Women Pilots of Alaska
Women Pilots of Alaska

Author: Sandi Sumner

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2005-01-20

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780786419371

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Since the time of its inception, the field of aviation has rapidly grown in both importance and popularity. The acceptance and recognition of women's participation and achievements in this activity, however, did not develop with nearly the same speed. The first biographical history of women pilots in Alaska, this work explores the challenges faced by women of Alaska as they pursued roles in aviation--something that had long been considered part of "the men's world". Beginning in 1927 with Marvel Crosson and reaching to the present day, 37 adventurous and personal tales are offered, including that of an ultralight flyer, the first woman to become U.S. Aerobatic Champion, a parachute jumper, the first woman to fly in a small airplane over the North Pole and an Iditarod dog musher. Questions about why these women chose to fly; where they learned; when they soloed; what it meant to them to become a pilot; what challenges they faced in such a non-traditional role; and why they chose the skies of Alaska are addressed as these intriguing stories are told.

Map of My Dead Pilots
Map of My Dead Pilots

Author: Colleen Mondor

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2013-04-02

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 0762775831

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The Map of My Dead Pilots is about flying, pilots, and Alaska, the beautiful and deadly Last Frontier. Author Colleen Mondor spent four years running dispatch operations for a Fairbanks-based commuter and charter airline, and she knows all too well the gap between the romance and reality of small plane piloting in the wildest territory of the United States. From overloaded aircraft to wings covered in ice, from flying sled dogs and dead bodies, piloting in Alaska is about living hard and working even harder. What Mondor witnessed day to day would make anyone’s hair stand on end. Ultimately, it is the pilots themselves—laced with ice and whiskey, death and camaraderie, silence and engine roar—and their harrowing tales who capture her imagination. In fine detail, this series of stories reveals the technical side of flying, the history of Alaskan aviation, and a world that demands a close communion with extreme physical danger and emotional toughness.

Wings of Her Dreams
Wings of Her Dreams

Author: Kitty Banner-Seeman

Publisher:

Published: 2018-01-11

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781880654514

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Kitty Banner was born into a loving, adventurous, Irish-American family in Chicago, Illinois, joining three older brothers and welcoming a second younger sister. The siblings enjoyed excellent guidance from their parents, who encouraged them to contribute to the work of the family business, to live life fully, to be considerate of others, and to strive for excellence. All generously shared their variety of interests, which ranged from hiking, fishing, climbing, target shooting, sailing and watersports, to snow skiing, horseback riding: and, in the case of her brothers, a passion for flying. Kitty was captivated by aviation and tried sky-diving before taking her first flying lesson from a unique and accomplished aerobatic pilot, a professor of geomorphology, and flight instructor, David Rahm. Once licensed as a pilot, Kitty went on to obtain an Instrument rating, her Commercial License, and her Glider and Flight Instructor Ratings. Inspired at the age of 14 by the motivation exhortations of Wilferd Peterson, author of "The Art of Living", Kitty, in turn, became a motivation and inspiration to all who came into contact with her. Having visited Alaska at age 19, hiking and exploring with a firend, Kitty could scarcely wait to return and, by age 22 with her pilot license in hand, she revisited Alaska, where she excelled. Kitty flew as a bush pilot and as a glacier pilot, mastering a variety of aircraft including heavy load transport with tundra tires on off-airport remote sites; seaplane and float operations, landings and takeoffs on the ice and snow of high altitude glaciers; and flying with exterior loads as well as exterior- mounted cameras for aerial filming and action photography. Kitty's evacuation flights included, among others, a newborn baby and his mother, survivors of two separate aircraft crashes, many mountain climbers from a world-wide number of countries, countless hunters and fisherman, and even sled dogs.

Alaska's Bush Pilots
Alaska's Bush Pilots

Author: Rob Stapleton with the Alaska Aviation Museum

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1467131830

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A thrilling ride alongside the daredevil aviators who first braved the unknown of Alaska's wilderness. Bush pilots are known as rough, tough, resourceful people who fly their aircraft into tight spots in the worst of weather. Alaska's bush pilots are all of that and more. Acting as pioneers in a land with 43,000 miles of coastline and North America's largest mountains, Alaska's bush pilots were and are visionaries of a lifestyle of freedom. Flying came late to Alaska but caught on quickly. The first flight was made over a three-day exhibition at Fairbanks, July 3-5, 1913. James Martin first flew that aircraft, owned by him and his wife, Lilly, and investors Arthur Williams and R.S. McDonald. Ever since, Alaskan bush pilots have found that they were calculators of their own fate, flying in fragile aircraft over vast stretches of tundra or through towering mountain passes. This book examines the pioneer aviators and the aircraft types such as the Stearman, Stinson, and Lockheed, many of which were tested and crashed in the far north regions of Alaska.

Wager with the Wind
Wager with the Wind

Author: James Greiner

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: 2011-08-05

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1429997524

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Don Sheldon has been called 'Alaska's bush pilot among bush pilots', but he was also just one man in a fragile airplane who, in the end, was solely responsible for each mission he flew, be it a high-risk landing to the rescue of others from certain death in the mountains of Alaska or the routine delivery of supplies to a lonely homesteader. Read James Greiner's Wager with the Wind to learn how a hero was born, and also how he made his courageous journey to the unknown skies of dealing with cancer.

Alaska's Women Pilots
Alaska's Women Pilots

Author: Jenifer Lee Fratzke

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13:

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"The seven oral histories she includes here explain each woman's motivations for flying; they include the descriptions and praises of mentors that made all the difference; and they recall stories of grief and stories of good fortune. Each personal history is remarkable in what it reveals of the history of aviation in Alaska and the individual contributions that history is built on. These stories are unique and inspirational at the same time they have an echoing quality that compounds, strengthens, and supports the voices of those who have gone before (Harriet Quimby, Beryl Markham, Pancho Barnes, and many others) and those why may come after."--BOOK JACKET.

A Woman who Went to Alaska
A Woman who Went to Alaska

Author: May Kellogg Sullivan

Publisher:

Published: 1910

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13:

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Narrative of author's visits in 1899 and 1900-01 to Dawson, Nome and Golovnin Bay.

Alaska - Not for a Woman!
Alaska - Not for a Woman!

Author: Mary Carey

Publisher:

Published: 2023-02-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781681793115

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In 1962 Mary Carey, newly widowed, drove the Alcan Highway alone from Texas to Alaska, where she would make herself a new life. And her life there - whether she was teaching in an eight-pupil pilot school in Talkeetna, flying Mt. McKinley with bush pilot Don Sheldon, or homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness - was one of continuous pioneering. A crackerjack photojournalist -- she obtained exclusive eyewitness coverage of the 1964 earthquake in Kodiak, Seward, and Valdez - Ms. Carey won five first prizes in an Alaskan Press Clubs contest in 1963. She did not re-enter the contest until 1974, at which time the lady walked off with three more first prizes. Previously, in 1955, she won the National True Story Award - a $5,000 prize. Mary Carey was the owner and proprietor of Mary's McKinley View Lodge, which she built on her homestead in 1972. There she baked sixty-four pies each day, welcomed guests, gave lectures to tourists, and somehow found time for rock hunting and writing. Mary died suddenly at the age of 91, on June 18, 2004, at her beloved Mary's McKinley View Lodge. She left a rich legacy and a loving family from a life well-lived.

Winging It!
Winging It!

Author: Jack Jefford

Publisher: Graphic Arts Books

Published: 2012-02-29

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0882408674

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Jack Jefford shares stories of his gripping rescues, white-knuckle crackups, and wild adventures that come from flying the not always friendly skies of Alaska. Arriving in the Territory of Alaska in 1937, he started flying from the gold rush town of Nome for Hans Mirow. Jack’s stories are some of the most fascinating and interesting to come out of Alaska. At the urging of his daughter, this great, early Alaska pilot decided to share these incredible flying stories with all aviation fans the world over

Alaska's First Bush Pilots, 1923-30
Alaska's First Bush Pilots, 1923-30

Author: Jim Rearden

Publisher: Graphic Arts Books

Published: 2014-04-04

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0882409328

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This book follows the careers of Alaska's pioneering pilots, who, with cranky open-cockpit biplanes, started the great change in Alaska's way of travel. Aviation first arrived at Fairbanks, the trade center of mainland Alaska, from which dog sled trails spider-web to mines, villages, and trap-lines. During winters, goods and people traveled mostly by dog sled. During the summer of 1923 Ben Eielson was the first to fly commercially from Fairbanks, ferrying passengers and light freight with an open cockpit Jenny (JN4) biplane. It was the beginning of the leap from ground travel to the air. Noel Wien was the next. In the summers of 1924-26 he flew open cockpit biplanes from Fairbanks. Starting in 1927, he flew a cabin biplane year-around on scheduled flights in the 579 miles between Fairbanks and Nome. In March, 1929, Wien flew from Alaska to the Elisif, an ice-locked trading schooner in Siberia, to return with a load of valuable furs. In the following November, Ben Eielson repeated this flight to the Nanuk, another ice-bound trading schooner in Siberia. And when he and his mechanic, Earl Borland returned for a second load of Siberian fur, their Hamilton airplane disappeared in a winter snowstorm. This brought on one of the most famous, and difficult aerial searches ever made from and in Alaska. By the 1930s, Alaska's growing aviation industry had revolutionized transportation in the Territory. This volume is a fond look back at the triumphs and tragedies of the pioneering Ben Eielson, Noel Wien, Harold Gillam, Joe Crosson, Ed Young, and others, the great pilots who were the first bush pilots of Alaska.