Any ‘Normal’ NAT crossings?

[knot4u]

I mean, I don't think any pilot ever has been upset about being home. Maybe the weird ones I guess

That would likely depend on where the airplane is stuck, it could be either a prison term or a free vacation with just a little work mixed in. But I agree, if you'd rather be at home it'd be a drag no matter where you are. I was once stuck in Klamath Falls for a couple of weeks and I love the PNW, but my crew and I all wanted to just get home after about 6 days when the customer decided to add a second set of engine removals on top of the double engine change we were finishing up. In fact I sent them home a couple of days before I left because at that point I was just waiting for a couple of engine shipping crates to show up and I could box the engines up and get them on a truck solo.

 

[Cessnaflyer]

Are you happy or upset? Where is your airplane sitting? Lots of questions.

No one enjoys being in the Artic for fall!

 

[knot4u]

No one enjoys being in the Artic for fall!

Understood. Not sure if you're able give any real timeline, but if you were to speculate about when you might fly your airplane home when could you imagine that'd happen? I ask because I've been involved with a few broken airplanes getting fixed in far away places and the stories are almost always interesting. I'll just say I've declined most of them when offered. A buddy of mine flew to somewhere in South America with the parts and tools to fix a plane in his luggage and ended up up in jail for a week when he got busted by their ICE officials. Eventually palms were greased and he was released (Hey, that rhymes!) and he went to the broken G-IV, turned four cam-locks, removed and replaced a small display and retired to the cabin, drank all of the high end liquor on board, passed out and woke up in Van Nuys. The last trip I turned down was for an airplane broken in Beruit (luckily my passport had expired so I couldn't go even if I wanted to), a couple days later they had that huge explosion at the port. I have many other stories, either personal or from friends, about those trips and there's never been one that doesn't present some surprise. Have you ever heard of North Slope Borough Search and Rescue?

 

[BobDDuck]

Have you ever heard of North Slope Borough Search and Rescue?

I met some of their guys at a conference a few years ago. They fit in an interesting intersection of community and local government SAR. From an aviation point of view, they've got a very small fleet of aircraft that is exactly dialed in to meet the needs of what they do... but it must be a MX (and training) nightmare having absolutely no commonality within their 4 aircraft.

 

[knot4u]

I met some of their guys at a conference a few years ago. They fit in an interesting intersection of community and local government SAR. From an aviation point of view, they've got a very small fleet of aircraft that is exactly dialed in to meet the needs of what they do... but it must be a MX (and training) nightmare having absolutely no commonality within their 4 aircraft.

They also have a huge budget. I did some work for them and flew around a bit in their LR31 and they were telling me how I could make big bucks and live in Arizona for half of the year and it was not BS. But Barrow would require a much larger monetary influx compared to what they were offering. That's some very serious hard living and I was in my 40s. I said thank you but I'll just stick with what I've got, I like seeing the sun rise in the morning.

 

[BobDDuck]

They also have a huge budget. I did some work for them and flew around a bit in their LR31 and they were telling me how I could make big bucks and live in Arizona for half of the year and it was not BS. But Barrow would require a much larger monetary influx compared to what they were offering. That's some very serious hard living and I was in my 40s. I said thank you but I'll just stick with what I've got, I like seeing the sun rise in the morning.

I think they traded in their Lear for a PC24. But yeah, not an environment that would be fun to wrench in.

 

[knot4u]

I think they traded in their Lear for a PC24. But yeah, not an environment that would be fun to wrench in.

They have a heated hangar and the aircraft are only brought out into the elements when absolutely necessary. If someone wanted to work on or with aircraft in the arctic that's probably the gold ring. I'm not going to lie, I spent a few nights thinking about it and I did some research regarding living in Barrow and I decided that I'm just not built for that life, I'm sure they were able to someone to take that position.The numbers were HUGE but so is the sacrifice, unless a local got an A/P and some experience it'll always be a hard sell. I'm still not sure why people choose to live there.

 

[///AMG]

That would likely depend on where the airplane is stuck, it could be either a prison term or a free vacation with just a little work mixed in. But I agree, if you'd rather be at home it'd be a drag no matter where you are. I was once stuck in Klamath Falls for a couple of weeks and I love the PNW, but my crew and I all wanted to just get home after about 6 days when the customer decided to add a second set of engine removals on top of the double engine change we were finishing up. In fact I sent them home a couple of days before I left because at that point I was just waiting for a couple of engine shipping crates to show up and I could box the engines up and get them on a truck solo.

Yeah, I don't blame them. Depending on how long ago that was, K-falls was pretty boring 30 years ago, or even 20. I think it is starting to get a bit better, but it has been a number of years since we visited. It used to be the overnight stop driving with the oldest when he was real young from Fallon NV to Eugene OR for the holidays. There's a cool converted ranch hotel (Running Y I think was the name) that is a bit outside town that we always went to. I don't remember anything like that in the 90's.