Doing the check and
maintenance is the way
to stay alive.














With the kolb, I keep an
eye on a large piece
of country. This was taken
at the mouth of
the river.
















I can land easily on grass
and as long as it is damp
I can also take off. The
float is good for
landing on snow. In
fact the float is a real
safe way to land in many emergencies, on almost
any kind of surface.
You might do some
damage but you are not
likely to kill yourself
at 35 mph. I once landed
into alders and the
plane and I survived.

(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)

I am nearing the conclusion of the sixth year of flying in Russia. It has been a privilege to be allowed to fly here. It has also been a marvelous tool and reduced our expenses by cutting down on the need to hire helicopters. The whole south end of the peninsula has been mine to explore at will. As well as the pleasure I get from flying, the constant watch I keep with my little Kolb has reduced poaching to almost nil in the open country around Cape Lopatka and Kambalnoye where poachers now have difficulty hiding. It has kept me in touch with the problems of the area. Our anti-poaching program would never have developed without my being in constant touch with the research people at Kurilskoy Lake, 25 miles north where thick birch forest give poachers good cover.

As best as I can decipher how flying in Russia originally happened was a bluff on the part of our friend and agent at the time, Igor Revenko. His interest in flying was acute and he talked the head person running Kronotskiy Preserve into letting me bring the plane here. The authorities in charge of flying knew nothing about what we were up to when I first showed up with the Kolb in a container. I assumed that everything had been arranged to make it all legal, but instead most of them didn't know I existed until I showed up as a tiny white dot in their skies. I was going to say a blip on their radar but I was told later I never drew attention to myself that way. Although, I was found out quite soon, it took months for the FSB to act. Their estimations were that, considering I was heading into the worst flying conditions existing on the peninsula, it would be easier and cheaper just to let the natural elements take care of me. They gave me a couple weeks to survive. When I had not killed myself after five months, they began a reviewing process which is still going on.

All that melodrama aside, I wondered sometimes, how I have survived considering the weather conditions here. It was not just the Russians who had dire predictions for my destiny, my friends and family also worried about what I had in mind. I'm sure they still do.

I have hesitated to speculate on how I have survived the many challenges for fear that it might change my luck, but now I feel, after this amount of time, I have shown myself at least, that it is more than luck that has kept me in the air. I decided to review some things about how I keep flying in order to shed light on important aspects of this type of flying. Like most things thought to be true about bears, there is also unfortunate myths regarding flying the type of aircraft I fly which is considered an ultra light by some official classifications such as in Canada.

I have been asked several times, when will I get a real aircraft and my answer is that I will when one is designed that can do what I do with this one. I originally built it to fly unassisted in the wilderness of Princess Royal Island where friends and I were making the film about the Spirit Bear for BBC. That was in 1993 and it and I have been flying in the boonies ever since. Flying unassisted is a huge challenge. To do so you have to be pretty handy, but also you have to have a simple machine. At least I do. The more technically complicated it is the more likelihood that some problem will show up that will be beyond your capabilities to fix on the spot. Anticipating possible breakages so to have repairs in the field is another must. Originally building the Kolb myself from a kit was important in order for me to be able to do this.

When it came to a choice of engines installed for going to Russia, I did not skimp. I wanted something that would keep running as long as I changed the oil and spark plugs. I am not that handy that I can fix anything major on my motor without trusty access to a manufacturer.

The choice of which kit plane to build was also important. There are dozens on the market that roughly claim the same features that I wanted and picking one that was well designed and rugged as well as having flying characteristics that will not kill me when I make a mistake. To arrive at the right one I did many hours of home work to decide. No one had ever tried to do what I wanted to do -fly anywhere in the world for as long as I wanted with access to fuel being the only criteria. Even that can be remedied. For three of these six years in Kamchatka, I shipped the gas I needed from Seattle because I could not find any here I trusted. Of course we are not talking huge amounts. My engine sips 10 liters per hour for the average of 75 hours of flying per year (4 barrels).

Here are some of the other features besides being reliable and having safe flight characteristics that I see as necessary to be able to fly as I do. Light enough to manhandle, powerful enough to climb in strong down drafts, be able to take off and land on many types of surfaces, good visibility, and be able to handle extreme turbulence. Although the last mentioned is something that one tries to avoid, occasionally in the mountain flying with weather as dynamic as it is here, you get caught in sudden winds and need lots of power and control authority to keep right side up. With these things working for you, you can usually turn around and get back to calmer air.

Good memory is an attribute handy for a pilot to have, but as Maureen will tell you, I am a touch forgetful. This means that I have had to work out a ritual of religiously checking over all the critical things before taking off. Also, because I know I don't have a mind like a steel trap, I have installed everything as fool proof as possible by building all systems to operate simply. With a glance, I can see how much fuel I have without an electronic gage because the tank is translucent plastic and there are no valves. It feeds directly into the fuel pump. Likewise there are only three electrical switches. As with all flying knowing when to stay grounded due to weather conditions is the most important judgement call needed to survive.

I approach each day of flying with a knowledge that if I make a mistake it will be my last. Even so, I think I have been safer flying here than driving my car at home.

For sometime now, I have thought that people don't understand how useful my type of aircraft and flying can be. These aircraft are almost exclusively treated as recreational only and therefore, unfortunately, people don't take flying them very seriously and the consequences of that gives the type a bad name. I have proven to myself and I hope my flying here illustrates to others that, not only can this type of flying be done safely and inexpensively, but it can be done for longer periods in remote situations, without support, than with any other type of flying machine. It does demand being a good pilot who understands a great deal about the movement of air because a light, slow-flying airframe is influenced more pronouncedly by air currents. Observing other flyers, being light doesn't stop butterflies and humming birds from migrating thousands of miles each year. Maureen calls the Kolb and looks upon it, not always too keenly when the air is unstable, as the butterfly.

Some statistics -- My Mark III Classic Kolb has flown a total of 615 hours, with 1610 takeoff and landings and 435 of those hours flown here in Russia. It has a Rotax 912 engine with a IvoProp and the single float is a Full Lotus, Mono 2000. It weighs about 580 pounds with the float, it likes to fly at about 70 mph, but will, on demand do 100 mph. It stalls at 35mph. Kolb now has a Mark III Extra which is said to have improvements over what I have. Wow! www.tnkolbaircraft.com

Much of the wear and tear my Kolb has suffered, happens on the ground during storms with high winds bashing at it. Considering those are, but a very few, of the working hours, it has paid for its self twice. That is just as well. Could you imagine getting it insured over here?

- Charlie