As winter sets in in earnest across Southwest Alaska, this week's episode of "Flying Wild Alaska" returns to business as usual, spotlighting the effects of climate change on low lying Alaska villages, tracking traffic on Era's busiest day of the year in the Twetos' home base of Unalakleet, and letting us watch four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey recruit a coastal sled dog for his team -- just in time for Fur Rondy and this year's Iditarod start.
Busy days and high water in Unalakleet
The show opened back in Unalakleet this week, where after weeks of teasing weather, winter is settling in. Jim, Ariel, and Ferno Tweto, owners of Era Alaska, are preparing for the busiest days of the year for the airline in Unalakleet, as hundreds of schoolteachers from across western Alaska converge in the town for an annual conference.
Before it gets too busy, though, Jim gets a call from a construction outfit working on the outskirts of the city. They are in the process of constructing a high rock wall in Unalakleet to prevent coastal erosion and flooding in the low-lying areas of the village, and want to take some aerial photographs of their work. Jim removes the passenger door of his Cessna 180 so the photographer has an unobstructed view. "Hold on to your camera," Jim says.
"Before the construction of the rock wall," the narrator tells us, "Unalakleet had its share of destructive floods." Unalakleet Mayor Middy Johnson reinforces the necessity of the rock wall, while Jim discusses the diminishing polar ice cap and the rising sea levels and erosion along the shorelines of coastal communities across Western Alaska. Longtime Unalakleet resident Weaver Ivanoff, with the rock wall looming high behind him, recounts winter floods where huge chunks of ice were carried far ashore. He says the rock wall helps him sleep a little better when storms are raging.
Soon, teachers begin to arrive in Unalakleet. The arrivals are the easy part, as staggered flights bring in teachers piecemeal from elsewhere in the Bering Strait School District. Ferno tells us that the departure is the hard part, as the conference wraps up and all the teachers need to leave around the same time, on the same day.
On that day, snow falls in Unalakleet, but it's sunny and the wind is low, so the conditions are good for flying out. Ariel, Jim, and Era pilot John Ponts have a snowball fight as they try to drag pallet jacks around the snowy, slick runway to load cargo. A graphic on the screen tells us that there are more than 300 teachers to fly out, with 20 flights that day. On hand to provide taxi service are a Beechcraft 1900, two Cessna 208 Caravans, one small Cessna 207, and two Cessna 406s.
Things go south quickly, with teachers lined up in the terminal and clustered on the runways as the Era employees try to sort out an overage on passengers. The show makes a big deal out of these delays, but routine traveling problems like this seem downright humdrum in the face of the more serious aviation problems faced by Alaska bush pilots elsewhere in the show every week. But the travelers still aren't too happy about the situation.
"You've got some pissy teachers," Ariel says, "because they're sick of sleeping in their sleeping bags."
Just as they think they've gotten everyone off -- with help from a flight rerouted from Bethel on its way to Nome, to pick up the extra passengers -- more teachers arrive in the Era terminal unexpectedly. Ferno and Ariel pick up that there was a lack of communication and these teachers need to get to Saint Michael that night for school the next day.
There's going to be a two hour delay for some of the teachers, as there isn't enough room for everyone on the plane, and they must wait for a return flight. Ariel proposes an ear pull competition to see who has to wait and who gets to go on the first flight out. Ariel even takes part herself, challenging a man who beat another teacher. She loses, but it's not for lack of trying, as the string cuts a bloody groove in the back of her ear.
New hangar, new problems
Elsewhere in the show, pilot Luke Hickerson is trying to return to his home base in Barrow after two aborted flights out of Deadhorse due to weather. Jim elects to send a large 1900 to pick him up, hoping it might have better luck landing in bad conditions in the far north.
"He's just got so much Bush experience," Jim says, "that he's an invaluable employee of mine."
Even with the costly pickup, the conditions in Barrow are questionable. We see a Department of Transportation employee cruising the runway in a vehicle equipped with a brake tester, to see if conditions are okay for a landing on the icy runway. The friction on the runway is just enough to consider it open for landing, and Luke arrives safely back home.
He wanders over to Era's new hangar, which Barrow station manager Tom Elkins tells us will reduce de-icing costs in winter for Era's most profitable hub. While showing Hickerson how to raise and lower the doors, the doors stop working after opening about 80 percent of the way. Although there are no planes in the hangar at the moment, the zero-degree weather is pouring into the large hangar, which could mean an extensive thaw if they can't get the doors closed. The manufacturer is of little help, as their offices are on the east coast and closed for the day. The sun is getting ready to set in Barrow, even though it's only 1:00 p.m.
Eventually, they force the doors closed by "jumping" the doors, bypassing the controls with a piece of wire stripped on both ends. Elkins and the others seem very relieved they don't have to call Jim to let him know that his multi-million-dollar, brand new hangar has malfunctioned and is sitting open to the elements.
Later, Hickerson flies firefighter Rose Gueco to Point Lay for a safety inspection. He is forced to circle the runway as visibility increases to one mile, and makes a smooth landing on the slick runway. He and the narrator discuss how the transfer of passengers has to be quick this far north to limit exposure to the elements. Luke is sarcastic about his return to work.
"What am I doing up here?" he asks. I don't have any answers.
A dog drop-off for an Iditarod champ
The final plotline of the episode follows Era pilot Doug Doherty, whom we've met several times before, as he takes several huskies from a Unalakleet breeder to four-time Iditarod and Yukon Quest champion Lance Mackey, who's looking for a new dog to possibly add to his elite team.
Mackey is interested in Unalakleet dogs because they're already acclimated to coastal conditions, and the narrator tells us they are particularly good at navigating sea ice. The shipment will cost $5,000, and each of the dogs can run up to $1,000.
The worst cargo to fly, Doherty says, are "sled dogs and explosives." Earlier in the season, Doherty flew a load of explosive harpoon heads for subsistence whale hunts to the remote Saint Lawrence Island, so he's a pretty good authority on it.
As he tries to load the dogs, they pull hard against him. As owner of a part husky mix myself, I can attest to the dogs' enthusiasm when it comes time to go somewhere. One of the dogs, Kayda, is hesitant to climb the steps onto the plane. Eventually, Doherty gets them all loaded, and arrives in Fairbanks, where Mackey is there to meet him as the dogs anxiously try to get out of the plane.
Mackey attempts to unload the dogs from the kennel on the back of his truck, but Kayda again is scared to come out, eventually having to be picked up out of the kennel. Mackey takes Doherty over to see the shipment of salmon he's received from a hatchery, making up part of the 15,000 pounds of fish he feeds his 100 or so dogs every year.
For all the talk about cruelty in the sport of dog-mushing, watching the dogs' enthusiasm to be on the trail, and the care that Mackey takes with each one -- not to mention the fish, rice, and beef fat he serves them daily, which I'm sure my own dogs would gladly kill me in my sleep for -- it's hard to imagine these dogs as living miserable lives.
Mackey takes the dogs out for a short run, being pulled on a four-wheeler, to decide which one he wants to keep as a member of his team. Surprisingly, he picks Kayda, after another of his dogs (who doesn't appear to be a husky, or even a husky mix), whom he calls a good judge of canine character, makes fast friends with her. So despite her shyness, she's clearly bold when it comes to the trail. Maybe we'll see her as part of Mackey's Iditarod team this year, when the race starts on Saturday.
Ben Anderson is the editor of Bush Pilot. Contact him at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.