Flying Wild Alaska

[TMetzinger]

Just saw some of this show today... Pretty neat operation.

I like all the airplanes and the insight into the operations up there.

Definitely going into the DVR. Neat episode where the main guy lost the left rudder pedal on the left side of his 180. So he switched to the right seat.

 

[Jim Logajan]

While I think there is a persistent level of artificial drama I find annoying, I find the shows enjoyable.

It was quite sad to see at the end of this evening's episode that Erik Rose died of cancer after that episode was filmed; he was just 37. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer a little over two months before he died (two weeks ago!) Discovery has a link here on this:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/flying-wild-alaska/remembering-erik-rose.html

See also here:

http://www.erikrose.myevent.com/

On a more hopeful note, it seems the first episode of "Flying Wild Alaska" is, to date, "the highest rated new series premiere of all time on Discovery Channel for Households and Adults 18+":

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratin...y-channel-history-555212/20110118discovery01/

 

[Jim Logajan]

So does anyone think Ariel will ever be a pilot?

In 20 or 30 years, maybe. Wrong motivation at this time of her life.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Yup. To quote

"HoTH, Inc, an Alaskan corporation owned by John Hajdukovich, Mike Hageland, and James Tweto, and the parent holding company of Frontier Flying Service, Hageland Aviation Services,Arctic Circle Air Service and Era Aviation, Inc., announced today the rebranding of air carrier operations. Effective January 1, 2010, “Era Alaska” will represent the airline brand for consumers for in-state travel, with individual carriers operating under their own certificates doing business as Era Alaska."

Hajdukovich is CEO.

Hoth, Inc
5245 Airport Indus Road
Fairbanks, AK 99709-4468

I found this interesting article (has an audio interview with their assistant chief pilot Jason Wilson):

http://oddballpilot.com/2011/02/interview-jason-wilson-era-alaska/

Article author notes: "I worked for Hageland for more than a decade, beginning in the mid ‘90s. I always liked working for Jim, Mike, and Ron (Ron Tweto was Jim’s brother and died in a plane crash in Arkansas). "

With regard to ownership, it claims:

"Era Alaska is now owned by Mike Hageland, Jim Tweto, and the Hajdukovich family."

 

[Jim Logajan]

Looks like a new season starts on Friday (Oct. 28)

Has Ariel Tweto got her private pilot certificate yet?

Those interested can check the FAA registration database to learn her status or check the contents of the spoiler below (based on what I found in the registration database is showing as of Oct. 26, 2011.)


Spoiler
ARIEL EVA TWETO

Address
Street PO BOX 207 City UNALAKLEET State AK County NOME Zip Code 99684-0207 Country USA

Medical
Medical Class: First Medical Date: 4/2011


Certificates
1 of 1

DOI: 4/7/2011 Certificate: STUDENT PILOT

 

[Jim Logajan]

Baffles me why she got a first class medical.

I thought that was odd, too.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Looks like a new season starts on Friday (Oct. 28)

Has Ariel Tweto got her private pilot certificate yet?

Those interested can check the FAA registration database to learn her status or check the contents of the spoiler below (based on what I found in the registration database is showing as of Oct. 26, 2011.)


Spoiler
ARIEL EVA TWETO


Jim, very cool how you did this. So....how did ya do it?

Spoiler
To search the FAA pilot certificate database, go to the following FAA website and first enter your own name, address, etc. and then when the query entry page appears, enter the search criteria (e.g. I entered "tweto" for last name and "alaska" for the state to narrow things down; not sure I needed to.)

https://amsrvs.registry.faa.gov/airmeninquiry/

 

[Jim Logajan]

No, no, I mean the little hidey thing in your post.

Oh - turns out there is a "spoiler" tag that the vBulletin software understands. Say you wanted to summarize how a cliff hanger was resolved without spoiling it for those who hadn't seen the next episode yet; you'd type:

HTML:

Spoiler

It was all just a dream.

And in order for me to get the system to not interpret those tags, I used the "html" tags.

 

[Jim Logajan]

No, no, I mean the little hidey thing in your post.

One other point: it seems most people don't know about this handy documentation page on PoA (not a lot of links to it; always take me a while to find my way back to it

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/misc.php?do=bbcode

 

[Jim Logajan]

I thought I posted about this, but I guess not in this thread.

Flying Wild Alaska was the ONLY reason I got in an airplane for a thrilling discovery flight in a $200,000 glass panel Tecnam Sierra - where over the Golden Gate Bridge we opened up the cockpit and I stuck my hand outside the plane.... I had not even been in a commercial plane for 5 years before that, no thoughts of becoming a pilot, not even close.

So it all started when I first saw this crazy show with a pilot in a chicken outfit (Pontz) told his passengers to get good grades in school. Turns out he's from CA and went to high school with my boyfriend. I think to myself "if this guy can fly, why can't I fly". I googled "how to become a pilot" and voila. I was hooked after my first flight. That was in January 2011.

And as they say, the rest is history.

Thanks for letting me know it airs again tomorrow. I will for sure tape it with my VCR (yes, I said VCR).

Kimberly

It is interesting that you became inspired by a show that resulted from Ariel Tweto appearing on another show. You now have your PP certificate, while she has yet to get hers. Not sure there is anything deep in noting that, though. Her focus was and is different than yours, which probably accounts for the difference.

 

[Jim Logajan]

How about the 5 year old power plant, hanging by a thread, that nobody talkes care of? I'd bet that I could maintain it with a briefing of a few hours.

Ya think they pay well?

Five years old is pretty new. Fuel to power it must cost a small fortune for the villagers. Perhaps they started to "temporarily" cannibalize one of the generators to keep the other two running, and kept doing that - and now it would cost another small fortune (for the villagers) to get that third one back in a runnable state?

I doubt it pays well to maintain it - but hey, you can always track them down and check!
EDIT: Pretty poor place to look for a job as generator maintenance tech: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyukuk,_Alaska

 

[Jim Logajan]

Dumb question time: Was there really something in the "Seward's Folly" purchase treaty that says Alaska would go back to the Russians?

No. Full text of the treaty with Russia is here:

http://www.bartleby.com/43/43.html

Pretty straight-forward and simple. I've dealt with more paperwork buying and selling a few acres of private property!

 

[Jim Logajan]

Texas is the only that was ever its own country, so it's also the only state that can secede.

Would Texas succeed in seceding if it did it again in succession after it tried in 1861? I don't see it.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Last season started off great. Began to lose interest by the end of the season ( too much fluff, and contrived drama) This season is far worse. Might have something to do with the ding-bat producer, Ariel Tweeto. A real let down from a show that had great potential.

Agreed. If I had wanted to watch fantasy and fiction (which is what FWA is becoming,) I would have continued to watch Sanctuary over on Syfy.

 

[Jim Logajan]

They had alot of flying in tonight's episode. I was pretty happy with it.

I liked it too. A real contrast to last week's episode. The bush flying and the story of the climbers was nice. I've been to Barrow as a tourist - they really do look forward to the whaling season.

 

[Jim Logajan]

So when oceans freeze the sea ice is fresh water? I did not know that.

I did not know that either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_ice

 

[Jim Logajan]

If I sat there during every gun fight scene in a movie and picked apart how many rounds they fired without reloading, or every military flick and picked apart improper uniforms , rank placement and everything that was not within reg , I sure wouldn't enjoy too much of it.

Well if your name is Crow T. Robot or Tom Servo I bet you'd be picking apart those films, and have a great time doing it, to!

 

[Jim Logajan]

They're on Netflix. I got sucked into finding out about that about six months ago late one night when I couldn't sleep... Heh heh.

They didn't do too many aviation movies; here's one compilation of MST3K "favorite moments" from their viewing of "The Starfighters":

 

[Jim Logajan]

The quote of the series happened tonight.

Ariel duringntheninterview as she was taxiing the C150 for the first time....

"I just want to be 100% comfortable. Be able to close my eyes and just land that plane easily before I solo."


I never knew Ponts was that good of a CFI to teach "blind" landings!

Even the narrator thinks she'll get her certificate in 40 hours - Ponts is that good!

Seriously though, I thought the last couple episodes were generally pretty good. Glad to see Ariel is in a real trainer.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Would you want this guy to be your CFI?