St Paul Island

Last week (alas, 4 weeks ago due to delays in publication…)was my 4th trip to St. Paul Island of the Pribilof Islands. The fox at left was not to pleased with my presence                                                                                             but fortunately most everyone else was ok with it. St. Paul is the major island of the Pribilof group unless you ask the St. George Islanders, of course. It has a population of around 250 people and is the major off load place for the crab and  fishing boats of the Bering Sea . Think “Deadliest Catch”. I was able to do a little more exploring than usual on this trip as I stayed an extra day on Saturday. Since the clinic was closed on Saturday, I had a few hours to kill before the plane arrived at 3:00 PM. On Fri. night I happen to go to the only restaurant on the island that was the cafeteria of the Trident fish processing facility for their employees.  For a reasonable sum of $20 you can have all you can eat of whatever is the meal for that night. This time it was fried chicken, baked cod, mashed potatoes and corn. There is no other place to purchase a cooked meal on the island. While there for the meal I met the plant manager who told me there would be a boat arriving  Sat.  morning to off load their halibut load for processing. I received permission to come watch. I think he would have allowed me to help if I had the proper gear. I was glad I didn’t after I saw the work involved. Here the crane is about to dump several hundred lbs into 4′x4′ plastic bends which were then picked up by forklift and moved inside the building for processing. 3-4 guys were in the hold of the boat filling the basket with fish and worked continuously from 7:30 am til at least 11am before they were finished. I saw no one take a break, inside or out and in fact I was not aware of anyone walking around appearing to be a supervisor. Everyone but me were working constantly until the job was complete. Inside there were about 25 people processing the fish in two lines after the heads were cut off. After the guillotine, each fish was hand gutted, washed and individually weighed before being placed back into clean bends and packed in ice. Each of the two scales were continually watched and recorded by 2 people, one from the boat and one from the plant. I was impressed at the efficiency and cleanliness of the process

The man in the foreground below is getting a very short break, waiting for the hopper to be loaded with fish to be dumped into the table in front of him so he can position the fish for the guy who runs the guillotine to cut off the heads.I was told the boat had about 80,000 lbs of fish. At $6/lb they made a good haul. That is about the highest price for halibut the local fishermen have had for many years and helping them to recover some of their previous losses. There is a controlled allotment for the season that when it is reached, the season is over, so they only have so long to make hay to last til the next one.

As is well known, One of the Aleutian Islands, Attu, was invaded and held for a period of time by the Japanese during WW2. There was great fear at the time they would move further in the chain and even to the Pribilof’s so defenses were build on St. Paul, mostly fox holes. One concrete structure was built that still stands and looks like it will be there for years to come. It is on the south side of the island and is positioned to view the east end where the current airport is. I don’t know if there was an airstrip in the same spot but it does look out over a large beach area. You step inside and can feel the tenseness of the air as it could be imagined at the time….

As it takes me a while to put one of these blogs together, I had to leave this one and am just now getting back (7/23/11) to finish up. The other interesting occurrence ( to me)  on this visit was that I was told about and collected some St. Paul “black diamonds”.  These are small pebble sized rocks that are found on one particular hill there. They are a crystal like form and are augite. I was told they are not found anywhere else in the world but have no particular value except to the beholder. There is a story that in the first half of last century, one of the native men took some of them to a jeweler is Seattle to see if they were worth anything. He was told no but they could make some pretty red garnets for a small price. He did that and took the replacements back. Some of the native women made them into pendants and other jewelery and these were sold to the wives of the government officials overseers  as “highly valuable” St. Paul “black diamonds”.   I have a copy of a letter written in 1960 describing all of this. It is a fun story the natives like to pass around. “Civilized” people are not as smart sometimes as they think they are…..

A New High

View of a part of Anchorage

The lack of blogging should not be interpreted to mean we are sitting around doing nothing. We have been busy with lots of household renovating activities of which we will catchup on in a future blog. Most Saturdays have been filled with working on house items around my 2 hour session of flight training lessons as K works during the week as well on cabinet staining, painting, finding projects for me to work on and putting together pictures of various beautiful places we’ve been. I currently have accumulated 18.7 hours of flight time to include 2.3 hours of solo. I did my first Dual Cross Country (where the instructor is with me) last Sat. traveling all the way to Palmer for a touch and go (about an hour’s drive by car) and back. That trip was delayed a couple of weeks due to weather and a Sat. of laying on the couch from a back ache. I have to do one more with the instructor and then another solo.

Having done a solo successfully allows me to do some practice flights on my own and this past Tuesday I went out after work for an hour’s flight solo, going to what we refer to as the practice area. Since the days are quickly getting longer it gives me more opportunity to get some flight time in. This was the first time I went alone away from the familiar area of the airport and out of town. It requires a little more communicating with ATC (air traffic control) which has been my greatest challenge. I will admit to a couple of errors at the beginning of the trip (like before I even taxied out of the hangar area…) and I was quickly and firmly corrected by the tower.  You have to repeat back all of their instructions, using their terms as well as identify who you are each time you open the voice airway. They also don’t really want you to respond to them about instructions that are intended for the airplane next to you…. So despite my miscues, I was allowed to takeoff.

Looking up the Knik Arm

The airspace around Anchorage is fairly complicated because of  the proximity of a large international airport (Ted Stevens), a seaplane base (Fort Hood), a busy general aviation airport (Merrill Field, my training field) and a large airforce base (Elmendorf) not to mention some private air and water strips in and around town. That means you must know what routes can be used to go whatever direction you need to go and at what altitude. You don’t want to be crossing the incoming flight paths of the big transport jets coming into the airforce base when one is approaching or taking off. So ATC tends to get a little picky about your activities and if you know what you are doing. I appreciate that…..

I manage to leave the airport traffic and head northwest across the Knik Arm to the fields that we use as the practice area. As this is also the area the airlines use to make their approach to one of the major runways at Ted Stevens, I was a bit intimidated when I looked back toward that airport to see I was in line with that runway. I have to stay below 2500 ft to be out of the airspace “owned” by the airport but to envision a 747  making the final approach along there had me keeping my eyes peeled and alert. The picture to the right does not do justice to the view as you can see a ring of snow covered mountains in almost every direction you look, some of which are only a few miles away and a couple (Denali and Foraker) that are 150 miles away.

I try to do some practice maneuvers such as steep turns and turns around a point but it is really bumpy and difficult to keep this light plane in a steady path so after 20 min. I give up and head back to Anchorage. I notify the tower when at the appropriate check point and they change the direction of pattern turns around the field that I haven’t done yet alone….so I have to make the approach doing right hand turns instead of left. I manage to do a couple of touch and goes circling to the right  and as I am taking off, the tower comes on and tells me it is now changed to left hand turns…@#%&*!!>$#@! I decide he is still mad at me for my earlier misdeeds but I comply and do the last one to the left. I guess I do need to practice both. If you can only turn one direction in flight, it might present a problem….

After this next week, I will have to put the flights in a holding patten for a couple of weeks as K and I both get to head to Ok to see our favorite grandbaby on her birthday. I’m looking forward to the day I can take her up with me to catch a great view of God’s beautiful earth….

Alaska Solo

Can you hear my heart thumping?

Since my flight instructor told me after my last lesson that she thought I would be ready to solo on my next lesson, I have had a difficult time concentrating on anything else. All week the weather reports had predicted snow for today but it dawned with only high clouds, 10 mile viability and light wind. As my flight instructor (CFI) was on vacation today, she wanted the other CFI (the company’s chief pilot) to go up with me for a few touch and goes so he could be comfortable with my solo and sign off on it. If he was satisfied he could turn me loose. When I arrived at the hanger, he was already up  checking out another pilot in a Cessna so I had time to preflight (inspect) the little sport plane I was going to fly. I think I gave it the most thorough physical it had received in it’s young life…..

Finally he returns and we take off for the touch and goes.  After the 4th time around I’m beginning to wonder if he thinks I can do this and then I begin to wonder as well. After 2 more he says “ok, go to a full stop and drop me off at the hanger”. Gulp. Gulp. So I take him back and he gets out. I get out also to stretch my legs and try to get my heart to slow down. Kathleen is there recording the event and showing her support so I can’t quit now. Not in front of my best friend. I climb back in and notice how empty the right seat appears. What is going through my head is….”well, now I am the only person in this plane and I have to do all the talking to air traffic control (ATC)!!”

Trying to figure out what to do next

It’s now or never. I am thankful for checklists. The engine fires up and instruments look good. Closing the canopy gives me a little trouble which has been a problem for this Piper Sport but it finally latches tight. I get the latest local airport automated information report and now need to talk to ATC ground control. I have to tell them who I am (the plane #), where on the field I am, what latest info I have and what I want to do. I do that and throw in that I happen to be a student pilot making my first solo. ATC answers giving the taxi instructions slowly so I know which end of which runway to use. Fortunately it was short enough that I could repeat it back to them and not sound too senile. That gives me permission to taxi to the beginning of the runway but not on it, get my plane (and me) prepared and then call the tower to let them know I am ready to depart. The tower tells me to wait as a plane had just landed but quickly come back and give me clearance to takeoff. Wow! This is it!! Oh boy….

Before I had time to think, I was in the air feeling the runway sink away below me. To help reduce the noise of aircraft taking off the powers that be have a fairly tight rectangular pattern around the field so there is not much time to enjoy the scenery.

I'm committed....

Before I know it, it is time to make adjustments to prepare for landing. First landing goes really well despite coming in a bit high. Without stopping I push the throttle full and take off again. This could get to be fun…Another touch and go with slightly rougher landing and swing around for a final approach.  I have the presence of mind to tell ATC this will be for a full stop and as I land I am sure there is a collective sigh of relief in the tower that they have survived another student solo. I make it back to the hanger area to the welcome of Kathleen and my CFI who are also breathing a sigh of relief.

Looking back over the experience it will certainly be a day burned into my memory. All the time I was up with the CFI and even when by myself I didn’t really think through the significance of the solo for me. I have been wanting to do this for 50 years. Flying as kid with my dad gave me the bug but life happened (none of which I would change) and God saw fit to work it out now.

 

Beautiful background

So why am I doing this? I can’t see the end result but having a dream for 50 years that just wouldn’t go away says to me it is more than doing something just for the fun of it. Is it more important than family? Not in a million years. Is this a midlife crisis? No, those are usually sudden and often related to one being unhappy in their life which is not me. New career? No, I can’t sit still for very long and I like my current occupation,thank you. But there is nothing like seeing the land and mountains from 2500 feet that is hard to describe. Sure, I ‘ve seen it many times from 35,000 feet and as we all know there is little to really see. I think God built the earth from 2500 feet and that is when He said “It is good!”

 

Dad, I hope you saw it today. You, of all people, must have gotten a kick out of my banner day. Grampa Clyde did as well.

The New Soft Shoe

Big Tracks

It has been a while since we have written here but not as much new has occured since summer left us. Kathleen has been busy helping the kids move back from California and get the Edmond house ready for Christmas. Reagan and I have kept the Ak fires burning until she left for Ok about 10 days ago. Now I know why old folks get a dog when they are alone….this has been one quiet house.

So today I decided it was time to try out the new snow shoes we purchased last winter and never got around to using. With a good month of below freezing temperatures behind us and at least a foot of snow on the ground, it seemed a good time to pull them out and see if I could figure out how to put them on and walk without falling down. I bundled up in layered clothes, winter coat, snow boots and strapped the snow shoes on. First few steps were rather clumsy but I got the hang of it fairly quickly without falling or having any neighbors out to rescue me. I slowly made my way to the slope above the  now frozen coastal mud flats in the Cook Inlet. In summer you can only go to the bottom of the slope and you quickly run into knee deep marsh. Now, since it has been frozen for several weeks, you can walk for hundreds of yards on ice and snow.

I ventured out onto the tidal area well past where I could see others had left their tracks  to where the previous tides had gradually caused the ice to pitch up into weird shapes.  It probably would have been fine to go much further but I was alone and not looking to set a record for distance from my home. To break through ice is a thrill I will leave for another day…..
The temp was about 14-16 above zero so actually higher than it had been earlier in the week and I was very happy with my gear. Nothing was feeling cold except what was exposed, ie, my face. Fortunately there was little wind. There is a saying here that “there is no bad weather, just bad gear” so people just assume a significant part of their income has to go to proper gear for the conditions.

A moose had left his/her offering along the walkway to the coast and may have been the guy who was munching on our dried up vines along the side of the house earlier this week. He had lost the right half of his antlers so was an odd sight hanging out just outside our front room window. He was nowhere to be seen today  on my excursion nor was anything else. My walk  started about 2:30 in the afternoon  and as you can see from the pictures, the day was beginning to become dusk. We are only a day or two from the shortest day of the year for us in the northern half of the earth.  In anchorage we will get about 5 hours of light on that day since we are a few hundred miles south of the arctic circle.

My main activity other than work these days is either preparing for or having my flight lessons. Since I am only doing the Sport pilot certificate for now, the lessons have to be in the daylight which for me is the weekend. I have 12.9 hours accumulated and was told I am not far from being ready to solo…..I can’t believe they are about to trust me to take that little plane up and come back alone.    wow     For those few of you who happen upon this blog, have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year.

A look back toward the houses

Only way I could get a self pic

A Wicked surprise

I love surprises, I guess we all do, at least the good kind of surprises. One of my kids especially, LOVES to be surprised. Bonafide, don’t tell me a clue, surprise me, that is what she loves – the bigger the better. It makes her giddy. I love it. I love that aspect of her personality. She will be the one out of a million that will wait to find out the sex of her child (someday… not now). That ultrasound stuff, that will not be her cup of tea. Now… her husband… yes, but her, no way. She will want it to be the biggest surprise of her life.

Yesterday morning, we were all set to go to a mom and daughter happy birthday breakfast. Cool. I love to spend time with her. Really, I am fortunate, not only do I love all my kids, but like them so very much, spending time with them is as precious to me as anything I know. So, off we go for breakfast. As we have just ordered, she hands me this musical little birthday card, with no music… huh? where is the music I ask? so she pulls out a ticket to Wicked! Wicked! the musical I have wanted to see for 3 years! And the date on it is the very same day! So, surprise mom, we are off to Tulsa to see Wicked! woo hoo

It was fabulous! It was make you cry incredible. It was priceless. It was the most amazing and thoughtful thing. It was precious because she knew exactly what I would love. We had a wonderful, wonderful day. I cried, I laughed, I loved every second. So, honey, you got me. Truly, well and good, you got me. And I adore you for it. For all you little behind the scene planners that helped pull it off, I love you too!

I feel… wicked!