"Six-Eight-Bravo," September 2008

Chip Porter

Chip Porter wrote the following statement about this photograph, "Some photographs just happen, but this one required some exceptionally skillful help. I was shooting Misty Fjords Air's newly rebuilt turbine Otter floatplane Six-Eight-Bravo, flown by Dave Doyon Jr. My pilot, in a Cessna 185, was his dad Dave Sr. We realized on the first pass that the 185 was too fast for the Otter step-taxiing on the water, so I asked Dave Jr. if he could speed up and we'd try it again. The second pass was better, with Dave Sr. slowing down and crabbing the Cessna sideways through the air. The small plane was being buffeted because of the weird angle and the stall horn kept going off. I was on my knees backwards, head and arms out the window, firing away at Junior who was now doing 100 miles an hour on the water trying to keep up. Dangerous? I don't think so. This is what these guys do, they fly and with over 30,000 air hours between them and zero accidents, I just concentrate on my photography and don't worry about a thing."

Ketchikan Museums, TC 714.1