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.