Page 25 - Twin & Turbine May 2017

The requirement is if you do not have the surrounding island terrain in sight at DAWKU and recognize visually the entrance to Iliuliuk Bay, then you must make an immediate right 180-degree climbing turn while remaining safely over the water.
Fortunately for us, it is a pretty nice day with about a 2,000-foot broken ceiling, and nearly unlimited visibility. When we break out, we can clearly see where we are and continue inbound doing a Vref of about 125 knots. The waves on the bay are whipping by 500 feet beneath us and we are less than a minute from touchdown when runway 31 finally comes into sight. We then make a sharp right turn to pass over a small high island just short of the runway, pull the power all the way back and drop like a rock to cross over the numbers at about 40 feet. The landing goes well, and there being no parallel taxiways, we turn around on the runway to exit at our approach end, while a departing King Air is taxing out to the numbers.
The ramp near the terminal is owned by the local commuter airline, and given that it is often icy with poor braking, they take a dim view of other aircraft parking near their space. Knowing this, we park near the grass 200 yards from the terminal, and are promptly met by the airport operations manager, who is very welcoming and ask if she can have her photo taken by the Lear. Shortly thereafter a member of the Auriga’s crew arrives and invites us out for a short boat trip, while they reposition the vessel. We board to see several bald eagles calmly perched in the rigging, and spend the next few hours looking over the trawler and its machinery.
We then visit the fish processing plant where 600 Philippine guest workers are running a mountain of pollock on conveyor belts through automated cutting knives. All are hygienically dressed in white overalls, rubber boots, hats and face masks, and intently struggling to keep up with the machinery, which is running fish by so fast it blurs the image on my camera. This visit makes me glad I am a pilot, not a fish plant worker.
That evening over dinner with the trawler’s crew, we have an interesting discussion about how dense the fish schools are in the Bering Sea, and the fact that the numbers are
An unusually calm, sunny day in Dutch Harbor, Alaska belies the brutal conditions that the port often endures.
Paci c Coast Avionics Half Page
4/C Ad
www.pca.aero
M
3
M
7
a
a
y
2
y
2
0
0
1
1
•
7T
E•
2
TW
W
I
I
N
N
&
&
T
T
U
U
R
R
B
B
I
IN
NE
23