Alaska's Bush Planes

Ned Rozell has walked, skied, driven, and flown across Alaska, and he's lived there more than half his life, so it must be home. He's written more than 700 weekly newspaper columns about natural history and science, and has written 80 more for Alaska Magazine. He has three Alaska-related books and counting; Walking My Dog, Jane, is about that hike across Alaska with a dog that won't come along again. His latest work is Alaska Tracks: Footprints in the Big Country from Ambler to Attu. Harmon "Bud" Helmericks was an Arctic explorer, bush pilot and author best known for writing The Last of the Bush Pilots. As one of Alaska's most famous bush pilots, Bud holds the Award of Merit, Territory of Alaska, for "Special Service in the Arctic Regions." He couldn't tell you exactly how many Alaska flight hours he had, because he tired of adding up his flight hours after logging more than 27,000 hours. He crossed thousands of miles of mostly uninhabited wilderness in small Cessnas on wheels, skis or pontoons. Bud is coauthor and author of several books that are now deemed collectible, among them We Live in the Arctic, We Live in Alaska, The Flight of the Arctic Tern, and The Last of the Bush Pilots.

“An absolutely stunning view of Alaska, as seen by various skilled, artistic photographers who followed many bush planes to places seldom visited by humans, to capture glorious images of small—and not so small—aircraft stitching Alaska together.”

• Foreword: Those Who FlewIntroduction: Frontier Flight in the 21st CenturyThe Interior: A Silencing ColdSoutheast: Land of Mountains and WaterwaysSouthcentral: Gateway to the BushThe Arctic: Above the Dazzling WhiteWestern Alaska: Soaring O’er the Delta