Clouddancer's Alaskan Chronicles, Volume Iii: The Tragedies

By CloudDancer

Alaskan Chronicles fans need look no further than the front cover, to know this book is a dramatic change from CloudDancer's first two humorous literary efforts. The new cover reflects the somber theme of the stories within. So what's happened? Did Cloudy run out of funny stories? No.

CloudDancer still loves a good laugh or great flying story. When combined, all is right with the world. (Adding a gorgeous dame and a Bacardi and Coke helps too.) Another volume of Arctic flying funnies someday is a given.

But, a while back, desperate to find an inner peace, and extinguish smoldering embers of anger that had glowed within for decades, CloudDancer wrote"Chains and Padlocks." It recounts the loss of two people he loved deeply. Internet response was overwhelmingly positive. And CloudDancer felt the exercise had helped to keep the inner demons at bay.

Thus the genesis of this book; a collection of drama-filled tragedies. The little humor within is mostly ironic. All are written from the perspective of his direct involvement, as either a participant, or an observer of the drama. Seems Arctic flying, while mostly fun, is not always funny. All too often, people get killed doing it. Sometimes theyre your friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450209120

CloudDancer

CloudDancer today flys for a U.S. Airline. Logging his first flying hours at age 13 in 1967, his 25,000+ hour logbooks include 12,000 flown in arctic Alaska. Those hours provided both the drama and the laughter contained herein. Since running away at 19 to Alaska, CloudDancer remains devoted to “the Great Land”

Book preview

CloudDancer’s Alaskan

Chronicles

Volume III

CloudDancer

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Bloomington

Copyright © 2010 by Alaskan Chronicles Distribution

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any

information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book

may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work

are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the

publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4502-0911-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-0912-0 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 01/26/10

CONTENTS

Foreword

Author’s Acknowledgments

Handy List of

Acronym Meanings

Chains and Padlocks

1

2

3

4

Epilogue(*)

Superheroes Only Live

in

Comic Books

1

2

3

4

5

That Sparkle In His Eyes

1

2

3

4

Catch A Falling Star

1

2

3

In The Beginning

(The Sequel)

1

2

3

Letting Go

Dedication

This volume of CloudDancer’s Alaskan Chronicles is

written in commemoration of lives cut short. Listed

below are not only the names of those whose stories

are told herein, but also several other of my friends.

All died flying while in service to their fellow Alaskans.

Wayne Brockman

Chris Conroe

Dan Denslow

Warren Ace Dodson

Roger Dowding

Lee Eckles

Joe Firmin

Hal Graham

Tom Hallet

Jeff Knauer

Martin Olson

Russ Santema

Joe Sigmund

Norm Yeager

May it serve as a tribute to your friends lost as well.

And in special memory of

Antoinette Marie Googy Bernhardt

Foreword

By Stan Jones

Most of us probably can’t get on a plane without wondering if we’re stepping onto the one flight in a million that goes down with no survivors.

Thankfully, that doesn’t happen very often these days, certainly not in modern jet airliners flying the heavily controlled airspace over the continental United States.

But there was a time and place not so long ago where fatal crashes were, if not everyday occurrences, not rare ones, either.

That place was the wild country of Arctic Alaska—a sprawling swath of tundra, mountains, lakes, rivers, and seacoast draped along the farthest edge of the northernmost of the United States. The time was the 1970s and 1980s, when tiny single-engine planes like the Cessna 207 were still the mainstay of an air taxi system that linked Alaska’s far-flung Bush villages with each other and with the outside world. There weren’t many navigation aids or airports, and weather reports and forecasts were sketchy and unreliable.

This book is about that time and place and the men who flew those tiny airplanes in it, men who—in these stories—unknowingly took on death as a copilot when they took off for the last time.

This book’s author is one of those men. Time after time, he joined the frustrating search or the agonizing wait, and later the painful mourning, for a lost pilot who was a friend, co-worker or drinking buddy, or all three.

Then, one day, his turn came. With years of Arctic flying under his belt and a near-new Bush plane in perfect working order under his control, he caught one of those curveballs that fate and the Alaska weather stash away to throw at an unsuspecting pilot at the worst possible moment.

You’ll have to read the story to understand just how terrifying the experience was, what it was like to realize that death was, in fact, flying copilot that day, what it was like to arm-wrestle him for the outcome.

As you’ll see, they fought it to a draw. The plane was totaled. CloudDancer survived without a physical scratch or scar, but still wrestles with the inner demons born on the tundra near Nome so long ago.

Like Ishmael from Moby Dick, he has returned to tell his tale, and the tales of so many others who have only CloudDancer to speak for them.

For that, all of us who love a good story and think the passing of good people should be respected and remembered owe CloudDancer a huge debt of gratitude

Stan Jones, Anchorage

Fellow aviator and author of the Nathan Active mystery series: White Sky, Black Ice, Shaman Pass, Frozen Sun, and Village of the Ghost Bears.

Also, co-author with Sharon Bushell of "The Spill: Personal Stories of the Exxon Valdez Disaster"

www.sjbooks.com

Author’s Acknowledgments

This was not an easy book to put together. Except for one, all of the stories end in a fatal tragedy. The Prologue to the first story will give you some limited insight as to how I have (mostly un-successfully) tried to deal with these memories for up to 30 years.

In a couple of the stories I am a main character, while in others I am merely a bit player with no more than a line or two of dialogue. Yet, even in those cases, I was present to witness the entire drama. I stood by helplessly, unable to have any impact on the outcome.

And although these were my friends, my anguish is nothing when compared to that of the actual family members. The parents, siblings, and children of those whose last flights are recounted here, have no doubt ached with the pain of loss every day since. Now, they have been so kind and gracious, as to allow me permission to share these most private events of their lives with you. My humble thanks.

It is my most fervent hope that they will regard this recounting of such tragic events as a tribute to the service their loved ones gave to their fellow Alaskans. It will I know serve as such for me, as well as a tribute to all those listed on the Dedication page.

CloudDancer

Cover artwork for this volume of CloudDancer’s Alaskan Chronicles was created by the very talented Ms. Ambrosia Burbank of Olympia, Washington. She nailed it. Thanks, Ambrosia.

Handy List of

Acronym Meanings

ADF - Automatic Direction Finder (a low frequency navigation radio)

AGL - Above Ground Level

ANC - Anchorage

A/S - Airspeed

BRW - Pt. Barrow

BS - Sometimes it means Blowing Snow

CDI - Course Deviation Indicator

CHT - (Engine) Cylinder Head(s) Temperature

DG - Directional Gyro (think electric or vacuum operated gyro compass)

FAI - Fairbanks

FED/FEDS - F.A.A. Flight or Maintenance Inspectors (O.K. guys…mostly)

FSS - Flight Service Station (a division of the F.A.A.)

GCA - Ground Controlled Approach (radar operator talks you down)

HF - High Frequency communications radio

IAS - indicated airspeed

IFR - Instrument Flight Rules

KIAS - indicated airspeed in knots

MAG/mag - Magneto (Think distributor on your car’s engine)

MAYDAY - International radio distress call

MSL - Mean (above) Sea Level

NM - Nautical Mile(s) (About 7/8’s of a regular mile)

NWS - National Weather Service

OAT - Outside Air Temperature

OME - Nome

OTZ - Kotzebue

RPM - Revolutions Per Minute

TAL - Tanana

SLED/sled - Sometimes Author’s disrespectful term for a Cessna 207

VFR - Visual Flight Rules

VHF - Very High Frequency

VOR - Very high Omni Range (a high frequency navigation radio)

Chains and Padlocks

Prologue

Somewhere in a dark corner of the dusty attic of CloudDancer’s mind, there is a locked closet. The sole contents of which is one footlocker. It is wrapped in multiple heavy chains, padlocked securely, and tightly shut. It holds all of CloudDancer’s Alaskan Chronicles Vol. III, The Tragedies, and more.

Once a year however, on the 21st of November, somehow one memory, one Houdini of a memory, escapes the bonds and shackles and slips out under the locked closet door. Every November 21st except one since 1978, it has shown up uninvited. Though I came to dread it; after the first few years, it no longer surprised me. So I just dealt with it, albeit not very well.

Inside that footlocker, among the well over a dozen tragic memories locked therein, it has been by far, the most personally devastating of all the fatal Tragedies. No other story could come before this one, in such a book.

1

Two Kids in Love

She was irrepressible at barely nineteen. So beautiful, vibrant and full of life, her given name was Antoinette Marie Bernhardt, though everyone called her Googy. [goo-gee with hard g(s)] An Eskimo girl born in a Kobuk Valley village, she was raised Catholic, and was the apple of her father’s eye. He even named his airplane after her. GOD she was gorgeous, happy, intelligent and hard working. In addition to being captain of her Kotzebue high school cheerleading squad, she was my baby sister in all but blood. Her oldest brother had become, and remained my best friend. He and I had met within days of my very first arrival in Kotzebue. However, being a traditional native adult male in a very traditional society, he had a hard time relating to his younger sister’s boyfriend, school, and best friend kind of problems. As her own parents even accepted me as just another kid in the family, the girl I’d known since she was a sophomore in high school often came to me for help and advice.

She had not long ago ended a horrible relationship, the result of a high school romance with the school’s star basketball player. Off court though, the kid didn’t seem to have too much on the ball as far as I could see. I and her entire family were glad to see that one end.

Her new love was just a little younger than me as I remember. His name was Russ Santema, and he had come north from Rock Valley, Iowa to fly with us at Ray Ferguson’s Kotzebue Flying Service initially.

He was twenty, or maybe a year older then. I forget. Spiritual people often have talked about angels walking among us here on earth. Russ might have truly been one. Lord knows he flew like an angel. With no more than three thousand hours he soared, sailed and wheeled about the arctic skies. He had the style and grace of a pilot with five times more experience. To top it off Russ was a Hollywood casting director’s dream of a good looking young leading man. Born and raised in a small town, this devout Protestant, was a non-smoker and tee-totaling, cherub cheeked, farm boy. How the Fergusons found him or he found us I can’t remember. Maybe it was Divine Intervention. We became roommates and close friends.

As would be inevitable under the circumstances my flying buddy met my little sister and the rest as they say was magic. But talk about fire and ice; imagine the mixture! A committed-to-Jesus Protestant boy, and a Catholic, in baptism at least, party girl who drinks and smokes for heaven’s sake.

Bad enough Russ had to spend so much time as it was praying for CloudDancer, his well-meaning but sinful roommate. Though his friend Cloudy was obviously kind, and gentle, and wanted to do good; he was constantly losing his battles with the demon alcohol and the demon lust. And now, on top of that, Russ had fallen for this girl. He was in LOVE with this….this beautiful girl. And she was just as head over heels in love with him too. But she kept sinning, at least according to how he had been raised! I mean she tried not too. But a guy could only spend so much time a day praying for his friends, you know?

Well, time passed and Ol’ CloudDancer moved to a new outfit in town, down the ramp flying Britten-Norman BN2-A Islanders. It was a pretty good deal, so he talked Russ into joining up with the new organization too. It wasn’t a hard sell, since Googy worked for the same company at the ticket counter. She and Russ were then able to see even more of each other. And often, when her workday ended, she would fly all over the valley with him until he was done for the night.

Eventually they finally figured out how they would come to terms with what they perceived as each other’s faults. They would work together, to help each other be stronger, together. Of course, this was only after they had broken up and both come to me individually. In heart-broken anguished moments they talked to me about how they couldn’t possibly live the rest of their lives apart.

So good ol’ Dr. CloudDancer counseled Russ. He had said "Cloudy, I can’t spend my life with someone so…so unable to come to the Lord’s Table. And then I asked him, Is your faith built on a foundation of strong solid bedrock or quicksand? And he answered Bedrock of course! And I queried him again. Given that fact, is there any way time spent with her is going to weaken your faith? I received a prompt and emphatic No way. in reply. So Doctor CloudDancer then suggested that quite possibly he should just lay back a little. Try laying off a little and lead by example. I said continuing, Maybe that’s how the Big Guy upstairs intended for him to achieve his goal."

Then Dr. CloudDancer also told Googy that her job was to try a little harder and to cut him some slack because his motivation was good.

Problem is solved! Two days later Googy ran up to me as she saw me walking the opposite direction down 3rd Avenue. She threw herself into my arms, gave me a great big hug and sisterly kisses, on the cheeks as she told me "I love you. I love you CloudDancer. You can fix anything!", before continuing on her way to the terminal to work.

Weeks and months went by as their relationship grew stronger and stronger. Googy mellowed, having found in Russ the fulfillment for all the inner longings that had prompted most of her wild behavior. And as she mellowed, Russ relaxed more and more basking in the glow of her now pure love. It was only a matter of a brief time before an inevitable marriage would occur. Russ and Googy were deliriously happy together. And Ol’ CloudDancer couldn’t have been happier for both of them, while also slightly envious.

But how would the rest of both families deal with it. There were some concerns, maybe, in some people’s eyes. It was the 1970’s. Eskimo-White, Protestant-Catholic, a sinner and a saint. But as it turned out, they would never have to face those battles. On a calm, incredibly clear night, with a full glorious brilliant moon bathing the arctic; their relationship, and my life, were forever changed and intertwined. CloudDancer and dozens of other folks, were quite unexpectedly thrust into the middle of what would become for them a lifelong mystery.

2

Into Thin Air

It was the Monday before Thanksgiving in 1977, and weather for the last two to three days