Bush Planes

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Trip Start Jan 25, 2008 Trip End Jan 29, 2008

  Emmonak, Alaska
Monday, January 28, 2008

Flying is something that can never be taken for granted when you live in an Eskimo village along the Yukon River. Weather, plane failures, and mail runs can all interfere with whether or not you will actually get to your destination on any given day. I was scheduled to get to a conference in Anchorage for this past weekend. The bush plane company called me to let me know that my flight was cancelled. I was one of the lucky ones. Most people do not get called. A friend was scheduled for the same flight from my village to Anchorage after hoping on a short plane ride to my village first. I quickly emailed her, and we started the phone tag game of trying to find another flight in time for our conference. Since the conference people paid for and scheduled my flight, this added another complication to the equation...I found another flight leaving 2 days earlier that would route me to Bethel (the biggest town near mine) and made a reservation in case they filled quickly. I then emailed the travel person to change my reservations. She got back to me on Thursday...yup, missed the Wednesday connection....so, I was sweating bullets as to whether or not I was getting out of the village. Then, all flights Thursday were cancelled because of a blizzard...no visibility means no planes.....still unsure if I was getting out, I awaited the third night of having my bags packed and ready to go....

I got the call Friday morning to be at the airport in 20 minutes (hence the reason for having my bags packed at a moments warning), so I trudged my suitcase through a foot of snow up to the school to get my ride to the airport which is a few miles away.

Luckily, the flight went to Bethel without any hitches, but it was a weird one...I was routed to Alakanuk, Marshall, and then to Bethel....it was definitely a scenic trip.

When I arrived in Bethel, I hailed a cab to the "real" airport and checked in. I walked to a small grill about a block away, had lunch, and waited. After a few hours, I walked back to the airport and waited some more....finally they were boarding....I got in line, awaited my turn, and finally handed over my ID and ticket....only to find that I brought my expired license instead of my current one. This could have ended tragically with me having to fly back to the village the next day (after having hunkered down in some B & B in Bethel) and then tried again 2 days later, but I would have missed my conference (there has only been about 1 flight in or out a day if we are lucky). The security man was feeling benevolent that day, my friends, because he just had me go through "intense" screening before being allowed to continue on my way....

Nope, this is NOT a typical flight...well, maybe it is because there is NO norm when traveling by bush planes...I've learned to expect the unexpected....but normally, it is an uneventful, straight 2 hour flight from my village to Anchorage....

So, what was once a leisurely 2 hour flight has now become an all day ordeal.....ahhh, traveling in the bush of Alaska....

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More of the sunrise	Flying over the Yukon River	Bethel, Alaska	Another pic of the tundra and river
The tundra near Bethel, Alaska	The "real" airport in Bethel