eruptions,Cascade Airwaysand an hasoccasionalweatheredornerya stormypassengereconomy,to flourishsevereinWashingtonthe Pacific winters,Northwest.volcanic during the lean years, waiting to get on the crew if they can do anything Taxiingways (CAZ)out fromramptheat SEATAC,Cascade Air•the their fair share when the company at to make their trip more pleasant or 18-passenger Embraer EMB-110 Ban• last stands steady on its feet. An comfortable. Cleared for takeoff, the deirante twin turboprop seems rarely grows at a steady rate; more Bandeirante accelerates quickly. the dwarfed by the 350-ton heavies lum• often than not, it takes two steps for• penetrating whine of the turboprops bering off to shores an ocean away. ward, one back. drowning out the easy-listening AM Across the ramp, a Northwest Today, for example, is the Monday station. Estes banks left, southeast over B-747 looms huge against the distant before Thanksgiving 1981.The load fac• the mountains, and climbs through hJlk of glaciered Mount Rainier, jewel tor is on the black side of break-even. thin, dissipating stratuS. Level at 11,000 of the rugged mountain range for SEATAC and Flight 205's destination feet and 175 knots indicated, Schachle which Cascade was named. Like theit airports, Tri-Cities (Richland/Pascol turns off the weather radar. pilot brethren in the jumbo, however, Kennewick) and Walla Walla in south• The elderly gentleman in 1C leans Cascade Flight 205's crew, Captains eastern , are VFR. Cascade toward the cockpit and yells, "Okay to Bob Estes and John Schachle, are full• is gearing up for Part 121 operations, smoke, Captain? Okay to smoke?" The fledged ALPA members. But when and Schachle hopes to move up to the "no smoking" sign stays on. The pas• Cascade's pilots joined ALPA in Au• big iron soon. But the August air traffic senger contents himself with the view: gust 1981, most other ALPA members controllers' walkout has hurt the air• spectacular snow-dusted peaks, steeply outside the northwestern United States line, and six pilots hired on July 29 were sloped stands of fir and spruce, sinu• asked, "Who're they?" furloughed almost immediately. The ous .rivers, and serpentine logging Cascade Airways is a survivor, a resil• retrenchment bumped Estes back to roads. The snow-capped Cascades ient airline that has grown in l~ears• first officer status by one seniority gradually give way to gullied, arid while half a dozen competitors failed• .'number, but today he is flying from the foothills and the neat green circles of from a two-airplane commuter with a left seat. irrigated farmland. single route to a large regional carrier Estes taxis into position on Runway Estes touches down with studied whose 80 active pilots and 18 aircraft 16Land holds to avoid wake turbulence finesse at Tri-Cities, uses less than half serv~ 17 ''Cities in five northwestern from a departing heavy. Schachle re• the 7,700 feet available, and taxis in for states. / minds the passengers to fasten their a 10-minute turnaround; both pilots Cascade's pilots are survivors, too. seat belts, refrain from smoking, read remain in the cockpit. During the brief Like pilot groups everywhere, they've the card, note the exits and the fire ex• respite from the turboprops' whine, the helped build their company. hanging in tinguishers, and not to hesitate to call passenger in 1C tells his neighbor,

10 AIR LINE P;ILOT May 1982 I_ II "Sure am glad to be going home-been LEFT: FIO Rich Herrmann checks a.15• in the hospital 11 months. Got me a passenger EMB-ll0 Bandeirante at SEA• new leg," he says, slapping his unfeel• TAC, one of several major Northwest air ing thigh. terminals served by Cascade. BE• LOW: Capt. Steve Schmokel and FIO Between Pasco and Walla Walla, the Herrmann enroute to , approaching land rolls and folds in short, gullied the snow-capped moun