The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-05-26
s. Q. PILOT LOOFF.
 FINDS PROBLEMS
 ALASKAN FLYING.
War Ace Back in Juneau After Survey of Avia-
 ton Tn Territory

After travelling by air over most
 of the Interior within the past month, l find borne out to the full all previous statements had heard
 that Alaska flying is different from lthat found elsewhere in large measure" is the declaration of Hans NV. Looff, noted World War ace,i now connected with the aviation division of the Standard Gil Com pany as chief pilot. Pilot Looff arrived back in Ju- neau Monday morning aboard the steamer Yukon from Seward, and is stopping at the Gastineau Hotel be- fore leaving tomorrow by Inter- coastal Airways plane for Ketchi- kan where he will be joined by his wife for the remainder of his trip back to the States. MT. Looff stepped several days in Juneau about three weeks ago on his arrival from Seattle, and at that time made several flights to nearby points by lseaplane. He flew from here to Fairbanks by PAA plane. then made use of several more planes to fly to Nome, up to Kotzebue, into Bristol, Bay through the kuskokwim coun- try and back to Fairbanks. From Fairbanks he went by Alaska Rail road to Anchorage, then flew to Seward. To Study Problems
 The Standard Oil has long real ized that the conditions under which much of Alaska flying is done are far different from those met elsewhere and that special de- Ivelopments may be necessary to rem | der the best service to Alaskan avia tion companies. Despite the com lpanys interest in the problem, and the large volume of business which ! lit conducts in the Territory in avia- tion products, it has never before been able to put one of us in it's aviation division actually into the Alaskan field to study the problems encountered That was my assign iment.
 T found the greatest problem toi be that of distribution; getting the necessary products where they are needed, when they are nee1ed. The seasonal character of transporta- ttion in the Territory and the great distances and only make for fast increasing use of the airplane, but also greatly enhance the difficult ties of getting our products into the [ field I was truly surprisednb by the activity at the larger airports, such as Fairbanks, where I am sure that i the number of passengers, and es- pecially the amount of freight, ham, dled daily exceeds that coming into and going out of Boeing Field at Se- iattle.
 Stampede Causes Shortage
 Then, again, unsual situations, such as the Goodnews Bay stampede
 may bring about sudden runs on the fuel reserves in particularly iso- lated sections that cannot be reme-
 died until the next open-water sea- son. We found no aviation gaso-
 line at all remaining on the plane
 routes into Goodnews Bay. An ether element that must be consid-
 eded in estimates for supplying the
 Territory each year is the rapid growth of aviation in Alaska. From
 what I could gather. flying in the l Interior should be increased by
 from thirty to fifty percent in the l Interior and to the Westward this
 season over last year.
 Other particularly Alaskan prob l lems are of technical nature, such
 as development of an oil to with
 stand the extreme low tempera- tures'
 Admires Alaska Pliers
 Pilot Looff expressed his admir- ation for Alaskan pilots and the
 way in which they have overcome the hazards of their business. Al
 askan pilots on a whole are very