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…..

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….

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.

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

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!

So… if we can all agree, no more crud showered on me for bows. They look minute now….

Hugs and thanks to all my friends and family that have taken that particular albatross from around my neck!

notice Cayce's bow?

ok, these are the biggest

Constant bombardment

This is coming by way of Sunny (not) St. George Island! Actually we have seen the sun some here the last 2 days but the wind blows incessantly. I am spending this week at the St. George Traditional Clinic as it is called here as part of my responsibilities as a physician with Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage. St. George, as I have written here in the past, is part of the Pribilof Islands of the south Bering Sea. It is home for about 80 people mostly Aleutian decent.  There really is no industry here now, though they have had crab processing in the past. Halibut processing is in the works but not yet completed. Most folks manage here by private fishing for halibut or employment by the tribal services, city services or other support services. As St. George has been populated for 3 centuries (except during WW2), it is home for a number of families. I have a growing respect for the people here who are trying hard to change things and make it a better place to live. Despite limitations of funds and expense of getting materials here, they are gradually improving all services. They have plans in the works for capturing wind energy so they can depend less on fossil fuels for electric power. With the action I watched on the rocky lava shores, wave energy generators would provide endless energy.

Healthcare is a challenge as it is impossible to keep even a midlevel (PA or ANP) here more than a few weeks who is not from the island because of the isolation. So as with many villages in Alaska, they depend on a unique provider type called a health aid, who has some limited health training and on the job experience. In St. George, they have been able to bring in midlevels from time to time to give the health aide a well deserved break. Serving the people here is not burdensome as they are very friendly and appreciative but it is isolated. No cell service and landline calling is very expensive so all communication is thru internet sources.

Air travel is the main physical connection for the Islands as you can imagine. Most everything has to come by air except very large items like vehicles. So St. George has flights on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to and from Anchorage, 3 hrs 1 way. Each flight that comes here then lands at St. Paul before heading back to Anchorage. They are fortunate now in that not long ago, the planes that were used had no bathrooms so you held it….occasionally in a pinch one of those Metroliners are pulled out and used as I have make a flight in one. Canvas (no pad) seats, no toilet, a curtain  for the cockpit door, a basket passed down the aisle and LOUD. Might be fun to fly it but… Anyway I felt fortunate to have made this trip on the first try this time. My first visit to St. George was after 5 previous tries, 2 canceled in Anchorage, 2 trips to the island but turning around(fun days!) and one mechanical problem requiring a landing at another village, waiting for second plane to take us back to Anchorage (even more fun!). K and I have numerous procedures in place for any event from her waiting at the curb at the airport to verify that the flight is still on  to checking for e-mails from me on Sat. to say the flight is coming or that I will probably spend a vacation weekend in St. George. The weekend vacation resort on the island has not happened yet but that is mostly a factor of not having made many trips yet. “A matter of when not if” as the saying goes…

Real flight training has finally begun!!  I have had my first 2 lessons and haven’t damaged the plane yet. A local flight school offers a course where you can obtain the light sport license for an up front fee which does 2 things. It keeps me coming back for lessons as I have already paid for them and it is about 30% cheaper per hour for the first 20 hours flight time. It takes only a minimum of 20 hours to qualify for the light sport certificate although most take a little longer as your instructor dictates when you are ready for testing. But once you qualify, you can fly on your own or even take 1 passenger (if any are foolish enough to go with you!) while you work on your remaining hours for the private certificate. It does not require a medical exam but you can only fly during daylight hours and certain air space. Also only in designated light sport planes which are generally smaller and slower.

So last Saturday I got to start for the first lesson…..and it was a thrill. I was allowed to handle the “stick”, flaps and rudder while my CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) handled everything else…..ie radio, throttle, local traffic, navigation, engine monitoring and instructions. He took me through about 4-5 “touch and goes” ie, landings and take off without stopping for the practice. We just flew a simple rectangular traffic around the airport but it was FLYING!! All left hand turns so I could see where we were going. He kept a hand on the stick always…. Wed. evening this week was our second lesson and I got to add the throttle (with his coaching). So now I have 1.8 hrs of flight time in my little pilot log book and hope to add another hour tomorrow morning before the OU-Tx game. He says I have to talk to the tower in the next flight……I’m not sure I can fly and talk at the same time. Learning to fly is the ultimate (for me) effort in multitasking….not my best skill. Fortunately you add things one at a time.

The plane we are using is exactly like the one shone, a Piper Sport that actually can cruise at 120 knots air speed.  I’m told it is easier to go from a light sport to a more full sized plane like a Cessna 172 than the reverse.  I hope by next summer I will have the light sport license but as winter comes on here in Ak, it will be dark when I finish work so flying will have to occur on Saturdays. We shall see….

I have a long honey-do list, but the doors hadn’t even made it yet. It was just a bit funny to try and sneak out of a bedroom and let someone catch those last few minutes of beauty sleep, or slip silently into Reag’s room to wake her, without a huge issue trying to get the doors open.

Voile’! Fixed! Mysteriously one morning this week, the bedroom door was unstuck, just like that. We had no clue how that happened. That was Monday, Sept 20th. Later that day, I was here at 1:34 pm when I heard a boom, and thought something had exploded, then the house began to rock. The lamps literally were rocking and books fell on the shelves. It rocked so long, I was up to grab my shoes, unlock the door and start to head outside so the house wouldn’t collapse on me if something gave.  Turns out it was a 5.0 earthquake centered 10 miles SW of Anchorage…hmmm.

Our doors no longer stick, it will be an interesting phenomenon to watch. When they begin to stick again…and when they miraculously are “fixed”. I will be watching and anticipating, for sure.

Note: if you don’t already know, just click on a pic and it will enlarge for you.

The picture just below Denali, glacier valley and the road, is a picture of the Alaska Range reflected in a meadow pond. The long range of totally white rugged peaks are just a few of the mountains east of Denali herself. They rise stark white and jagged, impressive.

Below “traffic stoppers” is a picture of the elusive “cross fox”. It is a very weird colored fox, a cross of two or more different species I guess. The ranger said they don’t see him often.

The pic below the cross fox, could be titled, Where is Milton the Moose? It is a picture of the huge valley, dressed in fall colors. If you look very closely, in the bottom right is a huge bull moose. He is just walking through the meadow, but so hard to see at first glance. He blends right in. The next picture is a close up of him, and his impressive antlers!

The large last picture is of the big momma brown bear who was really on alert. She was not too happy with all of the attention.