Street Scene In Petropavlovsk
(Image from May 22, 1999 - Diary Entry)
Charlie Coming On To The Ice
(Image from June 13, 1998 - Diary Entry)
Charlie by his Kolb
Aircraft
(Image from June 13, 1998 - Diary Entry)
Elevators of the plane
(Image from August 17, 1999 - Diary Entry)
(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)
Please Note:
These images are all from previous entries due to the breakage of the
digital camera. New images will be arriving hopefully with the next entry.
The real frustration has been with these two orphaned cubs which I was told about several weeks ago. They were alleged to be at a hunter's camp a few hundred miles to the north near the town of Ust Kamchatsk at the mouth of the Kamchatka River. I wanted to go get them instead of going to Kambalnoe Lake but was told that everything would be taken care of and they would be in Petropavlovsk in a week. When I got back, I was told that they had been accidentally killed by dogs while in transport. I blamed myself for not going to get them as was my first inclination because I realize it would be impossible for anyone to understand how precious their cargo was.
Later, I was told that these were not the same cubs that were killed but a different set in another town. The original cubs are supposed to be still alive far out in a hunting camp. I said "great, lets go get them" but was told that it could be a rumor and we could spend a couple thousand dollars for nothing. That is where I stand, vacillating between thinking the whole thing was a fabrication from the first to believing that they were killed and I was told they were different because of the embarrassment of it.
Today, I hear that they are still alive and well. Such are the delights of working here. I am quite convinced that there are no cubs which is ironic because there have been cubs every year since we came to Russia in 1994. By changing our location to continue our study this is the first year we have official permission to take orphans and there are none. There were five available last year. The year we finally just took Chico, Biscuit and Rosie, we were refused permission at the last minute.
I have had plenty of work to do to get my Kolb aircraft ready for another season of flying. A year ago, in July, I had a small accident while landing on a snowdrift. It was a case of not looking close enough first and realizing once I was on the snow that it was far from level, sloped down in the direction I was landing and also to the right. I compounded the problem by not immediately putting on power and taking off again but instead decided to ground loop which is to spin around while keeping the wings level by adding power and using opposite aileron and lots of rudder. When I attempted this my float caught on something and it flipped me back in the direction I had been headed in the first place which was into a rock pile. I quickly tried again and managed to at least get siding sideways and slowed up a bit before getting to the rocks. I knocked the sponson off which is the small balancing float at the end of each wing and when the wing dipped into a rock it buckled the outside rib in one place and broke two of the braces attaching the wingtip bow which rounds out the end of the wing.
After assessing the problem, I decided that there was plenty of strength left in the area to allow me to keep flying after easily putting the sponson back on. Thankfully, this plane is designed to be very strong. I did not write about it at the time because I didn't want people to worry (or think I am totally crazy). Instead of repairing the wing last summer, I decided to rebuild the elevators because there was some loosening of the rivets from being buffeted by the wind on the ground which had a far greater possibility for repercussions.
Last week, with the help of my friends who run the flying school here, I stripped the fabric off the end of the wing and rebuilt the aluminum components, recovered it including paint and flew for a couple hours to get the feel back before heading into the boonies.
Maureen is to arrive in a couple days with another digital camera. She sounds very tired from organizing everything to get ready to leave, finishing a sculpture commission she was working on, discussing details with my brother Gordon who will hire a crew to build the coral and small barn we are building at my family ranch, plus preparing for her September show in Moscow. Maureen and maybe I, will go to Moscow from here to attend the opening of Maureen's exhibition and then return to the camp and then in early October we will head back to Canada.
Our current plans are to first go back to our cabin at Kambalnoe Lake to live with Chico, Biscuit, Brandy and her cubs(Gin & Tonic) who will probably be weaned by the time we get there. Brandy is due to be bred again this year but perhaps will keep her Gin and Tonic around for another year. I will commute with my plane to the other place to work on the cabin there. Tatiana Gordienko will come and go as she works on her thesis.
We still have to get our official permission from the preserve to again stay in our cabin which is OK as long as we don't work with any new orphans there. The director of the preserve who is the only person who can sign our documents is ill but he suspects he will be back in the office the day after Maureen gets here. I hope so because I want to get out of this town.
- Charlie