The sights at Anchorage International

[mar]

www.avionvideo.com/zalaskaphotos.htm

Highlights:

--Nice FedEx photos
--Reeve Aleutian Electra
--ERA CV-580
--Asiana/Aeroflot tangle-up
--And of course, the mighty DC6. (both brands)

Man I love promoting Alaskan Aviation.
Eat it up.

[Edited for defective link]

 

[Cat Driver]

Hi Mar :

Yeh, Alaska and British Columbia are awsome for scenery, I flew a PBY Catalina out of Ankorage to Tikchik Narrows Lodge in 1982 for a lodge operator, and we also used it for fuel hauls all over western Alaska.

The one thing that really impressed me was the number of float planes near the International airport.

Cat Driver:

 

[mar]

#1

Hi Cat!

Yup. Lake Hood is Number One in terms of seaplane operations in the world.

A flight out to Tikchik in a PBY would've been quite the ride. I hope you carried a camera.

I just got a digital camera and now that it's staying above zero most places I'll start takin' it with me. Lots to see.

Fly safe.

 

[Q200_FO]

I remember when that Asiana 747 wingtip hit the Aeroflot (whatever that is). Everybody raised quite a rucuss over it. i alo remember when United Cargo pulled out. The ANC based guys were sorry that they got displaced. Good pictures. Not much has changed back home I see.

 

[TRLpilot]

Anchorage is heaven for any aviation buff!

I flew in the ERA Convair from Kodiak to Anchorage when I was there, what a nice ride. It was a blast to the past, lots of legroom and warm hospitality by the ERA folks.

Never have seen so many 747s in one place before, one after another landing and departing. Then you go a couple of miles down the rode to Lake Hood and it's just one floatplane after another.

I can't wait to get back!

 

[Cat Driver]

Mar :

Yes I took lots of pictures during the time I flew that Cat out of Anchorage.

For some of the old timers in Alaska you may remember Bob Curtis who owned Tikchick Narrows lodge and bought the Cat to service it.

I later once again started flying the same machine in South Africa and eventually delivered it to Suffolk Va. via Eastern Africa, Saudi Arabia , Egypt and up throught Europe to Scotland and the North Atlantic route then down the Eastern seaboard to Va.

Cat.

 

[mar]

Incredible

Cat man--Holy cow. You sir have seen some country.

I get excited if I just get to take a plane down Lower 48-way.

I'm curious, how does the flying in Africa compare to Alaska.

Granted:

--Desolate terrain
--Sparse Nav-aid coverage
--Sparse radar coverage
--Sparse communications

Are there any differences or even similarities that are not obvious to one who has never been there.

 

[Timebuilder]

Neat pictures.

I'd like to hear about that African flying, too.

 

[Catbird]

Africa- Hazy most of the time. Dangerous as anywhere in the world these days. 60 Catholic missionaries murdered in the past year. 1 month ago the Arch Bishop was murdered in Congo. Shot in the head as he drove along. Will never go back. Nothing more dangerous then a 10 year old with a AK47. The flying is beautiful but you can land 100 miles from nowhere and somebody is watching and they usually have a assault rifle. Buddy killed when the fueler filled his tanks with rocks. Caught it myself 20 years prior in Zambia.

 

[Cat Driver]

Yup, Catbird Africa can have its problems and for sure it can be beyond dangerous to fly in.

I have flown in 26 African countries and on both sides from Cape town to Alexandria and Cape town to Casablanca, and a lot in between...including filming in war zones for French TV..

But Africa kind of grows on you and I will go back. It is beautiful and horrible beyond description. Yet there are pictures that remain imbedded in memory such as a mother giraffe and a baby running fast and free across the serengeti plains as we flew past at low level.

Makes one forget the horrors of the war zones.

Timebuilder:

I have a whole bunch of pictures of our last North Atlantic crossing in my web site under links just click on the first PBY picture, also if you click around there are several short stories and one on Africa called "Out of Africa four days in a Cat"

Note:

It is my personal web site and I am not looking for business, God knows I want to retire not go back to work again....

www.chuckellsworth.com

 

[A Squared]

Cat driver,

I'd heard rumors that there was a lodge up here that used a cat for transportation. I guess they were based in fact after all. That was 4-5 years before I arrived here so the only one I've seen is the hulk that sits in fromt of the museum at Lake Hood.

 

[Cat Driver]

Yes, I started flying the Cat ( N9521C ) from Anchorage to Tikchick Narrows lodge in the summer of 1982 and Bob Curtis sold it a year or so later, then it was seized in by the DEA and was sealed and parked in Seattle for a while, then it was refurbished in California and sold to a guy in Italy then was bought by a South African, I have been flying it ever since. however it is now in a warbird collectors hangar.

I could not get a green card to work in Alaska so only stayed long enough to train a crew for Bob. So I came back home and went back to water bombing with PBY's. I would have preferred to stay in Alaska.

 

[mar]

Beautiful pictures Chuck!

Tremendous pictures!

And what a gorgeous day in Narsarsuaq! How lucky did you guys feel that day?

I can't imagine a better spot than back in the bubble for taking pictures.

And it looks like the one with the best view in the cockpit is The Camel.

Go on. Tell us the story about The Camel.

 

[Pilot124]

CAT DRIVER...Those pictures of Iceland were awsome. Thanks

 

[LJDRVR]

Bravo Chuck!

The only view I've ever had of Keflavik is breaking out at 200'. Greenland is neat but certainly not as picturesque from FL410. I loved the pictures. Thanks for posting the link, your website is outstanding. I never flew the Texas Taildragger, but I do have several hundred hours in 120's. Fun airplanes.

 

[Cat Driver]

Mar:

The Camel is our good luck charm, we picked him up in Alexandria Egypt some years ago.

There are four of us in our company all pilot engineers and we restore, rebuild and ferry warbirds as our only business. We have spent a lot of time in the middle east and became used to the muslim saying of InshAllah.......we measured our mascot the day we bought him and he is four inches tall.......so we named him "four inch Allah" he has faithfully guided us through many harrowing trips and unless he is on board of what ever airplane we are ferrying it would be a no go item.

Please note we mean no disrespect to Muslims nor Allah, in fact we have learned to respect all peoples as individuals, who is to say that our camel does not protect us? Well if nothing else we like him and feel he has brought us good fortune, hell just look at the wonderful weather we had in Greenland.

By the way Greenland from low level is unlike any other place on earth, heaven forbid should you be forced to land due to icing or some other problem.

And Narsarsuaq was one place we had never been before and was something to be remembered.

We just agreed to get a Cat airworthy and deliver it from London England to Tel Aviv Israel, and also get a B25 annualed and moved from DiJon France to Paris......then ferry a PBY from Paris to Sao Paulo Brazil and fly it for a TV documentry for a year all over Brazil. ( We should have a yes or no on that one by May. )

Remember I am supposed to be retired, but unfortunately there is no whore like an old whore so I just never get smart enough to quit.

Anyhow now you know about the camel.

Chuck

 

[Cat Driver]

Hi LJdrvr:

Yes flying over Greenland at 410 and down where we fly the Cat is two different worlds.

We have done a lot of over ocean flying in fact over every ocean on earth, we rely very much on the human contact during the long days of flying at 115 knots down in the crap weather, and it is really funny the jet pilots are bored out of their f..kin skulls telling us how they would love to trade airplanes and we in turn would give anything to be able to climb out of the weather or at least have a few hundred more knots.

The ITCZ can be very problematic for us and really does tax our ability to out think the elements.

But somehow we have learned how to stay alive....and thank God for GPS and Sat phones.........after over fifty years of flying I just can't believe how we ever flew back in the days we used the astro compass to navigate and HF for communications.

Later, glad you enjoyed our pictures.

Chuck

 

[mar]

"The hardest thing is saying 'no.'"

Ref: Your signature. I'm guessing one doesn't amass 25,000 hours by saying no. I guess you really are a whore!

Pilots, aren't we all?

Some retirement you're working on. On the Paris-Sao Paulo trip will you go via Ascension? Or do you need to take another jaunt across the north Atlantic?

Do you plumb any aux tanks for these ferry flights?

 

[Timebuilder]

Awsome, Chuck.

If you need another hand when you ferry an aircraft, just let me know. I'll tell my agent I'm taking some time off!!

I can dream, can't I.........

 

[Cat Driver]

Hi again Mar.

We will fly the same route we used in 1998 with that same Cat.

France, Spain, Morrocco, Maratinia, Senegal, then from Dakar across the south Atlantic to Fernando de Noronha then to Natal Brazil and down to Rio De Janario then to Sao Paulo.

The airplane will carry more fuel than we need for the longest leg, even if we canno't land in Fernando we can continue to Natal.

With full fuel we can stay airborne for about twenty one hours. The longest non stop flight I ever did in a PBY was ninteen hours and ten minutes.

By the way I did not mean to hijack your thread about Alaska, it just drifted to here.

Oh well you can just credit it to my getting senile.

Chuck

 

[mar]

Sir, the thread belongs to you

I just posted some pretty pictures 'cause I ain't had nothin' better to do.

That's the Queen's English in case you didn't notice.

Listen, I'm fascinated.

Twenty-one hours of fuel endurance. I had no idea the PBY had those kind of legs.

I hope you don't mind all the questions.

But do you handle all of the flight permits yourself? Or do you have someone organize it for you? I can imagine some local federale insisting on a certain amount of 'scratch' before you guys get the fuel truck...

I imagine since you guys all do your own mx that you feel pretty confident about whether or not she's up to an Atlantic crossing.

But in the (unlikely) event of an engine failure do you have flight planning that has calculated Point of No Return and Equal Time Points?

I suppose you could just set down on the water couldn't you?

 

[350DRIVER]

Chuck,

Very impressive and fascinating career.. What airline were you chief pilot at and how many years ago was that? I would love to hear some "airline stories" if you get bored and want to share, sure you got many of them..

Great site...


3 5 0

 

[JohnDoe]

21 hours endurance...........WOW!

 

[Timebuilder]

I suppose you could just set down on the water couldn't you?

He could. But, it sure would be COLD water.

I'd like to hear more about this, too.

 

[Cat Driver]

Mar:

We do all our own flight permits, Visas where needed, pay all our own navagation fees, airport fees and on and on and on........Dealing with bureaucracies is the most difficult part of international ferry flying.

But hey, I'd far rather pay some poor schmuck in a third world country bribe money to get things done than deal with some of the self serving pr.cks we have here in our country.

Yes we do all our own maintenance and err on the side of safety when getting these things ready for any long over water flight.

As to point of no return and all that stuff it really is not all that complicated. We were five thousand pounds over gross the last time we left Dakar ( we get overweight flight permits. ) so what we were looking at was the first six hours we would have had a drift down on one engine, after that it would have flown on one.

We always depart at dawn in case we lose an engine we at least can see the ocean for the landing.

The PNR is really easy with several GPS's running. And we always have our Sat phone in case something really goes wrong.

What really makes it interesting is the ITCZ weather without radar, that sometimes gives us some moments when we do not think about sex.

America West:

I was chief pilot for a Canadian Airline operating Twin Otters on floats IFR, we had center stored flight plans and did our arrivals using Victoria and Vancouver airport approach aids, then when visual just landed on the water.

Timebuilder:

Yes we could in an emergency land on the ocean and at least survive to get in our raft and survival suits, hell on a good day we could land and just fish until someone came to rescue us.

Chuck

 

[rchcfi]

Now this is what flying is all about!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mar]

The ITCZ

What really makes it interesting is the ITCZ weather without radar, that sometimes gives us some moments when we do not think about sex.

Sorry for the late reply. I had to go make sure the village of Atqasuk had enough stove oil...



I'd like to return to our discussion of navigating the Atlantic without wx radar. Does your quote mean that you'll avoid an Atlantic crossing during hurricane season?

Or will you do what it takes to make the customer happy?