Flying In The Arctic

[Hazy]

slight thread drift:

 

We call them Inuit in Canada.

 

carry on

GO ESKIMOS!

 

...from Edmonton. :up:

[MEOB]

Yes remember those days on Lougheed Island and Graham island, in November and December , with a Shirley Bell 212 , sling loads to the drilling sites.

 

Pilot left side would take off visual using the bubble door window and then pass over controls to the Pilot on the right who would fly the leg on instruments until they reached the sling load drop off point. Then when the left side pilot had visual would take the controls again.

 

Worked very well and was very dark, I remember we would only see a glow in the south for about 30 minutes each day (??) Night.

 

Not to mention the eskimos who patrolled around our 212 and the Ok´s S61 making sure the polar bears did not sneak up on us engineers while working on the aircraft.

 

Flew 300 hours in 5 weeks, One captain, one co-pilot, one engineer and a apprentice. So much for duty days and flight hour restrictions back in the early 80´s.

 

Was quite a experience.

 

Thats hardcore slinging! Awesome!

[RatDog]

Thats hardcore slinging! Awesome!

Not to mention the eskimos who patrolled around our 212 and the Ok´s S61 making sure the polar bears did not sneak up on us engineers while working on the aircraft.

 

Thats also hardcore engineering, if you care to read the post. Its not always about the pilots!!

[old dog]

Yes remember those days on Lougheed Island and Graham island, in November and December , with a Shirley Bell 212 , sling loads to the drilling sites.

 

Pilot left side would take off visual using the bubble door window and then pass over controls to the Pilot on the right who would fly the leg on instruments until they reached the sling load drop off point. Then when the left side pilot had visual would take the controls again.

 

Worked very well and was very dark, I remember we would only see a glow in the south for about 30 minutes each day (??) Night.

 

Not to mention the eskimos who patrolled around our 212 and the Ok´s S61 making sure the polar bears did not sneak up on us engineers while working on the aircraft.

 

Flew 300 hours in 5 weeks, One captain, one co-pilot, one engineer and a apprentice. So much for duty days and flight hour restrictions back in the early 80´s.

 

Was quite a experience.

 

Obviously, you were there.

 

And it worked pretty well, didn't it?

 

Admittedly, we did have (the lying beatch) Ontrac III, which immediately went into "DR" mode whenever faced with p static, which was, ... well, ... all the time.

 

But nobody got lost, ... or ran out of gas, ... or dropped loads.

 

Quite amazing what us old guys were capable of!

 

Oh, and our personal best (obviously not all flown by me) in 7 years of doing this was 423 hours in 33 days. One 61 (C-FOKP), one sparkie, two apprentices, two engineers, two copilots, two captains and the most important guy?

 

Egan the load master staring down Eddie Bouziak!

[old dog]

Not to mention the eskimos who patrolled around our 212 and the Ok´s S61 making sure the polar bears did not sneak up on us engineers while working on the aircraft.

 

Thats also hardcore engineering, if you care to read the post. Its not always about the pilots!!

 

45 below, 40 knot wind, pitch dark - no hanger or even a windbreak.

 

Jeff Reimer saved my life one night by doing a proper "B" check (15 hour) on OKP.

 

EXTREME helicopter engineering.

 

I would not be alive today if it had not been for the fantastic work of Peter, Rennie, Guy, Bob, Jeff, Matt, Neil the horrible Scotsman and many, many others.

[MEOB]

Not to mention the eskimos who patrolled around our 212 and the Ok´s S61 making sure the polar bears did not sneak up on us engineers while working on the aircraft.

 

Thats also hardcore engineering, if you care to read the post. Its not always about the pilots!!

 

Did read the post. Was not trying to make all about the pilots.No disrespect for the engineer and I agree totaly. But thats what grabed my attention, as its not uncommon to watch the back of an engineer for big white bears while he/she try to keep your aircraft serviceable in crappy conditions. I have the utmost respect for them.

[sikorskyman]

Sudden Stop: Yes I stand corrected Inuit is the correct name and not Eskimos, excuse me if I might have offended someone.

 

Old Dog, yes I remember a lot of the Okanagan engineers you mentioned both from working along side on contracts with my days with Shirley and Quasar and then when I joined Okanagan in 1985.

 

Niel the wild scotsman reminds me when I first met him, was up on Lougheed Island, one night he was cleaning the grease off the rotor head on the S61 using a bucket of varsol and using his bare hands. Was anywhere from -20 to -40 outside and I thought this guy is crazy. Which was true and especially when he and Matt were together.

 

Good times but in no hurry to go back. I now work where it never snows and 15 degrees C is a cold day and I only return to Canada for a visit in the summer when there is only a remote chance it might snow.

[Iceman72]

If any of you remember before they were having the Inuit patrols for Polars, at places like Rae Point and other high points of the islands. They had the dogs that were running around only thing was it was the main attactions for the wolf packs to see how many dogs they could consume. The pack would send a female in heat out to run down the runway and as soon as the dogs headed out to greet her the pack would move in for the meal.

[wcobra]

Oh ya!

Pan Arctic had a pretty good dog named Sam, up on Cameron Island, and many points in between. He went for a stroll one week, and didn't come home for supper. My 212 driver (as well as Pan Arctic's Twatters) spent lots of flight hours looking for him to no avail. A few days later he showed up at one of the rigs with a big grin:) on him, waggin his tail and peeing all over. We went & picked him up to bring him back to Cameron. While flying back, we saw a wolf pack and flew low & slow over them, I swear Sam was loving the view from there!

 

Same job my driver jousted with a PBear using the HF antenna to the bear standing on his hind feet, wanting us to come on down and play. I was sure the C Box, Transmission, 42, 90, and both engines chip lights were going to come on at the same time providing a nice meal for Mr. PB. I was looking over my shoulders for weeks after while workin on my machine, thinking the bear was going to show up and teach that flying noise maker a lesson!! It didn't show, which was ok by me:)

 

Lots of times up there!

 

If any of you remember before they were having the Inuit patrols for Polars, at places like Rae Point and other high points of the islands. They had the dogs that were running around only thing was it was the main attactions for the wolf packs to see how many dogs they could consume. The pack would send a female in heat out to run down the runway and as soon as the dogs headed out to greet her the pack would move in for the meal.