Discussion Topic
Brian's Plane Journey in Hatchet
Summary:
In Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, Brian Robeson, a 13-year-old boy, embarks on a journey on a Cessna 406 bush plane from Hampton, New York, to visit his father in the Canadian oil fields. The pilot suffers a heart attack, leaving Brian to navigate the controls before crash-landing in a lake within the Canadian wilderness. Brian, seated in the copilot's seat, must survive alone, drawing on the brief flying experience the pilot had given him. The plane's crash marks the beginning of Brian's ordeal and growth in the wild.
What type of plane was Brian flying on in Hatchet?
Hatchet is the story of a young man that boards a plane in order to visit his father in Canada. The pilot of the plane suffers a heart attack, causing the plane to crash. Brian, the only survivor, must find a way to stay alive.
Brian boards a Cessna 406 in the beginning of the story. It is described as a single-engine bush-plane which is capable of landing in remote areas, as it requires only a small strip on which to land. The plane is carrying equipment used for drilling as well as a survival pack in case of an emergency landing. It is Brian's first time to ever sit in the cockpit of a plane, and he notices all of the controls and switches. The pilot allows Brian to control the plane for a brief period of time. When the pilot dies of a heart attack, Brian manages to...
Unlock
This Answer NowStart your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
learn some of the controls of the plane through trial and error before the plane crashes.
The answer to this question is in the first twenty or thirty pages. Pay special attention to how the pilot describes the cockpit. Paulsen pays special detail to the composition of the cockpit, the instruments in it, and how Brian interprets it. We know the plane was a small one, single engine. It was only the pilot and Brian in the small plane. Within the first couple of pages, Paulsen identifies the make of the plane, I think a Cessna model. It is important to pay attention to it because it comes back at the end of the book, leading to Brian's rescue, so note it and note it well. As you are trying to find the make of the plane, pay real close attention to Brian's mom before she sends him off and what she gives him. It's strange but the strength of the novel is the start of the novel because it is the benchmark from where Brian begins his evolution, his growth, his maturation.
Why is Brian traveling in a bushplane in Hatchet?
In the opening chapter of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, we learn that
Brian is traveling in a Cessna 406, a type of bushplane, also spelled bush
plane, to Canada to visit his father for the
summer.
Bush planes are private planes used to transport passengers
and cargo to remote, rugged areas such as to the wilderness
areas of Canada, Alaska, Africa, or Australia. They are great for landing on
rugged terrain because they are designed for durability, to be able to land
without long runways, and to be able to land on snow or water.
Brian is traveling to Canada because his parents have recently
divorced, and the judge has granted Brian's father "visitation rights" during
the summers, whereas Brian would be staying with his mother during the school
years. Brian was specifically heading to Canada because his father
worked in the oil fields of Canada, having just developed a new drill
bit:
His father was a mechanical engineer who had designed or invented a new drill bit for oil drilling, a self-cleaning, self-sharpening bit. He was working in the oil fields of Canada, up on the tree line where the tundra started and the forests ended. (Ch. 1)
It is Brian's first time flying in any sort of plane, ever, and, unfortunately, his first flight does not turn out very well. The pilot has a major heart attack, drying and crashing the plane, leaving Brian stranded in the wilderness by a lake, far away from his destination.
Where does Brian land in the book Hatchet?
Brian must fly from New York to northern Canada to visit his father in the oil fields where he works. His divorced parents share visitation. Aboard a flight on a small plane, Brian quietly contemplates his parents’ situation for a short time. Eventually, the pilot shows Brian some of the controls and lets him try flying the plane. Brian notes that there appears to be nothing but forest below them, leading the reader to think they are approaching the Canadian wilderness.
After allowing Brian to fly the plane, the pilot collapses. Brian spends several minutes trying to figure out the controls of the plane and the best course of action. Prior to the plane crash landing, Brian tries reaching help over the radio seventeen times, once every ten minutes. This means the plane flew on for at least three hours after the pilot collapsed. The author describes the dense forest that Brian sees beneath the plane and eventually, a lake. In desperation when the engine stops, Brian guides the plane down into the lake in the middle of a Canadian forest.
Where does Brian sit in the plane in Hatchet?
Brian sits in the copilot seat of the small plane.
The plane Brian takes to Canada is a Cessna 406, a very small “bush-plane.” He is the only passenger. The pilot is not very talkative either.
He was thirteen and the only passenger on the plane … [Since] Brian had come to the small airport in Hampton, New York to meet the plane—driven by his mother—the pilot had spoken only five words to him. "Get in the copilot's seat." Which Brian had done. (Ch. 1)
Brian finds sitting in the copilot’s seat exciting. After all, he has never flown a plane before and sitting there makes him feel like he is helping fly the plane. He can see how it works.
He had never flown in a single-engine plane before and to be sitting in the copilot's seat with all the controls right there in front of him, all the instruments in his face as the plane clawed for altitude, jerking and sliding on the wind currents as the pilot took off, had been interesting and exciting. (Ch. 1)
Later, the pilot even lets Brian fly the plane a little, teaching him about autopilot and how some of the controls work. Brian is nervous about this at first, but it is thrilling and interesting. He will need these skills later when his pilot has a heart attack and Brian has to land, or crash, the plane himself.
During the plane ride, Brian is not in a very good head space. He is upset because his parents are getting divorced, and he knows why. He knows about the affair that his mother had. He finds it hard to say good-bye to her, because he does not even know what to say or how to be around her. He is very depressed about the secret he is keeping.
Where does Brian's journey in the plane start in the book Hatchet?
Brian finds himself in the plane without a pilot after his pilot has a heart attack and actually dies right in front of him. He is terrified, since he has no idea how to fly or where he is. But one of the first things that he does is manage to get the radio from the pilot and try to radio for help. In the conversation with the one person he reaches, Brian tries to describe his situation so that someone might be able to rescue him.
He tells the listener that he started out his trip in Hampton, New York and is now on his way to the oil fields in Canada to visit his father. Outside of this, there is no reference made to any specific place or even much at all specific about his situation other than the glimpses of his "secret" and his thoughts about the divorce.