Sanguy

I haven't decided yet if I'll return. Sort of waiting for the Covid to work out. It would be 9 years for me. Seaplanes summer biz is highly dependent on the tourist industry in SE Alaska. You'll throw bags and freight. Lots of each. There is ramp help, but you are responsible to get your plane loaded. Then when you think you have everything loaded, a ramper pulls up a baggage cart full of US Mail or UPS boxes. Suddenly, you're running behind and you still have 2 more flights that day. Then it starts raining and you're getting wet and miserable while loading. You check the weather at your destination one more time and suddenly it's too low to go. Dispatch says unload and take the seats out. You're going for a load of fish from Hoonah back to Juneau. Well Crap. A Caravan holds 3000 lbs of fish and you load thirty 100 lb boxes off a flatbed truck. When you get back to Juneau, you have to unload at Alaska Airlines freight, put all the seats back for a trip trip to Skagway dodging weather all the way. No IFR to Skagway, but plenty of low VFR. You might fly at 500' for a large part of the 40 minute trip. And you still have to go back. At Skagway, there may be a full boat of pax, all with huge suitcases. And the amount of US mail that Skagway generates in the Summer is amazing. In non-Covid times, it's SE Alaska's Disneyland.


You check JNU wx before heading out and it looks OK to leave. Fly at 500 to 1000' ft on the way back only to have the weather go below VFR mins at JNU. You ask for special, but you're number 3 in line and JNU is one in, one out with IFR traffic a priority. Nothing tower can do as ANC Center owns the airspace. Pop ups happen, but they are hard to come by in that situ, So now how long can you hold in VFR conditions before returning to Skagway for fuel? Then maybe it's getting dark. No night VFR there. All fun stuff.


Anyway, if you get there, have fun and maybe will see you there. It's a hoot.