I started my piloting career in Bethel, AK. You’ll never find Bethel in any books on Alaska, most people living in places like Anchorage have never even heard of it. What there are here are lots and lots of Yupik Eskimos. I flew these Eskimos with boxes of their stinky fish, moose, seal, or whatever other tundra creatures happen to be in season. Pilots here are nothing like the commercial pilots we are used to seeing in the regular world, with clean airplanes, adorned by pretty flight attendants and even prettier navy blue uniforms. The whole lifestyle up there, day and night is a dirty proposition. Houses are supplied with maybe 400 gallons of water per week, it’s brought in by truck and then the waste is again trucked out. Not conducive to things like showers, laundry and flushing of toilets. (The villages they fly into are dirtier yet.) Most fun though are the FAA operated runways, they are dirt and flying in this land is a muddy mess akin to 4-wheeling with wings. There is a group of friendly, hard working young men and women flying for Grant Aviation and can be found at: http://www.flygrant.com/ .Their website shows lots of uncharacteristically clean airplanes; however, you would have to travel to Bethel, Alaska for the whole story. Alaska Airlines fly right out of Anchorage to Bethel so it’s not a hard place to get to, just obscure.
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