FAIRBANKS OR BUST
Link to this week's column at
USAToday.com/travel:
FAIRBANKS OR BUST
My thanks to the many of you who bought my friend
and fellow airline pilot James Green's book "If
There's One Thing I've Learned" on November 30th.
I hope you'll write to me after you've read it
and let me know what you think of it. I enjoyed
it very much (if I hadn't, I wouldn't have
recommended it.
I am on a hiatus of sorts right now from writing
about airline flying, but I have plenty of fun
stories from my flying history to talk about.
I've never written about one particular adventure
I had so I thought I'd tell that story now:
When I was first hired to fly B-727's, it wasn't
for my current airline but for Wien Air Alaska
which was just starting to operate them for the
first time in 1981. At the time, Wien was the
oldest airline flying continuously under the same
name. "Wien" (pronounced "ween") is a family
name, and to this day I'm in touch with Captain
Merrill Wien (retired), with whom I flew many
trips. Wien Air Alaska went out of business in
1984.
I was hired as a flight engineer and loved my new
and exciting job, but missed not flying as a
pilot. I would eventually upgrade to the copilot
position, first in the B-737 and later in the
B-727. We pilots had plenty of days off so I
would occasionally find an odd flying job. One
of those jobs that came my way was picking up a
Cessna 172 from a church group in Charleston,
South Carolina and delivering it to Fairbanks,
Alaska. The airplane was donated for use in the
Alaskan bush.
I arrived in Charleston on the evening of August
12th, 1982, and immediately took a flight around
the traffic pattern in "my" airplane with a
church representative (also a pilot) to go over
the specifics of this airplane, see if I had any
questions, etc. I had been informed the plane
would not be well-equipped and it wasn't. There
would be no instrument flying (flying in low
visibility with reference only to instruments) or
even night flying. This plane was equipped to
fly only during the daytime, and only in really
clear weather.
I knew this before I left Alaska and came
equipped with my "Captain's Atlas." This
publication is carried by many airline pilots
even today. One of the first spreads in the book
is of the entire freeway system in the U.S.
This was my sole reference for navigation all the
way to the Canadian border north of Montana,
although I also had a book of "plates" (airport
charts) for airports along my planned route of
flight. "IFR" stands for Instrument Flight
Rules, but pilots joke that it really stands for
"I Follow Roads" (or "I Follow Railroads"). It
was no joke on this trip.
After my quick familiarization flight, I had the
airplane fueled, the oil serviced and would be
ready to go at first light. What I didn't count
on was the dense morning fog which delayed me
about three hours. I finally took off into a
clear sky and flew as far as Chattanooga,
Tennessee before I decided to stop for a break
and some fuel. From there I continued to St.
Louis. Thunderstorms set in late in the day and
I could go no further, but it was time to stop
anyway. Total flight time that day was 8 hours
and 42 minutes-enough for one day.
I spent the night at the St. Louis Hyatt Regency.
I was on an expense account and my hosts told me
to live it up as I was charging them almost
nothing for my time to deliver the airplane. As
far as I was concerned, it was a paid vacation.
I was entitled to an airline discount because of
my airline job with Wien and the front desk was
quite curious about how I wound up there, so I
told them a little about myself, my job in
Alaska, and how I came to be flying such a little
plane by myself all the way across the country.
They seemed enthralled and gave me a suite. I
paid something like $38 for a room that went for
a few hundred dollars per night. I wondered
about my other stops along the way, and whether I
would be treated this well everywhere. I was in
for a pleasant time of it. In some cases my
accommodations were luxurious, at a few stops
quite rustic, but I was always welcomed warmly.
The next morning it was foggy again and I got
another late start; then thunderstorms appeared
again in the afternoon. I made it only as far as
Kansas City and went downtown to the Hyatt
Regency there, where I mentioned my stay the
previous night in St. Louis at the same hotel
chain. They were equally curious, and once again
I was treated to a lavish suite at my discounted
airline rate. Years later, I would stay here
again with my current airline, not only at the
same hotel, but once in the identical kind of
suite which we flight crews sometimes get when
our hotels are otherwise full. Flight time that
day was logged at just 3 hours, 43 minutes due to
the long-lasting fog in the morning and the
early afternoon thunderstorms.
The next night was spent at North Platte,
Nebraska, after just 4 hours and 23 minutes of
flight time. Every day it was pretty much the
same story with fog in the morning and
thunderstorms in the afternoon, limiting my air
time. The next day I made a fuel stop in
Sheridan, Wyoming and made a side trip to visit
the Sheridan Inn, former home of Buffalo Bill
Cody. I then continued my flight to Great Falls,
Montana, where I overnighted once again.
From there I headed up into Canada and joined the
Alcan (Alaska Canada) Highway for most of the
rest of my trip. This is where I put away my
trusty freeway map and switched over to using a
book a friend of mine had given me before I'd
left. It was a book especially for pilots flying
the Alcan with the entire layout, including some
pictures of places recommended for overnight
stops. The pictures were of the road itself,
mostly unpaved at that time, and had notations
like, "When you see the large windmill just on
the right side of the road as you're flying
north, fly about another five miles until you see
the lake—that's Watson Lake and a good place to
make a fuel stop."
Another notation was something like this: "Don't
be surprised if you find yourself going south by
the compass while flying northbound along the
highway—there are several sharp curves that can
cause this seeming disparity, but the "wrong"
heading only lasts for a very few miles." That
book was my security blanket. There's no way I
would have believed my route was correct if I'd
seen a southerly heading without being warned of
this anomaly.
My first overnight stops in Canada were in
Calgary and Dawson Creek. The next day I made
fuel stops at Ft. Nelson and Watson Lake with an
overnight stay at Whitehorse in the Yukon
Territories. There I saw the largest weathervane
in the world-an actual DC-3 on a stone mount. I
saw it years later from the air at 35,000 feet
flying from Denver to Anchorage in the Airbus
with my current airline. I wasn't sure we'd be
able to see it from that high up, but we could
and I pointed it out to our passengers.
This link will take you to an article about it
along with some photos:
Worlds Largest Weather Vane
After Whitehorse came my first Alaskan stop at
Northway for fuel, after which I finally arrived
in Fairbanks. My takeoff from South Carolina had
been on August 13, 1982 and my journey's end was
on August 20th. Total flight time was 43. 6
hours over eight days.
To my immense regret I didn't keep a journal of
this flight other than my logbook (the very one I
nearly lost as recounted in the chapter called
"Wingwalker" in "The World At My Feet"), in which
I made a few notes, but I remember it as one of
the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I
took a great deal of satisfaction from safely
piloting a plane alone such a great distance and
having to navigate it all completely visually.
I was 31 years old when I took this flight-the
longest solo journey of my flying career and one
I'll never forget. My thanks to you for
indulging me and coming along on my little flight
down Memory Lane, so to speak
For my newest readers and as a reminder to others, I've put autographed copies of my book "The
World At My Feet" on sale until Christmas in the
form of free shipping. Total price is $17.95.
Ships within a day or two.
Click here to order:
Gift Ideas
Also, my newest book "Flights of Whimsy - Quips'N' Quotes" will be out soon.
The retail price will be $11.95 plus shipping but until Christmas you can order it for just $9.95 and I'll throw in shipping for free. My printer recently informed me my book will be in my hands by December 15th/16th. This is a month later than the original estimate.
I will ship all orders out immediately upon
receipt so you should still have them in time for Christmas.
Click here to order: Gift Ideas
And with that, Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap'n Meryl
www.fromthecockpit.com
www.flyingfearless.com
www.fromthecockpit.com/profile.htm
(keynote speaker information)
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