The weather in Bethel sucks.  But the flying is fun.  

Welcome to bush Alaska.  Wait the weather does get better, I jokes.  Do not worry it is a village joke.  Enjoy it while you can

Just wait

Today and yesterday were beautiful.   too bad it woulnt stay this way.

The weather is just part of it, you are in BETHEL!  I think it just adds to the overall suckiness of Bethel itself.

It's always sunny above the clouds!

Glad you made it up here and are getting in your flying groove.  Not long from now you will have a good basic understanding of how it all works up then you can make changes if you feel you need to.  Plenty of air space to be flown up here, many regions, with many climates.  Any one place is not representative of the rest of the state as you will come to find out.

Wait till Winter, then you'll truly have weather to complain about

Bethel weather can be a pain man.  Always drove me nuts in the summer when it fogged in for the first three or four hours of my flying day.

Wait until the winter though.  Have you gotten to do special VFR in/out of there on a busy day yet?  Make sure that you're familiar and carry a copy of the letter of agreement with you.  Or at least the radials to fly inbound on until you've got em down.  Makes everybody's life (especially yours) easier when the weather goes down.  You'll know what I mean (if you don't already) when you have 13 guys in the southwest hold at 500 ft and 2 miles vis in snow and fog....   and all of a sudden somebody who doesn't know what's going on comes blasting through the hold.  

PKA (that's the north one right?, or is it WNA???  anyway, the one just east of BET) makes a great place to run and hide if all four holds are full and there are 5 IFRs inbound.

As much as that place could suck, I sure do miss it up there.

Quoted: Bethel weather can be a pain man.  Always drove me nuts in the summer when it fogged in for the first three or four hours of my flying day. Wait until the winter though.  Have you gotten to do special VFR in/out of there on a busy day yet?  Make sure that you're familiar and carry a copy of the letter of agreement with you.  Or at least the radials to fly inbound on until you've got em down.  Makes everybody's life (especially yours) easier when the weather goes down.  You'll know what I mean (if you don't already) when you have 13 guys in the southwest hold at 500 ft and 2 miles vis in snow and fog....   and all of a sudden somebody who doesn't know what's going on comes blasting through the hold.   PKA (that's the north one right?, or is it WNA???  anyway, the one just east of BET) makes a great place to run and hide if all four holds are full and there are 5 IFRs inbound. As much as that place could suck, I sure do miss it up there.

I've done the Special hold once on a training flight.  there were only 3 planes inbound we went around the hold one time.  it wasnt too bad, but the wx was only just barely ifr.  PKA and WNA are both just outside the class D. im told PKA is the one to go to if you want to wait it out.  

The weather has been a drag. but it keeps the flying interesting.

GlocknAK, who did you work for?

Ben, The_Emu

Hey Emu,

I worked for ATS (Arctic Transportation Services).  All boxes, no peeps.  Loading the CASA could be a drag in the winter if we had oversized freight, but it had BLEED AIR HEAT.  My three favorite words when it's 45 below at altitudehat
The vast majority of my time was there in BET, but I got to fly out of St Mary's, Aniak, Unalakleet, Nome and Kotzebue.  In three years of flying in the Bush I saw more of Alaska than I saw in the two previous decades.  Kotzebue was my favorite hub of all.  I learned to really like the area around BET, but Kotz is the Alaska that I picture in my dreams.

I'll be back in AK as soon as I can .

By the way, IM on the way...

I went out to Hooper bay then flew through the pass to Scammon Bay. i was blown away, its beautiful out there.

The weather seems to change every hour and every 15 miles.  What fun.


Really, im enjoying it here.

GlocknAK, are you coming back to Bethel?  Look me up, we can go shooting.

Ben The_Emu

PS. i like this company will probably stay for a while, but, does anyone know of an operator who flies single pilot in a Twin Otter or other turbine twin?