The engine just removed from the plane.
The bad news is just the realization and understanding that pilots who do what I do are vulnerable. Every flight into the far North comes with risk and I am fortunate to have flown over 1600 hours in nearly 40 years without an engine failure or a crash in a remote site. I have flying buddies who have not been so fortunate and a few have lost their lives in aviation accidents. The current hiatus has also shown me how important being an Alaskan Taildragger Pilot is to my sense of self and my personal identity. I love to fly and the access it gives me!
No engine, no prop!
While my beautiful airplane sits at Curt's runway and its engine is being rebuilt in Wasilla, I have taken time to watch fascinating YouTube videos of the many off runway pilots who are operating in the lower 48 states. Cory Robin, Jonas Marcinko, Trent Palmer, Mike Patey - the Flying Cowboys! It is a source of great satisfaction to see that fun and explorational aviation is alive and well in the wilder parts of the lower 48. I have worried that too few young people are willing to get away from their electronic devices, their simulators and video games to experience the real thing: learning to fly a real airplane and experience the joy, discovery and mobility that flying affords.
In these videos that I have watched, two major differences are apparent to me between flying "lower 48 remote" and "Alaska remote."
First, while many of the VLOG pilots have ventured into our state, their range of operation has been in Southeast Alaska with some brave souls venturing all the way to Talkeetna and the Alaska Range. I have yet to find any pilot other than commercial guides who have ventured to the North Slope, the Kantishna, the Lower and Upper Yukon, the Porcupine, the Kobuk, the Tanana, the White Mountains and Beaver Creek, or the Noatak. These are the areas that I have flown for the past 40 years and they are dear to my heart. The landmarks are engraved in my mind: Lone Mountain, Moose Heart Mountain, Mt. Adams, Twin Lakes, Victoria Mountain - silent guideposts to the beautiful wild country. I have flown the remote spots, retracing the paths of the early explorers like Robert Marshall in the Brooks Range and Hudson Stuck on the Kobuk, and have flown for days without seeing another human being or another aircraft, such is the remote and wild nature of this place.
Second: in the lower 48 the equipment emphasis appears to be take-off and climb performance. Range does not appear to be a factor - since gas stations are plentiful and many of the aircraft are experimental and use car gas. We would never consider using car gas in Alaska for a number of reasons, including lack of stability, tendency for vapor lock and potential corrosive effects on fuel lines. However, choice of grade of fuel is moot because very few places exist in the Interior of Alaska. where fuel may be purchased(!) North and West of Fairbanks. The following is a list of airport fuel availability that are known to me: Coldfoot, Bettles, Kavik, Kotzebue, and Galena. That means that the emphasis must be on carrying a large supply of fuel which adds a lot of weight, decreasing payload, and on leaning the mixture and retarding RPMs to obtain the maximal range of flight from the least amount of fuel. Thus, one of the first mods I installed on my airplane was a belly tank capable of holding 40 gallons of fuel. With two wings tanks of 20 gallons each, at a cruise fuel burn of 7.5 gal/hour, that gives me a range of nearly 10 hours/900 miles, which is enough to get just about anywhere, but not quite enough to get back if there's a headwind! Refueling, and knowing where it can be found is perhaps the most important part of flight planning in Alaska. Watching the fuel gauge and managing the fuel transfer from the belly tank is right up there with obtaining accurate weather information in importance for a proposed journey.
While flying in these wild places I have seen a wolf approach close, a grizzly bear gathering blue berries apparently unaware of my presence until it caught my scent, at which time the bear ran at full speed for miles until it disappeared over the horizon. These are among the thrills that await the pilot willing to venture into the Far North.
I am thinking of starting my own VLOG of flight into the North. Hmm!
Imagine this sequence as a video!
I approach my favorite landing spot on the Yukon River West of Beaver.
