Mission: Siberia part 1
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:21 pmDate... somewhere early 1990s
Place: Taymyr Peninsula, west of Khatanga
So we got the call that some guy from an indigenous village was driven over by a tractor and needed immediate assistance. The Antonovs were all busy or being repaired so we got the old Lisunov instead...
Arriving at the closest official airstrip, we got the latest details of what was happening. One of the Nenets guys traveled to the village with a canoe to tell the radio operator what exactly happened. The local doctor wanted the wounded guy airlifted to the village for treatment.
So we loaded the canoe in the plane, found a guy who could act as interpeter and got going.
At takeoff we discovered that the canoe guy never flew on a plan before... a bottle of vodka took care of that but we needed him to get to his camp so we had him visit the cckopit.
We decided to follow the river as that was the best landmark in the whole area and the only route known by our guide. What he did in a day took us about an hour.
When the river got more narrow, our guide couldnt give any navigation hints, so we followed a search pattern. That didnt make the already airsick passengers do any better...
Eventually we found the camp, to the relief of our guide who was almost declared dead in absence.
So we loaded the wounded guy, and took off to return to civilisztion again.
More in part 2
Place: Taymyr Peninsula, west of Khatanga
So we got the call that some guy from an indigenous village was driven over by a tractor and needed immediate assistance. The Antonovs were all busy or being repaired so we got the old Lisunov instead...
Arriving at the closest official airstrip, we got the latest details of what was happening. One of the Nenets guys traveled to the village with a canoe to tell the radio operator what exactly happened. The local doctor wanted the wounded guy airlifted to the village for treatment.
So we loaded the canoe in the plane, found a guy who could act as interpeter and got going.
At takeoff we discovered that the canoe guy never flew on a plan before... a bottle of vodka took care of that but we needed him to get to his camp so we had him visit the cckopit.
We decided to follow the river as that was the best landmark in the whole area and the only route known by our guide. What he did in a day took us about an hour.
When the river got more narrow, our guide couldnt give any navigation hints, so we followed a search pattern. That didnt make the already airsick passengers do any better...
Eventually we found the camp, to the relief of our guide who was almost declared dead in absence.
So we loaded the wounded guy, and took off to return to civilisztion again.
More in part 2