After refusing to fly for 12 days due to poor visibility and ceilings, I finally got our Cherokee Warrior II in the air on Tuesday. My route was from Dillingham (PADL) to Portage Creek (PAOC) and Clarks Point (PFCL). Then back to Dillingham.

Every time I fly in Bristol Bay I make a judgment call. Is the weather good enough to fly in, or not? Most of the time it is a very stressful decision because it is a matter of life and death.

After flying in Bristol Bay for five years I have acquired a few rules that I follow religiously. (VFR=Visual Flight Rules and IFR=Instrument Flight Rules). In order to fly in VFR weather there must be at least three miles visibility and a ceiling of 1000 feet. IFR is anything less. Here are my rules.

1. Avoid having to request a "Special VFR." (SEE NOTE BELOW).

2. Takeoff only if departing or arriving destination is reporting VFR conditions.

3. Find out if the weather system is moving in or out.

4. Use multiple weather media, i.e. Dillingham FSS, Kenai FSS, weather cam.

5. Turn around if the ceiling gets below 500 feet.

6. Do not fly unless there is at least 3 miles visibility and 500 foot ceiling.

7. Do not fly if wind is blowing at 30 knots or greater.

Before departing to Portage Creek I had to wait for the fog to lift and the rain to slow down. About 9 a.m. it started to look a little better. When the weather looks marginal I personally visit the professionals up in the Dillingham Flight Service Station. After talking with them and viewing their weather data, I felt much safer about heading out into the Alaska Bush. I was convinced I was not going to get stranded at Clarks Point for more than three days (like I did four years ago).

I took off after I listened to the weather report on the Dillingham ATIS (125.00). The weather was scattered at 600 feet, five miles of visibility, and overcast at 1000. It was just barely VFR conditions so I did not need to request a "Special VFR."

Portage Creek is a popular King Salmon fishing spot for people visiting Dillingham. It is located 22 miles east of Dillingham and has two runways: an east/west runaway and a north/south runway. The clouds began to thin out a little bit and the visibility went up to over 10 miles the closer I came to Portage Creek.

Finally, runway 27 came into view.

Runway 27 is not used as much as the north/south runway, 01-19. Not because of the wind, but because it is narrow and muddier when it thaws out.

To the left is the runway I almost crashed on three years ago. I was practicing "touch and goes" (once the tires touch the gravel you push in the power and take off again before actually stopping) in the spring time. Not a good idea. The runway was muddy and when I pushed in power to go around, I was bogged down in the mud. I could either crash into the trees at the end of the runway or try to pull the Warrior II out of the mud and fly over the top of them. With warning horn beeping in my ears I pulled off at 40 mph and could almost feel the trees scraping the bottom of my plane.