Time is flying

If you haven’t already heard, Erin and I are expecting our first baby in less than 90 days.  The time has been really flying by.  Erin has been amazing.  Her pregnancy is going really well.  Both her and the baby are healthy and doing great.  We had an ultrasound a while ago and we caught our first glimpse of our little one.

The baby has been kicking quite a bit.  It is fun to feel the movements and occasionally see the movement as a hand or a foot really makes an impression.  We have our crib set up and have been attending some evening classes held at the hospital we plan to deliver at.  They have covered everything from the third trimester on through the months that follow the birth.

We know this is going to be a game changer for us, and we are so very excited for this part of our lives to begin.  I love seeing how beautiful Erin is, and she amazes me at how she is able to bring this new bundle of joy into our lives with such grace.

Fast Fall

It seems as the fall has just flown by.  I can’t believe its already Christmas break this coming week.  Erin and really enjoyed our time a week ago when we went up to Canada.  It was great to get away just the two of us and spend some time together.  Thunder Bay was nice, and our time on the shore of Lake Superior was nice and relaxing.

This past week seemed to go pretty quick.  I think when your down in the trenches it can seem like its moving awfully slow, but when you look back you seem to forget those times.  Anyway it was a good week.  I went to a wrestling meet on Tuesday night and watched a few of my students who are on the Virginia high school wrestling team.  It was fun to see them compete.  They did a very nice job winning both of their dual meets.  I went to the meet after our weekly curling match.  Tony our high school art teacher, Chuck our superintendent, Tom one of our P.E. teachers and myself all curl in the early league.  We’ve competed three times so far and are sitting at 2 for 3.  I played pretty well our last game getting most of my rocks in the general area they were supposed to be, so that was good.

On Friday I was signed up to take tickets at the hockey game.  Since I was tied up with this Erin spent the evening making lefsa.  It turned out really well and I think she ended up getting about 70 pieces.  The hockey game was fun to watch.  Virginia beat International Falls after a bit of a shaky start.

Saturday night Erin and I went to her schools Christmas party at the wooden table.  It was fun spending time with the people she works with on a daily basis.  After dinner we headed to Hibbing to pick up Katie who was just finishing up about 28 hours of travel getting down here from St. Michael for her Christmas break.

Today we did a little bit of ice skating.  I don’t know how the rink will be tomorrow.  We got a little bit of snow this evening.  It seems the moment you get the ice cleared enough for skating mother nature decides to spoil the fun by dropping more of that white stuff.  There us rumored to be a pretty big storm that is supposed to hit us on Christmas eve.  If that’s the case we need to make sure we take advantage of the skating while its available.

Erin has two days of work this week and I have three, so our Christmas break is just around the corner.  I am really looking forward to relaxing and getting outside some over break.

I hope you all have a nice holiday season

Kate

Vermilion Falls

Stacy and Dylan drove out to the house this morning to join April, Jesse, Jim, Erin, and I out to Vermilion Falls.  We hopped in the car and took off towards Crane Lake.  Its a bit of a drive, and since we took the back gravel roads which are pretty sloppy with all the snow melting it was even a bit longer.  We got to the road heading towards the falls only to find it hadn’t been plowed yet.  We put the vehicles in 4-wheel drive and continued down the 4 mile road.  When we got to the “drive way” into the parking area it was even more covered in snow and was heading up a hil, so we parked the cars and began our hike there.

We were hoping to catch the ice breaking up and being forced through the narrow gorge, but when we got to the river we found it already open.  It still is a fun place to visit.  There is a ton of water rushing through there.  We took some pictures and had lunch on a picnic table.

All throughout our day in at the falls we were having mini snowball fights.  The snow was the perfect consistency for making snowballs.  Dylan was a fierce competitor and was always ready for a battle.  After we finished eating Jim had the idea of making a snowman.  It didn’t take too long and we had a very respectable snowman to greet any visitors in the next couple of days.  I don’t know how long he’ll last, but as long as the skies continue to be covered with clouds and the temps stay in the 30’s it could be some time before he withers away.

We then headed back to the cars and drove to Orr where we filled our car with gas and our tummies with A&W root-beer floats.  They sure are tasty, but make it quite difficult to drive and work the spoons filled with the bubbly ice cream to your mouth.  We headed back to the house where we relaxed and had some dinner.

It sure was a nice way to spend a Saturday.

Safe and Sound

It was a pretty stressful Wednesday night wondering what circumstances my dad was in having “crashed” in a Cessna 208 Caravan II flying between Scammon Bay and Bethel, Alaska.  I’ll try to give you a play by play on what happened to the best of my knowledge.  I haven’t had a chance to directly talk to my dad yet, but this is what I’ve gleaned from conversations with my mom and a message left by my dad on my cell phone.

On their way back to Bethel from Scammon Bay my dad and fellow pilot Brian were flying at about 7,400 feet elevation when the engine failed.  My dad said he was very impressed with how the caravan handled, and that it had a high enough glide ratio to give them time to pick out a suitable place to land.  They ended up putting the plane down on a lake roughly 94 miles from Bethel.  Within 15 minutes of setting the plane down one of the companies other planes flew over checking on them.

dads-plane-crash

The landing couldn’t have been better.  Brian did just a phenomenal job of setting the ski less plane down on the snow covered lake.  During the landing the front landing gears shock was depressed and would not release.  This is the only damage the plane encountered in the emergency landing. They are very lucky the landing gear didn’t buckle.  If it had, the plane would have sustained a substantial amount of damage.

So now they are stranded in the middle of a frozen lake surrounded by miles and miles of bare tundra.  They were able to radio headquarters that they had landed and that neither of them had been injured.  The national guard dispatched a helicopter out to pick them up.  The helicopter got really close to them but there was a pretty bad blizzard that made an air rescue impossible.  Upon hearing the National Guard had scratched their attempted rescue Hageland sent a plane back out to the scene where they dropped some survival gear out the side of the plane for the guys.  They retrieved this gear and headed back to the plane where they were able to get out of the wind and cook up some dinner.  I heard rumors of some humorous talk of the movie “Alive” as they sat in the plane with the wind howling outside.

Meanwhile 45 miles to the west in Chevak a search and rescue team was being mobilized.  A couple of people headed out on snowmachines only to have one of their machines break down so they had to return to Chevak.  Around 1:00 AM a group of 4 riders took off to pick up the two pilots.  While they were on their two hour ride to the crash site, Dad and Brian were catching some zzzz’s in the caravan.  I guess at one point the wind was blowing hard enough to jostle the plane around.  There was some concern that the plane might tip over from the wind gusts.  Usually when a plane is parked the wings are tied down to keep them from being pushed around or over by the wind.  Since they were on a lake the guys were unable to tie the plane down and were at the mercy of the wind.

The search and rescue team from Chevak arrived at the plane around 3:00 in the morning.  My dad was fast asleep and I’m sure snoring like a log (poor Brian).  They had to knock on the side of the plane to wake them up.  The guys hopped on with the search and rescue team and headed back to Chevak arriving just after 6:00 in the morning.

Dad was very impressed with the search and rescue team.  Their command center had a map up with their crash site marked out and a full plan on how they were going to get them rescued.  He said it was a very well run operation.

At some point that morning (Thursday) the guys flew back to Bethel and were back to work.  For a plane “crash” it really couldn’t have gone any better.

Im not 100% positive about their plans to retrieve the airplane, but here is what I think will happen.  Hageland will fly out a mechanic to get the engine working and fix the front landing gear.  They may jack up the plane and put skies on it, or bring in a small bulldozer to clear out a runway for the plane on the ice.  They will then have a pilot with a ferry permit (a permit that allows the plane to be flown dirctly to a shop where it can be completely checked over) fly the plane off the lake back to Bethel or Palmer to have it fixed up and put back into circulation.

UPDATE:  Hageland ended up flying out a replacement engine and changing it out on the frozen lake.  They fixed the minor issues with the front landing gear and were ready to bring it home.  Here’s where it gets fun and a little taste of Alaska.  To get the plane to take off on the snow covered lake the crew cut three sleds (the kind your kids use to slide down hills) in half, put the back end in the front end bolted 2×4’s around as a frame and placed them under each wheel on the plane.  When the plane took off it used them as ski’s.  When they were off the ground the sleds stayed on the ground since they weren’t attached to the plane at all.  The Cessna 207 they used to bring the engine out picked up the sleds as to not leave any trash behind and they both flew back to Bethel.

Dad still has to do his check ride with the company before he can start flying for them.  I hope he is successful in that endevor.  If he is then he’ll finish out the two week shift and then head back to Valdez for a couple weeks off before doing it all over again.  Hopefully the next shift will not include any landings that aren’t on an approved runway. 🙂

Engine Failure

I ended my last post with this line….

“Anyway I wish him the best of luck.  We always say its better to be lucky than good.”

I guess that speaks volumes now because my dad was very lucky.  On April 1st, 2009 at approximately 1:30 PM Alaska time,  my dad was flying from Scammon Bay Alaska to Bethel Alaska when the engine on his Cessna Caravan II failed.  Being a single engine airplane he and the other pilot were without power and had to make an emergency landing.  When an engine goes out on an airplane like that you have very few options on where you are going to land.  Without power they fall out of the sky petty quickly.  They were able to bring the plane down on a frozen lake in the middle of the tundra roughly 90 miles from Bethel.  Luckliy neither of them were injured in the crash.  A national guard helicopter was dispatched from Bethel to rescue them but had to turn around due to bad weather.  The Alaska State Troopers have begun putting together a ground based search party out of Chevak Alaska which was the closest village to the crash site roughly 50 miles away.  There is a pretty bad blizzard working its way through the area so plans were made to drop supplies to help them weather out the storm holed up in the airplane.  I’ll post again when I know more.

dad-plane-crash

My dad has been a pilot since the late 70’s and is a very competent pilot.  This was his second day on the job with Hageland Aviation which has been in service since 1981.  I have flown many a flight with them during my tenure in rural Alaska.  They are a very safe company and I would fly with them any time.  The Cessna Caravan II uses a turboprop engine which usually is very reliable, so it will be interesting to see what caused it to fail.

Dad’s New Job

Well, my dad is starting a new job today.  He hopped aboard a Cessna Caravan in Palmer, Alaska heading for Bethel Alaska.  He is one check ride away from being a Hageland pilot.  It sounds like he’ll have about 4 hours of instruction in a caravan once he arrives in Bethel.  After the instruction time he’ll take a check ride and if he passes he’ll finish out his first “shift”.  A shift I found out is a two week stint.  If he doesn’t pass his check ride he’ll head back to Valdez.  During a shift a pilot can’t fly more than 8 hours a day, but usually work about 12 hours each day.  The rest of the time they are loading up freight into the airplanes and refueling them for their next flights.

Here is what a Cessna Caravan II looks like.

Here is the routes they fly on a pretty regular basis if not every day.

He is really excited about the new job.  This is something he’s always wanted to do.  He got his commercial pilots license a few years ago.  He also has his instructors license, so he is able to give flying lessons and has done so with a couple of guys from Valdez.  One of the cool possabilites of this job is that he may be stationed in Nome which should bring him in and out of St. Michael on a somewhat regular basis.  For those of you who don’t know, that is where my sister is teaching this year.

I do have my concerns about this whole new job…  After having lived in rural Alaska and flying in the inclement weather that frequents the area I worry about some of the situations he may be in.  Frontier Alaska’s rules state that if a pilot is not comfortable flying because of weather they can decline to fly at any time.  The problem is the weather can be really bad a lot of the time, so it turns into the standard operating procedure to go out on days you normally wouldn’t fly in.  This tends to work out fine over and over again, but the one time it doesn’t can be a tragic day.

Anyway I wish him the best of luck.  We always say its better to be lucky than good.

8 things huh??

Well apparently I’m supposed to list 8 thing about me that most don’t know about me since I was tagged by Erin a couple days ago. So with out further adieu….

1. My wife reads the blogs of “The Office” characters.
2. I used to have a trap line in 2nd grade hunting the elusive Alaskan rabbit.
3. I only read books on airplanes. (I have the internet the rest of the time.)
4. I have read all of the John Sandfod books on airplanes, and the entire time was listening to Nickel Creek on my ipod, so now when I heard those songs it makes me think of a police officer in Minnesota chasing down serial killers.
5. To piggy back on Laura’s post I enjoy shoveling snow especially when there are huge Valdez snowflakes falling from the heavens. I especially enjoy when a really big one lands on my face or down the back of my neck.
6. Erin and I have our very first Christmas tree set up in our living room this year. (I got to put two of the four ornaments on it.)
7. I went on a routine climbing trip with Jeremy out in Wyoming and ended up climbing the Grand Teton.
8. We didn’t have running water sometimes in the winter living in Northway. Having to use the outhouse in the cold dark night I’d get scared walking back to the house with the dark forest to my back and jump out of my parents bunny boots and scamper back to the house leaving the boots in the edge of the trees.

A little chair work…

Lets take a little trip back in time….

Im a junior in college heading home for christmas.  When I arrive at home, my father shows me this chair he just finished building.  Doesn’t sound like that much work right, its just a chair.  I was then informed that this chair doesn’t have any metal in it.  Thats right no nails or screws.  The chair is held together using a method called mortis and tenon which involves making a tong and grove style joint system.  You use a special table saw blade called a dato blade which allows you to have a custom width saw blade.  This allows you to cut the tenon (the tounge part) with one pass of the saw.  The mortis is a square notch cut into the wood.  How do you cut a square notch might you ask?

Well there is a drill press looking machine called a Hollow Chisel Mortiser.  It allows you to cut square holes.  I know amazing.  So after a learning all about how this cool chair was made I was throughly impressed.  Not to mention that the chair was extremely comfortable.  So at this point I requested a chair be built for me.  I was informed that it would be a great christmas present for me.  My dad and I went in to Anchorage and picked out the special lumbar.  We used quarter sawn white oak.  Since the logs are quarter sawn the blade makes pretty flares along the board.  When sanded and varnished it really looks nice.  So Im thinking awesome, Im getting a really cool chair for christmas.  Well next christmas comes along and is there a chair under the tree????  Not so much.  I come to find out that its not quite completed, which in reality ment it was far from completion.  No worries though Im told it’ll be a great graduation present.  Flash ahead to my college graduation…. Is there a chair ready to sit on and relax after 5 years of college???  Not so much.  No worries though, it’ll get done.  Flash ahead three years Im ingaged to be married.  I learn that the chair will make a great wedding present.  Summer of 2005 Erin and I are unwrapping our weading presents, and there I am suprised not to find a chair shaped box wrapped in the corner.

Flash ahead to now.  I head home for christmas 2006.  I learn that there is some work to be done on the infamous chair.  After Katie was off to  India, my dad and I tie into the chair.

We cut mortis and tenons, and used hand chisels to clean up the joints to make them fit better.  It really is a lot of work.  I only suffered two minor cuts from the chisel.  They are quite sharp.

So we didn’t get finished when I was home, but I informed my parents that the car doesn’t go back into the shop (garage) until the chair is finished.  I think we have a good enough start that dad will be able to power through to the end.  Im very excited to have this awesome chair in my house.  I will be sure to post pictures of it when it’s done.

I’m Back by Popular Demand ;)

Well, I know its been forever and a day since I last posted.  So its time to get back into the swing of things.  Erin and I are both on our Christmas breaks right now.  We had a very nice time down in Cook, Minnesota.  It was nice hanging out with family.  Erin being the ambitious person she is initiated the creation of a skating rink in the lake.  She and her dad got to work with the snow blower clearing off the snow on the lake.  Unfortunetly the snow blower broke part way through.  So it was shovels from there.  I was able to help out with the end of the process.

After we had the ice cleared there were a few bumpy patches.  So Jim and I cut a hole in the ice with a chain saw.  It brought back memories of crabbing on the Bering strait.  With the hole cut we got out a couple garden hoses and a pump used in the summer to empty the rain out of the boats.  We flooded the rink with a about an inch of water.  The next morning we had a nice skating surface.

[QUICKTIME http://www.bbryson.com/movies/skating.mov 320 255]

At times there were many of us out there skating.  I had to go in spurts.  My new skates that Erin helped me pick out were rough on the arches in my feet.  I could skate for a while, then have to take them off and let the feet rest.  Erin was out there the whole time. She is fun to skat with.

Erin got us an awesome christmas present this year.  I was really surprised. She bought really nice tickets to a Minnesota Wild Hockey Game.  For those of you who don’t know.  The Wild is Minnesota’s professional hockey team. Here is a picture of us at the game.

This is where we were sitting.  Nice seats.

The game was awesome.  Minnesota ended up winning 5-2.  We stayed at a hotel right accross the streat, so we didn’t have to worry about traffic.  Really had a great time.  Looking forward to attending more of those next year when we are living considerably closer.

I flew home to Valdez on the 27th of December.  It has been snowing really hard since I’ve been home.  A week before my arrival they had 29 inches in 24 hours.  That wasn’t were it stopped they enededd up with about three feet in that storm.  We have added to that another couple feet by now.  Its fun to watch the big flakes falldown.

Yesterday Abby, her husband Steve, and I went out snowshoeing up Hogs Back a mountain behind Robe river.  Our approach to the base was quite the ordeal.  We missed the groomed trail that takes you right to the beginning of the ridge.

Making our own trail we criss-crossed a stream at times in the water trying to step on the big rocks to keep our feet out of the water.  When we were in the snow there was about a foot of fresh snow that we had to break trail through.  When we finally made it to the base of the ridge is when the real work began.  Snowshoeing uphill and having to break trail at times is tuff work. Since I am really out of shape, it made the whole process that much more enjoyable.  ;)  No it was a lot of fun.

The views were beautiful and the weather was warm with out any wind.  The whole trip ended up taking about 6 hours.  I am really feeling it today.

Thats kinda how break has been going.  I will be back to work on the 8th.  I’ll fill you in on my exciting adventures a little  more often now.  Hope everyone has a safe and fun new years.