Naknek. There are three bars there. Fishermans, red dog saloon, and hadfields. We went to hadfields first. Pretty big with a stage and a bunch of guitars and drums. We looked around and then decided to head to fishermans. We all started to drink and have fun. We figured d-rev was our DD which was short lived. The bartende at fishermans told us about her car accident a few years back. She was drunk and crashed her car on the way back to king. Broke her neck and got a huge laseration on her forearm. Good thing i only had 2 beers! I was the DD. So we went to red dog and ended up back at fishermans. Joel and D-rev tried to do the two step dance but they quickly learned that texas and alaska have their own versions of the two step. Pretty funny. Anyways, made it back safe and sound with D-rev and Joel feeling pretty good on the ride back. It was neat to see the community and the bar seen. Gives you a sense of who lives here and what they do the majority of their time. Its windy as shit today and we arent going anywhere! Icing and 60 mph winds! Craziness!

Upgrade is in sight...

Well, I got an email yesterday with talk of upgrade into the Saab by February. I was asked by the chief pilot to turn in my hours for this month and next. I need to reach 680 by the end of February. Gonna be flying at home a lot! I should make it and hopefully will get offered the position. That means a move to anchorage. Lots of things will be going on during that time. Anyways, flying here has been good. Slowed down a bit but is staying steady. Have a couple of people from central doing interviews here. I recommended them to our chief and I hope they get the job. They are all good people so there shouldn't be an issue. Good luck everyone! Going to Eddies tonight to have a meal outside of us cooking! Last weekend in Alaska before Christmas. Excited to go home!

Flying part 91

Last two days have been eventful. I am finally feeling well. Did lots of flying yesterday. Only one flight today. Last night I got to go flying in a private plane owned by one of the tower guys. It was pretty fun to go up and see the area at night. I have flown at night plenty but not like this. We got to take are time and sightsee. Pretty neat. Making new friends here too which will definitely help out in the future. I figure I could go to anchorage roundtrip for 200 bucks and fill the plane full of food to come back. Have not decided to yet. Maybe in a few months. But who knows. Maybe I will just tag along when he goes once and get all the liquid type things I will need. Not sure. Our chief pilot is here today doing training for one of the new caravan captains. Probably going to dinner with him tonight. Should be fun.

December 4th

Well, they must have fixed the Internet because I am blogging from my apartment. We had power outages and storms that ruined some of our computers and our Internet connection. Looks like we got an IT guy out from anchorage to fix it. No flying today for me. Joel and I have been switching on and off as we only have one airplane right now. I been flying a lot though so I'm not concerned. Have not really done much since we have been here besides work and sleep. I have been battling the cold/flu. It's been an on going battle. Which I am on the home stretch. Feeling pretty good today. Just dealing with my throat now. Hot tea, cough drops, and Sunday football on the tube.... Not to shabby of a Sunday so far. Hopefully the Packers keep their perfect season going. Also watched the Denver game. Tebow is looking good. Anyways, been watching movies and just hanging out with the roommate. He was given some movies from Asia by a FEDEX captain for free. All in English of course. Yesterday was the longest day of flying I have had so far. Went all over the aleutians. Pretty cool. Bad weather and night time. Lots of icing too. Good learning experience. Happy Sunday!

Internet is fried, like chicken

Well, power has been out a lot in king. That means no Internet! So I am blogging from the bar. I flew 8.3 hours today....I'm exhausted. It was real fun though. Everything is going real well. Flying is awesome. It's 50 degrees here. Really warm. Super muddy on the runways. Wheels getting stuck and we almost killed a dog that walked under our prop when we were starting...dummy. Went to king cove, sand point, dillingham, and the chigs today. I slept pretty much all day yesterday cuz we only had one plane and Joel flew. I have tomorrow off as well. So I will sleep some more. Flew in the clouds a lot today. Flew from king cove to sand point and them home to king salmon all at night. Pretty wild. Anyways, goodnight!

First day back

Well, it was my first day back today. Things went well. We went down to port Heiden and then took the king salmon volleyball team to New Stuyak for their district tournament. If they get in the top two they will go to state. Pat, one of the captains on my shift, has a daughter on the team. Pretty cool to take her up there. Anyways, better news, I am sick! Sore throat, headache, and just feeling like shit. Just my luck to get sick my first day back in king salmon. Good thing I brought dayquil and nyquil. Gonna be taking that and some airborne the next few days. Sleeping will also be a priority. Drinking lots of water too. It's actually pretty warm here in king salmon and it's supposed to stay that way. Between about 25 F at night and 38 F in the day. Pretty nice. Hanging out watching some tv. Gonna sleep pretty quick here. Night.

Time to head up to Alaska...

I leave this Wednesday for work up in king salmon. This will be a normal 2 week shift. I will be on duty December 1st through 15th. Hopefully I will be able to fly home that night. Otherwise I will be home in the morning on December 16th. I'm pretty excited to go back and fly and relax. It's weird how work is kind of like a mini vacation. The two weeks should go by quickly. I will miss alex and my dog the most. I wish they could be there with me the whole time. Maybe by march I will be in the bigger airplane and will move up to anchorage. Hope everyone enjoys the holidays and check my blog the 1st-15th for updates on Alaskan Bush flying.

Home sweet home

Well, I arrived home to Seattle this Sunday night. Nice to be home. I have been away for 6 weeks. Doesn't seem like it but then again it does. Nice to see the family and of course alex. It was really great to see my puppy. I didn't realize how much I would miss him. Thanksgiving this week. Trying to work as much as I can when I'm here but also resting up for the next rotation. When I got home it was quite the interview with the family. Everyone has their own questions and it was fun telling people about my trip. Look forward to showing pictures and stories with everyone soon.

Places we go

Here is a map for everyone curious as to where I have been flying to. Most every place on this map Penair flys to. Pretty neat. Only tomorrow and Friday then I am back home to Seattle. Hoping to fly while I'm home to make sure I reach 680 hours by march 1st. That way I will be able to fly the Saab 340. Already talked with my boss and have been recruiting other pilot friends to take my place. There is going to be a lot of movement within the company in the next year. I'm really excited about that. Then I get to move on to an even bigger aircraft!

Ice.....and more Ice!

Today it was the coldest I have seen it here. It was 3 degrees Fahrenheit. The wind was blowing 30 Gusting to 40 knots. Including the windchill factor it was 18 below zero today. A bit nippy. Only did one flight today. Pretty windy and saw some of the slowest speeds over the ground I have seen yet. When we were climbing out of the chigniks are speed over the ground was 62 knots. Extremely slow! Took off out of our shortest runway today. It was gusting to 30 knots. Pretty cool. I landed back into king salmon with winds in the 40 knot range. Did a perfect crosswind landing and got a big pat on the back from the captain that doesn't see eye to eye with me. I am all ready to come back to Seattle this Friday the 18th. I will be back here November 30th to start my next shift. Anyways hope everyone is well!

Last few days....

This weekend has been great. Alex has been here since Friday. It's been really fun. I missed her a bunch. She likes it here as a hunting cabin but thinks it's far too expensive. She is right. Everything is super expensive. We drank a few beers this weekend. Another FO is out here with us right now. Been to the bar a few nights in a row. Getting along with 1 captain out of the 2. He's a good guy. Really likes me as a pilot. Says I'm a good stick. Been fun having some guests. Had a feast last night. Rabbit, duck, potatoes, and noodles. Delicious! Been good. Drinking beers with the captain Pat at the moment. Lots of pictures and videos for thanksgiving and Christmas!

Guess where I'm headin!

Thursday will be a charter down to Sandpoint, Alaska! I am really excited and I will be taking as mant photos as I can! Poppy and granny will enjoy those! Anyways, things are good. Got off early today so I am going to take some photos and hunt later. Been seeing a lot of caribou, brown bear, and ptarmigan. Been really neat. Mountains are beautiful down here. Very sharp looking and lots of snow on them. No snow here in king salmon. We don't usually get a lot here. Anchorage got hit pretty good. Bethel is supposed to get hit by a huge low pressure system tonight. We will get hit as well. Shall be interesting! See you later!

Last few days

For all of you waiting on the next edition to my blog, I was able to leave chignik bay the same day we had the fire. We waited at the school for 5 hours till the other caravan picked us up. We went down the next morning and picked up the caravan. One of our mechanics fixed it. Basically the annunciator panel fried and fused together which caused the smoke. On the ride out it was pretty windy and there was lots of turbulence. We got tossed around pretty good. The turbulence was so bad that we pulled positive and negative Gs. Everything hit the ceiling including the passengers and myself. Gotta keep the seatbelt tight! Been flying a lot since then. Taking a lot of food, mail, and freight to and from villages. Lots of people have been flying as well. Saw a huge bull moose and a cow laying in an open snow field. We were at 500 feet and 200 knots. Pretty cool. That's as low as we can go. Winds were pretty strong so it was helpful and hurtful. Fast going there but slow coming back. Otherwise I am good. Meeting some friends and hunting when we can. Pretty cool. Anyways, see u later!

Stuck in Chignik Bay

Well, I am on the Chignik Bay Schools computer. The Captain and I are stuck here. We had an electrical fire on short final and had to evacuate the airplane. No damage can be seen. It was a blue smoke and smelled like insulation burning. If that doesn't get your heart racing, I don't know what will. AHHH. Anyways, flying with a new captain today. Kind of rough around the edges and kinda snappy but we are making it work. I just do what he says. He flys most of the time so far due to bad weather today but we hope to be on our way back to King Salmon soon. I will write tonight to let you all know the outcome. See Ya!

Village Hopping...

I flew a total of 4 hours today... Our route of flight was king salmon to port hieden, chignik lake, chignik lagoon, perryville, chignik bay, port hieden, Egigik, and back to king salmon. Pretty neat. Hauled a lot of passengers and freight today. Saw a bunch of mountains and took some good videos. Saw herds of caribou and 5 or 6 brown bears. Pretty cool. The difference between a brown bear and a grizzly is that brown bears live on the coast and eat fish. They get MUCH bigger than grizzlies. Grizzlies live in the interior and eat berries and meat that they can catch. Very different looking. The bears are really blonde right now since summer ended. Kind of surreal to see them on a daily basis. King Salmon is crawling with moose and brown bear. They are everywhere. Even here at the hangar. Well, its getting late and I need to sleep for tomorrows flying. Talk to you soon.

First flights and Hunting

The last two days have been my first on duty. I passed my 135 checkride on Friday. Everything went really well. The plane is the funnest I have ever flown and has sure been exciting the past two days. Been flying to places like Egegik, pilot point, port heiden, chignik lake, chignik lagoon, and chignik bay. Been awesome. All gravel strips and some are on the short side. We carry up to 9 people at a time and lately the planes have been full of mail, people, and cargo. I am starting to get the hang of it but it will take sometime to get good at. Things happen very fast. Time is money and we are trying to maximize profits. I don't think there is better flying anywhere in the world than this. It is so amazing the amount of weight the caravan can hold. Today I took off from King Salmon with 8 passengers and almost 3000 pounds of cargo. Pretty crazy. I also got complimented today on my landings. Which is a very big compliment when it comes from people who ride planes as often as people in the lower 48 drive their cars. Proud of that. Went hunting today with my roomate. Shot 3 snowshoe hares. Gutted them and skinned them. Going to have a local make me a winter hat. Going to eat them in a couple days. That is the kind of lifestyle out here. Everyone fishes and hunts. For work they do something in the canneries or with the airport. I live above the hangar here in King Salmon, Alaska. Apartment is a two bedroom and similar to a frat house in appearance. I am warming up to it just fine. I cleaned the bathroom and febreezed the whole apartment. This life is really fun but I do miss my family and of course my girlfriend Alex. It's hard not seeing her but I know she will stand by me as my carrier progresses. She is calling the apartment phone every night to talk which is nice. I can't call out. But we can receive calls. So if you are interested call the phone and ask for me. 1-907-246-3458. Anyways, I am off to sleep. Long Day tomorrow! Goodnight.

King Salmon Alaska

This place is another world! Pretty neat. It's beautiful here and it's full of wildlife. Moose, brown bear, caribou, fox, wolves, and deer are everywhere. Culture shock... Can't believe it. First night here was last night... Was at the only bar in town within an hour of landing. Met the other first officers. All cool dudes. Everyone has been very nice and are helping us get adjusted to king salmon. Hunting and fishing are a way of life around here. For that I am stoked cuz we get Sunday's off up here on my 15 on. Gonna fish or shoot guns. Everyone has them and will give them to me if I bring bullets. Can't wait to get out and look around in the woods. The place I'm living is similar to a frat house. But is warm and out of the weather at no cost to me. Can't complain! Anyways, listen in for my first flights coming up in the next couple days!

Over half way done with simulator

The full motion simulator is pretty cool. Almost finished up. I have tomorrow and Monday then I take a checkride. We can do 85% of the test in the simulator. The other 15% needs to be done in the airplane. Tuesday I will head out to the bush to finish up. Hopefully if I get done I can come home for the weekend to see Alex and my family. It's been tough being up here for so long not knowing when or where I need to be. My training is almost done though. Hoping to get in the groove with how the company works and the routes we fly. Should be exciting. Sucks though. I don't get cell service out there. Only carrier that gets service is GCI Wireless. So no phone. But I may get one of their prepaid phones. We will see. Anyways, I got my alaska state drivers license the other day. 18/20 on the written. So easy! It was pretty cool.

96% Top of the class

Finished ground training today. Scored the highest in class. 96%! I will be the most senior out of anyone in our new hire class. So that means when it comes time to upgrade into the bigger airplane I will be chose first. I can not be happier with my accomplishment. I achieved what I set out to do. Simulator training starts tomorrow afternoon. I am paired with a captain from cold bay, Alaska. His name is Eric. Really nice guy. Retired military and has already told me about his sailboat. Look forward to flying with him for the next 5 days. Gonna be exciting. The simulator is at Merrill field. It's in the university of Alaska's aviation training building. It is a full motion simulator. That will be a first for me. Anyways, weather is great here. It's about 40 degrees for the high and 34 for the low. Not too bad but winter is definitely setting in here in anchorage. I like the cold. Very refreshing. I need to start wearing shorts and a tee shirt to train myself for out in the bush were it can sometimes be 30 below zero. Pretty intense but I have the carhart arctic gear. Should be just fine. Well, keep reading and I will write when I can.

Cheers

Systems in the Morning

Well, New Hire INDOC is completed. Tested out of the class with a 90%. Everything is coming together. I have already made a hunting/fishing buddy. He has a boat and lots of guns. We plan to hunt and fish as much as possible. Saturday night I went to a Halloween party at one of the other trainees house. It was fun. Good food and free beer. It was a well deserved night off. Starting tomorrow morning we have systems which is basically an overview of exactly how the airplane works. The airplane I am flying is a Cessna Caravan 208B. Once that is over on wednesday we will immediately start simulator training. That willmlast 3-5 days and then take a check ride out in king salmon. Then I will start work on the 31 st of October and it will run until november 15th. I am missing hunting season. First time I have ever missed. Sucks. The hunting here is much better so I woulnt complain. I have been reading the regulations and I can shoot 3 black bears, 1 grizzly bear, 2 caribou, 1 moose, 1 wolverine, and 2 Dallas sheep per year. I can also shoot wolves. 10 PER DAY! Once I get my drives license it will become instate and active. So I may hunt this year after all. Some of those tags have certain dates you must hunt. Others are year round. I could definitely get used to this!

3 more days of GOM training

Tomorrow is the beginning to the end of our general operations training. I can not wait to be done. It is good information but is very dry. After that we have 3days of systems. Once we test out of that class Penair will take 3 of the 5 of us and send us through the simulator training. The other two new hires will have to go home and be back on the 5th of November to do their simulator training. So I want to be the top three so I can have thanksgiving and Christmas off. I think I have a good shot considering my sim went well and my test score is better than anyone else's. Only a couple more tests to do well on and I will be set. Seeing alot of moose. It's an everyday thing up here. I saw a cow moose today that was pushing 2000 pounds. Biggest animal I have ever seen. It's been beautiful weather here. I will post pictures soon!

Days off in Anchorage

Well, today was my first day off after arriving in anchorage. It has been sunny and unrestricted visibility. So amazing and the moose and mountains have been crazy. It Is still very surreal to me that I am here. I saw Jim Tweto from the TV show flying wild Alaska's Cessna 180 here in anchorage. It must be down here for maintenance. Pretty cool. We stopped and took pictures. Have them on my phone. All the guys that are training for the caravan are pretty cool. We have gone out for beers and they are all nice guys. There are only 5 of us. I am pretty confident that I will be #1 in the class. I am the most experienced pilot that got hired for the caravan. I am looking forward to flying out in the bush. It is going to be a great experience. I have been watching a few videos on YouTube.com and it is pretty cool looking. I can't wait to hunt and fish out there. It will be cool. Well, anyways I will write soon.

Danny

End of the first week

Not much new has happened. Got to get out fairly early today. 1:30pm we were released from training. It was beautiful here today. Nice and sunny. Watched some planes takeoff and land at the airport. Explored lake hood seaport. Pretty neat. Matt, guy from central who too got a job with penair, and I have taken it upon ourselves to get to know our caravan pilots. We all hung out today and got a beer at Platnum Jaxx. The citizens got their reserve checks today. Are the freaks are out and about buying booze and cigarettes. Pretty funny. At the bar we had a native women with two teeth tell our group of guys that we were cute and she was buying us beers. Never happened but it was interesting nonetheless. All is well and tomorrow is our last day for this week of training. We have 3 days off next week and might try to get home to drop off what I dont need. We will see. No badge yet! Goodnight!

First Day of School

Today I learned a lot about our company... It started out at 6:15 with a morning shower and breakfast. On Glenn Highway 1, the road running north/south through Anchorage, I encountered a small traffic slowdown. I was shocked but it was only for about 100 yards. As I got closer I saw a police vehicle blocking the center lane. Once I got up to the car I noticed a 1,200 lbs Cow moose laying in the middle of the street. The SUV that hit it was totaled. No injuries! I have been in Alaska no more than 24 hours and already encountered a moose. Too bad it was lying dead on the road! Anyways, class was long and tedious today. A LOT of paperwork and signing things. My parents and spouse/kids all get huge discounted fares on a number of major airlines. I found out that I will be on the first rotation in King Salmon, Alaska. I will not be coming back to the lower 48 until the 15th or 16th of November. My training will only be 7 days of ground, 3 days of systems,and 5 days of simulator training. Then its off to the bush to finish up training. I am gearing up for the adventure. At the end of ground we get to do survival raft training and fire training at a local wave pool. Putting out real life fires and securing a raft with freezing cold hoses drenching us is gonna be intense. This company is very organized and definitely gives me the impression of a close knit, family oriented company. I get my official ID badge tomorrow and we are starting to go over operational considerations. Lots and Lots of fun! Later!

Anchorage October 5th 2011

I'm all settled here in anchorage, Alaska. Arrived at 10:30am this morning. It was a great flight and was pretty quick. I met a 25 year old guy named nick on the plane. He was really nervous about flying and immediately struck up a conversation with me as he was sitting next to me. We talked about everything for college to flying and beyond. He was a really nice guy and gave me his number if I wanted to see around anchorage. His uncle is a guide out here in anchorage for hunting and he thought his uncle would like me to go hunting with him at some point. I think I might check it out. Anyways, Rob and Lindsey live in a nice apartment building in south anchorage. They have been very gracious and welcoming. I can not thank them both enough. I went to Costco and Fred Meyer for my stock of food for the next month. Got all the essentials; bagel bits, trail mix, DILLA fixings, and some water. Prices are a couple bucks more expensive but its not too bad. Ground school starts tomorrow morning and I am excited for it. Should be fun. I got my room all set up as well. Nice air mattress and actual sheets. Got some coats hung up and everything laid out. It looks like my stay in anchorage is JUST getting started. Shall be fun. See you all soon!

36 hours till I head to the last frontier

As we approach wednesday I become more and more anxious. I have no idea what to expect. I feel like a kid that is going off to college all over again. I am partly nervous but also very excited to start. Forecast for Anchorage this week is highs in the 40's and lows in the 20's. Winter time is here for Alaskans. I have all my bags packed up and plan to spend the day with Alex tomorrow. Should be really fun and I hope the weather cooperates. We might go golfing but maybe I can convince her to go shooting. I have a make shift plan already in place for alaska. I am staying with a friend from school and borrowing his vehicle. I am very lucky that they offered me their home. It means a lot and I definitely don't forget friends that go out of their way to help out. My flight is this wednesday at 8am. Ground school starts this thursday at 8am. I can't wait. Well, its time to hit the hay. Goodnight

3 Days Till Ground School

I am anxiously awaiting my flight to Anchorage for ground school. I leave this Wednesday October 5th for a 3 week training session in Anchorage, Alaska for my new Job. I got hired September 21st 2011 at Peninsula Airways as a First Officer. I will be based in either Dillingham or King Salmon Alaska after training is completed. I will be working 15 days on then 15 days off. On my days off I will be living back here in Washington. While I am on duty I will be staying in company housing; all expenses paid. This is my shot at getting a good paying job in the future. I am very thankful to have a supportive family and friends that have backed me throughout college and my flight training. Stay tuned for more Information and stories to come!