"We take planes like most people take cabs..."

I had a bit of an adventure tonight involving a certain unnamed airline not picking me up and while waiting at the airport I had a fun conversation about air travel. Because I fly often and generally on charters I made the statement to a teacher about myself and a colleague that, "We take planes like other people take cabs." I had no idea how true this was until we "hailed" a plane on the ground for a ride.

Let me start over. I left Mountain Village to head up to Marshall on Monday and worked with a few teachers that evening. After watching a movie and getting a few hours of shut-eye, we hit the ground running. I observed a few teachers and taught a few fun lessons on iMovie, GarageBand, and iTunes and had a blast with Marshal young people. I had so much fun with the 4th grade I wanted to stay all day. We wrapped up the day around 3:30 and packed for our 4 o'clock with Era Aviation. Unfortunately, Era has been having a great deal of trouble with temperature-related and mechanical issues. Not to be deterred, we called for a plane  from another carrier and planned to leave at 6:30.

The short version of the story from here is that we sat at the airport from 6:15-7:00 before returning to town. Though discouraged, we remained hopeful, and once we had cell coverage, which is not present at the airport, we called the carrier in question. They informed us then that they were not coming. Why, we asked, did they not call us. They said it was too late and that they were sorry. Interesting, I thought, they would decide such a thing and not inform the individuals directly involve, namely: myself. Not to worry, they planned on calling during normal office hours tomorrow. Good to know. Quyana.

Just as we had this interesting conversation a plane arrived and hope once again bubbled within me. Upon arrival, we saw the familiar green of Hageland/Era Aviation, dashing our hopes of a pilot to ground station miscommunication. Not to be defeated we approached the pilot, who I believe is on the Flying Wild television show, and ask if they could drop us off in Russian Mission. Surprisingly they replied yes! The Kalskag to Aniak passenger in the 208 Caravan didn't seem too upset, so off we went...

So now if someone asks if you can hail a plane like a taxi in Bush Alaska, you can reply, yes: "We take planes like most people take cabs..."