Above and Beyond: The Iditarod Air Force
Not all the action in dogsled racing is on the ground.
- By John Phillips
- Air & Space magazine, January 2011
Writers covering the Iditarod race have the best seat in the house: a heated airplane cockpit.
John Phillips
(Page 2 of 2)
“Limping what?”
“Kerrigan,” he said. “Nancy Kerrigan. I got a Tonya Harding version too, but you probably don’t want to see that.”
Day Six: When we landed, it was my duty to cover the wings, tail, and engine cowling with canvas. The wind would often catch the canvas and transform it into the sort of spinnakers deployed on America’s Cup yachts. Because I was usually treading on a frozen surface, the wind had little trouble dragging me significant distances. On one occasion, I fell face-first into a wing cover and began rolling in an attempt to flatten it. I could hear Mark braying. Then I realized I was a lot warmer than he was, and I remained happily inert, hoping he’d worry I’d been injured. He did not.
It was also my job to pre-heat the engine by setting ablaze a puddle of liquid Heet antifreeze in a sheet-metal pan attached to a dented flue. The process filled me with fear: There were always damp, dark, dripping streaks on the cowling, whose potential volatility was unknown. Eventually, I simply embraced Mark’s fatalistic adoration of colorful aircraft mishaps and began speculating whether a Cessna conflagration would have the energy to melt the ice beneath the craft itself.
Day Seven: At the checkpoint in Grayling, a veterinarian told me the temperature was minus 38—centigrade or Fahrenheit, he wasn’t sure. When I grabbed the Cessna’s door handle, it snapped like a candy cane and disappeared into deep snow. “There goes $100,” Mark said. I think he meant I should pay for it. But I noticed he wasn’t searching for the handle. So I didn’t offer.
Day Eight: Approaching Unalakleet, on the Bering Sea, we encountered a 32-mph headwind, and Mark aborted our first landing attempt at an altitude of maybe seven feet. We touched down instead on a frozen lagoon and were approached by two women on an immense Arctic Cat that was rocketing toward us as if establishing a land speed record. Both riders leapt to safety 100 feet away, but the momentum kept the snowmobile hurtling at us. It sputtered to rest a dozen feet shy of the left strut.
We remained grounded in Unalakleet for two days. “The wind here doesn’t blow, it sucks,” Mark said. “Seriously, it flows east to west, from the Alaskan interior out to the Bering Sea.” The town was large enough to possess a store, where I purchased a three-pack of fresh Jockeys. “I’ll alert the media,” Mark said.
Day Ten: We spent a day in the checkpoint at White Mountain, interviewing mushers. Late in the day, we agreed to take a passenger—a three-year-old, 45-pound husky named Echo, who had been K.O.’d by a sprained ankle. She sat alertly in my lap and stared out the windshield as we flew toward Nome, crossing the Bering Sea’s Norton Sound. There were small patches of black open water below, interspersed with towering daggers of ice. I averted my eyes and stared at what was left of the horizon: The windshield looked like someone was applying Wite-Out.
“Well, it’s rime, actually,” Mark explained. “Plus there’s some on the wings. And maybe some induction icing.” The windshield turned opaque.
“This isn’t a major problem,” he said, as if trying to persuade himself. “The Nome airport is huge, and I can land anywhere on the property with the skis.” Then he flipped into my lap what looked like a thick novel and said, “Look up the frequencies for Nome. I’d do it, but I forgot my glasses.”
I recall a powerful urge to urinate. Instead, I riffled through the book. Just as I found a list of Nome frequencies, Echo shifted to a new position in my lap, inadvertently thrusting a foreleg through every Nome listing.
We eventually located the airport, although Mark was displeased that the runway had been scrupulously plowed. At the last second, he jinked to the right to land on snow. In the process, one ski beheaded a runway light. A corrective interview with airport officials ensued, but I missed the spirited exchange because Echo and I rode into town in a veterinarian’s minivan.
I won’t say I kissed the ground when I reached my hotel. But I did kiss Echo.
Comments (2)
With all due respect to the author, maybe he should stick to writing for "Car and Driver".
Alaska aviation does not really need any more of these "I almost died!" dramas.
Aviation and Alaska have a long and colorful history. Given the size of the state, it is difficult to imagine what the current state of development would be with out wings.
While most flying in Alaska is done airport to airport, any time you get involved in an activity that requires operations "off airport" the risk factor is increased. The casual traveler / tourist should not expect the same flight experience one would get while seated in a 737 at 31,000 feet. Once you decide to travel to the villages with short gravel runways or places without runways at all, the aircraft will get smaller, lighter, and be without certain amenities.
It was my privilege to spend several years operating various small aircraft around Alaska. Difficulties only arose when the weather conditions were either un-forecast or deteriorated much quicker than forecast.
Alaska can be intolerant of the unwary or the unknowing. She is not for everyone and that is one of the reasons I like her.
Posted by Mike Sebrey on December 7,2010 | 05:54 PM
Frankly this article is not publication quality.
Right from the beginning, the writer comes off sounding like an arrogant and ignorant Outsider. After "hey, land this thing right now" he proceeds to talk about stopping the lead Iditarod musher while he's racing to get an interview. I'm speechless. Did he think about doing the interview during a break at a checkpoint, like everybody else?
The rest of the article goes on to read like a checkerboard of short anecdotes which try to be humorous but begin to blend into each other monotonously. Indeed the writer would do better covering topics he knows something about, and perhaps consider changing his writing style.
Yes, bush flights and landings in AK are a little different than mainstream aviation. And I agree they can be pretty exciting, especially for first-timers in those conditions. This a great topic to write about, but there are better ways to do it.
Posted by Doug Grayling on February 2,2011 | 06:55 PM