Alaska’s Labor Day weekend is something to be dreaded. It’s the last great hurrah for everyone before the “termination dust” snowcaps the mountains, if it hasn’t already, and it signals the opening of all the hunting seasons. Anchorage and Fairbanks, in particular, are almost abandoned with their citizenry heading off in every direction with their boats, pickups, and planes. Unfortunately, the weather is often bad, people drive too fast and drink too much, and those with airplanes haven’t flown them all summer, leaving them fumbling around in the cockpits looking for things that should come as second nature. It’s a recipe for disaster.
The adjoining picture is a Cessna 207 that crashed near McGrath in Alaska’s vast interior not long ago. Sadly, the pilot and a passenger were killed and four others were seriously hurt. It took place because of what I call, “get-home-itis,” which resulted in a popular village schoolteacher and a veteran bush pilot meeting early deaths. I tell people, at least those who will listen to me, that I worked for twenty years in Minnesota and knew two people who killed themselves in airplanes, and then I worked in Alaska for two years and knew twenty people who killed themselves in airplanes. That’s exactly how bad it gets when the Labor Day weekend rolls around. I pray this time will be different.
Put the booze in the trunk and lock it up, commit yourself to driving less than the speed limit, and take the old bird around the patch for a few touch and goes before you head off on Friday. The life you save may be your own.
The adjoining picture is a Cessna 207 that crashed near McGrath in Alaska’s vast interior not long ago. Sadly, the pilot and a passenger were killed and four others were seriously hurt. It took place because of what I call, “get-home-itis,” which resulted in a popular village schoolteacher and a veteran bush pilot meeting early deaths. I tell people, at least those who will listen to me, that I worked for twenty years in Minnesota and knew two people who killed themselves in airplanes, and then I worked in Alaska for two years and knew twenty people who killed themselves in airplanes. That’s exactly how bad it gets when the Labor Day weekend rolls around. I pray this time will be different.
Put the booze in the trunk and lock it up, commit yourself to driving less than the speed limit, and take the old bird around the patch for a few touch and goes before you head off on Friday. The life you save may be your own.
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