Day 24

........So Nichols and I get to his apartment in about 30 minutes. It is almost dark when we get there. It is the classic eastern Russian apartment building. The exterior is gray crumbling concrete, slowly sinking into the tundra, the stairways are dark and dank, but when you get to the individuals apartment it changes. This is their space, their little world in all that biggest country of the world that they have control over. Nichols apartment is rather spacious, neat and clean, and he quickly gets busy making dinner. I relax on a couch and watch the standard Russian news channel. They still are using a plain gray backdrop behind the older male reporter. No good looking female along with some sort of visuals pertaining to the story. The reporters drone wears me down, and I drift off, but Nichols soon wakes me and we eat a pretty good meal. Nichols is adapting to the life without his sweet wife Natalia, and I think she had done the cooking when she was there.
After dinner there isn't much to do so I doze off again on the couch and stay somewhat warm through the night on the couch. The next morning we are up, eating, sending his little son to kindergarten, and walking back out to the airport. It is chilly but not terrible, in fact some of the snow in the road has given way to mud. We arrive and head up to the tower. It is not quite 9 AM so we check some weather and I go look at my airplane, which faired pretty good through the night. It will require some sweeping off but that's about all. I am back in the tower when the clock strikes 9 AM and almost instantly the phone rings, it is the controllers in Anadyr, and Nichols has a short but positive conversation with them. I ask him " Well. what did they say?" He responds " They say - "With much pleasure, you are cleared to depart". Ha! I chuckle supposing that there has been some rather heated conversations through the night, and the controllers in Anadyr were probably at the bottom of the food chain and got the brunt of the blame. They are anxious to get me out of there!
i get the airplane clean, wait a little longer for the runway to be cleared and then it is back to the good old USA. I enjoyed my stay, it wasn't much of an inconvenience for me, but still it is nice to be headed east, and across the border in about 20 minutes.

Jim and Therese described the phone calls to the state department, the Russian Aviation people, Ted Stevens office and who knows who else. They handled it as well as I imagined they would. Its nice having such good people on your side.

The rest of the story plays out. We must remember that relations between the two countries are still improving. People don't want incidents like this happening during these times when agreements and working relationships are still forming. So, how do they handle it? Well, they handled it as well as it could be, I must admit. I get a letter from the Feds saying I am being investigated about it and that there may be serious certificate action taken against my license. I reply explaining what happened, but shortlly after I get a warning letter from the feds. Now, this isn't terrible, but it does go on my record, so I call the leader of the feds in Fairbanks and ask " hey, whats the deal?" He gives a non committal answer that basically says without saying; We had to do something and this is what was best for everyone. I understand. Blaming the pilot takes the heat off the two countries and the bad press that could affect the relationship. It is really the best solution. So I take it, and 2 years to the day later, I am on the phone to the Feds making sure the record of the warning is expunged as it is supposed to for all warning letters after 2 years. It is, I am happy.