Clashmaker.com

You have to be genuinely resourceful if you ‘do stuff’ in the remoteness of bush. And if you’ve got a ‘bad day’, and got into a kind of emergency and, as a result, ended up with a sure chance to become stranded in the wilderness for a while, I’ll bet you do everything, employ all your ingenuity to get yourself out of the dire situation.

As I read the ‘Wings Beyond Road’s End’ on flying in Northern Saskatchewan, I get fascinated with ingenuity the airmen demonstrated in some episodes, and on the other hand, it seems flying in those days was just ‘loaded up with a chance’. Emergencies or irregularities could happen ‘routinely’, on everyday basis. It was a sort of unpleasant, but unavoidable part of the reality then. The following may seem to sound clumsy, but I believe that as a protection mechanism, as a skill, long sharpened by no less than ‘Darwinian ‘Struggle for Survival in effect’, the ingenuity should inevitably surface up as a distinguished trait in a pool of individuals plowing through hardships of living and acting in the bush.

I have just conveniently found these pictures in my archive. They were taken in the Ottawa Aviation Museum. Quite a clear display, showing how this contraption works, and how it was used by bush aviators when they needed to accomplish a task of engine change in the wilderness.

Obviously, in most cases there was no problem to find material for erecting a hoist frame, and rig it up with ropes or chains to build a lifting device similar to the pictured above. However, while flying to some places located, for example, in Barren Lands where there was lack of decent size trees, or no trees at all, the airmen would prudently take some timber with them, along with other supplies for a trip, - ‘just in case’ .

Still, even if there’s plenty of trees around, - “what’d we do if there’s no replacement engine handy in a cargo compartment?” To haul one over to a site was an affair far from simple, and it would surely be a ‘bit of waiting’ before the delivery arrive’. The stranded aviators would be exceptionally lucky if their rescue mission had another aircraft in disposal, and found them quick. Then it would also take some time to do ‘fetching arrangements’. Shipping the engine by means of ground transportation (anything available, - a ride on dog sleigh would surely do ) would mean (to a delivery party) setting off on a long and tough journey across the wilderness.

Of course, much has changed since the old, ‘pioneers’ time in the bush. However, even today replacing an engine, or, otherwise salvaging aircraft from the bush may pose a ‘no small challenge’, - especially, for a small operator, with limited resources.

Meanwhile, as we do a ‘two-side review’, and in order to keep with this line, lets take a quick glance on the other side of Arctic, - and the other time

On this picture (which I would date as of ‘late 70s-early 80s’) you can see a team of mechanics changing an engine on An-2, the plane that had long become ‘ubiquitous symbol’ of bush flying in the Soviet Union and later - in modern Russia. In fact, up to the date it happened to be a ’sole survivor’, still proudly representing once a multi-type fleet of the Soviet-built aircraft designed for sustained operation in the bush.

What ‘thought meat’ could be found in the picture? The hangar facility they are working in looks pretty solid (at least, to my inexperienced eye ), it gives an impression of a ‘permanent structure heated in the winter’, and they’ve got an electrically driven winch hanging down from a ceiling to support heavy objects, and move them around.

I should ask my friend Valentin for more information on that place’s whereabouts. But since it was ’somewhere in the Soviet Siberia of the 70s, or 80s’, - in the country where the whole system of civilian aviation (namely, ‘Aeroflot’) was owned by the state, and judging from the ‘facility’s size and level of equipment’, it may be pretty surely surmised we are seeing a rather typical maintenance base for that time. These bases were standard operational features deployed at many local Aeroflot’s flying outfits, based in fairly large towns, or cities that were growing fast all across Siberia at that time. In one specific sense, reading ‘Siberia’ would mean ‘Oil’, and, as we know from history, the Soviet government once ‘put a stake in oil’, and as well as they didn’t - with respect to the core industry, - nor they used to spare expense for developing any kind of supporting infrastructure, and aviation was regarded as a key element in building the country’s ‘mightiness’ based on oil.

I should put a remark that recognizing this detail may help you comprehend some obvious differences in the ways the bush aviation was evolving ‘on both sides of Arctic’.

And again, it should be said of a special role the helicopters in Siberia had  in this process.

Oh, the oil industry did crave for helicopters! Preferably, of huge size, capable lifting enormous loads of machinery, equipment, supplies, for hauling them directly to remote drill rigs, and all that stuff.

And if the need be - they should be powerful enough to take away the whole wreck of a bush plane from a crash site!

My friend Ivan posted these cool pictures on aviaforum.ru

And this picture was posted by another friend of mine, who used to work flying the An-2s in ‘absolutely authentic bush operation’ based in Eastern Siberia. Look at that camp they set up to support the operation. (Perhaps, ‘bush guys’ have instantly recognized famous ‘45-gallon drums’ - and indeed they are filled with the ‘blue juice’ - 100LL!)

I remember in one of his mails he mentioned an occasion when one of their Antonovs needed an engine change. I asked him for more information on how they were doing it on the field. “Oh, nothing exciting”, he went, “sometimes we’d be able to get a ‘hand’ from helicopter pilots, who would lift up and move away an unbolted engine on a sling, and put it down on whatever spot is arranged for that. When there’s no copter available for this job, we would do it ‘more traditional way’, using a metal frame shaped like a playground swing and equipped with a gearboxed winch. The An-2’s engine weighs about 900 kgs, by the way. Luckily, we had a great crew of mechanics, and I would tell you, - they were our main resource”.

No doubt, there could probably be so many stories of lost planes, lost crews, salvaged planes, rescued crews and so on. Maybe, there’s some stories of performing make-shift repairs ‘on the spot’ that eventually enabled the distressed airplanes get back home somehow..

But, tell you, ingenuity is the truly chief property found in a spirit challenging the rough and unknown..