ESSAY
HERE IS NO BETTER WAY to see Alaska than from the air. It’s
overwhelming. The word “Alaska” is Aleut for “the Great
Land”, and at more than 663,000 square miles, Alaska is
indeed “great.” That’s bigger than Washington, Oregon,
California, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona … combined (641,000 square
miles). Texas, where everything is bigger, pales in size at nearly
269,000 square miles.
THE MORE YOU EXPLORE ALASKA the
more you appreciate its size, diversity, com-
plexity and majesty. Truly, there is no other
place like it on the planet, and because of its
vast spaces, sprawling wildernesses and lack
of roads, air travel “is not a luxury, it’s a neces-
sity,” as one sage bush pilot observed.
Flight into remote Alaska started in the
early 20s with Carl “Ben” Eielson, known as
“the Father of Alaska Aviation.” Eielson was a
pilot in World War I, later moving to Alaska
to teach secondary school. Upon arriving in
Alaska he immediately saw the need for air
service and started Farthest North Aviation
Service. Trips that took days by dog sled now
consumed just a couple hours and at substan-
tially less cost. Eielson gained international
fame navigating his plane and an Australian
explorer, Sir George Wilkins, from Point Bar-
row, in the Alaska Territory, across the Arctic
Ocean to Norway.
Eielson, who died in a 1929 plane ac-
cident, would be remembered as one of
many bush pilots that connected communi-
ties and people across Alaska by air. And his
legacy would be followed with a long list of
other notable pilots, men who worked from
memory, were frequently lost and relied on
their senses, not technology, to find their way
around. Noel Wien, one of these pioneers
quipped, “When all else fails I just fly down-
river hoping the little rivers flow into big
rivers where I might find a cabin.”
Whether it was delivering supplies, medi-
cine or mail, the early bush pilots, much like
todays, provided essential, and at times, life-
saving assistance to road less communities.
And it seemed like nothing could stand
in their way. Early bush planes lacked any
heating so pilots bundled up to beat the chill
of below freezing temperatures. They did
what they had to and overcame tremendous
adversity on nearly a daily basis. They’d
land and quickly drain the oil out of their
planes taking the oil with them into warm-
ing shelters to prevent the oil from freezing.
One pilot commented that the smell in these
havens was “a mixture of warm oil and boil-
ing coffee.”
Bob Reeve was another towering figure
among Alaska’s bush pilots. Reeve’s reputa-
tion for landing almost anywhere was well-
T
Alaska bush pilot Harry Ricci has since retired
from his long-standing stint as lead pilot for
Rainbow King Lodge. He’s one of the modern-
day legends.
known and well-deserved. With more than
2,000 glacier landings to his credit, Reeve
flew to some of Alaska’s most remote and
inaccessible areas. In 1937, he set a world
record for the highest ski-plane landing at
8,750 feet. After landing he had to wait five
days before flying out to allow the soft snow
to freeze. On take-off he dropped “several
hundred feet” before “gaining enough air-
speed to level and climb.” All in a day’s work.
Any discussion of Alaskan bush pilots
should also include Don Sheldon, the son-in-
law of Bob Reeve. Sheldon was selfless in his
service to mountaineers on Denali and across
the state. He was known as the quintessential
mountain pilot and not only flew adventur-
ers and climbers into Alaska’s most remote
and inaccessible areas but also participated in
dozens of search-and-rescue missions.
These are but a handful of the hundreds of
noteworthy pilots who accessed Alaska by air
and who laid the foundation and inspired the
spirit that today’s bush pilots share.
Instead of relying on memory and sight
traveling angler
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