Photo of the Week

A double this time!

Caravan w/ Rainbow

Sunset over frozen lakes and tundra between Hooper Bay and Bethel, from 11,500'

I am the "Pavement Muncher"!

...With a shark-toothed grin, Don't know if my gear will come down again!

It is time to tell this story, the Saga of N417PM over the last couple months.

It all started with "Papa Mike" (Now also known as "Pavement Muncher")
Sitting in the maintenance hangar for a while, I forget why. One of our pilots, Taka, got the idea to paint a shark mouth on the plane. Since we were short on planes, Taka and I were not flying and pretty bored so with an OK from the boss, we drew up a plan and got to work:

Myself, masking the design.

Now, this would have been the end of the story. Nose art done, time to fly right?
Sure, except I had made a comment to Taka while painting to the effect of "You watch, I bet this thing gets balled up in the next two months and we'll have to repaint it all over again..."

Well...

A month Later:



A hydraulic line in the nose wheel well had broken, which caused all attempts to lower the nose wheel to fail, dumping all her hydraulic fluid overboard in the process.

After flying around for a couple hours to burn off fuel, the plane landed in a textbook perfect emergency landing. Both props were feathered just before touchdown and the plane slid to a stop with only minor skin damage to the nose, a broken stringer and two pancaked pitot tubes.
There were no injuries to the pilot or passengers, who exited through the overwing exit on the right side.

This month, after scavenging a new nose from a carcass Navajo and a little spray paint, "Papa Mike" returned to the skies in all its eclectic glory. She was my ride for most of the shift this month and other that being a bit nose heavy (all that paint?) she performs great, maybe I found a new favorite Navajo?

Taken a few days ago at Mekoryuk, on Nunivak Island.

The Cycle of Airplane Ownership.

Yup, that about covers it...

Photo of the Week

Foggy Fall morning in Bethel, Alaska.

Photo of the Week

The Apaztec* resplendent in the early dawn sunshine at Walsenburg Colorado.

Click for full size.

*Apaztec= A Piper anomaly, built as an Aztec but called an Apache. Suffers from an acute identity crisis, being that it is not quite 100% Aztec, but hardly is she an Apache by any definition. You Decide, If it quacks like a duck...

Update!

For all those that have not followed our vacation (July 25 to today) on Jen's Blog I'll give you a brief update and add some pictures for everyone to enjoy here, here and here. Its about 1500 pictures and I have only added captions to about half of the ones that I want to on the first set. Thw last set is a mix of pics from my Dad's and Grandma's cameras, including some more pics of our flight up from Bellingham in the Apache.

Needless to say, we have had a great time flying the plane around the Lower 48 for a couple weeks, then returning home and spending a couple weeks with visiting family. It was a great time for Jen and I to "play tourist" at home and do some activities we don't normally enjoy or to see them from a tourists point of view... A good time was had by all as we went to the Mendenhall Glacier, Mount Roberts Tram, Downtown Juneau, a back country tour of Hoonah, whale watching, a trip to Skagway with Ice field tour, Dog Sledding, a trip "out the road" and much more...

I will be going back to work in Bethel tomorrow on my original 15-day schedule. I think work will be a lot more tolerable with the shorter schedule. Twenty days out there is way too much.

I'll try to post more often, no guarantees however...

IT'S ALIVE!!!

After many, many months of hard work, our plane finally flew today. Everything seems to work and the new interior is nice to sit in while the airplane makes its own noises without me supplying the soundtrack... Now we just gotta put a few hours on her before we head to America for vacation next month.