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!