A day in the life of a 207 driver

It’s 6:00am and 47 degrees below zero, time to get ready for work. After hitting the coffee really hard and getting dressed for the elements you head outside to start your snow machine. As you walk out the door you realize how cold it is as the -47 degree air enters your lungs.

After a nice ride to the airport you start your preflight:
· Digging the aircraft out of last night’s snow drifts.
· Sweeping the snow off of the plane.
· Running back to the hanger to warm my hands, it’s so cold that after 15 minutes your hands start to hurt even with the best gloves on.
· Firing up the “Herman Nelson” heater to heat the engine and then the avionics. If you are interested in finding out what a “Herman Nelson” is you can view at http://www.herman-nelson.com/
· Fuel the aircraft – At these temps you have a high risk of static electricity so extra perceptions must be taken, put out your smoke J
· Now you’re ready to start the engine and allow for a full warm up without high RPM’s as you can crack the cylinders at this temp.
· Now that the warm up is complete you can put the engine blanket ( http://www.kennoncovers.com/enginecovers.htm ) on the aircraft to keep the heat in and also plug the aircrafts external oil heater in.

Now you are ready to get your manifest and determine if you are flying passengers or freight. If you are flying freight you will need to head back into the cold to remove your seats from your aircraft.

Ready to go but the temp and weather are not on your side, the temp has only climbed to -45 degrees and you are restricted from flying at anything under -40 due to the company SOP. The ATIS is calling the Visibility at ¼ mile and Ice Fog, looks like it’s time to hurry up and wait.

10:00 am – The temp is @ -39 and the ATIS is calling the weather at 500FT and ½ mile visibility, you are good to go. Now you get your passengers loaded, give a quick preflight briefing (Buckle up and Shut up) and call ground for a special VFR. Once you have your clearance you proceed down to the taxiway to the line of aircraft waiting to get out. Looks like this is going to take a while, you have 3 inbound IFR planes that take priority.

Finally you get your clearance and you are off, it’s only 15 minutes to your first stop and it appears it’s going to be a great day for flying in Western Alaska. Time to call the village agent to get updated weather for your first stop. You turn on the marine band VHF in your aircraft and you hear a lot of village chat (Most village households have a VHF radio in the house for communicating with other people in the village) so you wait your turn, Once you get in contact with the agent you ask about the weather and you are informed that it’s not good. Hmmm, what does “Not Good” mean for landing? You ask if he can see the airport from your location and he replies, NO. Time to go and look for yourself. Well he is correct, you are looking at ice fog that appears to go to ground level around the village. Your only option is to turn back or create your own instrument approach with your onboard GPS, risky business for even the more experienced bush pilot.

After deciding on the second option you get lined up on final and start your decent, 500ft – 400ft – 300ft and still no sign of the airport, you decide to give it another 100ft and then out of nowhere you spot the little gravel strip, what a relief.

After offloading the passengers and loading 1200lbs of freight yourself you repeat this process over and over again until your day is finally done. Your days ends with 7.5 hours of flight time after spending 13 hours on duty.

Now it’s time for a few beers with friends, a snow machine ride and off to bed so you can repeat this process again the next day.

Flying in the bush is very hard work with a lot of risk but the reward far exceeded. You will see scenery that people only dream of, work with great people from a very close community and provide a very essential service to remote Alaska.

FAA Alaska Weather Cams

Folks, this is a great way to get real-time conditions and your destination and along the route before you burn fuel. I would recommend this site to all Alaska Pilots.
http://akweathercams.faa.gov/

Are ramp checks ramping up?

There has been an increasing number of calls lately to the AOPA Pilot Information Center from members who have been "ramp checked." So should you be concerned?
"Nobody likes being ramp checked, but the regulations do allow FAA inspectors to do it at their discretion," said Woody Cahall, AOPA vice president of aviation services. "But a ramp check doesn't have to be particularly painful if you understand the rules and exercise some common sense."
Cahall noted that ramp checks are part of the FAA's normal surveillance activities and that the agency seems to be increasing the use of this particular enforcement tool in some areas of the country.
An FAA inspector may decide to check you and your aircraft because he's observed something unsafe, or it may simply be a random check. You can expect that an inspector will show you his identification and ask to see your pilot and medical certificates.
"Think about how you would react to a police officer and a traffic stop," said Cahall. "When he says 'license and registration, please,'" you know that a polite response and a cooperative attitude goes a long way toward minimizing any hassles."
The regulations require that your pilot and medical certificates be readily available, and you should be willing to show them. The inspector can examine your certificates, but he can't keep them. If he asks you to "surrender" your certificates, politely decline and contact an aviation attorney.
What other paperwork can he look at? Remember AR[R]OW for the documents required on board the aircraft?
Airworthiness certificate;
Aircraft Registration;
Operating handbook or flight manual; and
Weight and balance data are all required to be in the aircraft.
But you don't have to have your logbooks — pilot or aircraft — in the airplane. There are reasons why you wouldn't want to carry them with you, and why you should keep your logs in a safe place.
"Losing aircraft logs can significantly reduce the value of an aircraft," said Cahall. "And if you lose your pilot log, it can be very difficult to reconstruct it to prove currency, time to be applied toward ratings, etc."
The regulations don't require that you keep logs with you, only that they be made available upon the reasonable request of an authorized FAA agent. So the inspector can ask to see your logs, and you can legally tell him, "They're at home. Do you want to schedule a time for me to bring them to you?"
The inspector can board the aircraft, but not without your knowledge and consent. He can inspect the exterior and look through windows.
Finally, be cooperative, but don't volunteer information. Remember what they say on Law and Order — anything you say can be used against you.
For more information, see AOPA Online's subject report "Ramp Checks." Pilots should also consider AOPA's Legal Services Plan should they need an attorney to represent them against an FAA enforcement action.

Handheld GPS - Looking for feedback on my next purchase

I have been using the Garmin 296 for 3 years now and really love the unit but it's time for me to look at upgrading. Currently the features of the 396 look great but don't really provide much benefit for us pilots in Alaska. Any suggestions on what to go with?