{"id":18947,"date":"2021-10-24T09:55:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T13:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=18947"},"modified":"2021-10-24T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-24T13:58:32","slug":"episode-461-sikorsky-helicopters-on-bering-sea-gas-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=18947","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 461 SIKORSKY HELICOPTERS ON BERING SEA GAS DROP"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 461 \u00a0 SIKORSKY HELICOPTERS\u00a0ON BERING SEA GAS DROP<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
oct. 2021<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"D8BD3648-B7DA-4141-AC4A-E1E7486E46D7_1_105_c.jpeg\"<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the Alaska job in 1959 everything needed had to be ferried by<\/div>\n
S 52 helicopters\u00a0to the site in the interior of SW Alaska…the barren lands.<\/div>\n
Gasoline was hung in a cargo net beneath the helicopter with an<\/div>\n
emergency lever \u00a0beside the pilot. In the event of a sudden downdraft<\/div>\n
he would hit the lever and drop the load. \u00a0 I was told (ture or false) that<\/div>\n
a diamond\u00a0drill hung in this fashion had to be\u00a0suddenly dropped in a<\/div>\n
sudden down draft. \u00a0 No one ever tried to retrieve\u00a0it as it fell like a great<\/div>\n
speer into the spongy land below.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We were ferried to our job sites every morning by S 52's from our base camp when the ex-US air force pilots would yell into the loud speaker.<\/div>\n
“Let's get fucking airborne”.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As mentioned in an earlier Episode, our 5 man \u00a0Canadian crew were<\/div>\n
all armed with 30-06 rifles in case of Kodiak bear attacks. \u00a0 We could<\/div>\n
not carry\u00a0the rifles and the survey gear so stacked the rifles at the<\/div>\n
drop site each day.\u00a0 No Kodiak bear attacked us.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 I was told<\/div>\n
bears find the smell of humans awful.\u00a0 Probably true in our case.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This job on the Alaskan barren lands was my training field for the<\/div>\n
job in Ireland in 1960…thanks to field man Bill Morrison.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Our base camp held 30 men … 5 Canadians and 25 American\u00a0diamond<\/div>\n
drillers.\u00a0 Too many had revolvers in my opinion…and used them<\/div>\n
too often.\u00a0 One of the drillers (nice guy normally) said” “Watch this!”<\/div>\n
And he made a quick draw from his holster and fired at a beaver in<\/div>\n
the creek below camp. He killed the poor thing.\u00a0 He did not mean to<\/div>\n
do this.\u00a0 This incident is one reason I dislike guns.\u00a0 People do stupid<\/div>\n
things with guns.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
P.S. When the job was over the camp was bull dozed\u00a0over the<\/div>\n
little cliff and covered with rubbish and soil. \u00a0 Too expensive to<\/div>\n
retrieve. \u00a0 The site may become one of the largest copper mining<\/div>\n
sites in the US…but is currently just a barren land with creeks\u00a0<\/div>\n
annually\u00a0filled with salmon trying to spawn and then die much to<\/div>\n
the enjoyment of kodiak bears…all of whom are well fed.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Canadian crew….Mike Chinnery (boss), Dr. John Stam (boss),<\/div>\n
Don Van Every, Ian Rutherford, Bill Morrison and Alan Skeoch (field men…realy\u00a0university of Toronto students)<\/div>\n
Location….Dillingham, Alaska on Bering Sea which was once<\/div>\n
the land bridge from Siberia to North America\u00a010, 000 years ago.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 461 \u00a0 SIKORSKY HELICOPTERS\u00a0ON BERING SEA GAS DROP alan skeoch oct. 2021 On the Alaska job in 1959 everything needed had to be ferried by S 52 helicopters\u00a0to the site in the interior of SW Alaska…the barren lands. Gasoline was hung in a cargo net beneath the helicopter with an emergency lever \u00a0beside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}