Single-Engine Airplanes

As the name suggests, a single-engine aircraft is a plane equipped with just one engine. These aircraft are popular within the general aviation sector due to their simplicity and lower operating costs. Most student pilots learn how to fly in single-engine airplanes such as the Cessna 172 or the Piper Arrow-28, smaller aircraft in which they can learn the basics of flight from A-Z. These planes aren’t as fast as those with more than one engine that require higher maintenance costs as well as skill and experience, neither can they carry much in the way of cargo or passengers, but for Nik and me the larger Cessna 182 was ideal.

The day came when Nik and I announced to friends and family that we intended to fly our Cessna from Bequia all the way to Alaska, a notion that caused a certain amount of consternation. Flying all that way with just one engine? Flying over so much water with just one engine? Flying such a small plane to such a distant destination with just one engine? By that point in time I was able to reassure everyone that we’d be fine, although in the past I would have been asking the same questions! Nik was an extremely good pilot plus a stickler for maintenance, and I had already enjoyed a few long trips over watery expanses with no hiccups. We had happily island-hopped our way up through the islands, landing for fuel, food and someplace to sleep at designated spots, and once in the United States we were no longer flying over the ocean.

One friend in particular was worried about our travel plans – Son Mitchell was not a fan of planes with just one engine. He claimed they weren’t safe enough, especially for long flights over open water, and that he himself would only fly in planes with two or more engines. We tried our best to put his mind at ease, but, like several of our friends, he fretted until the day we departed for Alaska.

Nik and I had the trip of a lifetime that summer; it was downright magical to fly low over icy glaciers and between majestic snowcapped mountains, and I’m willing to bet that we’re the only people who’ve ever flown from Bequia to Alaska and back in a single-engine aircraft!

Seeing Alaska for the first time by ‘plane was incredible, we both fell in love with its rugged beauty and returned several times. During that first trip I made a point of buying a tiny carving of a whaler wielding a harpoon for Son Mitchell at Bettles, a tiny community north of the Arctic Circle, which Nik and I gave to him shortly after our return to Bequia.

Not long afterwards a friend of Son’s from Canouan died, and he asked Nik to fly him over for the funeral. Nik laughed, and reminded him about his aversion to flying in a plane with just one engine. With a twinkle in his eye, Son said,

“Nik, I figure if you can take Judy all the way to Alaska and back in that plane, we’ll make it to Canouan OK!”

I made a point of being at the J.F.Mitchell airport to see them off, I wanted to get pictures of Son flying in a plane with just one engine! That was the first of many flights Sir James took with Nik, and as far as I could ascertain he enjoyed them all…..