What Do You Do for a Living?

[deckofficer]

I have around (150) 100 mile hops in them. In Brazil, I wasn't a big fan of how they would max their payload by reduction of fuel. I always choose a seat that I could see their instrument panel and the idea of a 45 minute fuel reserve was always ignored. At least they paid attention to winds aloft and fueled accordingly.

Thankfully they didn't do it that way in the North Sea.

[Danibug]

This has interested me somewhat also. What is it that people do for a living while dreaming and preparing to go cruising.

You mean they aren't all hippies or rich people?

I am 28, college graduate with a degree in economics and work for an engineering firm as a Cost/Budget Manager for a $1B+ Construction Project. Have been doing this for about 5 years after college.

I think most of my peers are buying houses and having babies...We are buying composting toilets and solar panels;D
Dani

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Danibug

This has interested me somewhat also. What is it that people do for a living while dreaming and preparing to go cruising.

You mean they aren't all hippies or rich people?

Some of us were hippies, and some of us were rich. Can't say so now!

[Dreaming Yachtsman]

Originally Posted by Danibug

T
I think most of my peers are buying houses and having babies...We are buying composting toilets and solar panels;D
Dani

Sounds like you are preparing well for liveaboard life.

[Alaska JD]

I've done many things in the past 40 years. Perhaps the most significant have been 8 years working as a pilot and Director of Operations for a regional airline and the other (and far more fun) have been the past 15 years working as a clinical psychologist and for the last 5 years, also as the executive director for the clinic I work for.

[deckofficer]

Alaska JD,

I'm also a pilot, and while living in Alaska '92~'93, I met a lot of plane owners that never bothered to get a pilot's license. They just were taught by a friend, cleared some land near their home, and bought a plane and would have the seller give them a good checkout. I met enough to guess maybe 1 in 5 are unlicensed. Do you find this common still in Alaska? I seem to remember one guy saying "License? That is something they want you to do in the lower 48."

[Alaska JD]

Ya there are still a few around. My father-in-law (now deceased - not from a plane wreck) and an elderly friend are two I know of. There are many more, but the Feds are much more watchful than in the past. When I first moved to Alaska in 1984 it really was in many respects still a frontier - at least relative to the lower 48. I the past 10 years that has really started to change. I went to Chicago for graduate school from 1998 to 2002 and when I got home I couldn't believe how things had changed. There were even starting to be rules about their rules

Oh - that part about the seller giving the guy buying is airplane a good checkout? The quality of that was often highly variable. I haven't been active as a pilot since 1998 when I did some training for one of the other airlines. I thoroughly enjoyed flying up here while doing it, but what I do now is much better. Remote flying in Alaska is really a young man's gig

[Alaska JD]

When you were here in 92 - 93 did you ever get to Fairbanks? What did you do while you were here?

John

[deckofficer]

I was a two year tourist. Based in Valdez, chatted up the tanker's radio officers (still used them back then) on HAM radio, from the social visits while taking on the North Slope crude, I decided the Merchant Marine was a good fit for me and entered CMA upon my return to the lower 48. Brought up my motorhome and dinghy and waited for a weather window for going out through the Narrows and visited Colombian Glacier. Also did 800 miles of the Yukon, setting up a long wire each night on the beach, for talking HF to my cruising friends, maritime mobile to maritime mobile, then bush planed the dinghy and motor back out.

[Astrid]

Remote flying in Alaska is really a young man's gig

Or woman.

[Alaska JD]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

I was a two year tourist. Based in Valdez, chatted up the tanker's radio officers (still used them back then) on HAM radio, from the social visits while taking on the North Slope crude, I decided the Merchant Marine was a good fit for me and entered CMA upon my return to the lower 48. Brought up my motorhome and dinghy and waited for a weather window for going out through the Narrows and visited Colombian Glacier. Also did 800 miles of the Yukon, setting up a long wire each night on the beach, for talking HF to my cruising friends, maritime mobile to maritime mobile, then bush planed the dinghy and motor back out.

Wow - very cool adventure! It would have been great to cross paths while you were here - but there is still plenty of time. Somewhere we'll catch up

[Alaska JD]

Originally Posted by Astrid

Or woman.

Yep - or women . There were several women flying for the local airlines out of Fairbanks while I was flying here. They were excellent pilots and sometimes used better commen sense then some of the men that worked for me. The only downside was that sometimes they stuggled with the weight of the freight that was hauled. Cargo handlers did the work at this end, but in the village, though sometimes there were people around to help, the pilot was responsible to getting the plane unloaded.

[deckofficer]

Do you think Arial Tweto will finally get her ticket? She has soloed. My 92 year old dad thinks of her as a beloved great grand daughter and always watches "Flying Wild Alaska".

[Alaska JD]

Probably - it's tough to be as exposed to aviation as she is without taking the plunge.

I'll be at a conference in San Francisco the week of Oct. 20th. I'll PM you about specifics. It'd be great to share a beer or coffee if you're around.

Oh - tell your dad he has great taste in TV programing

[deckofficer]

Dad always told me he wouldn't fly with me till I had 5000 hours. He used to be an officer in the Navy in aircraft maintenance and repair during WW II, and I think those Navy pilots scared him on the repair rides. I enjoyed the show from the beginning, he started enjoying it ever since the directors were giving Arial more camera time.