Every once in a while, I get a flight that will stick in my mind forever. Yesterday would qualify as one of those. The mission was to deliver a passenger, her baggage, and the mail to Port Protection. It's the furthest-away destination we fly to on a regular basis, and also one of the most challenging to land in, as it is fairly confined, can see large swells, as well as high winds.

The flight up was fairly uneventful, save for the 40kt winds and 500' ceilings in a couple spots enroute. Upon arriving and unloading the mail, however, I overheard some of the village's residents talking about a recent litter of puppies having no home in town. They apparently had come to the decision that the only way to solve this problem was to euthanize them by drowning! It was at this point where I'd determined that this was about the worst possible solution for dealing with any potential pet, let alone some puppies...so I told them to grab a box to put them in and I'd fly them back to Ketchikan--and ultimately to the local humane society. They were all very well-behaved and loved peoples' attention--no doubt they'd find a good home somewhere other than underwater.

Into my plane they went, and I was off on the hour-long flight back to Ketchikan. Now you are probably all thinking at this point that this was the end of the story...but one problem that had arisen during the puppy debacle is that the weather was beginning to deteriorate rapidly all along the route back to Ketchikan. Rather than an hour of trouble-free flying, I was now encountering low visibility (<1 mile), low ceilings (200 feet most of the time), heavy snow, trace amounts of ice, and headwinds anywhere between 30 and 50kts for the majority of the flight back. To make a long story short, my trip back wound up being 1 hour, 45 minutes--primarily because of the headwinds, but also because I slow waaay down when the ceiling/visibility gets low in preparation to duck into a cove somewhere and wait out the weather. There were at least 2 points in the flight where I was preparing to double back to the nearest village and spend the night there.

In the end, however, I made it all the way back to Ketchikan. Save for one of the puppies vomiting all over the box they were in (it was a rough ride...), they were in the same health as they were when I took off from Port Protection. Considering what they'd just gone through to avoid being drowned, I'd consider them some really lucky dogs...and as a result I was very close to taking one home with me. In the end, however, I'd determined that I wouldn't have time to properly care for a puppy at this point, so off they all went to the humane society.

The happy ending to all of this is that, despite these puppies arriving at the humane society just yesterday, all three of them have already found families who are ready to adopt them. Despite the challenges, hearing that my efforts resulted in an ending like that makes me absolutely love this job!

So while my photos do okay at showing what it is I do up here, I'm sure a number of you were wondering what it's like to be in the cockpit while on a flight. Here's your chance to fly along with me without having to travel hundreds, if not thousands of miles to do so ;)

http://youtu.be/QY0YLGvJMU4

Yes, a few of you might have seen this one before, but for those who haven't, I brought the GoPro along with me on a flight into Point Baker, AK a while back and filmed myself landing there. Again, this is one of my favorite places to go, if only for the landing itself.

I'd love to be able to just mount the camera in the airplane somewhere, but until I find a decent mount for that, strapping it to my headset will have to do. In any event, hope you enjoyed the ride! :)

So in our attempts to spread some Christmas cheer to those who can't be at home, we (our dispatchers) threw together a little Christmas care package for a mining camp about 30 miles southwest of Ketchikan. To be honest, I had no idea what was in the package itself...just that I was about to be playing Santa for the miners.

The camp itself is situated on a barge located in Niblack Anchorage, and comes complete with bunks, offices, a cookhouse, and a couple other simple amenities one would find at home. On most days, it's a blowhole, sporting gusts and downdrafts strong enough to slam an airplane into the mountainside. On this particular day, the wind was calm enough to enter the valley without trouble...though there were some snow squalls moving through the area.

I was on the second-to-last leg of a 4-stop flight to locations all across Prince of Wales Island, having been to Coffman Cove, Whale Pass, and Edna bay. The only items left in the plane were inbound freight, and the 2 boxes to be delivered to the mine camp. The kicker to all this is that the miners had no idea I was coming...and nothing grabs one's attention better than a 450hp radial engine roaring by at 100 feet--especially in an area that rarely hears the sound of any engine. I did this twice for good measure. Sure enough, I spot 2 miners come running for the dock. I land, taxi up, tie down, and discover that I'd startled them all into thinking I was delivering an inspector to the mine rather than Christmas cheer. One of the 2 workers admits to me that the only reason he's there is to stall the inspector long enough to get their shit together--turns out the rest of them were still on the barge, frantically making sure paperwork was in order and things were organized.

Naturally, they were relieved to find that the only thing being dropped off were these 2 mystery boxes I'd been carrying with me all day long...and subsequently surprised to find that they were filled with meals fit for a king: prime rib, mashed potatoes, vegetable and cheese trays, booze, etc. They'd invited me in for some coffee, but considering the snow was becoming heavier, I had to decline--I would much rather be home than stuck in the bush for an indeterminable amount of time due to weather. I didn't find out until I'd landed back in Ketchikan that they were so thankful for the special delivery that they'd called the company owner on a satellite phone to thank him personally...and of course, the company owner previously had no idea this had even occurred (he and his family were/are on vacation in Hawaii). I would imagine he took that ball and ran with it, complete with a slightly confused "uh, you're welcome...any time..."

In the end, I got a reintroduction to what Christmas is all about--it's a wonderful feeling knowing I vastly improved the day for someone who can't be with their family during the holiday.

You can go ahead and say it: the majority of my photos are mediocre at best...then again, I might be my own worst critic here. Still...

I'd admitted to myself long ago that, while I have the ability to select decent a scene/subject for a photograph (I assume so, anyway...just humor me), the biggest limitation in most of the photos I've taken is my "camera". I use that term loosely, because there is only so much an iPhone's camera is able to do (that is to say: barely anything). While the photos look great when viewed on the phone's screen, I can't help but notice their flaws when they're uploaded to my computer. The two that stand out the most are the lack of sharpness, and the color distortion on high-contrast edges (Valentine Mountain is not actually blue/pink/purple up top, as fitting as those colors might be considering its name).

My main excuse for not having a better camera is more simple than you might think: space. A DSLR would be a wonderful option for this area, but given that my airplane is usually full of mail, freight, passengers...or some combination thereof, that doesn't leave much space to carry a large camera and its various lenses (also large). The best solution was something that could fit into my pocket and be pulled out at a moment's notice.

More to the point: after days of researching my options, I've now got a vastly superior "pro" digital camera on its way. It offers most, if not all of the features/shooting options found on a DSLR as well as comparable picture quality, but fits in the palm of my hand (also into a pocket...). In the end, it's about time I got myself a legitimate digicam anyway. At the very least, it should be interesting to see how my newer photos will look in comparison.