Originally Posted by
Hyrdflyr
I think there may be more to this than meets the eye, and I'll probably get some grief for trying to make some sense out of a frequently tragic, all too common story that , in this case, had a happy ending.
Back in the early 90sI flew a daily scheduled 135 commuter run out of Lake Hood in Anchorage to Seldovia, then Port Graham, Nanwalek (the old English Bay) and then around the corner to Dogfish Bay (Kuyuktoluk in Segustun) on a daily or twice daily schedule for a few months. The equipment was a doggy old C-207 on 8:50s that replaced a C-185 that was wrecked at the beach strip there by a pevious company pilot.
I was hauling freight and passengers to the English Bay Corporation Camp when we went in there, usually employees for the contract logging company that was working to the east of the camp.
There was a maintained beach strip above the tide line not even mentioned in the Daily News story that was just adequate for a fully loaded 207 as well as the short cross wind strip built a few years later (and occasionally used for a log dump for the helicopter logging operation) that was sorely needed on the days when the beach strip was 20 knots crosswind and the only departure was flaps 20 and a gusty downwind turnout over water out the bay with the stall horn whining..... they never did pay me enough for that stuff...... do it by the numbers and it will work...
Why would anyone land below the tideline disregarding two strips more than adequate for a Maule, and either one a much better alternate than the boulder beaches down there?
Was he beachcombing (as in one story), or did he have a mechanical?
Oh, and there is also a dirt road (the only one, and shown on the sectional) from the old logging camp/Lodge that goes east around Mt Bede just to the north and will take you to Nanwalek in about 20 minutes by 4 wheeler or a 4 or 5 hours walk. That''s how the village employees of the camp get to work when the Lodge is open.
After that I flew part 91 for another 7 or 8 years for another company into the same strips and bays on a regular basis in a C-185, both wheels and floats. The road was still passable the last time I flew it from the Nanwalek Lakes to Dogfish.
There is a lagoon to the east of the barrier gravel bar that the lodge and strip are on but it was never tidal in the years I've been there. The whole bay is maybe a 1/3d of a mile across from north to south. There is also no beach or way possible to walk up the coast the short 2 miles or so to Nanwalek or down the coast to Port Chatham, due to the cliffs. Did he even wreck at Dogfish?
Or was he down around the corner and wrecked at Port Chatham where there are tidal beaches, and walked over the ridge to Dogfish where it sounds like they found him?
Sounds like he didn't know where he was, or the whole story was afflicted with the typical lousy reporting that typifies most aircraft accident/incident stories...( the engine stalled ....)
I wonder if we will ever know what really happened?
If it was one of my advanced students, the FSDO would probably make them take a competency check........ and I'd have a lot to explain also....
This is not an "Alaska wilderness area" on the east side of Kachemak Bay down to Nanwalek. It is trafficed by more than 20 charter and scheduled comuter flights a day from Homer serving the communities all the way down the coast to Nanwalek.
He must have passed right by Homer FSS about 5 miles away on his way down the bay, as well as flying the coast with multiple inter village flights running up and down the coast between 1500 and 2500 ft msl, passing both Seldovia and Nanwalek airports within a mile or less of the airports, in a narrow flyway necessitated by the need to maintain gliding distance to land, and was apparantly incommunicado the whole way, hardly conducive to flight safety for himself for anyone else in the area, in addition to which he had access to Homer radio on 123.6 or 122.2 all the way to Elizabeth Island. It would have been no big thing and undoubtedly prudent to advertise his presence on 122.9 on his way down the coast and make a position report to Homer FSS as he passed by even if he wasn't on a flight plan. Might have saved him a few days of dieting, and the coasties and everyone else a lot of money, effort, risk, and loss of income in the case of most of the search crews.
Airforce academy and United Pilot...... Last I heard they made them use radios.
If he flew 135 he'd be looking for another job. No union.
Just another inconsiderate hot shot. Beside the expense to the CAP and Coasties, look what he put his family through.
If you won't file a flight plan, even if with a trusted friend, then maybe we shouldn't look for you.
I can only hope that the Maule wasn't insured, otherwise he's just another amateur bush pilot running up the insurance rates to where most of us can't afford it......
Harsh but true.
Hyrdflyr, MELI, SEL, L&S, CFI, A&P
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