I plop down over a quarter of the way down the lake, and it feels as though I will run out of room on the water before getting turned around. I shove the yoke forward to dig in the front of the floats and "tap the brakes" just as Bob showed me on our test flight. The plane porpoises to a stop. I will find out throughout the season, that this is a feeling I will get used to. Just make the approach a little lower, no need to worry about scaring the neighbors with low overflights or loud noise here! The bears and moose seldom complain of our existence to the FAA. There are three small docks at the beach, of which Branham has taken the center.
I take the large on one the left because it looks more likely to hold the large load about to be expunged from every crevice of the beaver. I wait for Branham to critique my approach or landing, but he doesn't say a word about it. Just gets right to the business of unloading the planes. No tour of the grounds, no critique. It's as if I have worked here for years, and I am to know what to do. We are met at the docks by Patrick, Lucas, and Butch arriving on 4 wheelers pulling carts. We unload the Helio first, as it is full of boxes of food and baggage from the workers who have sent things to Anchorage ahead of them. Forming a line from the plane to the carts, it takes only a few minutes to have the entire plane unloaded. Next the beaver, which is full of the "shopping list" sent by the construction crew weeks ago. Large strips of aluminum roofing, thousands of roofing screws, a stapler, two new drills, and some window treatments for the Branham's living area. The roofing aluminum is as difficult to unload as it was to load. The 8 foot pieces are unwieldy and sharp, and will easily cut into a bare naked hand. They are the largest thing that will fit into the beaver. The back two rows of passenger seats have been removed so that the sheets can be slid in through the cavernous baggage door. The forward end lies just behind the pilot's seat, and the rear end rests against the aft bulkhead, and is as wide as the rear of the airplane. I have never hauled anything quite so heavy before, and foolishly questioned Branham when we stopped loading the plane when it only appeared half full. The tails of the floats were firmly on the beach at Lake Hood during the loading process, a fact I had failed to account for as I was expecting the tails of the floats to be slightly submerged under a full load. Branham assured me that with my full load of fuel and this 1200 pounds of roofing aboard, the trees would look big enough at the end of the lake and he didn't want me staining his new white fiberglass floats with the green pine needles in the treetops. I sheepishly shut my mouth and helped him load his plane in silence, still amazed at how much all that weighed.
I take the large on one the left because it looks more likely to hold the large load about to be expunged from every crevice of the beaver. I wait for Branham to critique my approach or landing, but he doesn't say a word about it. Just gets right to the business of unloading the planes. No tour of the grounds, no critique. It's as if I have worked here for years, and I am to know what to do. We are met at the docks by Patrick, Lucas, and Butch arriving on 4 wheelers pulling carts. We unload the Helio first, as it is full of boxes of food and baggage from the workers who have sent things to Anchorage ahead of them. Forming a line from the plane to the carts, it takes only a few minutes to have the entire plane unloaded. Next the beaver, which is full of the "shopping list" sent by the construction crew weeks ago. Large strips of aluminum roofing, thousands of roofing screws, a stapler, two new drills, and some window treatments for the Branham's living area. The roofing aluminum is as difficult to unload as it was to load. The 8 foot pieces are unwieldy and sharp, and will easily cut into a bare naked hand. They are the largest thing that will fit into the beaver. The back two rows of passenger seats have been removed so that the sheets can be slid in through the cavernous baggage door. The forward end lies just behind the pilot's seat, and the rear end rests against the aft bulkhead, and is as wide as the rear of the airplane. I have never hauled anything quite so heavy before, and foolishly questioned Branham when we stopped loading the plane when it only appeared half full. The tails of the floats were firmly on the beach at Lake Hood during the loading process, a fact I had failed to account for as I was expecting the tails of the floats to be slightly submerged under a full load. Branham assured me that with my full load of fuel and this 1200 pounds of roofing aboard, the trees would look big enough at the end of the lake and he didn't want me staining his new white fiberglass floats with the green pine needles in the treetops. I sheepishly shut my mouth and helped him load his plane in silence, still amazed at how much all that weighed.
