The Last of the Bush Pilots

Found a copy on the streets of Kansas City...562D6188-5524-42F9-95F5-6E4EA3142603.jpeg562D6188-5524-42F9-95F5-6E4EA3142603.jpeg
 
I thought it was going to say that "W" was the last of the Bush pilots.
 
Published in 1969. I wonder if the pilots who have flown the bush in the subsequent 50 years believe the guys in the book were the last of the bush pilots.
 
It should be called The First of the Bush Pilots...I’m halfway through and there’s a lot of ballsy “decision” making going on. i.e. “go for it” and ask for forgiveness later. It does a good job of developing and retelling the history of aviation in AK and specifically around the Brooks Range and in the arctic circle. It was definitely a simpler time. Having been written in the late 50s, Alaska has seen innumerable changes in access since. And I believe the title is relevant in that way, as there is discussion on how the airplane replaced dog sled teams and allowed for more exploration of its resources there after.
Helmericks had a daily journal he used to help write the book so much of it is from his direct perspective or retelling from old timers he knew in the interior.

Any who, I find it interesting and a great way to brush up on my studies of a detailed map of AK. I recommend it.
 
Find a copy of Glacier Pilot, the story of Bob Reeves. It's pretty good read about pioneering the Alaska bush flying scene.
 
At one point in my life, I thought I wanted to be a bush pilot, but that thought went out the window when my then girlfriend, now YF, got chilled walking through the refrigerated section in the grocery store. Later, I read a couple of bush pilot books and knew I’d made the right decision.
 
I was born half a century too late. What a hell of a time to be alive back then.
Yeah, no GPS, 3 channels on the TV, film cameras (and no point and shoots either), primitive medical procedures, no SAR to speak of, an active cold war with Russia, no birth control pills, no women to take them in AK...
 
At one point in my life, I thought I wanted to be a bush pilot, but that thought went out the window when my then girlfriend, now YF, got chilled walking through the refrigerated section in the grocery store. Later, I read a couple of bush pilot books and knew I’d made the right decision.
YF? huh?
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ah ... never mind ... said it fast enough in my mind that now I get it ... I hate text lingo
 
Yeah, no GPS, 3 channels on the TV, film cameras (and no point and shoots either), primitive medical procedures, no SAR to speak of, an active cold war with Russia, no birth control pills, no women to take them in AK...

Real VFR flying without all the cry babies for “low planes”
Enough stuff that’s legal to do you don’t need TV
No such thing as “add” “panic attacks” being allergic to every thing on earth like these days
And the women were actually women and men were actually men, freedom/bill of rights wasn’t considered a fringe topic and if you had a rifle in your pickups back window you didn’t end up with with a small army of mil looking cops pointing guns at you.

Yeah, I’ll happily trade my pill happy screen obsessed (tv, planes and otherwise), treating gov like religiou culture with more “gender pronouns” they bill nye the science tv host guy can shake a tv remote at for those days.
 
But would one find Velcro gloves in the bush ;)
 
no women to take them in AK...

In Alaska, there is a pretty woman behind every tree just waiting for you.....

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Kotzebue National Forest.
 
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At one point in my life, I thought I wanted to be a bush pilot, but that thought went out the window when my then girlfriend, now YF, got chilled walking through the refrigerated section in the grocery store. Later, I read a couple of bush pilot books and knew I’d made the right decision.

Ya missed out on some great flying.!!

I may be going back at age 60 for a few more years. It isn't as tough as it was, with FAA WX cams everywhere. When I first went to Alaska they would send a newbe out. If he made the trip, then everyone else would go out. Or call the village agent and depend on the word of someone that is expecting a check on the plane, or have a food shipment coming, or have family returning home and wants the plane to come in.

Now just look at the WX on the internet. The internet is more widely available in bush Alaska that the rest of the lower 48. Still, sometimes good VFR is 1 mile and 1000 feet ceilings. One time I was looking for a place to land that was reporting at least 1/4 mile visibility, because all airports in my range was reporting vis as less than 1/8.

https://avcams.faa.gov/
 
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