AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
When assigned as station manager at Dahl Creek, I ran into all kinds of different jobs. Here is another example and I loved every minute of it and I actually got paid for doing it. At one point, my boss flew out to tell me he was giving me a raise and I turned it down because I wasn't working hard enought to deserve it. Oh how I liked to get to that guy. 
One summer, Kennicott Copper was using a PBY magnetometer operation to map out what was below the surface in the Kobuk, Dahl Creek, Bornite and surrounding areas. Their operation at Bornite was testing a lode of copper ore that was 65% pure copper as it came out of the ground. The ore was actually copper colored when it came out and within a half hour or so, it would turn purple from oxidation. Their mine west of Salt Lake City on I-80 is mined at 1/2 of 1 percent and they make a profit. More on that in a different story.
This was the first time I had ever been around a PBY and what an aircraft. It had been modified with larger engines for more power (they must have watched Tim the Tool Man Taylor on TV). This was needed since at all times, they had to keep the bird they were towing right at 500 AGL regardless of the slopes of the mountains they were flying over. Even with the extra power, at times they would have to do a wing over and hope they didn't catch the bird and than start the grid pass over again and all of this without GPS. The flight crew was so good that hardly ever happened and not once at Dahl Creek. At times, they might actually catch the bird on a mountain top they said and with a large loss since the birds were quite expensive. The Captain may have been part owner so I am sure he was very careful.
The aircraft was owned by a company from Vancouver, BC, named, as I recall, FireFlight.
In addition to being set up for magnetometer surveying, it also had tanks and scoops for firebombing. What a money maker for them. All photos were lost in a flood at Galena years later.
What beautiful sounding engines. Music to my ears.
To me, it really sounded like they were using cruise power on takeoff but who knows. Sure a lot easier on those big round ones if they were. They just didn't seem to have the cracking sounds of high cylinder head pressure and I never recall seeing any fire out of the pipes on takeoff.
The guys would fly many hours durring the day and bring it back to Dahl Creek at dusk and than I would fuel it at night (big deal, 20 hours of daylight) while they drove over the mountain to stay at the Kennicott facility. As I recall, it usually took 14 drums of av gas per night and all I had was an electric pump that put out maybe 2 gal per minute at the height the wings were. I was just thankful I didn't have to hand pump it through a chamois. It was up and down with every drum of gas to change drums. This in addition to all the Wien requirements durring the day. Boy was I tired all the time and probably why we only had two children. Since we flew all the fuel in on our good old 92853 C-46A, I also got to offload those flights durring the day. With flight crew help, I believe we got it down to about 30 minutes for 30 drums on those turnarounds.
Until you are around an over powered PBY with maybe an extra 700 to 1000 hp, it is hard to believe how beautiful they look taking off and climbing out from a non controlled airport, especially with no load to speak of other than fuel. Those long wings seemed like they almost touched the ground when turning after liftoff. Durring that summer at Dahl Creek, I don't remember it ever having a mechanical. Unheard of unless they couldn't find the MEL requirements. :roll:
One summer, Kennicott Copper was using a PBY magnetometer operation to map out what was below the surface in the Kobuk, Dahl Creek, Bornite and surrounding areas. Their operation at Bornite was testing a lode of copper ore that was 65% pure copper as it came out of the ground. The ore was actually copper colored when it came out and within a half hour or so, it would turn purple from oxidation. Their mine west of Salt Lake City on I-80 is mined at 1/2 of 1 percent and they make a profit. More on that in a different story.
This was the first time I had ever been around a PBY and what an aircraft. It had been modified with larger engines for more power (they must have watched Tim the Tool Man Taylor on TV). This was needed since at all times, they had to keep the bird they were towing right at 500 AGL regardless of the slopes of the mountains they were flying over. Even with the extra power, at times they would have to do a wing over and hope they didn't catch the bird and than start the grid pass over again and all of this without GPS. The flight crew was so good that hardly ever happened and not once at Dahl Creek. At times, they might actually catch the bird on a mountain top they said and with a large loss since the birds were quite expensive. The Captain may have been part owner so I am sure he was very careful.
The aircraft was owned by a company from Vancouver, BC, named, as I recall, FireFlight.
In addition to being set up for magnetometer surveying, it also had tanks and scoops for firebombing. What a money maker for them. All photos were lost in a flood at Galena years later.
What beautiful sounding engines. Music to my ears.
To me, it really sounded like they were using cruise power on takeoff but who knows. Sure a lot easier on those big round ones if they were. They just didn't seem to have the cracking sounds of high cylinder head pressure and I never recall seeing any fire out of the pipes on takeoff.The guys would fly many hours durring the day and bring it back to Dahl Creek at dusk and than I would fuel it at night (big deal, 20 hours of daylight) while they drove over the mountain to stay at the Kennicott facility. As I recall, it usually took 14 drums of av gas per night and all I had was an electric pump that put out maybe 2 gal per minute at the height the wings were. I was just thankful I didn't have to hand pump it through a chamois. It was up and down with every drum of gas to change drums. This in addition to all the Wien requirements durring the day. Boy was I tired all the time and probably why we only had two children. Since we flew all the fuel in on our good old 92853 C-46A, I also got to offload those flights durring the day. With flight crew help, I believe we got it down to about 30 minutes for 30 drums on those turnarounds.
Until you are around an over powered PBY with maybe an extra 700 to 1000 hp, it is hard to believe how beautiful they look taking off and climbing out from a non controlled airport, especially with no load to speak of other than fuel. Those long wings seemed like they almost touched the ground when turning after liftoff. Durring that summer at Dahl Creek, I don't remember it ever having a mechanical. Unheard of unless they couldn't find the MEL requirements. :roll:
