Alaska flight jobs-next spring?

[troy]

I'm looking at possibly going to Alaska next spring to earn some flight hours. Anyone have any info on where to look? thanks

 

[mar]

Hi

You can do a search. Every couple of weeks someone posts a similiar question.

The answers are always the same.

It's easier if you live in Alaska. There's a fundamental distrust of guys looking for work that live outside the state (for good reason).

Know what you're getting into before you decide this is really what you want to do.

Good luck.

 

[YaMama]

There's a fundamental distrust of guys looking for work that live outside the state (for good reason).

What is the reason?

 

[A Squared]

>>>>>>What is the reason?

well a variety of reasons, I suppose.

One is that someone who actually lives here might be reasonably expected to have some idea of what they're getting into. There's quite a few folks who seek jobs (not just pilot jobs) up here after watching a few too many episodes of Northern Exposure. Then they get off the plane in Emmonnak and realize that there is no quaint downtown with brick buildings with a cozy friendly cafe and young moose wandering through the streets. There are no pine trees (that part always kills me, but then dendrology probably isn't taught in tv producer school) there's no trees at all. Instead of colorful, loveable, characters, there's sullen, resentful natives who dislike you for the color of your skin and curse at you without knowing you. The buildings are plywood and corrugated metal and are sinking into the mud behind a heap of derlict snowmobiles and 4-wheelers. The last moose to wander downriver was shot (out of season) before he came within 50 miles of your new home.

There has been more than one new pilot, or teacher, or whatever, who has turned right around and gotten back on the very same plane that they flew in on and headed back to Kansas. So the operator, or the school district, is out the cost of the airfare and still has an unfilled position.

That's not to say that it's all bleakness and despair, but sometimes you have to dig through several layers of bleakness and despsir to find the silver lining. If you hire somone who has already spent a winter in the bush, they won't be surprised when they get off the plane, and they likely have thier coping strategies in place, and know where to dig to find thier version of the silver lining.

 

[OtterFO]

A Squared,

Couldn't have said it better myself.



Troy,

One operator who always seems to be hiring, and regularly hires people from the lower 48 is Cape Smythe Air Service. PO Box 549, Barrow, AK 99723. (907)852-8333. The DO is Dave Henley and CP is named Dave Shimmel (sp?)

 

[U-I pilot]

Looks like an interesting place but could you get any closer to the north pole??????
http://maps.yahoo.com/maps.py?&addr=&csz=Barrow,AK

 

[nikoz1200]

I think Thule, Greenland is a little closer. Not much nicer pf a place in the winter either.

 

[supsup]

There has been more than one new pilot, or teacher, or whatever, who has turned right around and gotten back on the very same plane that they flew in on and headed back to Kansas. So the operator, or the school district, is out the cost of the airfare and still has an unfilled position.

That's funny, A good friend of mine works out of bethel, he's from Kansas.

supsup

 

[vetteracer]

QUOTE
Then they get off the plane in Emmonnak and realize that there is no quaint downtown with brick buildings with a cozy friendly cafe and young moose wandering through the streets. There are no pine trees (that part always kills me, but then dendrology probably isn't taught in tv producer school) there's no trees at all. Instead of colorful, loveable, characters, there's sullen, resentful natives who dislike you for the color of your skin and curse at you without knowing you. The buildings are plywood and corrugated metal and are sinking into the mud behind a heap of derlict snowmobiles and 4-wheelers. The last moose to wander downriver was shot (out of season) before he came within 50 miles of your new home.

That pretty much covers it.

When I was 8 my dad traded a bottle of whiskey for a 6 month old Acrtic Cat with a broken drive belt. It sat where the belt gave up, noboby wanted to change it. 1/2 hour latter we drove it on the back of the truck.

Mark

 

[Twotter76]

>>>>>>What is the reason?



One is that someone who actually lives here might be reasonably expected to have some idea of what they're getting into. There's quite a few folks who seek jobs (not just pilot jobs) up here after watching a few too many episodes of Northern Exposure. Then they get off the plane in Emmonnak and realize that there is no quaint downtown with brick buildings with a cozy friendly cafe and young moose wandering through the streets. There are no pine trees (that part always kills me, but then dendrology probably isn't taught in tv producer school) there's no trees at all. Instead of colorful, loveable, characters, there's sullen, resentful natives who dislike you for the color of your skin and curse at you without knowing you. The buildings are plywood and corrugated metal and are sinking into the mud behind a heap of derlict snowmobiles and 4-wheelers. The last moose to wander downriver was shot (out of season) before he came within 50 miles of your new home.

Ahh yes Bethel in the winter - that brings back memories....

 

[CSY Mon]

Ahh yes Bethel in the winter - that brings back memories....

Ah yes, spent a few summers and a winter or two in Bethel.

Good flight school up there, especially before the GPS was "invented"....One would fly low, really low and count the lakes with one finger on the chart.
Landings in 30 knots direct cross wind in an over loaded C-207..


Good 'ole days.

A Squared: Very well said..Indeed there is a silver lining somewhere out there in the bush.

 

[Twotter76]

Whats a chart? I always used the eskimo location device (ELD). Those who know choose ELD.

 

[nikoz1200]

Whats a chart? I always used the eskimo location device (ELD). Those who know choose ELD.

Ha. Is that when your passenger's heads turn as you pass their village? That's how you know you've passed the airfield.

 

[Frozen Ronin]

Anyone flown out of Barrow? Wondering who/what's up there now. I've plenty of AK time, and I really like getting the low down from recent 'been there/done that' folks.

Ronin

 

[doog]

I was recently down in Honduras and met a woman from Barrow. She's a social worker and works with the Eskimo tribes. Her trip down central america was financed via the Alaska fund, so that's one benefit. They are very dependent on aviation to bring in supplies. She said the tribes still hunt whales. Sounded like a pretty horrible place to live to me, but she said she liked it.

 

[NW_Pilot]

I was recently down in Honduras and met a woman from Barrow. She's a social worker and works with the Eskimo tribes. Her trip down central america was financed via the Alaska fund, so that's one benefit. They are very dependent on aviation to bring in supplies. She said the tribes still hunt whales. Sounded like a pretty horrible place to live to me, but she said she liked it.

Barrow sounds like a fun and relaxing place to live not much car noise, traffic, or humans and great seasonal hunting and fishing. But I am weird!

 

[Frozen Ronin]

Native NDB, or Native Navigation... it works pretty good! Who else could look at the remaining sticks of a trashed old fishcamp and know that you're 8.5 miles east of the village?

(in Native muffled voice)
"Thatsh my unclesh fishcamp, pilot.... turn left"

 

[rchcfi]

Ah yes, I remember spending quite a few nights in the nurse's office at the local village school because I couldn't penetrate the weather VFR.

It's funny (but not really), that I went up there looking for flight time and scared the piss out of myself over and over. But now that I am a captain on a corporate jet, I find myself yearning to get back...What's up with that?

 

[Frozen Ronin]

Not so crazy, cfi;

I've found that Alaska allows one to be as cowboy or as professional as one wants. It provides challenges that you can't find hardly anywhere else, but the skills you acquire, the experiences you can draw from, can apply to daily flight operations most anywhere. Even if it's just a confidence thing. That's what I've found, anyway. Every day here allows me to learn something, to hone something, and many of those things I would never develop anywhere else. Don't know if that makes sense, but that's how it feels.

Unfortunately, one of the things it's been teaching us here lately is how to cope with loss. We (pilots, dispatchers, dockhands, etc) had an end of the season beach BBQ. Season stories came out, and for the first time in over a month, we all laughed so hard we were wiping tears away. It was well needed, and certainly overdue.

Fly hard, fly safe~

Ronin

 

[rchcfi]

Yeah, Alaska provides for the best stories. I only flew up there for one year. I've flown another 4 years down here, but no stories are as much fun to tell as the AK ones! (Like flying Lake Clark Pass for an hour in beautiful weather only to turn the corner and have it drop to 0/0 over Cook Inlet. WWYD?...haha)