AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
http://supercub.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album105&id=umt_b_bmp
At one point in my aviation life, I started out as station manager at the Umiat airport, the licensed weather observer, runway maintenance manager/operator, in charge of our power generator, sewer system and fresh water requirements. We always had to have enough food on hand to feed a full flight of passengers since we were the only alternate airport on the entire north slope of Alaska. The company kitchen was great. The company furnished all of our food of course but we had to make sure we had it. Did I order a lot of steaks and slabs of bacon? Gee, I forget.
Temperatures there got down to maybe -70 degrees F at times and yes, that was cool. Thank goodness the Coleville River was free flowing even in the winter but that access point was some two miles away. Life was not easy but it never is anywhere.
We had lots of fun there and there was an unbelievable amount of work to keep us busy even though we hardly ever had a company flight. Just trying to keep some huge radios and teletype operating.
At one point, I rented a movie projector and weekly films from a company in Fairbanks for my family and at some point, BP got word that I had a projector so they started sending their company charter aircraft to Umiat with their films for me to send on to Fairbanks on our next flight. Gee, there I am with a top rated movie and no where to go. Needless to say, the oil company told me to do what I felt like doing since there was no show time requirements on their contract. That same person became a very good friend when we both ended up at Prudhoe Bay, him as the project manager for BP and myself as station manager for Wien some 9 years later.
Another time, my maintenance guy and I started talking about taking our snow machines back onto the tundra to visit a shut down drilling rig. Sounds like fun, right? Of course it was a warm day, maybe only 30 below zero. We had found some left over military gas left by the Navy years before so we mixed that up with oil and carried a couple of 5 gal Jerry cans on a sled. This was back in 1965 before the good snow machines came out. Ours were like a tractor pulling a ski sled that the operator sat on and than we pulled a fiberglass sled behind that. Our machine tanks were full of course. For some reason, I decided to mix some 100/130 avgas with the old Navy gas for my machine but the other guy went with straight old gas. Ok, instructions to my wife.
We would be headed upriver on the Coleville for about 15 miles and than across country to the east to the drill rig. We were to return the same way. I convinced her we had enough fuel and warm clothes of course.
Finally, off we go. Talk about a stupid person and I should have learned when I was learning how to fly the Cub.
We got to the drill rig and looked everything over and how interesting it was. It appeared that when everyone left, it was in a hurry because there was still frozen half eaten food on the table. As I recall, we may have taken a box or two of snacks from the pantry.
Now time to head home since it was getting dark. Short days in the Arctic you know.
We followed our same tracks home but for some reason, my maintenance guy, who was leader going home, decided it would be a good idea to go from the east side of the river to the west side since we were going to head off the river from the left side anyway. Ok, off we go to cross the river on the ice and we drive, drive, drive and still drive. Enough time that we should have crossed our original tracks. Finally, we found an area of open water, unusual at 30 below zero. While we stood around and trying to figure out what was going wrong, I noticed the water was flowing the wrong way. We were going upriver instead of down river. Guess what the boss did. I became the leader the rest of the way home.
I figured that when we crossed from one side of the river to the other, we came upon an island and followed it for a while and he decided that was not a good idea so went back over to, what he thought was the original side, but instead it was upriver. Once we turned around and followed our tracks back to the original tracks we made out of Umiat, we were doing OK and on our way home.
By this time, we had to fuel up because of the extra running time upriver. There we were fueling up when I look over to the shore in the bushes and see some shinny eyes in the light from my flashlight. I kept looking and low and behold, it turned out to be a wolverine, probably the most vicious animal in the world. Even a grizzly bear will run from one but we were not smart enough to do it right away.
Out comes the 30.06 hollow points and I forget what he had for a long gun but knew he was carrying a .44 mag overloaded hand load Ruger with some rather heavy hollow points.
It did not take long before that old fuel in the other guy's machine started barking and almost quitting. To cold to vaporize.
On top of that, he hit a rock and broke the ski on the sled of his machine he was riding on so we put it on the sled he was pulling and off we go again until he runs out of fuel. I tie onto him and pull his rig back to Umiat. When we got near Umiat, I noticed the rotating beacon had been turned on and pointed in our direction. What a wonderful wife....When we got home, I was almost out of fuel. Does anyone suspect I got my hind end chewed out by wife?
Moral of the story, listen to your wife when she says it might be dangerous, she will probably be right.
At one point in my aviation life, I started out as station manager at the Umiat airport, the licensed weather observer, runway maintenance manager/operator, in charge of our power generator, sewer system and fresh water requirements. We always had to have enough food on hand to feed a full flight of passengers since we were the only alternate airport on the entire north slope of Alaska. The company kitchen was great. The company furnished all of our food of course but we had to make sure we had it. Did I order a lot of steaks and slabs of bacon? Gee, I forget.
Temperatures there got down to maybe -70 degrees F at times and yes, that was cool. Thank goodness the Coleville River was free flowing even in the winter but that access point was some two miles away. Life was not easy but it never is anywhere.
We had lots of fun there and there was an unbelievable amount of work to keep us busy even though we hardly ever had a company flight. Just trying to keep some huge radios and teletype operating.
At one point, I rented a movie projector and weekly films from a company in Fairbanks for my family and at some point, BP got word that I had a projector so they started sending their company charter aircraft to Umiat with their films for me to send on to Fairbanks on our next flight. Gee, there I am with a top rated movie and no where to go. Needless to say, the oil company told me to do what I felt like doing since there was no show time requirements on their contract. That same person became a very good friend when we both ended up at Prudhoe Bay, him as the project manager for BP and myself as station manager for Wien some 9 years later.
Another time, my maintenance guy and I started talking about taking our snow machines back onto the tundra to visit a shut down drilling rig. Sounds like fun, right? Of course it was a warm day, maybe only 30 below zero. We had found some left over military gas left by the Navy years before so we mixed that up with oil and carried a couple of 5 gal Jerry cans on a sled. This was back in 1965 before the good snow machines came out. Ours were like a tractor pulling a ski sled that the operator sat on and than we pulled a fiberglass sled behind that. Our machine tanks were full of course. For some reason, I decided to mix some 100/130 avgas with the old Navy gas for my machine but the other guy went with straight old gas. Ok, instructions to my wife.
We would be headed upriver on the Coleville for about 15 miles and than across country to the east to the drill rig. We were to return the same way. I convinced her we had enough fuel and warm clothes of course.
Finally, off we go. Talk about a stupid person and I should have learned when I was learning how to fly the Cub.
We got to the drill rig and looked everything over and how interesting it was. It appeared that when everyone left, it was in a hurry because there was still frozen half eaten food on the table. As I recall, we may have taken a box or two of snacks from the pantry.
Now time to head home since it was getting dark. Short days in the Arctic you know.
We followed our same tracks home but for some reason, my maintenance guy, who was leader going home, decided it would be a good idea to go from the east side of the river to the west side since we were going to head off the river from the left side anyway. Ok, off we go to cross the river on the ice and we drive, drive, drive and still drive. Enough time that we should have crossed our original tracks. Finally, we found an area of open water, unusual at 30 below zero. While we stood around and trying to figure out what was going wrong, I noticed the water was flowing the wrong way. We were going upriver instead of down river. Guess what the boss did. I became the leader the rest of the way home.
I figured that when we crossed from one side of the river to the other, we came upon an island and followed it for a while and he decided that was not a good idea so went back over to, what he thought was the original side, but instead it was upriver. Once we turned around and followed our tracks back to the original tracks we made out of Umiat, we were doing OK and on our way home.
By this time, we had to fuel up because of the extra running time upriver. There we were fueling up when I look over to the shore in the bushes and see some shinny eyes in the light from my flashlight. I kept looking and low and behold, it turned out to be a wolverine, probably the most vicious animal in the world. Even a grizzly bear will run from one but we were not smart enough to do it right away.
Out comes the 30.06 hollow points and I forget what he had for a long gun but knew he was carrying a .44 mag overloaded hand load Ruger with some rather heavy hollow points.
It did not take long before that old fuel in the other guy's machine started barking and almost quitting. To cold to vaporize.
On top of that, he hit a rock and broke the ski on the sled of his machine he was riding on so we put it on the sled he was pulling and off we go again until he runs out of fuel. I tie onto him and pull his rig back to Umiat. When we got near Umiat, I noticed the rotating beacon had been turned on and pointed in our direction. What a wonderful wife....When we got home, I was almost out of fuel. Does anyone suspect I got my hind end chewed out by wife?
Moral of the story, listen to your wife when she says it might be dangerous, she will probably be right.
