Down River

Last year around this time Mike and I were heading down river on the Kustatan to pick up a new boat and bring it up river. Getting a boat across the inlet is a bit of a logistical dance orchestrated primarily by people working over on the west side of the inlet at the oil and gas facilities. They recieve all of their large equipment shipments via tug and barge. I happened to meet a Superintendent over there and we coordnated shipping a boat for the cabin across that week. He was kind enough to deliver the boat down to the riverbank where we could throw a motor on it and take it back up river. Right before we left the cabin to head down river we could hear a helicopter flying low in the area. As we made our way down river we soon found what the helicopter was probably looking for.

As we pulled the boat ashore to make sure the accident wasn't fresh, the helicopter landed just down the strip and two guys started unloading gear.

The Helicopter was in for the insurance company to salvage the cessna and drag it back to Anchorage. Both pilot and passenger were up from the states on a summer trip and made at least one bad decision, picking a poor landing location. The strip was so overgrown and rough I probably wouldn't have landed the cub on it. Despite all that, the pilot and passenger were both fine and were on their way home. The two men drilled holes in the wings to put a cable through, flipped the plane over using the heli, then attached to it and flew it out north. Pretty interesting process, but pretty expensive for somebody...

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