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Thulefoth
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WA
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Tundra Tire Nation
from Thulefoth
wrote 2 years 7 weeks ago
I very much enjoyed and got a lot of value from this tundra tire article, and a big part of what makes it good, is the sceptical stance it takes.
For sure, 'the romance' has always been a huge factor in aviation, and the Tundra Tire Nation stands in good company & deep history, in this respect. The 'necessity' of private aviation & light aircraft, across the board, is vulnerable to much the same adverse logic, though that doesn't seem to dampened spirits.
Here's an angle to consider: Tundra Tire Nation is an ally of the Greens; of Sierra Club and World Wildlife Federation. Well, not consciously perhaps, but effectively nonetheless.
Sound far-fetched? Tundra Tire Nation doesn't want roads running along the rivers, and up over Rainy Pass. "[Snort] We don't need no stinkin' roads". And with the capability they deliver, lots of tourists show up already primed for rough-ground air-excursions, or diversions.
How extensive is this connection? As most everyone knows, a river-boat tour (simulating an old steam paddle-wheeler) leaves out of Fairbanks at regular intervals. Has, for decades. Today, on YouTube, there are videos taken from this tour-boat, of tundra-tired bush planes landing on sand & gravel bars alongside the river.
You will notice, that during the several minutes in which the plane executes its approach, lands, taxis, idles, taxis again, and then takes off ... the riverboat does not move. It's stationary in the river, throughout the video.
The whole gig is staged ... and from the background chatter on the videos, you can tell that it is an unusually popular and successful staged gig. It's clearly a highlight of the riverboat tour, to watch the iconic tundra-tired plane land next to the river ... while the boat holds position in the water for all the thrilled amateur videographers ... who perhaps weren't quite nervy enough to take a flight in one of those marvellous flying machines, themselves.
Yes, they're strange bedfellows - gratuitously tundra-tired sub-arctic aviators, and urban-based tree-huggers - but they play well together, despite the seeming gulf.
Sarah Palin Slams 'Luxury Jet'; but Appears Devoted to the Family Super Cub
from Thulefoth
wrote 2 years 7 weeks ago
The original purchase of the 'status-symbol' jet by Palin's predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, rubbed a lot of Alaskans the wrong way. It seemed like an expensive pretence to no small number of voters ... and it created a political opening for Palin. (Tho at $2.7 million - it strikes me as not that bad of a buy!)
I didn't get the impression that Palin has any specific beef against Westwind jets or the class of aircraft that it belongs to, but rather that she was just 'cashing in' on Frank Murkowski's over-the-top spending habits ... and the Alaska voters agreed with her. I.e.; the attack wasn't so much on Westwind or business jets, as it was on Murkowski. The jet was a proxy.
Palin did name daughter Piper after the Piper (Super Cub) aircraft ... and named her (veteran) son Track after a running-track, and named daughter Bristol after Bristol Bay, where they fish for salmon, etc. Piper's name is less an aviation-thing, than an Alaskan kid-naming thing.
But no - it won't prove to be a problem for Alaska voters, nor I expect for most contiguous U.S. voters either, that the Palin family 'cling' to their Super Cub bush plane.
