Bush Plane Wild Ride

 Never have I ever remembered feeling closer to death than I did Friday afternoon. I really wanted to get my ankle looked at. It was still super painful and swollen. I felt like it should be at least 10% better after almost a week of staying off it, and keeping it up and iced. 

Initially, the plane from False Pass to Anchorage for Friday was full, but when I called back Friday morning to see if someone had cancelled, I was in luck and thought it was a sign. While sitting at the runway waiting for the plane the winds started up and the clouds rolled in. Brady was visibly getting worried, and I was thinking "it's fine, they wouldn't fly if it wasn't." 

I got on the plane and Chris, our very young, very cute pilot informed me that it would be about 5 hours before we arrived in Anchorage because we are making 5 more stops. Albeit, we would see some beautiful parts of Alaska. I am sitting there thinking, "I just paid $1,000 to ride on a ghetto bush plane with no bathroom for the next 5 hours?" They should really inform passengers of this ahead of time. Chris gave me the safety spiel and pointed out the very important red button I must push if we go down, and I am the last person alive on the plane. Well, thank you Chris, that was very comforting. NOT! He then said the ride was going to be very bumpy because of the wind, but we'd quickly fly above it and all would be smooth. "Ok, I can do this" is the thought in my head. We take off, it isn't actually bumpy, and it is beautiful. Then out of nowhere winds pickup and the plane starts being tossed about the sky and the navigational instruments are beeping like crazy. It seriously felt like a scene from the movies as the plane is going down! Only the plane wasn't going down, but I was certain it was imminent. I realize that seatbelts on airplanes are for moments like this as I hit my head on the ceiling in a zero gravity moment. I am holding on for dear life while luggage is airborne flying around behind me. I pray nothing hits me in the head. I can't control my bad ankle during zero gravity, and it bangs the metal bar on the seat in front of me. If it isn't broken I swear it is now. This may have lasted an entire minute or maybe five. I do not know because it felt like an eternity. If the plane doesn't crash and kill me I know that the heart attack I am about to have will. An eternity later everything settles down and we're good for a moment. That was definitely the worst of the near death flight experiences. After tightening my seatbelt, we did not experience anymore weightless moments, but there were still plenty of plane tossing, instrument beeping experiences still to come. As we stop at each little village on the way back to Anchorage and people say "I didn't think the plane would actually come in this weather, I wasn't sure I would get off the island this weekend." I was thinking. "Jesus take the wheel, because Chris needs to get us all safely to Anchorage." I have seriously never prayed so hard in my entire life. "Jesus take the wheel, calm the wind, calm the wind, I believe in Christ, students would be so sad if their principal's and teachers died." (We had one other principal and two teachers on the plane). "Chris isn't married and needs to have the opportunity to find a cute wife, my daughter is probably too young. My kids would not do well if I die today, Heavenly Father just calm the winds and help Chris fly this plane." This was repeated over and over and over and over in my head. It must have worked because we made it to Anchorage. The winds got worse and the ride really bumpy every time we flew where the mountains and the beach meet and the tiny villages appear. Chris descends to the runway which begins and ends with water and is all ice because there's a decent amount of snow and it's really cold. The plane is rocking back and forth, the wings aren't level, and the instruments are beeping like crazy. I keep expecting a hard painful landing. I have experienced some horrible landings on big commercial planes with very smooth runways and no weather. Yet Chris was somehow able to make us feel like we were landing on a pillow every time. Taking off wasn't bad either even though one time I was sure we didn't have enough runway and that we wouldn't get high enough fast enough to clear the mountains in front of us. At one point I asked Chris if flying in this weather gave him anxiety. He said, "It used to, but not anymore." He has put in 3,000 flight hours in the past two years. That averages out to 4 hours of flight time a day. I guess you figure it out or die trying. Thank goodness he figured it out. I still wonder how old he is, because he's my daughters kind of cute, but she's not 18 for two more months so I need to stop. She would be mortified. =)

I was amazed at the calm of the other passengers. They're reading and acting like instrument beeping, rocking planes are normal. They were not ruffled at all. I was very glad I chose to sit in the very back (as walking is hard) so that no one could see my terrified ash white face. 

Here is the list of tiny villages I got to land in and literally see all of that most people will never see in their life. Perryville, Chignik (has an active volcano that spits ash and sometimes prohibits flying over), Port Heiden, Dillingham (they had an actual paved runway and one paved road in town), and Port Alsworth (I want to vacation here, it was beautiful).

Front of the bush plane

Back of the bush plane where all the bags landed after weightless craziness

View from above.

These mountains aren't that high, and we are flying very low.

Now you know why I was afraid we might hit one as we were tossed about.

This was Dillingham. I bet the green during summer is beautiful

This is one of the icy runways. Not sure how he even got the plane to stop.

The other islands weren't a sheet of ice. They were more an inch of fresh snow.

Once in Anchorage, I was blessed to have the other principal on the plane offer to give me a ride to my hotel. He was giving his teacher on the plane a ride, and was happy to spare me waiting for an Uber. Yes please, and thank you so much. 

Saturday I went to the orthopedic clinic and was told the same thing the nurse practitioner on the island told me. It's not broken (confirmed with x-rays). It's a bad soft tissue injury and will take at least eight weeks to heal. I love the nurse practitioner on the island, and I guess I should've trusted her. I have never had an injury like this and want to be able to run again. She promised me that I would, but I needed to be sure. I spent a lot of money on airfare and hotel to get confirmation, but now I know, and will definitely not doubt the np on the island in the future. 

I chose Embassy Suites for the on sight restaurant, because it made getting food very easy. Hotel restaurants do not always have amazing food, but this one did. This was the best Prime Rib, mashed potatoes, and vegetables that I have ever had.