Page 23 - Twin & Turbine May 2017

programs, are for the most part family men of Scandinavian heritage from the Seattle area. They rotate back home every two to three months depending upon how quickly their trawler can land its quota of the available fish.
Bring Them Home
There are only two ways for them to leave the island. One is by boat, which back to Seattle is a daunting 1,600 nm journey across the Gulf of Alaska. The other is to fly from the 4,500-foot, World War II-era paved runway wedged into the only area of flat ground available on the island.
After spending months on the Bering Sea, with all its hazards and frozen discomforts, the ability to get quickly back home to relatively tropical Seattle is for fishermen like a gift from heaven. It is for this reason that Jeff and I earlier in the day departed BVS (60 nm north of SEA) on the 2,000-nm trip to Dutch. Flying first about 1,300 nm northwest to Anchorage for refueling, and then another 700 nm southwest to Unalaska Airport (PADU). We will spend the night in Dutch, then the next morning board the crew of the Auriga for the return flight to Seattle. The Auriga is a 200-foot trawler that (co-pilot) Jeff has an ownership interest in, which even with some challenging mechanical breakdowns, still had a very successful season.
We left Skagit Regional (BVS) at 10 a.m., with an empty airplane on a windy, cool day with 1,500 overcast and light rain. Over the next two hours, we run up the west side of British Columbia, then over the middle of Hecate Strait with the very remote Queen Charlotte Islands visible off the airplane’s left side. A bit later we are over the Chugach mountain range that lies between the Gulf of Alaska and Anchorage. On joining the PANC YESKA 6 arrival over the Johnstone VOR (JOH), we are told there is a 747 behind us and asked to keep our speed above Mach 0.78. In visual conditions, we find ourselves in trail with a long line of cargo 747s inbound from Asia. We land and quickly make exit Echo to get out of the way of a closely following 747, who we note deploys his reversers well before the nose wheel touches down, something considered very poor form in a Lear.
Author Kevin Ware ew to the remote airport at Dutch Harbor to retrieve the crew of shing vessel Auriga for a much-needed rest.
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