FAIRBANKS - With networks like TLC, Discovery Channel and National Geographic making Alaska programming a priority, it seems every other Alaskan has participated in a reality TV show.

Count Kiana resident Zaz Staheli as one of them. She is the only part-Alaska Native and only female on National Geographic’s “Alaska Wing Men,” a show that chronicles the lives and experiences of Alaska bush pilots. Three of the show’s 10 first-season episodes have aired.

“Alaska Wing Men” focuses on the men and women who fly the planes, similar to the Discovery Channel’s “Flying Wild Alaska,” which depicts the Tweto family operating its air service out of Unalakleet. However, “Alaska Wing Men” features a handful of pilots from different companies that navigate air space across the state.

Staheli is a fourth-generation pilot who helps run her family’s air taxi service out of Kiana, a village on the lower Kobuk River, 400 miles northwest of Fairbanks. She’s always on standby, so she flies to many locations for a variety of reasons. One day she might fly schoolchildren to wrestling, volleyball or basketball competitions in other villages that, like Kiana, are far from the road system; other times it might be a state trooper asking to her transport prisoner to the nearest jail.

“We just do so many different things,” she said from her home in Kiana.

Staheli studied at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she earned a bachelors degree and two associates, but her heart was always in Kiana and with flying.

“I would always sneak home and help as much I could,” she said.

When Staheli was first contacted by show producers early last year, she and her family had no desire to be on TV. National Geographic was persistent, she said, and finally the Stahelis agreed to having an advance crew come to Kiana.

Things went well, for both the family and the crew. Filming started in late winter and continued in the summer. Staheli said it took a while to adjust to having cameras on her 24-7.

“When things aren't going like they’re supposed to, it’s hard to have cameras filming you,” Staheli said, “Especially when you’re in an airplane and in charge of six other lives.”

Ultimately, Staheli and the film crew became friends. Kiana, a village of 350, is 50 miles east of Kotzebue. There are no hotels in the village and the crew lived with her family.

“They were fun. They were good people,” she said. “They never pushed too hard.”

Staheli doesn’t personally know the other pilots on the show, but she knows of them — the Alaska Bush pilot community is small. She’s proud to represent the even smaller number of female pilots.

“It’s a pretty big deal for a village girl to make the big screen.”

“Alaska Wing Men” airs on the National Geographic Channel every Friday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Contact features editor Suzanna Caldwell at 459-7504.