Bush pilot keeps people connected in Alaska wilderness
Published Saturday, November 15, 2008
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Stumble It!KODIAK, Alaska -- Clearing a snow-topped ridge, Mike Gerber pointed out Port Bailey to our left. The old cannery stopped producing years ago, he said, but there's a winter watchman.
As a pilot for Island Air, Gerber flies mail to people inhabiting the most remote places on Kodiak. A recent itinerary called for flying by floatplane to lodges and canneries on the islands' west side.
Gerber called the watchman but the radio went unanswered. He swooped around and headed straight for the cannery.
"Just gonna fly over. If he's in the area, he'll hear me. These things are loud, like a hundred Harleys going by your house," Gerber said.
Low to the water, Gerber circled around. From above, you could see dozens of sea otters floating in the bay. One curious otter popped his head up for a good look before diving below the landing plane. A man walked on the beach beside the faded gray cannery buildings.
"Oh good, the guy's there," Gerber said.
He cut the engine and jumped into the water. I now understood why Gerber flies wearing waders.
Born in Minnesota, Gerber has been flying in Kodiak for almost 11 years. Either on wheels or in the 1955 Beaver floatplane, Gerber serves remote Kodiakans in all their needs, from transportation and medical evacuations to mail and groceries.
"There's always something going on. Summertime, there's bear viewing. Fall, there's hunting. Wintertime there's mail to move," he said.
For many people living in seclusion in Kodiak's wilderness, Gerber may be the only person they see all winter.
"I can go to a village, and I'll know just about every face in the village. I would say I probably know more people out in the villages than I do in Kodiak," Gerber said.
Gerber said he likes flying the floatplane mail run because of his interactions with remote people and the gratitude they show him.
"I've met some truly great people doing this," he said. "Sometimes we get stuck, we have to stay out in a village. They'll take really good care of you. They'll take you in their home and feed you. "I always laugh if you're a single pilot, you're probably gonna eat better in a village than you would at home."
When the weather's been bad and orders are backed up, the job sometimes requires last-minute deliveries on holidays.
"You're giving somebody their grocery order and you know that's their mashed potatoes and that's their turkey, and they're getting their food on Thanksgiving. They're very appreciative," Gerber said.
Gerber brims with admiration for his customers living a wild Alaska lifestyle.
"There's a family out here that runs a lodge. Kids are home-schooled, kind of like the Swiss Family Robinson," he said.
We flew over a collection of lodges surrounded by water and mountain.
"That's the Pingrees, this is what they own," he said. "That's the part of Alaska that you read about, the folklore, people living in little areas like this."
Gerber said he had no interest in the globetrotting lifestyle of a commercial airline pilot, preferring the community and challenge of flying in Kodiak.
"It's in your blood," he said. "It's kind of one of those jobs that you don't just do. It's not like you show up and you go home and you kind of forget about it.
"A good example is when the weather's blowing 70 or 100 in Kodiak, you don't just go home and forget about your airplane. You're down there at midnight, checking on your lines, making sure your plane is still there," Gerber said.
Community Discussion
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This story can be told all over Alaska about our dedicated pilots that know their routes to villages intricately. The village people rely on the pilots and appreciate their skill to fly in a tough country ......Year round, in rain, snow, ice and wind. All the bush pilots are heros to the people they serve.
The Bush pilot ERA ended years ago!
The bush pilot era is over, is simple BS. Having flown for over 50 years with various bush pilots all over this State, they are alive and well and flying as good or bad as the old fellows. Main difference they are not landing on frozen rivers or sandbars as much as they use to. Really enjoyed landing and taking off in those gooses when I lived in Kodiak. Thanks to the people willing to be bush pilots. Always remember the golden rule, ask them how long they have been flying before taking off with them.
Mail pilot would be a better description. Tourists in the summer and freight in the winter. And yes the bush pilot era is over, for the most part. Almost every little two bit town and village has a 3,500 foot, or longer, runway and many have instrument approach procedures. I'm not saying it's not dangerous as heck, cause it is, it's just not bush flying. Bush flying is off airport work in super cubs or beavers, which the subject of this story flies so he could qualify as a "bush pilot" maybe.
And the myth of experience equals safety is also just that, a myth. Common sense and restraint keeps pilots and their passengers alive, not experience.
Very good article.
Common sense does help. Common sense is also a result of experience (also called learning).
The era of the bush pilot is not over but the frontier where they operate is slowly disappearing. It is ironic that the more successful the bush pilots are in connecting communities the less remote, the less in the 'bush' the communities become thereby further shrinking the frontier the bush pilot operates within.
The arcticle was very well written and is a very good example of the type of arcticle reporters should be writing.
Gerber is a bush pilot. Kudos to him for doing what he loves and doing it well for 11+ years.
Having flown all over this state for the last 30 years and known guys that where real Bush pilots the Era is over. It ended with the advent of nav aids, runways, Lighting, Wanna debate it, ask Richard or Merril Wien, Jorgy Jorgensen, Paul Shanahan, there are more but they keep going west......... The flying today is not the flying of the bush pilots.
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