Day 23

Hey, I got a call from Vern Yates this morning! You remember the Candy Man! He had seen the obituary in the paper about Don and was calling to tell us. He wanted me to send a big hello to all our children. He and his wife recently sold their home and moved into a apartment in Anchorage. Their home was sold to Jason Evans and Kiana Peacock! I am sure you remember those names, Jason lived in Nome and Kiana in Kotzebue, she was on the basketball and cross country teams. A few things about Vern, he flew in the Navy, he flew Corsairs ( way cool airplane) and then other planes like Beech 18's and some jets later. He then went to work for Japan Airlines and I think he was with them for some time. After he retired from flying is when he started travelling to the Bush and working for Bowman distribution. He is currently writing a book about his life.


So, I saw Flying Wild Alaska last night. Saw a few people I knew, but mostly it just reminded me of the great flying and people there are in western AK. I think I better start recording more flying related memories:


Once upon a time I was scheduled for a trip that was to go from Nome to Pt. Barrow and pick up 9 Russians to take directly from Barrow to Provideniya (PVS). That trip has a few extra conditions that are there to deal with; one is that we never know the PVS weather until later in the morning, but to do this long trip and get in and out of PVS during the short window that the airport is open, you really need to leave Nome for Barrow before you have received the PVS weather. OK, so as I am getting the airplane ready, Therese gets a message from Moscow that the clearance we had for that day was expired. We both thought this was wrong because clearances are usually good for 3 days and we are in the second day. So we decide to delay the departure until we can talk with the PVS airport and ask about the clearance and the weather. In the meantime we ask the US controllers what they think about the clearance and they all agree that it is good. So, when PVS opens she calls them and they report fairly good weather and also they say the clearance is good.

OK, that's what we wanted to hear, I am out the door for the 2 hr trip to Barrow. When I get to Barrow, I check with Therese and confirm weather and clearance still good and get the green light. So, I begin the process of loading the baggage for the 9 Russians. Now, you may remember that when you live in Provideniya, or an outlying village, and you get to go to America, you are going to take a LOT of stuff back with you. And this group was especially loaded up because the nice people from the Barrow area gave them lots of good gifts also.


So after spending a lot of time loading all I could, and putting on some more fuel, I head out. The trip goes pretty well, As I approach the border I am very interested in how the transfer will go, normally the US controller just hands you aver to the Russian frequency, you tell him Who, What and Where you are, and he will clear you on into their airspace. But this time I wonder if they will, Actually, if they don't allow me in it wont be any emergency for me, I will deliver the people to Nome ( I have plenty of fuel) and the good people of Nome will open their homes to let them stay until we can try again. But, I call them and it is no problem, they give me a clearance to a fix close to PVS and, as I approach, they give me a clearance for an approach and then after having the airport in sight , a clearance to land. We land carefully on that rocky strip being careful so as not to damage the propellers with the rocks. We taxi in and deliver all the passengers to the border guards and Customs and then wait to get them processed. After they are through I go upstairs to the tower to sign out and say goodbye to Nichols ( Ilyas' Dad) and the other controllers. As I sign out they call Anadyr to get my clearance and...... you guessed it, Anadyr says that I have no valid clearance. The other aspect in this is that I only have about 10 more minutes until the Provideniya airport closes. This doesn't give us much time to fix this especially since it is the middle of the night in Moscow and all offices are closed, So, before long I am putting the airplane to bed, the best I can on the ramp in PVS, and heading out with Nichols on a good brisk evening walk ( it is winter) to his apartment.


Before I left the airport I talked with Jim and Therese in Nome and know that they will be all over this issue and know that the people in Russia are going to get a real earful from them.

To Be Continued........................