AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
These stories were sent to me by a good friend, Capt Doug Millard, who cut his teeth flying for the same airline I later worked with, Wien Air Alaska. He retired as a senior 737 captain and did many great things for the safety of our flight operations. There will be lots of stories that Capt Millard has offered. He is now retired and lives in the Valley area north of Anchorage and flies a very beautiful C-185 that he uses to fly to his cabain and do some hunting. I have yet to hear about any game to has taken though. 
Our airline consisted of two carriers that merged, Wien Alaska Airlines based in Fairbanks and serving the northern part of the state and Northern Consolidated Airlines based in Anchorage that served the central part of the state. Almost all routes had no competetion at the time. It was a natural merger since we had no overlapping routes and more or less had compatible equipment. Our 737s were the same more or less. One difference was the Fairchild F-27s. The Wien area used the F-27As with P&W engines and the NCA area used the F-27Bs with the Rolls Royce Dart 7 engines. The Wien F-27s were modified enough to take the very cold weather in the Arctic but still got a herman nelson heater hose on each main gear just as soon as the props stopped. Anything to save the seals on the struts. To move cargo and passengers, the B models were really great since they had the huge door up front to load cargo.
More about Wien Air Alaska later. What an airline.
Now lets see what Doug has to share with us this time around.
"Funny about the F-27's. The small engined F-27Bs actually rotated and
lifted off nicer than our bigger engined F-27As.
I was overnight at the Point Barrow airport on a DEW Line Lateral trip with an F-27 in the heated Air Force hangar. Next morning with a big North wind coming right down the runway, we loaded up and closed up inside the hangar then the transportation specialist opened the doors and started to push us out. We had moved just a few feet when the plane pivoted around dragging the tug with it. The specialist pulled us back inside, got us centered and started out again. Same thing
happened so after getting us centered again I got out to watch and see
what was happening. Just as the tail cleared the door, the wind grabbed
it and turned us sideways. He pulled us back inside and I had the stew
get all 10 or so passengers jammed right up in the cockpit as far as
they could get and with that extra weight on the nose wheel we went
straight out the door.
(Comment from Ernie) Anything to get the job done for the Air Force.
Another time I had a medivac at Barter Island with an F-27. Weather was
clear with 1/16 mile in blowing snow right down the runway. Landing was
no problem but finding the taxiway to the hangar took a little time. I
turned into the wind and pulled the power back and started to set the
brakes when I noticed the flag man was getting further away. I applied
power to get back up to him the held power while I set the brakes. They
hooked up a huge loader to tow us out to the runway and turned us into
the wind then unhooked. We were sitting right at the departure end of
the runway which we couldn't see so I put full flaps down and we sailed
backwards down the runway (just like in a float plane) counting runway
lights as we backed up past them. We had 50 mph in the nose so after a
handful of lights went by we layed the whip to it, rotated and were back
in the clear on top."
Our airline consisted of two carriers that merged, Wien Alaska Airlines based in Fairbanks and serving the northern part of the state and Northern Consolidated Airlines based in Anchorage that served the central part of the state. Almost all routes had no competetion at the time. It was a natural merger since we had no overlapping routes and more or less had compatible equipment. Our 737s were the same more or less. One difference was the Fairchild F-27s. The Wien area used the F-27As with P&W engines and the NCA area used the F-27Bs with the Rolls Royce Dart 7 engines. The Wien F-27s were modified enough to take the very cold weather in the Arctic but still got a herman nelson heater hose on each main gear just as soon as the props stopped. Anything to save the seals on the struts. To move cargo and passengers, the B models were really great since they had the huge door up front to load cargo.
More about Wien Air Alaska later. What an airline.
Now lets see what Doug has to share with us this time around.
"Funny about the F-27's. The small engined F-27Bs actually rotated and
lifted off nicer than our bigger engined F-27As.
I was overnight at the Point Barrow airport on a DEW Line Lateral trip with an F-27 in the heated Air Force hangar. Next morning with a big North wind coming right down the runway, we loaded up and closed up inside the hangar then the transportation specialist opened the doors and started to push us out. We had moved just a few feet when the plane pivoted around dragging the tug with it. The specialist pulled us back inside, got us centered and started out again. Same thing
happened so after getting us centered again I got out to watch and see
what was happening. Just as the tail cleared the door, the wind grabbed
it and turned us sideways. He pulled us back inside and I had the stew
get all 10 or so passengers jammed right up in the cockpit as far as
they could get and with that extra weight on the nose wheel we went
straight out the door.
(Comment from Ernie) Anything to get the job done for the Air Force.
Another time I had a medivac at Barter Island with an F-27. Weather was
clear with 1/16 mile in blowing snow right down the runway. Landing was
no problem but finding the taxiway to the hangar took a little time. I
turned into the wind and pulled the power back and started to set the
brakes when I noticed the flag man was getting further away. I applied
power to get back up to him the held power while I set the brakes. They
hooked up a huge loader to tow us out to the runway and turned us into
the wind then unhooked. We were sitting right at the departure end of
the runway which we couldn't see so I put full flaps down and we sailed
backwards down the runway (just like in a float plane) counting runway
lights as we backed up past them. We had 50 mph in the nose so after a
handful of lights went by we layed the whip to it, rotated and were back
in the clear on top."
