AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
I have mentioned Bobby Fisher in other areas and have shared some of his flights before. Bobby was the first to land a Cessna 185, solo, at the North Pole. This story is about his last flight out of Barrow, AK. Bobby had left the Arctic Research Lab at Point Barrow as their Chief Pilot and started up his own flying operation out of the Barrow airport although he agreed to fly some trips for the lab if needed. This was in the late 60s.
On his last flight, he was using his own Aero Commander and am not sure just what model but it would have been about 1969. He had, so I heard, 10 hours in type at the time but probably near 20,000 hours total time. A beautiful, very cold morning, maybe 10 or more degrees below zero with no wind and clear. I watched him make his takeoff and noticed some smoke off the right engine as he rolled out on his departure. I suspect, with the weight, he may have used all the power he could. He was over gross with an aft CG problem and one more passenger than seats. The passengers were a group of state employees on an inspection trip.
He lifted off OK but than started making a very shallow 180 turn (no more smoke from the right engine) and about half way through that, the sound came back to where I could hear a problem with an engine which would have happened before the turn. The sound would seem to be that from loosing a cylinder or two. All of a sudden, I could see him flip upside down and go straight in. Many residents saw the same thing and immediately a line of snow machines with sleds headed out to the site. I notified the hospital of course. A private company had a Beaver parked nearby but cold soaked so I called them and asked if we could use it for evac if needed and of course they said yes. My crew took our Herman Nelson heaters over and immediately started heating it. Boy talk about a long wait not knowing if anyone got through it. I guess the word got out over the air somehow and all of a sudden, a construction company's (Burgess Construction) Twin Comanche came in from the Prudhoe Bay area, parked in front of our terminal and offered their aircraft for med evac if needed. While waiting, the pilot would go out every so often and crank it up to keep the engines warm and we still kept heating the Beaver. There would have been 10 people on board as I recall.
The way it turned out, there was only one that made it through the accident. Of all things, he was the one with no seat. For those from Nome, you will know the name but please don't post it unless he says it is OK and still, think about it, it doesn't change the story. The survivor was on a wire stretcher but we couldn't get it through the doors of the Comanche even with one the passenger side door removed so we finally took the back seats out and loaded through the baggage compartment door. I suspect we might even have bent a little metal (gee, did I really say that) just to get the stretcher inside but at the time, who cared? We got the baggage door closed and locked for departure. I already had the pilot taxi over to our pumps and I topped the aircraft off so he was ready to go. Gee, now that I think about it, I never did tell Wien they donated the fuel for that trip. As I recall, there were two nurses to assist in flight but it could have been only one that traveled, I forget. I have never in my life seen one whole town and area (later, United flight 232 at Sioux City does ring a bell though) that pulled together so much for a such an admired friend and neighbor and those on board. Part of what living in the bush is all about.
Needless to say, the NTSB and FAA were right there. Within a day or two, they brought in an engine, the right one, to fly out for inspection. My scales could not weigh it so had to ask them what the weight was. The techs guessed and I took their numbers, after all, if you can't believe the NTSB, who can you? The shipment went out on a pallet in our 737 so CG and gross weight was not exceeded.
I got a letter a few weeks later from the FAA about that shipment and how illegal it was. After all, here they were investigating a posable overloaded aircraft and I had a freight shipment on the 737 that I did not know what weighed. They were right of course but they let it go since the flight was many thousands of pounds under gross and almost mid center on CG on departure. For once the FAA was reasonable but manybe they understood my letter stating that the NTSB had given me false information about a shipment they tendered for air transportation. Once I explained to my home office what and why it happened, not another word from them.
What a loss of a great pilot and friend. Experts believe that durring that gradual turn on one engine and with the aircraft trimmed for single engine operation that the other engine gave up which flipped it over the other way than what would be expected. He would have had to probably over boost that running turbo engine because of the weight and it was very cold at sea level.
Tribute to Bobby Fisher....One of a few true bush pilots.
On his last flight, he was using his own Aero Commander and am not sure just what model but it would have been about 1969. He had, so I heard, 10 hours in type at the time but probably near 20,000 hours total time. A beautiful, very cold morning, maybe 10 or more degrees below zero with no wind and clear. I watched him make his takeoff and noticed some smoke off the right engine as he rolled out on his departure. I suspect, with the weight, he may have used all the power he could. He was over gross with an aft CG problem and one more passenger than seats. The passengers were a group of state employees on an inspection trip.
He lifted off OK but than started making a very shallow 180 turn (no more smoke from the right engine) and about half way through that, the sound came back to where I could hear a problem with an engine which would have happened before the turn. The sound would seem to be that from loosing a cylinder or two. All of a sudden, I could see him flip upside down and go straight in. Many residents saw the same thing and immediately a line of snow machines with sleds headed out to the site. I notified the hospital of course. A private company had a Beaver parked nearby but cold soaked so I called them and asked if we could use it for evac if needed and of course they said yes. My crew took our Herman Nelson heaters over and immediately started heating it. Boy talk about a long wait not knowing if anyone got through it. I guess the word got out over the air somehow and all of a sudden, a construction company's (Burgess Construction) Twin Comanche came in from the Prudhoe Bay area, parked in front of our terminal and offered their aircraft for med evac if needed. While waiting, the pilot would go out every so often and crank it up to keep the engines warm and we still kept heating the Beaver. There would have been 10 people on board as I recall.
The way it turned out, there was only one that made it through the accident. Of all things, he was the one with no seat. For those from Nome, you will know the name but please don't post it unless he says it is OK and still, think about it, it doesn't change the story. The survivor was on a wire stretcher but we couldn't get it through the doors of the Comanche even with one the passenger side door removed so we finally took the back seats out and loaded through the baggage compartment door. I suspect we might even have bent a little metal (gee, did I really say that) just to get the stretcher inside but at the time, who cared? We got the baggage door closed and locked for departure. I already had the pilot taxi over to our pumps and I topped the aircraft off so he was ready to go. Gee, now that I think about it, I never did tell Wien they donated the fuel for that trip. As I recall, there were two nurses to assist in flight but it could have been only one that traveled, I forget. I have never in my life seen one whole town and area (later, United flight 232 at Sioux City does ring a bell though) that pulled together so much for a such an admired friend and neighbor and those on board. Part of what living in the bush is all about.
Needless to say, the NTSB and FAA were right there. Within a day or two, they brought in an engine, the right one, to fly out for inspection. My scales could not weigh it so had to ask them what the weight was. The techs guessed and I took their numbers, after all, if you can't believe the NTSB, who can you? The shipment went out on a pallet in our 737 so CG and gross weight was not exceeded.
I got a letter a few weeks later from the FAA about that shipment and how illegal it was. After all, here they were investigating a posable overloaded aircraft and I had a freight shipment on the 737 that I did not know what weighed. They were right of course but they let it go since the flight was many thousands of pounds under gross and almost mid center on CG on departure. For once the FAA was reasonable but manybe they understood my letter stating that the NTSB had given me false information about a shipment they tendered for air transportation. Once I explained to my home office what and why it happened, not another word from them.
What a loss of a great pilot and friend. Experts believe that durring that gradual turn on one engine and with the aircraft trimmed for single engine operation that the other engine gave up which flipped it over the other way than what would be expected. He would have had to probably over boost that running turbo engine because of the weight and it was very cold at sea level.
Tribute to Bobby Fisher....One of a few true bush pilots.
