AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
Aircraft: Twin Otter Weather: Clear Visibility unlimited Light winds Passengers 6
As I recall, 4 hours fuel
A regular scheduled tourist flight from Anchorage to Mt McKinley which was supposed to follow the Alaska Railroad during the entire trip by company orders. Stay low so passengers could see more and take a look at wildlife if posable so people on both sides of the aircraft could take pictures. I requested (ordered?) that our ground crews use mirror glaze on turnarounds to polish the side windows to get the scratches out so passengers could get better camera shots. Always a VFR flight to McKinley, no IFR. If IFR conditions, we put the passengers on the railroad. After all, if the weather was bad, they couldn't see anything from the air anyway and the tourists were always on a tight time schedule.
A new hot shot pilot (much like myself in my early days ) decided to take a short cut in the Talkeetna area and veered off to the right to follow a river valley toward the McKinley airport. We flew a crew of two on the Twin Otters but it appears neither one of them could read a map.
We never got conformation from our agent at McKinley that the flight had arrived so we waited for a while before calling the FAA for assistance. As I recall, no flight plans were filed on those flights to and from McKinley since they were always VFR and low altitude. No one had heard from the aircraft after leaving the Anchorage area. We really got worried so when the aircraft was beyond fuel limits and still no word from the aircraft, we called the FAA again. The airline owner, his wife, daughter and myself adjourned to the board room to wait for information. Surprise there was still some carpet left after all the pacing around the room. It was hours later that we got word from Gulkana that the aircraft was there and taking on fuel. Gulkana? How in the hell did he get there on a direct flight from Anchorage to McKinley via the railroad? I never did get the true story from the flight crew about where they were for several hours since they didn't have that much fuel but I am sure the owner did. Last trip for the captain and first officer. I heard through the grapevine that they had landed on a highway enroute somewhere to ask directions. What? A man asking directions? Impossible. We never received a complaint from any of the 6 passengers either and took them back to McKinley the next day (at no charge of course). The customer service agents at the terminal said all six of the passengers really got a kick out of the problems and really took home a story to their grand kids that none would believe I am sure.
Oh how I hated to work with new hire, minimum hour pilots and I never figured out how our chief pilot could stand it. We never did know what the guys would do next. The only new hires I never had problems with were the low time females that flew for us. By far the best of the new hire pilot groups. Because they felt they had more to prove? I really doubt it since they would have already gone through that with their instructors. As I said before, I used to date our only female 737 pilot (later a Captain) at one point but I would never fly with her. In my haz mat training, I would watch each pilot and try to figure out if they were really listening. The men would look around the room and the women would always look me in the eye, a sign they heard every word I said. When I was asked to be a guest speaker at a travel agent school in Anchorage, I did the same thing only it was the women that did not listen and the men heard every word. Strange world we live in I guess.
Ah, aviation, the only way to live but I sure miss the Cubs.
As I recall, 4 hours fuel
A regular scheduled tourist flight from Anchorage to Mt McKinley which was supposed to follow the Alaska Railroad during the entire trip by company orders. Stay low so passengers could see more and take a look at wildlife if posable so people on both sides of the aircraft could take pictures. I requested (ordered?) that our ground crews use mirror glaze on turnarounds to polish the side windows to get the scratches out so passengers could get better camera shots. Always a VFR flight to McKinley, no IFR. If IFR conditions, we put the passengers on the railroad. After all, if the weather was bad, they couldn't see anything from the air anyway and the tourists were always on a tight time schedule.
A new hot shot pilot (much like myself in my early days ) decided to take a short cut in the Talkeetna area and veered off to the right to follow a river valley toward the McKinley airport. We flew a crew of two on the Twin Otters but it appears neither one of them could read a map.
We never got conformation from our agent at McKinley that the flight had arrived so we waited for a while before calling the FAA for assistance. As I recall, no flight plans were filed on those flights to and from McKinley since they were always VFR and low altitude. No one had heard from the aircraft after leaving the Anchorage area. We really got worried so when the aircraft was beyond fuel limits and still no word from the aircraft, we called the FAA again. The airline owner, his wife, daughter and myself adjourned to the board room to wait for information. Surprise there was still some carpet left after all the pacing around the room. It was hours later that we got word from Gulkana that the aircraft was there and taking on fuel. Gulkana? How in the hell did he get there on a direct flight from Anchorage to McKinley via the railroad? I never did get the true story from the flight crew about where they were for several hours since they didn't have that much fuel but I am sure the owner did. Last trip for the captain and first officer. I heard through the grapevine that they had landed on a highway enroute somewhere to ask directions. What? A man asking directions? Impossible. We never received a complaint from any of the 6 passengers either and took them back to McKinley the next day (at no charge of course). The customer service agents at the terminal said all six of the passengers really got a kick out of the problems and really took home a story to their grand kids that none would believe I am sure.
Oh how I hated to work with new hire, minimum hour pilots and I never figured out how our chief pilot could stand it. We never did know what the guys would do next. The only new hires I never had problems with were the low time females that flew for us. By far the best of the new hire pilot groups. Because they felt they had more to prove? I really doubt it since they would have already gone through that with their instructors. As I said before, I used to date our only female 737 pilot (later a Captain) at one point but I would never fly with her. In my haz mat training, I would watch each pilot and try to figure out if they were really listening. The men would look around the room and the women would always look me in the eye, a sign they heard every word I said. When I was asked to be a guest speaker at a travel agent school in Anchorage, I did the same thing only it was the women that did not listen and the men heard every word. Strange world we live in I guess.
Ah, aviation, the only way to live but I sure miss the Cubs.
