12 Days on Site in the Alaskan Wilderness
FAA Engineer Ben Amos of the Communications Engineering Center in Alaska shares his unique experience repairing a self-sustained outlet, or SSO, in the high peaks of Alaska.
By Ben Amos, FAA Engineer
Of all the issues and unique situations over the years, this one stands out in particular…
There is an self-sustained outlet (SSO) site called Alsek River that is extremely difficult to access. The site is located just down the coast from Yakutat, Alaska, but the closest available helicopter is almost two hours away in Juneau. If the weather is good, you can cut up through Glacier Bay National Park and across part of Canada to reduce the trip by 45 minutes. Otherwise, you have to fly all the way around and up the coast.
The Alsek SSO was installed in 2012, but the concrete piers moved under heavy wind and the solar frame was able to topple forward onto its face. I surveyed the site damage and determined that the repairs were actually minor in order to fix the foundations and restore the site.
Alsek is an extremely small site with steep cliffs all around, so a well-prepared but small crew was required for safety reasons. In August of 2014, a four-man crew (me included) flew up to the site with all of the necessary tools and equipment to camp and repair the site. On the second night of the job, a storm that was not on the weather forecast blew in with extremely high winds from the glacier ice fields behind the site and destroyed our camp.
All of the small tents were unusable due to large holes, and the large tent had the door torn off, several eyelets torn out, and the 550-cord guylines snapped in multiple places. We evacuated the tents in the middle of the night, and all four of us slept on top of totes, soaking wet, in the unheated 6-by-8-foot building, which was mostly full of radio equipment and supplies.
The following morning we were able to repair the main tent enough to be habitable so that we could cook food and dry clothes. The wind was blowing so hard that we had to stage over 600 pounds of water in the tent to keep it from lifting in the wind. The storm was now forecast to continue for several days, making rescue unlikely without having a helicopter continuously staged at the bottom of the mountain waiting for a short weather window to access the site.
The problem was that the tent was anchored to the helipad. In order to be ready for an immediate rescue, the tent had to be removed, but it was the only source of heat and hot food. Depending on how long it took for a weather window, without a tent we could be waiting days in the shelter. With the forecast predicting decreasing wind/weather over the next few days, crew decided to fortify the existing camp with additional heat and food, and to continue working while waiting out the storm.
After 12 days total in the field, the job was successfully completed and the crew returned home. Everyone on the crew had extensive survival training and wilderness experience, which led to the planning and preparation that helped everyone survive this ordeal safely, although a little bruised. I went back to the site a year later to inspect the solar frame, and there were no issues. The site is still in service today.
The engineers and electronics systems technicians at the FAA help maintain everything air traffic controllers and pilots use for safe flying, including service equipment throughout our airports, air traffic control towers, automated flight service stations, and even air route traffic control centers in open fields or on remote mountain tops. If you are interested in one of these positions, go to https://www.faa.gov/jobs/career_fields/technical_careers/ to learn more about the FAA’s Technical Careers and how to apply.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Flight Service and the creation of what has become the modern FAA, providing safety and air traffic flow in the NAS. Learn more about Alaska, modernization initiatives, and the 100-year history of Flight Service.
