Professionals All Around Us

Happy New Year to all the great EAA 430 Members. This is going to be a great year for EAA 430.

We have the Young Eagles Program headed up by John Myers. John and his wife truly bring a ton of experience, professionalism and enthusiasm to the program. So, do all the great volunteers. Without Ground Staff Volunteers and Pilots, it would never get off the ground.

We have some new volunteer Officers. Ken Brown stepped down as Secretary after a long time, to take on other endeavors. We are thankful to have Ray Ballantine who stepped up and took over. Ray has a long aviation career. I talked to him for years at Lake Hood, Anchorage, and Anchorage International, (which are in the same tower) for years and never saw his face until he moved here. As a pilot working both sides of the airport you know Anchorage guys are the best. Big thanks to Ray. Harry Cook is the Treasurer for another year. Harry really does a great job organizing and making sure everything is accountable. Harry not only flew the deadliest ground attack airplane in the Air Force inventory EVER the A-10… he survived the Alaska Bush in DC-6’s for Everett’s Air up in Fairbanks Alaska. Jim Rosenberg and I are around for another year. Thanks for your confidence in all of us.

All these volunteers bring their life experiences and successes to the table. Thanks to all of you.

This Month’s newsletter involves a look at Professionalism in life and all our endeavors in aviation and more. Big subject.

I know what I did when I was young and inexperienced. I realized that to be good and be the best at what I chose to do I had to immerse myself in whatever it was and learn as much as possible to be successful in that endeavor. Success in aviation in Alaska was “staying alive”.

Flying is special. If you don’t heed warnings from the more experienced aviators you may end up in deep trouble fast. So, the incentive was high in Alaska Aviation to learn as much from the Professionals as possible.

I grew up from the early age of 18 in Alaska Aviation. In the news, everyday it seemed was someone missing and or someone just plowed into a mountain or the airplane caught fire. The guy flipped the plane on the water or hit the trees in a step turn when he let the speed get too fast and got airborne as a result. So, I learned from those guys mishaps. I learned what not to do and how to stay away from disaster. It took a lot of concentration to stay ahead of the plane and stay out of trouble.

Success is measured in many different ways.

In aviation it is many times measured by “how old is that pilot”? Is he or she an old pilot? How many flight hours does he or she have? Well, if both are high numbers, that being, age and hours. Chances are they are pretty good and successful aviators. Or they are lying.

If there was something I didn’t understand about flying or know how to do I asked a more experienced old high time aviators. In more recent activities like Bee Keeping and Falconry I do the same thing.

If there were publications to learn from I subscribed to them. If there was an organization to join, like the EAA, AOPA, Cessna Pilots Assoc., 180/185 Organization, Float Plane Pilots Assoc., I read periodicals like IFR, to learn the fine art of IFR Aviation.

I learned early on there were pilots who knew a lot more than I did. So, I hung out with those guys. The ones that would pass on information. Heck, I flew with some of the best around.

Tom Hart was one of those Professionals. He taught me so much about flying. Then after I got out from under his wing there was the International stuff to learn. But I tell ya, there again I learned from some great International guys that had it all figured out.

At Reeve, we didn’t just go out on the Aleutian Chain and land in 30,40,50 kts crosswinds as new pilots. We had REAL Professionals show us how day after day. You might say no way you did that day after day and not damage equipment. Well, I was there. I saw it done in L-188 Electra’s and B-727-100’s. We did it every day. Our worst landings were the ones when it was calm and or the wind was straight down the runway. We laughed about it to make the point. The point was after a day on The Chain coming back to Anchorage where the wind was down and smooth we didn’t pay attention like we did on “The Chain”. So, pay attention all the time.

Everyone grades the landing but a lot can happen on the Take-Off. So, the takeoff begins at the house the day before a flight. Right? Remember that. High density altitudes, short runways with heavy load, long day, not a good breakfast, not a good night’s rest…

Tom Hart got me my Float Rating when I started flying Floats and I went to work the next day flying float planes out of Lake Hood at Anchorage, Alaska. No one has ever done that to this day. How did I get a Float job with only 2.5 hours of float time? Ha, I was still alive after flying all over Alaska in the winter. The owner of the outfit saw me constantly flying.

They didn’t just turn me loose in the plane mind you. I got some more training from a couple different guys that had survived the Alaska Bush. I immersed myself in float flying.

In the other endeavors, I also do the same thing. I joined the organizations that I gleaned information from and learn from the Guys and Gals that have been at it longer than myself.

Most of those people were great at passing on their experiences. We did a lot of hangar flying in those days. I still do within the groups that I am involved with. There’s always something to compare and talk about.

In the Falconry program, I have three mentors. These guys are the best. I went to a competition meet and met others that were just as good in different ways. We actually hangar fly in Falconry. We stay up late compare flights and birds and training methods. Sound familiar? Then we go out in the environment and turn our trained Raptors loose and it all comes together. Amazing right. Train, train, train. Train some more and train again for better results. Do it this way. Don’t do that — you’ll kill the bird. Train some more.

These guys are so good, when my bird soared out of sight they all stopped what they were doing to help locate her. Sound familiar? Pilot goes down everyone stops to help.

We have telemetry and I was told early on to learn how to use it before you need it. Sound familiar? Well, I trained with the telemetry every day at home. Every time I lose sight of my bird in the field, I pulled out the telemetry. I was told to have my wife go hide the transmitter in the yard and I would go find it. Well, this kind of training and practice pays off. I got my bird back! I have spent countless hours with this bird training her and would hate like hell to lose her and have her get killed by an owl, coyote or golden eagle. That happened this weekend. Falconer lost his bird and a golden eagle killed her. He found her with telemetry but not fast enough. There were five guys helping him locate her.

When my girl flew off, the guys were watching her with binocks and said there was a coyote just above me watching the situation when I was after her. I had a gun for yotes and my cell phone for communication with the guys and everything I needed to get her back. I was prepared.

Anyway, the moral to the story is as you can guess. Be prepared and get as much information and learning as you can in anything you do.

I know all the Guys and Gals that read this are well into their aviation careers and many have stopped altogether but maybe one younger will read this and take heed.

One old guy said get 1500 hours and the airlines will hire you. Well, I got 1000 hours for the ATP and traded my Flight Engineer time for 500 to get the paper to take the exam at less than 1500 hours.That was the start of a life time of learning that hasn’t stopped.

Have a great 2018 and let’s do some hangar flying. I want to know what you know…

Mike Radford