Pop the Boot

Looking out the window watching the snow fall down from the gray sky above wondering if a plane any plane would be landing to take me on to my next destination I opened up the National Weather Service search results for Nome, Alaska. Temperature 21 degrees, due point 21 degrees, relative humidity 100%… Great… that means freezing rain. On top of that they were giving Nome the LIFR tag (Limited Instrument Flight Rules) with less than a half a mile visibility. My hopes of leaving Elim today… Not very good.

About a half an hour later however Hutch the local Bering Air agent called and informed me that there was a caravan coming into Elim in the next 35 minutes. I quickly gathered up my bags that had been strewn across Steve’s apartment and around a room in the school. With about 10 minutes until the flights arrival I was given a ride up to the airport. Sure enough here comes a caravan buzzing through the freezing drops falling from the sky. He lands in the foot of snow on the runway and taxis over to us. As I’m putting my bags in the belly pod I notice the build up of ice on the leading edge of the wings and struts. No worries though.. It wasn’t very thick and the caravan has boots installed on the front of the wings, struts, and tail, not to mention the prop blades are heated. So with our bags loaded the pilot and the three passengers including myself climb aboard. The pilot is just about to close his door when Hutch’s wife shows up and tells the pilot that Nome called and wants us to fly to Unalakleet. The weather in Nome has gotten worse. The pilot says “the weather in Unalakleet isn’t much better. We’ll just stay here until the weather lifts in Nome.” So we hop off the plane and the pilot jams a sleeping bag type material into the intakes on the engine while the two other passengers are getting rides back to town.

I was talking with the pilot and asked him how the boots work to keep the ice from building up too much during flight. The way they work is after a substantial amount of ice builds up (about a half an inch or so) he activates the boots from inside the plane. They spontaneously fill with air expanding at a high rate of speed. This quick enlargement causes the build up of ice to break up and fall off the plane. He also mentioned that there is a newer technology which involves a titanium leading edge on the wings and struts that has very little holes poked all through it. If the pilot is flying in icing conditions he activates the system and ethanol is pushed out through all those little holes and covers the entire wing and parts of the plane. This ethanol melts what ice is there and prevents any more ice from building up. He said that using this system you can fly through the worst icing conditions without a problem. The reason they haven’t upgraded to this system yet is to outfit one caravan runs about 50,000 dollars.

The black liner is the boot…

About 45 minutes later I got to experience the boot in action first hand. We got a call from Nome and they told us we needed to go to Unalakleet. Their weather had improved and they had de-icing equipment there. So we hopped back into the plane and headed that direction. About 10 minutes before landing in Unalalkleet he popped to boot and looking out my window I could see it expand and chunks of ice fly off the wings and struts. Very impressive and nice to know we have that option when flying in not so savory weather.

We were only in Unalakleet for about 5 minutes when we were notified that the weather in Nome had improved considerably. So the pilot loaded up about 3,000 pounds of freight put in three hours of fuel and we were back in the air. This time headed for St. Michael, Stebbins, and then on to Nome.

In St. Michael we dropped off a little mail. Not much. In Stebbins however thats where the majority of the 3,000 pounds went. I helped the pilot empty the plane. It took the two of us about 5 minutes to get all of the supplies out. There was everything from snowmachine (snowmobile for those of you down south) parts to bags of rice, reems of paper, canned food, mail, a few boxes labeled “Burger King”, and an assortment of other boxes with unknown contents.

I will be staying in Nome tonight and flying out to the Island in the morning. My first stop should be Savoonga, then Gambell the next day. I hope the weather decides to play nice.

At this moment I’m in the middle of my 12th flight and approximately 56.2 nautical miles from Nome flying at 6,560 ft. over the partially frozen ocean below.

Snowmachining

Well the blizzard hit Golovin and most of the region. Hageland was on weather hold, and it didnt’ look like they were going to come and get me. Not wanting to get stuck there and get behind on the trip I skyped Teresa (the person in charge of travel for the district) and she tracked down Doug (the district pilot) he was in Brevig and was on his way to Elim. She had him stop by Golovin and pick me up on his way.

After a quick flight to Elim I was picked up by Steve the site principal.  We quickly found Mark and John and hopped on snowmachines to go out for a ride.  We were hoping to get out to the hot springs, but with the resent dump of snow the trail was not only unbroken, but also laden with deep snow.

We ended up getting a bit stuck and had to turn around pretty quickly.  It was a lot of work getting all 4 machines turned around.  You couldn’t really go off the trail at all without really getting stuck.  So we had to turn them around by hand.  Lifting up the back end and and moving it around and likewise with the front of the machine.  It was a lot of work.  The whole time we were punching through down to the river below.  Good thing I was wearing bunny boots.  They are stellar in just such an occasion.  You can literally step in a river and have your boots fill with water.  All you need to do is dump the water out and put them back on.  Your feet will not only not freeze, but stay warm.  So we got back out of there and went down a different trail that had been used more recently.

It was a good day to be out on the machines.  I really like getting out in the woods.

I’m off to White Mountain tomorrow if the weather is kind to me.

Snow Shoeing

 Today was a really nice day. The sun was out the wind was pretty much non existent, and it was only about 20 below. So a couple of the teachers were going to head out for a little snowshoe in the woods. I asked if I could tag along to shoot some video. They graciously welcomed me on the little adventure. I borrowed some very nice snowshoes from Kevin. I think a nice pair of snowshoes are a good idea if you plan on running around the outdoors in the winter.

It was very nice to get out and get some exercise.  I also able to get some very nice video.  I hope that it looks good when  I get it back on the computer at home.

I’m off to Golovin here in a bit.  They are forecasted to get a blizzard tomorrow morning.  I hope it doesn’t hinder my flight from there to Elim.  I’ll keep you posed.

Cold and Sunny

I left Shaktoolik this afternoon around 3:00.  I had a nice time there with the staff. I was able to shoot some nice video over there.  Here is a photo of me about to get on the plane.

It has been pretty chilly out.   Roughly 30 below with the wind chill.  My fingers have been pretty cold trying to run the video camera.  I can’t wait for the replacement bag to come in.

I got to Koyuk and helped the Bering Air agent unload and load the plane.  After helping him finish that up I asked the agent if he’d mind giving me a ride down to the school.  So we loaded up the sled and I hopped on the back of the 4-wheeler and off we went.  After getting to the school I borrowed the truck to go shoot some video of the sunset around town.  Here is a photo I shot of the sun going down.

So it was nice to be out and about, but also nice to head back into the warm school.  Elim’s boys basketball team was there for a game at night.  I hung around the school and shot some video of the game and talked with some of the teachers.

Kevin (the principal in Koyuk) was nice enough to have me crash at his place.  Steve the Elim principal is also over staying here.  We all watched October Sky on a projector which was nice.  It has gotten awfully late and I’m a tired kid.  I hope that I can get some nice sleep tonight.  For some reason I’m already tired out on this trip.  Its only the beginning and for some reason I’m really dragging.  Hope it picks up for me. 

Back at the airport

Well, I’m back at the Anchorage airport again.  Winds today in Unalakleet are a manageable 14 miles an hour.   I head off to St. Michael pretty much as soon as I land in Unalakleet.  I’ll try to snap a couple of photos for a post later tonight.

The Joys of Weather

So I didn’t make it out to the Bering strait.  The winds were up around 60 mph at times, and well that isn’t exactly the best for flying.  So I’m still sitting in Anchorage.  I went out to dinner at the Glacier Brew House and had a delicious steak and a couple beers.  Since I’m still kinda on Minnesota time.  Im back at the hotel and thinking about going to sleep.  We’ll see if I can pull that off.

I try tomorrow at 1:30 for another go.  We’ll see if the planes feel like making their way to the far north.

More to come….

Bad Start to a Long Trip

Well, I am currently sitting in the Anchorage airport awaiting my flight out to the Bering Strait. My journey began early yesterday morning in Baxter, Minnesota. Erin dropped me off for my 7:30 A.M. flight the first of what was supposed to be three for the day. Upon checking in for the flight I was informed that the flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue with the plane, and that it would be about an hour late. This of course was going to cause me to miss my connecting flight in Minneapolis. Now I try as often as I can to go online and select a seat for my flights. I had done so in this case and had a nice exit row seat for my flight from Minneapolis to Seattle. Now all of a sudden I am not going to make that flight and they are looking to book me on another flight. The agent finally tells me that she has found a seat for me on a direct flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage, but all she could get me was a middle seat in the back of the plane. As you an imagine I was not too excited about going from a nice roomy exit row to a middle seat in the back of the plane, but under the circumstances it was better than not making it to Anchorage at all. So the plane showed up about an hour late and we took off for Minneapolis. As we touched down I looked at my watch and realized that I might just be able to make my original connecting flight, the one with the exit row seat. So as soon as I got off the plane I took off running through the terminal. Of course my next flight was basically at the other end of the airport. As I came racing up to the counter to check in the agent told me to hurry they were about to close the door. I handed her my boarding pass I had printed off the night before and she tried to scan it. It wouldn’t scan. She told me just to run down to the plane and find an empty seat. So that’s what I did. I got on the plane to find my sweet exit row had been reassigned to someone else. I was lucky though to find an isle seat near the front of the plane and thats where I sat.

As we took off I started thinking about what was going on and realized that I may have made a terrible mistake by getting on this plane. My bags were being checked on the direct flight to Anchorage, not on the flight I was on. Sometimes when a passenger doesn’t board a flight they will take their bags off thinking that the person is avoiding flying with their luggage for some reason. So now I’m thinking that when I don’t show up for the direct flight to Anchorage that they are going to pull my bags there in Minneapolis. That would not be so good.

When we landed in Seattle I went over to my connecting flight to Anchorage and found that when they had re-booked me in Baxter that they had taken me off the flight from Seattle to Anchorage, and the flight was completely full. I explained to the gate agents what happened and they were able to book me on a different flight that was actually leaving a little earlier. So I hustled over to where my new flight was leaving from and boarded shortly there after. As the plane was being pushed away from the terminal the connecting rod that they push with snapped off. So not only did they have to find another one of those little pusher deals, but they had to have someone come over and inspect the plane to make sure nothing happened in the incident. So after about 45 min of sitting on the airplane we pushed back and were on our way.

We landed in Anchorage and I headed down to baggage claim. Of course my bag didn’t come off the plane I had just landed on, and I was about to file a lost bag claim when I looked over at one of the other bag claim areas and noticed a flight from Minneapolis had just landed. I had a glimmer of hope. My bags should be on that flight since it was the one I was supposed to be on. I waited and waited and finally near the very end when almost everybody had already received their bags and left my bags emerged on the conveyor belt.

Now today my original flight to Unalakleet was supposed to be on Hageland, but I was informed about two hours ago that they canceled their flight for today, so Teresa (BSSD’s Travel Person) was kind enough to rebook me on Pen Air. So that’s where I am now, sitting in the Pen Air gate hoping that my flight will take off in 20 min like it is scheduled to do.

On a side note the weather up there isn’t the best right now. In Unalakleet the wind is blowing 41 mph and gusting to 54 mpg. So the landing could be a little exciting when I get there.

My time in Unalakleet should be pretty short as I am scheduled to head over to St. Michael this afternoon.

I’ll fill you in on how things went when I get to my final destination for the day.

SBT State Basketball

So I’m in Anchorage right now working with 10 students from the Bering Strait School District, a few from Anchorage School District, and a few from Mediak to broadcast the 1A/2A state basketball tournament. The kids have been doing a great job the last few days. We started out in two separate buildings broadcasting live from both. Half of the group setting up shop in Service High-school and the other half over at University of Alaska Anchorage. It was a little hectic being at separate sites. Patty Vink one of the teachers that came along to help spent most of the day driving kids from the locations around town to get some food in their bellies and some shopping under their belt.

After the first day we packed up all our gear and moved into the Sulivan arena. Randy and I came over at about 11:30 Tuesday evening to get things set up. We left the Sulivan around 1:30 in the morning. Not much sleep that night. The next morning we were over there at 6:45 the next morning getting the rest of the equipment in place. We didn’t really want to leave our cameras and computers out while we were gone. Broadcasting has been going pretty well. The kids have been working really long hours and have had great attitudes for the most part.

The tournament went well.  It was nice to get finished up Thursday night.  The kids helped pack up all our gear.  We got some sleep and the next morning went out to IHOP for breakfast before hopping on flights.

I spent this weekend getting caught up on sleep.  I was really wiped out.  I slept in till 10:30 Saturday morning, and then took a couple hour nap in the afternoon, and then went to bed around 11:00 that night.  No nap today, but looking forward to another nights sleep.

Today Erin and I booked tickets to Ireland.  We are taking off right after school gets out for me.  We are really excited.  Starting to look at things we can do and places to stay.  We’ll keep you updated on what plans we get figured out for the trip.

Here I am…

I know its been a crazy long time since I last blogged.  I’m sorry for that.  A lot has happened since the 20th of August.  I won’t be able to remember all of the great stories that crop up on a daily basis, so I will just cover the basics, and fill you in on the last few days.

A couple weeks ago I flew down to Anchorage to install a QuickTime server at the GCI school access building.  We are setting up a Quicktime Streaming solution for our video conferences.  This will allow our staff members who aren’t able to make a certain conference to watch it at a later date right from there computer.  We also hope to use it for our event broadcasting so community members that aren’t able to go into the school will be able to watch events like the Native Youth Olympics and our student coverage of the Iditarod.

So I flew down on a Friday after work.  Rick Holt was up in Unalakleet for the week prior working with the high school students on a leadership program, and was flying back to town on the same flight I was one.  So we met up with his wife Tiff and their two boys Keegan and Rohnan for some dinner at the Bears Tooth.  Dinner was delicious.  The next morning at 9:00 A.M, I met up with Tom Obey the School Access Helpdesk manager.   He let me into the building and helped me get a static ip address for the server.  After that was done, I got the interface set up that enables the video conference to be recorded and streamed out.

Erin flew in the next afternoon.  I picked her up from the airport, and we headed out to Rick and Tiffs to help them work on their yurt.  It was a fun couple of days with great friends, working on their beautiful home.  Erin, the boys, and I even got a swim in at the pond/lake by their home. The water was extremely cold, but it was fun to get the boys to jump in.  We headed back to Unalakleet on Tuesday.

Erin took off for Savoonga on Monday, which is one of the BSSD schools located on St. Lawrence Island.   She was out there for her SFA job.  So I was home alone for most of the week.  Its nice to have her back.

While she was gone I started work on the new BSSD website.  I am really excited about it.  I have been working on it really hard, getting to bed around 3:00 in the morning, and skipping my lunch breaks.  I have made a lot of progress, and basically just need to port over the information from the old site.

My goal is to have it completed by Friday of next week.  It may be a lofty goal, but Erin is gone next week, and since I’m home alone, I might as well work.  I should be able to get it finished up.  I will release a sneak peak near the completion to my loyal blog readers.  (I hope both of your enjoy).

Not a whole lot else going on. Erin and I are going to watch a movie.  Hope you all have a good day.

Distance Learning Opportunities

The month has flown by.  My new job has been very demanding and exciting for me so far.  Today I was working with Randy and John to finalize our plans for the year. We created a Distance Learning Flyer for principals, teachers, and students so they will know about the opportunities we are providing for them this year.  I think it is going to be an exciting year.  The broadcast room is coming together nicely.  The sheet rocking was finished up on Saturday and we will be applying the green paint to the wall this week.  I am hoping to have a functional studio by the middle of next week.  I have a time-lapse of the sheet rocking I’ll post in a couple of days.  That’s all I have for now.  I’ll be back later with some more.