Alaska 135
03-10-2006, 09:15 PM
#41
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Fine !!!
[QUOTE=lzakplt]Though I’m disinclined to prolong this torturous exchange, a few more points:
I never said everyone in Alaska or elsewhere follows all the rules all the time. If a guy is VFR 100 miles from home and weather drops below mins he's not going to just throw up his hands and crash. However in most airlines and around the state, there is a continuing movement to fly more safely. (Podunk Mom & Pop operations? Maybe safety can be a little more pot-luck.) One example of our improving culture of safety can be found at www.medallionfoundation.org. Just for the record, I've had the good fortune to work in a few of this state's corners for 2 reputable airlines in 7 different types of aircraft. (Plus private flying in as many types.)
You win !!!! I give up !!! I am at a disadvantaged position since I haven't been there in ten years. Lets just say that you are right. Pilots are safer and make better decisions now. Would you at least concede that piloting a 207 across 200 miles of mountainous terrain is more dangerous than sitting in the right seat of a Dash 8? How about flying a Cherokee 6 across a short stretch of open ocean? You can not maintain that working as a pilot in AK is like touch and go's in the pattern at Boeing Field? It still has to be among the most dangerous career paths for a pilot, wouldn't you say? Perhaps crop dusting is the worst? I will check out your web site.
SkyHigh
I never said everyone in Alaska or elsewhere follows all the rules all the time. If a guy is VFR 100 miles from home and weather drops below mins he's not going to just throw up his hands and crash. However in most airlines and around the state, there is a continuing movement to fly more safely. (Podunk Mom & Pop operations? Maybe safety can be a little more pot-luck.) One example of our improving culture of safety can be found at www.medallionfoundation.org. Just for the record, I've had the good fortune to work in a few of this state's corners for 2 reputable airlines in 7 different types of aircraft. (Plus private flying in as many types.)
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
You can't sit on one corner of the state working for one company and claim that the entire state has changed. When the WX is bad for days on end and there are hunters afield who ran out of food days ago you find a way to get there. When someone has a life threatening injury and needs to be medevaced to ANC you get there. When the mail contains someones life sustaining medication someone makes it happen. And finally if you are flying a single engine piston plane on the sunniest day of the year you are still in danger and no amount of book learning, rule following geekism will save you it the engine decides to explode.
Hunters? They've probably got a goat or something to eat. If not, they should have packed a few more mountain house meals. (If they are sorry hunters, chances are they have ample fat supplies of their own to sustain them for weeks.) Am I going to let the problem they created by not planning for likely delays become my problem?
Medivacs? In 5 plus years I've logged hundreds of hours doing them around Bristol Bay, the Lake Illiamna region, down the Alaska peninsula, (a few visits to the Y/K delta), and to Anchorage. Interestingly, the hospital here approves of our safety policies, and continues to use our company exclusively. They've got this peculiar theory that if we push the weather to try to save one life, it might backfire, killing the crew of 3 on the aircraft. (You know this has happened.) Strangely, they aren't into hastening the demise of their medics or me. (If the weather really sucks, we call the professional heros: the Coast Guard or the National Guard.)
Medication? Refer to the above sensible method of decision making.
Geekism & single engine explosions (in wheel planes, in hospitable terrain (southeast Alaska)) on sunny days? Been there, done that, and I will agree with you that it is not very fun. (Thankfully, everyone was OK.)
I don’t doubt the experiences you describe having in this state. However, they do not paint a full picture of what it is like to fly here today, especially for a reputable airline. You are out of line trying to paint pictures of doom and gloom to anyone on this forum who mentions Alaskan aviation.
Hunters? They've probably got a goat or something to eat. If not, they should have packed a few more mountain house meals. (If they are sorry hunters, chances are they have ample fat supplies of their own to sustain them for weeks.) Am I going to let the problem they created by not planning for likely delays become my problem?
Medivacs? In 5 plus years I've logged hundreds of hours doing them around Bristol Bay, the Lake Illiamna region, down the Alaska peninsula, (a few visits to the Y/K delta), and to Anchorage. Interestingly, the hospital here approves of our safety policies, and continues to use our company exclusively. They've got this peculiar theory that if we push the weather to try to save one life, it might backfire, killing the crew of 3 on the aircraft. (You know this has happened.) Strangely, they aren't into hastening the demise of their medics or me. (If the weather really sucks, we call the professional heros: the Coast Guard or the National Guard.)
Medication? Refer to the above sensible method of decision making.
Geekism & single engine explosions (in wheel planes, in hospitable terrain (southeast Alaska)) on sunny days? Been there, done that, and I will agree with you that it is not very fun. (Thankfully, everyone was OK.)
I don’t doubt the experiences you describe having in this state. However, they do not paint a full picture of what it is like to fly here today, especially for a reputable airline. You are out of line trying to paint pictures of doom and gloom to anyone on this forum who mentions Alaskan aviation.
SkyHigh
03-10-2006, 09:35 PM
#42
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Penair
OLD Alaska 135
I would like to say in conclusion that back when I was flying in Alaska Penair was the worst of the worst. It was common to see them taxi out a Cherokee 6 with the tail tiedown skipping off the ground since the plane was so overloaded. In an interview the King Salmon cheif pilot he told me and another guy that if we worked for him and didn't get caught out at least two nights a week that he would fire us.
On another occasion the same guy was asked to report the weather where he was and his reply was "1/2 mile I think, but I can't see much past a half mile anymore anyhow". There was this kid who hung around our airtaxi and he tried for a few weeks to get on at ILI. After giving up he excitedly told us that he had gotten on with Penair. We strongly warned him to stay away but wild horses couldn't stop him. A month later he was in the hospital and two of his passengers were dead. I know that he was really banged up and was not expected to live.
Things were diffrent then. Penair shared the ramp with Markair Express and they both were fighting for survival. My last story is of a Penair Cherokee 6 pilot who was lost in the clouds and crying on the raido. He was sure that in short order he would find the side of a mountian. I listened as others tried to talk him into pulling himself togather but he was unconsolible. In the end I later was told that someone got him onto ATC and talked him back into DLG. Just another day in the bush circa 1990's I am told that life is better there now.
SkyHigh
I would like to say in conclusion that back when I was flying in Alaska Penair was the worst of the worst. It was common to see them taxi out a Cherokee 6 with the tail tiedown skipping off the ground since the plane was so overloaded. In an interview the King Salmon cheif pilot he told me and another guy that if we worked for him and didn't get caught out at least two nights a week that he would fire us.
On another occasion the same guy was asked to report the weather where he was and his reply was "1/2 mile I think, but I can't see much past a half mile anymore anyhow". There was this kid who hung around our airtaxi and he tried for a few weeks to get on at ILI. After giving up he excitedly told us that he had gotten on with Penair. We strongly warned him to stay away but wild horses couldn't stop him. A month later he was in the hospital and two of his passengers were dead. I know that he was really banged up and was not expected to live.
Things were diffrent then. Penair shared the ramp with Markair Express and they both were fighting for survival. My last story is of a Penair Cherokee 6 pilot who was lost in the clouds and crying on the raido. He was sure that in short order he would find the side of a mountian. I listened as others tried to talk him into pulling himself togather but he was unconsolible. In the end I later was told that someone got him onto ATC and talked him back into DLG. Just another day in the bush circa 1990's I am told that life is better there now.
SkyHigh
03-11-2006, 09:15 AM
#43
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2006
Position: Master and Commander of Pipers and Cessnas
Posts: 126
Yes, 121 is safer than 135. Yes, staying home eating brown rice and celery is safer than becoming a pilot, especially in Alaska. (A pilot alone in the cockpit here has less "supervision", than one in the pattern at Boeing field, thus more opportunity to make decisions for himself, and to live with the consequences of those decisions.) It is unwise to operate a single engine wheel plane over water and not be within gliding distance to the shore, and I don't do it. A grey bearded pilot once told me to think of all water in this state like a roiling vat of acid. If you go in, chances are you won't come out.
Last edited by lzakplt; 03-12-2006 at 07:30 AM.
03-20-2006, 07:21 PM
#45
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Rea Estate Investor/Developer
mtsupilot09,
Well I guess you would say that I am a real estate investor/developer. I buy or build investment homes. I even built one in Eagle River. I do have an opportunity to possibly do some seaplane 135 this summer so perhaps I will have a chance to play pilot for a few months.
SkyHigh
Well I guess you would say that I am a real estate investor/developer. I buy or build investment homes. I even built one in Eagle River. I do have an opportunity to possibly do some seaplane 135 this summer so perhaps I will have a chance to play pilot for a few months.
SkyHigh
03-21-2006, 09:44 AM
#46
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Posts: 33
Eagle River? Not familiar with that community/development. That's great that you work for yourself. In high school and for a while after it I ran a landscaping business. Business grew until I decided not to go to college at all, but after a chain of events I sold it and moved to Murfreesboro, TN to go to MTSU to earn a degree in aviation business. Anyways, ironically enough I am drafting plans to start a business here and run it while I go to school. Good luck with the seaplane venture, that could be a blast.
03-21-2006, 06:09 PM
#47
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Potential
Originally Posted by mtsupilot09
Eagle River? Not familiar with that community/development. That's great that you work for yourself. In high school and for a while after it I ran a landscaping business. Business grew until I decided not to go to college at all, but after a chain of events I sold it and moved to Murfreesboro, TN to go to MTSU to earn a degree in aviation business. Anyways, ironically enough I am drafting plans to start a business here and run it while I go to school. Good luck with the seaplane venture, that could be a blast.
mtsupilot09,
You sound like a smart kid with a lot of potential. Why are you preparing to waste your life and a small fortune in pilot training?? The world is your oyster someone with your talents belongs running a business. You would be bored as a pilot and it is nearly impossible to successfully do both. Save yourself some agony and loss, get into business school and forget this flying nonsense.
SkyHigh
03-24-2006, 06:02 PM
#48
Guest
Posts: n/a
Come on.....
Skyhigh you once said that the point of your negativity was to show the up-n-comers that there is a different side to the world of Aviation then what is shown in the brochure. You are great at presenting a fair balance between fact and fiction in the industry, but don't criticise the guy for wanting to attempt something you failed at. We need bright people in the industry. If we had more "Bright" ones. The industry might be less "stupid". You do your job well though I must say.
Sincerely,
NewGuy
Sincerely,
NewGuy
03-24-2006, 07:51 PM
#49
Line Holder
Joined APC: Apr 2005
Position: Alaska 737 FO
Posts: 61
To lighten the mood.... here are a few Alaska aviation videos I've made through the years...
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=SkywestChris
Enjoy!
Two of the best years of my life were spent in Alaska. I was primarily an A&P, but did some 135 "VFR" flying (320 hours in two years). Agreed, it's some of the most dangerous flying up there. I scared myself and pushed beyond personal limits more times than I'd like to admit. I married into the bush, so we get up there yearly- even get to do some bush flying, 207 here, Stinson there. . . I love it, but wouldn't want my wife and kids to depend on it!
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=SkywestChris
Enjoy!
Two of the best years of my life were spent in Alaska. I was primarily an A&P, but did some 135 "VFR" flying (320 hours in two years). Agreed, it's some of the most dangerous flying up there. I scared myself and pushed beyond personal limits more times than I'd like to admit. I married into the bush, so we get up there yearly- even get to do some bush flying, 207 here, Stinson there. . . I love it, but wouldn't want my wife and kids to depend on it!
Last edited by SkyWestPilot; 03-24-2006 at 07:59 PM.
03-24-2006, 07:53 PM
#50
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Newguy
Originally Posted by Newguy85
Skyhigh you once said that the point of your negativity was to show the up-n-comers that there is a different side to the world of Aviation then what is shown in the brochure. You are great at presenting a fair balance between fact and fiction in the industry, but don't criticise the guy for wanting to attempt something you failed at. We need bright people in the industry. If we had more "Bright" ones. The industry might be less "stupid". You do your job well though I must say.
Sincerely,
NewGuy
Sincerely,
NewGuy
Dude,
I am simply trying to save the guy some pain. Some of the secrets to long term success as a pilot is that you must lack the natural ability for self preservation, and it takes a talent for brain flat line. You are right he is smart and anyone with the interests and talents that this guy has will be bored within a week. The smart people own the tools the rest fly them. He will figure it out eventually.
Besides, I wouldn't necessarily say that I was a complete failure as a pilot. I did survive almost 20 years flying, never flunked a check ride, never scored less than a 90% on any FAA test. Graduated with a 3.2 GPA with a BS in Business and Aviation. I got every job in aviation that I tried for (except for one). Worked as a bush pilot, medevac pilot, forest service contract pilot, corporate, charter and regional airline and completed my run as a 757-200 FO. All without so much as chipping the paint. I would say that aviation failed me just as much. In the end it was a mutual separation.
Thanks though,
Love the Avatar by the way !!
SkyHigh
Last edited by SkyHigh; 03-24-2006 at 07:56 PM.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
