| Author | Message | ||
     Spike |
Game: http://www.sticky.tv/game/cyrkam_airtos/ | ||
| Rex |
 | ||
| Chasespeed |
Great pic, where'd you find that? Chase | ||
| Naughtynurse |
Now I know why I don't drink Coors. The miller one was funny....kinda reminded me of someone I know with a racoon hat I once knew??? Haha | ||
| Jackbequick |
Lightkeeper - "I was turned on to this sight when I was last in Kodiak..." I flew into there as a pax on Reeves Aleutian Airways a couple of times in the mid 60's. Back when RAA's primary movers were DC-6's and they were using DC-3's for the smaller, rougher places. I remember Kodiak as an interesting approach in that you came in over the bay, clearing some small islands, and flying straight towards a mountain. And the crosswinds could have the plane skewed so that if you were sitting on the right side of the plane you had almost as good a view of the runway as did the pilot. The runway was not overly long and ended in a big round pad that was 2 or 3 times the runway width. That allowed for making a big 180 degree slow down turn it you came in too hot, a little long, or were having trouble getting it slowed down on ice covered runways. There were no old dumb pilots in Alaska. Jack | ||
| Moxnix |
Reeve Aleutian Airways, "Up, Up and Delay." They used to put us up for days at the Barrett Inn in Anchorage until weather cleared out in the Chain. Used to be the highest paid pilots in the world and several co-pilots quit because they didn't think they could wait long enough for someone to retire before they got the left seat. I remember when one of their Electras lost a prop out over the Gulf of Alaska on the way from Cold Bay to Seattle. Cut the control cables to the horizontal and vertical stabilizers and put a big hole in the side of the plane. The flight crew used the autopilot knob to steer it to Anchorage where they landed, stopped at the end of the runway with the nose wheel in the dirt. And took the time to put on their jackets and straighten ties before exiting the airplane. Some of their passengers slept through the emergency. After all, it was Reeve Aleutian . . . Ah, nostalgia . . . | ||
| Light_keeper |
There was Kodiak C-130 that put a prop thru the fuselage on a log flight. Came in right behind the observer. In 1974 when I went up there for the first time I flew in via Western airlines direct from Seattle. When we went to land we went down thru the clouds and still youi could see nothing. My first sight of land was a rock out in the harbor, then runway, then a few buildings. and as you stated the turn around at the base of the Mt. Oh there was also the main road that went around the end as well. They had to stop traffic when anything came in to land. the only thing between the road and the runway were the lights at the end of the runway. When the wind was bad we would get no flights sometimes for a couple of weeks at a time. Ah yes good old Reeve Scare Aleutian. Did you know it was possible to land a DC9 on a beach. And take off again.  | ||
| Moxnix |
Reeve had a couple of Grumman Gooses. I rode in one from King Cove to Cold Bay, Cold Bay to Dutch and learned the pilot had landed, within the last month, in the water with the wheels down and on the strip at Cold Bay with the wheels up. At Juneau where you take off over a shaved hilltop, and at Kodiak where you head for the mountain, you had the "comfort" of knowing the senior officer was flying, not the co-pilot. Bob Reeve pioneered landings on mud flats with skis, so it's natural evolution a Reeve DC-9 would use a beach. Which beach? First time I went through Cold Bay there were still packing crates in the tundra from the Wiley Post-Will Rogers flight. | ||
| Light_keeper |
Up in Bristol Bay there was a fish pickup. The old boxcar was out of service. The available plane configured for cargo was you guessed it. From what I am told the flying boxcars used to land daily to pick up the salmon for rapid delivery to Anchorage. On this day the pilot who was rated for the DC9 said no problem. and other than a slight softness issue where the plane was loaded it went off with out a hitch. The goose and the widgen are not good at wet landings wheels down. They do rebuild them however and there are several that are still daily flyers. The Wife is from Juneau so I know about that as well. Her dad was the first manager of the Jet port for Alaska airlines and originally worked for Ellis air which combined with Alaska Coastal to become Alaska. There is stuff scattered all over the state from the past. Out the Chain are signs of WW2 all over the place. | ||
| Jackbequick |
The Aluetian Islands are incredibly interesting to anyone with an interest in WW II history. The unoccupied side of Adak was still full of fortifications, structures, and "stuff" from WW II when I was up there in '66. But it was pretty inaccessible by land and no one was allowed over there for the most part. The occupied side of Adak had a lot of interesting stuff too but it was not frozen in time like the other side. I did part of my year on Adak TDY to Shemya and had a number of intriguing conversations with the Coast Guard guys from nearby Attu when they would come over the Shemya for medical care (and booze). There was all kinds of stuff to see and explore on Attu. But I never got over there. I had a ride along on a VP squadron P3 one day got some neat low level flying along the chain from Adak to Shemya. There were numerous smaller islands with visible remains of structures from WW II and I even saw one island with the remains of a PSP runway and and a couple of aircraft hulks laying in the tundra. I pointed it out to one of the VP guys and he shrugged and said "Yeah, we don't call that one in as a downed aircraft, they get pissed if we do". Shemya had an inactive runway with the remains of a B-17 that was still being used for crash crew training. Somewhere I have a photo of myself sitting in the tail gun section. And then there were all the stories about the plane that had crashed on Mt. Adagdak with a payroll on board... Jack | ||
| Moxnix |
The most impressive WW2 site in the Chain for me was Kiska. 14 sunken Japanese ships in the harbor, airplanes littering the beach, one-man subs, and the hills covered in gun installations, with guns (cannons & anti-aircraft) and ammunition littered everywhere. Huge ammo dumps. The Aleut native corporation had the feds clean it up. Too bad they didn't salvage the museum pieces. Attu was the only source of a type of grass used for weaving native baskets. Tiny blades woven into water tight artifacts. The gov used to fly the "babushkas" out there once in awhile to harvest it, though the island was military only and they sent the natives East after WW2. Mostly to Atka. I may be the only non-native who has a clue about "undiscovered" aboriginal burial caves on Attu. Some of the natives I worked with are still alive. Their secret is safe with me. You'll never find them w/o help. Slaves were buried with hands and feet cut off so they couldn't come back and haunt the owners. Heavy medicine area, locals left food out for "Outside Man." to ward off bad mojo. Note all villages and towns are on the north side of the Chain. South side was tsunami susceptible, as they found on Unimak when one washed an elevated lighthouse away. One could find driftwood miles inland. Nature at work. I never once saw it rain vertically in the Aleutians. Sideways, yes. As the natives call it, Willowa: Birthplace of the Winds. | ||
| Light_keeper |
While stationed on the CGC Munro we patroled the chain. HAve been ashore all over the place. Was met with a very interesting arrival at Shimia. They took their security very seriously in the 70's. Been to Attu, Adak, Kiska and Dutch as well. Overflown all of it several times. | ||
| Moxnix |
I used to tell friends in the Lower 48 there was a beautiful girl behind every palm tree. | ||
| Turnagain |
problems landing in Alaska, as captured by Jim at moosecam.com | ||
| Reepicheep |
I missed a turn like that on a downhill gravel covered diminshing radius left turn. Needed about 4 more inches of road  | ||
| Light_keeper |
OOPS. at least it's not upsidedown. Or was it? before the picture was taken. | ||
| Choptop |
yo Rocket... check yer PM's...  (Message edited by Choptop on October 19, 2005) | ||
| Choptop |
Anyone going to Barber this weekend? Barber Vintage Festival AHRMA racing October 22nd through 23rd if you are planning on it, or thinking about it, let me know. I can set up up, in exchange for some pictures of the event. | ||
| Dave |
Re: RAA and Shemya; I spent 9 years in Alaska and many months temp duty at Shemya. Flying in and off of Shemya (now Erickson AFS) was iffy with anyone else but RAA. They'd fly in the worse conditions and you could count of them liberating ya from that rock. Adak closed...Shemya...sigh. Plow shears and all that. Those that were there4 know the "Scruffy" Barber's this weekend! I am gonna be there Chop...you...ANyone else? DAve | ||
| Choptop |
Nope, I wont be there.... thats why I am offering to set up anyone who IS going with press passes, in exchange for pictures of the event. | ||
| Choptop |
email me with yer info. | ||
| Captpete |
Oh, well... scratch one Maule. Too bad. Great bush planes. Flew one for the better part of 15 years. Great sport plane, too. I flew into a little field just outside of Birmingham to pick up my girlfriend for a little air-camping trip. We weren't intersted in 'roughing it' and assembled all the gear on the ramp before packing it into the plane. As a bush plane, it's designed for the rear seat to pop out in about two minutes, revealing a bunch of cargo straps. There was a budding airshow getting under way as we were loading up, but we drew more attention than the birds on display. I couldn't figure out what the deal was, and asked one of the bystanders. It seemed no one believed we were going to get all that stuff into that little plane. Sheet! Maule's are reputed to fly with anything and all you could stuff into them. Just have to keep an eye on the CG. 150% over gross? No problem. 650 feet to get out over a 50-foot obstacle at full gross. 150% just takes a little more runway. | ||
| Blake |
Shoot, I bet you could get that plane back to airworthy in no time. Or wait, on 2nd though, they don't use much angle-iron on them flying contraptions do they?  | ||
| Loki |
Give it to a couple good quality mechs. We can make bricks fly and break the sound barrier too. | ||
| Blake |
And you could have parts left over for, oh I dunno, a bracket on your trailer?  | ||
| Littleesco |
Does anyone know the young rider who lost his life on 03/31/05. He rode a red Hayabusa, he was 28 years old. | ||
| Ara |
Does anybody have a pair of Teknic gloves? I'm interested in either the Violator or Speedstar models, but I've never actually seen a pair and I'm a little reluctant to spend considerably more than $100 on a product sight unseen. (Posted this question to the appropriate section of the Knowledge Vault with no response.) | ||
| Loki |
I will have to take pics of the toolbox at work next week. If you wondered about the trailer....  | ||
| Shotgun |
Why Harley riders hate to wave:http://www.nesba.com/TrackTalk/bb/Forum3/HTML/003664.html | ||
| Iamike |
It would be bad enough crashing like that, but to have the whole world to see it....Ouch! |
