I am having a hard time in Alaska. May I ask for some advice?

nanook said:

I don’t need to ask anybody about their time there...The smartest thing they are trying to do there is, get local Natives trained up to fly, they already live there. Let them fly their own people around.

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Do you have enough jobs for the rest of us?

I agree, it is not the most fun, or safe place to fly. That said, if you take the opportunity to learn and don't get careless you can leave there with some great experience.

aktango58 said:

Do you have enough jobs for the rest of us?

I agree, it is not the most fun, or safe place to fly. That said, if you take the opportunity to learn and don't get careless you can leave there with some great experience.

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I think we are hired up, I’m just flying and not in any management capacity though. I’ve timed out the last six years running, so can’t complain about a lack of flying. The North half of the State has not slowed down. That all could change if we ended up with more competition. I think we are going to get busy as we come out of this covid crap...

Jin offer CFI/CFII services via Alaska'a List and Craigslist for Alaska. Look for the links. It takes time to learn Alaska flying plus gain the confidence of others. What better than doing that as an instructor or teacher? You will succeed but don't get excited about the typical comments like "how long have you been here and do you know so and so.....?" All part of the Alaska coming into the country experience.

Gary

Talk to Mike Morgan at Pro Flight, they may be looking for a CFI. You can pay the bills and build Alaska time.

nanook said:

I’m not sure I’d wish for my worst enemy to be stuck in a sled, flying the YK Delta...

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There’s aspects of Bethel that are not appealing, but I think there a lot of positives. The Yupik are terrific people - always laughing, smiling, full of mirth. I always had fun with them and enjoyed making sure the elders were covered up in an extra blanket, that I got to help the new mothers climb into the plane with their baby, and that I briefed them on the rules about turbulence (“If I’m not screaming, you’re not screaming”).

The Y-K Delta is beautiful at all times of the year: during the summer on a calm day when you can see the reflection on the lakes of a single air mass thunderstorm 50 miles away dropping rain in a vertical column, in the winter when the wind makes beautiful herringbone patterns in the snow or when the temperature inversion creates fairy castles on the hills, in the spring when the melt comes and the ice on surface of ponds look like polished granite, and in the fall when the bushes are turning color and the bears are heads down going after berries.

The other pilots and village agents added a lot, too. Whether it was Ernie, with his coke bottle glasses who couldn’t see you until you were alongside and three wingspans away, or the native pilots who could find ANY runway in ANY weather condition, no matter how crappy it was, or Jim D at Russian Mission (usually with a chew, driving a well-used white F250) or Troy T in Holy Cross who could pick up a 150 horse two stroke outboard and flip it into the back of his truck without help.

Yes, in BET you will get muddy and eat a lot of grit, and maybe pick up a persistent sinus infection. And it’s no visual delight (although MTV calls it “Paris on the Kuskokwim”). But the good significantly outweighs the bad.

The Yupik People deserve better than low time pilots flying 50 - 60 year old 207s around...You can romanticize all you want about it, it is pure stupidity. The YK Delta produces some of the worst icing conditions and low IFR weather on the West Coast. You have a moisture laden marine climate meeting a very cold continental air mass. Let’s put our elders and mothers with children into VFR only, no anti-ice equipped, worn out sleds, with low time pilots, so they can build time and get a better job someplace else....If they survive...I can only hope that people will not continue to be this stupid...We have witnessed enough carnage already.

Speedo said:

There’s aspects of Bethel that are not appealing, but I think there a lot of positives. The Yupik are terrific people - always laughing, smiling, full of mirth. I always had fun with them and enjoyed making sure the elders were covered up in an extra blanket, that I got to help the new mothers climb into the plane with their baby, and that I briefed them on the rules about turbulence (“If I’m not screaming, you’re not screaming”).

The Y-K Delta is beautiful at all times of the year: during the summer on a calm day when you can see the reflection on the lakes of a single air mass thunderstorm 50 miles away dropping rain in a vertical column, in the winter when the wind makes beautiful herringbone patterns in the snow or when the temperature inversion creates fairy castles on the hills, in the spring when the melt comes and the ice on surface of ponds look like polished granite, and in the fall when the bushes are turning color and the bears are heads down going after berries.

The other pilots and village agents added a lot, too. Whether it was Ernie, with his coke bottle glasses who couldn’t see you until you were alongside and three wingspans away, or the native pilots who could find ANY runway in ANY weather condition, no matter how crappy it was, or Jim D at Russian Mission (usually with a chew, driving a well-used white F250) or Troy T in Holy Cross who could pick up a 150 horse two stroke outboard and flip it into the back of his truck without help.

Yes, in BET you will get muddy and eat a lot of grit, and maybe pick up a persistent sinus infection. And it’s no visual delight (although MTV calls it “Paris on the Kuskokwim”). But the good significantly outweighs the bad.

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SPEEDO,

I hope you keep track of all these memories and someday sit down and write a book. I laughed out loud at the comment 'If I'm not screaming, you're not screaming". I bet you have some awesome tales to tell. You're living the dream I always wanted to live.

Jin Bae-

https://www.flyalaska.com/prelogin.html is worth the annual fee to get an idea of who is hiring and how much and what kind of time they are looking for.

Henny

nanook said:

The Yupik People deserve better than low time pilots flying 50 - 60 year old 207s around...You can romanticize all you want about it, it is pure stupidity. The YK Delta produces some of the worst icing conditions and low IFR weather on the West Coast. You have a moisture laden marine climate meeting a very cold continental air mass. Let’s put our elders and mothers with children into VFR only, no anti-ice equipped, worn out sleds, with low time pilots, so they can build time and get a better job someplace else....If they survive...I can only hope that people will not continue to be this stupid...We have witnessed enough carnage already.

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You make valid points. Some outfits will really push the wx, but speaking objectively, I saw that a whole lot more in JNU than in BET. When I was at Hageland I felt no pressure to accept flights, and turned down flights when conditions seemed sketchy. But not everyone did, and there certainly were accidents that appear to have been avoidable. Interestingly, though, when I do a quick mental inventory of accidents before, during, and after my time in the Delta an awful lot of them were with pilots that were quite experienced.

We had good check airmen and good experienced pilots who were happy to share tribal knowledge that was aimed at keeping us out of trouble.

The planes weren’t beautiful, but generally were in good condition. The sleds were mostly ‘80s vintage, so that would make them 40 years old, not 60. And being unpressurized and rebuilt with some regularity, they were in pretty decent shape. Yes, some of the Grant planes were grounded due to record keeping or condition, and some of the Yute planes acquired by Hageland were beaters that got parted out. So not all the planes were as well kept as, say, the Bering Air planes. The Capstone I installations were very useful in many regards. They had UAT wx, which is very helpful, terrain, radar, and good moving maps. Most of the planes had Capstone equipment, and most of the time it was in working order.

It wasn’t a perfect system, but between the improved avionics, improved attitudes about not pushing wx, implementation of an Operational Control Center where you pretty much had to convince the dispatcher of the safety of the flight, better runways, AWOS, and wx cams there were a lot of things being done to make it safer.

Right now there are some new operators in the Y-K Delta, and I don’t know the specifics of their operations. But from what I understand, some of their people are quite experienced and not the type to push their luck. I don’t know all the pilots flying out there right now by any stretch of the imagination, and there may be some who are sketchy. But I don’t think they all are.

Bottom line: it’s not perfect, but it’s not terrible, either.

I’ve hijacked this thread enough but you want to mention Hagelands, they killed more than their share out there. If there is such a thing as a share of lives. The last bad one with a low time pilot was a Piper Lance cartwheeling across the tundra after catching a wingtip at cruise speed...killed everyone on board. Tell the surviving family members how that isn’t so terrible.

Not sure which accident you’re speaking of. Hageland didn’t operate the Lance.

Speedo said:

Not sure which accident you’re speaking of. Hageland didn’t operate the Lance.

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Didn't say it was Hagelands, Hagelands was operating Caravans and Navahos when they were absorbed into the RAVN Group. It was the old Hagelands, under the Tweeto Clan that had many accidents with the rubber-booted early Caravans and mostly sleds. They also had many good pilots and people working for them. This latest Lance accident was one of the new (old) operators out of Bethel. Turned loose a pilot who had no business being out in low WX...

Yes, I do recall that accident. I agree with your assessment regarding the suitability of the pilot given the task. I think that accident points at the shortcomings of the company, both in terms of training and in terms of decision making. By contrast, both Ryan and Hageland were quite conservative in their training. They gave additional training, required multiple pilots to sign off on a new pilot, and used more conservative minimums for new pilots.

Once a pilot was turned loose he was expected to use good judgment. It didn’t always happen. Folks who flouted the FARs or company policies were dismissed.

I don’t disagree with you that there have been too many accidents in the Y-K Delta, or that the residents there deserve safe flights.

I stand by my earlier statement; BET has its warts, but the flying can be great.

Well, the fact of the matter is that aviation has always, and likely will, well into the future ascribe to the old saw that goes something like: "You first get the experience, then the lesson." The bottom line is that basic airplanes are doing a lot of the work all over the state of Alaska. The 207 happens to be the most economical to operate, in many ways, even though they're all old. One of the questions an operator has to ask is, "What plane will make me money here?". And, in a lot of markets, it's pretty hard to start with a fleet of Caravans. And, of course, you could argue that the Caravan, being a single, really isn't safe enough, so now you're going to a fleet of CASAs or ???

Anyway, relatively inexperienced pilots have always started in some of the most daunting and potentially dangerous flight jobs. Consider back in the day when many got their start flying cancelled checks throughout the lower 48, all night, every night, in thunderstorms, icing, and frigid temperatures, year round. In clapped out old Beech 18s, if you were lucky, or a beater Cherokee Six.

I don't know anyone who got handed the keys to a new Caravan as their first job.....just saying.

Etc. The point about getting locals qualified to fly in their own country is an excellent one. Now do the math, and figure what percentage of those folks, or any other group of people, even want to be pilots. Not a real high number. Nevertheless, I agree that it's absolutely essential to try to encourage ALL youngsters to consider aviation as a career, as pilots or other aviation related jobs.

In the meantime, the Y-K Delta is likely the most likely place for this young man to find an aviation job, not necessarily flying at first, but one that will lead to a flying job.

If he's smart, and listens to the counsel of the experienced pilots out there, and he retains the willingness to say "NO", he'll learn a lot, and will be off to a great start in aviation.

MTV

If you have financial needs regarding travel within the state, I can get you passes for Alaska Airlines. They fly to Bethel and most other aviation hotspots. Also, like someone mentioned above, don't give up. Period. Send me a message if you want.