"A mind once stretched by a new idea can never regain its original dimensions." ~Oliver Wendall Holmes

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

My first flight on a bush plane

Number 29 on the Birthday List is complete. I arrived at Grant Aviation for my first bush flight out to Quinhagak on Monday around 11:30 am. They weighed all of my stuff and asked for my weight, presumably to make sure they dont overload the plane and to keep it balanced. I waited in the lobby of this little bush airline for my flight to be called.
I was the only passenger on this flight, so we rode it this five seater plane. It was definitely, by far the smallest plane I've ever ridden in. Those five seats are for the 1. pilot 2. copilot 3, 4, 5. passengers. I have had many chances to see planes like this and to even sit inside them when I've taken my students on field trips to the flight school, but I've never ridden in one.
Here is the view in front of me inside the plane. The pilot had to give me the little safety schpeil about the plane. At one point he said, "And there a door here, here, and here just in case you need to get out." I thought that was funny...in case I need to get out. Like you can just open the door and walk out in the middle of the flight. Like maybe you'd want to excuse yourself to go to the bathroom or something.
Here's the view behind me in the plane. The seatback to the left is the one I was sitting in. You can see that they had taken down the rear seat to make room for cargo instead.
And here is my very first in flight picture. It's just the various airport buildings.
The is a subdivision in town called Blueberry subdivision. It gives you a bit of an idea of what the housing/houses look like here. Not much different than anywhere else, except maybe the dirt roads. We did a turn over the subdivision so that we could head back in the other direction...South.
Our mighty Kuskokwim river passing through Bethel.
The flight was good. It took about 45 minutest to get out to the village. I looked out of the windows and took a TON of pictures on the way, which I'll post another time. I was expecting the ride to be bumpy and have alot of turbulence, but there really wasnt much at all. I thought the flight in the little bush plane was very smooth. My first bush plane flight...wooyoo!

1 comment:

Christine said...

How exciting! I can't wait to see your pictures of Quinhagak. Did you go for pleasure or work? I've never been in a bush plane, and after some nasty experiences in AK Air jets landing here and in ANC (one where they actually had emergency vehicles meet the plane, yeah, that's comforting) I don't think I'll chance it.

We've been to several nearby villages by boat though, and that's always fun. My husband is more adventurous and has taken the iceroad up to Nunap and Kwethluk in past years...