AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
The Wien Dahl Creek operation was kind of like a mini hub in 1966. Passengers, mail and airfreight were brought in and than transferred to smaller aircraft such as C-185s, Porters and Beavers. Although the Kobuk airport was about 3 miles away, all the traffic went through Dahl Creek including everything for Kennicott Copper's copper exploration project across the mountain at Bornite. Needless to say, all their food was flown in by Wien on either DC-3s or C-46s.
On one flight in a DC-3, while offloading the aircraft I noticed a fairly large puddle of oil on the ground just outboard of the right engine where the wing is attached to the root. I did notice the aircraft was on a slight slope with that wing low. I went inside our home to get the captain (Labdad32, you know who that was) so he could look at it while I finished offloading. About halfway through, I noticed a 6 gal can of Wesson Oil had sprung a leak and the oil had leaked through the floor. When I told the captain, he did a fast taste test and than quit looking any further. All of a sudden he got this real big grin on his face and we headed back to our house where our company HF radio was located. In the bush, we had no phones of course. He got on the horn to the com center and talked to dispatch and explained the situation but not the cause. Very soon, a senior maintenance guy came on and the Captain explained this: a tasteless, odorless, clear oil leaking from the wing joint just outboard of the right engine. Hydraulic is red of course, engine oil would be nearly black. Prop de-ice fluid would have an obvious taste.
This went on for maybe a half hour back and forth until I got the aircraft ready for departure. Without saying anything to dispatch and maintenance, he jumped aboard, cranked up and away he went back to Fairbanks. I kept monitoring their comments on HF while he was in the air and suspect he was over an hour out of Dahl Creek before he finally told dispatch and maintenance what was going on.
There were several other company flights in the area listening in on this. Boy did those guys in Fairbanks get a ribbing when all the crews got home. Since almost everyone in the bush used HF back in those days, I suspect even the guys with Reeve out on the chain at Sand Point, Cold Bay and Dutch Harbor could even listen in. I know I could often hear them talking.
Some days, working in aviation can really be fun.
On one flight in a DC-3, while offloading the aircraft I noticed a fairly large puddle of oil on the ground just outboard of the right engine where the wing is attached to the root. I did notice the aircraft was on a slight slope with that wing low. I went inside our home to get the captain (Labdad32, you know who that was) so he could look at it while I finished offloading. About halfway through, I noticed a 6 gal can of Wesson Oil had sprung a leak and the oil had leaked through the floor. When I told the captain, he did a fast taste test and than quit looking any further. All of a sudden he got this real big grin on his face and we headed back to our house where our company HF radio was located. In the bush, we had no phones of course. He got on the horn to the com center and talked to dispatch and explained the situation but not the cause. Very soon, a senior maintenance guy came on and the Captain explained this: a tasteless, odorless, clear oil leaking from the wing joint just outboard of the right engine. Hydraulic is red of course, engine oil would be nearly black. Prop de-ice fluid would have an obvious taste.
This went on for maybe a half hour back and forth until I got the aircraft ready for departure. Without saying anything to dispatch and maintenance, he jumped aboard, cranked up and away he went back to Fairbanks. I kept monitoring their comments on HF while he was in the air and suspect he was over an hour out of Dahl Creek before he finally told dispatch and maintenance what was going on.
There were several other company flights in the area listening in on this. Boy did those guys in Fairbanks get a ribbing when all the crews got home. Since almost everyone in the bush used HF back in those days, I suspect even the guys with Reeve out on the chain at Sand Point, Cold Bay and Dutch Harbor could even listen in. I know I could often hear them talking.
Some days, working in aviation can really be fun.
