Spring has been a tantalizing prospect during this season of “Flying Wild Alaska,” the Discovery Channel’s show about Bush pilots working for Era Alaska. Every episode, the narrators seems to tell us that spring is just around the corner, promising longer days and nicer weather for the aviators who have to deal with the long cold Alaska winter, and the high winds, blizzards, and whiteout conditions that come along with it.

In this episode, the narrator promises it again -- but this time he means it, as time-lapse footage of shows snow melting from the cracks in the craggy rock shore of Unalakleet. “It’s a rebirth,” Era COO Jim Tweto says of the spring months.

Of course, the springtime can’t bring all good things to the world of the Bush pilot, as the narrator reminds us that spring is “nature’s most unpredictable season” -- which means slushy snow and spring storms will still present plenty of challenges for pilots operating in the Far North.

Communication breakdown

The narrator’s building to something as he tells us how important communications are in Bush Alaska, especially between pilots and the ground, or those dropped off by pilots for multi-day expeditions.

Last week, we saw Jim Tweto drop off a crew of mountaineers who were looking to scale an unnamed peak in Alaska’s Brooks Range, documenting the first-ever ascent. It’s been two days since Jim was expecting to hear from them, and they haven’t checked in. They have a satellite phone, so not hearing from them is a troubling sign, though Jim speculates the SatPhone may have been lost in the shuffle of packing the gear up.

“No news is bad news,” the narrator says.

Jim is heading out in his ski-equipped Super Cub to cruise over the area he knows the climbers are. It’s 42 degrees outside, and Jim is worried as the river that they used to make their way from the dropoff point to the mountain is showing signs of thawing and overflow. He buzzes the rock face they were planning to tackle, but doesn’t spot anything, so he begins searching methodically.

Finally, he spots their tiny camp among the snow covered plains and forests. They wave at him from the ground. It’s the sign to head back to their rendezvous point, so they begin the overland 14-mile trek while Jim heads back to base in Unalakleet to pick them up later.

Meanwhile, Era pilot Luke Hickerson runs into some problems of his own after dropping off a batch of highly corrosive phosphoric acid in the Northwest Alaska village of Wainwright. An ambulance was waiting for him on the runway, and instead of waiting for a medevac, he’ll be transporting a passenger complaining of chest pains to the Barrow hospital.

This means Luke has to unload the heavy phosphoric acid fast, but if it spills, he says, “we may end up taking more than one person to the hospital.”

They hustle the cargo off, the ailing passenger on, and get off the ground. En route, Luke attempts to communicate with the airport in Barrow when he eyes his controls suspiciously. His “push to talk” button on his yoke isn’t working, so the Barrow airport can’t hear his ETA. It’s an unfortunate hiccup on a flight where every second counts and Luke wants an ambulance waiting for the plane upon arrival in Barrow.

Eventually, his radio kicks back to life, and he’s able to alert Barrow emergency services that he’s on his way. He gets on the ground and a team of EMTs unload the sick man. Hickerson praises the emergency crew.

“It really couldn’t have happened any quicker,” he says of the patient’s transfer.

In other news

Also in Barrow, Hickerson helps Douglas Cairns, a British pilot who has type-1 diabetes, load his plane into the Era hangar. Cairns is in his Diabetes Polar Flight aircraft, attempting to set a speed record to the North Pole in a single-engine aircraft. Bush Pilot contributor Rob Stapleton covered Cairns’ preparations for this flight earlier in the year.

Cairns had been forced to leave the Royal Air Force after being diagnosed with diabetes in 1989. At that time, Cairns says, “not one country in the world would allow someone like me with type-1 diabetes to have pilot’s license.”