BEACH LANDINGS

Everyone admires bush pilots, but I often wonder if the common guy fully appreciates the hazards of their work. It’s not so easy once you’ve left a known aviation facility such as Lake Hood, the world’s largest seaplane base in Anchorage, and set course for a wilderness location. You’re on your own once you get there.

Alaska and Canada are bigger than Russia when combined, with an astonishing lack of airports. Consequently, pilots are forced to land on anything they can find that doesn’t have obstacles blocking their approach and departure. But that always leaves the question of what the surface must be like, along with the wind direction. Crosswind and downwind takeoffs and landings are for the birds . . . on second thought, they don't even like them.

Bush pilots are the best because they’re free thinkers. All have the ability to look down and read the wind, measure the waves, see the rocks, and determine the safest way to land their planes. In every case, it means landing in the shortest distance possible, which translates into lots less danger. Rolling out 1,000 feet on rough ground is asking for trouble.

Some pilots are just better than others at bush flying, and it has to do with judgment. There are men and women who mysteriously have a mind’s eye for finding airstrips where none exist. Experience is critical, but God-given talent is better, since not everyone is cut out for the job. At times, it’s like playing Russian roulette, which is why the big flight operators are really picky about whom they hire.

My favorite bush airstrips are beside the Bering Sea, which has a black-sand beach that runs along the Alaskan Peninsula all the way to the Aleutian Islands. As remote strips go, they’re the best, with the only challenge being in landing with one wing lower than the other during the roll out. It means cross-controlling the airplane in a goofy way or running into the water, which always makes your passengers mad as hell.

It’s hard to describe the satisfaction that comes with climbing out of a plane in a wilderness setting where no one has landed before. It’s something few people get to do.