Howdy. I dropped my roommate off at the airport this morning to catch a flight back to Florida. He arrived in Juneau on the same day I and two other pilots did. We were all getting along well and looking forward to working together this summer, so it was a bummer to see him go. Best of luck though, Manny!
Our Chief Pilot was sick today, so we didn’t have any ground school. Since the weather was pretty marginal and it’s the only IFR plane on the line, the Navajo was the only plane flying for the better part of the day. So we studied our maps and manuals and a couple of us took the Maroon Monstrosity (a.k.a. the crew/mail van) to Costco over lunch to stock up on pasta, frozen pot pies, and frosted mini wheats- all in bulk of course.
About 4:00, it finally lifted enough to make a mail run to Gustavus. Since there was no mail and no passengers going to Gustavus, I was able to fly the half hour over there. As we left Juneau, there were low clouds at the north end of a mountainous island that we would normally circumnavigate. The pilot I was flying with decided that it looked better to go through a pass in the middle of the island. I was a little nervous about this idea since one of our Directors had just barked at me and my fellow newbies to “stay out of the [expletive] passes!!” He said a full 75% of fatalities up here happen in passes. This one was only 500-600 feet above sea level though, and we could see through to the other side, so I didn’t make an issue of it. The turbulence in the pass was pretty strong and I was wishing I’d tightened my seat belt better, but the visibility was fine and we didn’t have any trouble spitting ourselves out into Funter Bay.
The rest of the flight over to Gustavus was pretty smooth. Nathan quizzed me on the names of geographical features that could be used as checkpoints and I tried to think of them while containing my overwhelming awe at the sunset glowing between the overcast and the North Pacific.
