Tales from the Tundra: The Pilots Who Make It Happen

We live within a vast, rugged, wild Alaskan landscape here in the Copper River Valley, stretching north to the Alaska Range, southward to the Chugach Mountains, east to the Wrangell-St. Elias Range, and westward to the Talkeetna Mountains. This place we call home is immense by any standard, and traveling cross-country, save for the paved roadways that bisect the valley, requires a tremendous investment of energy, skill, and resources for anyone daring to venture away from civilization. 

Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s (ADF&G’s) yearlong monitoring and management of wildlife populations within Units 11 and 13 and of both freshwater and anadromous fish populations within the Upper Copper/Upper Susitna Management Area is an ever-shifting, dynamic effort across this enormous landscape. 

Game Management Unit 11 is 12,784 square miles and Unit13 is 23,368 square miles, for a total combined management area of 36,152 square miles! You can compare this to the entire state of Indiana at 35,870 square miles. 

Equally impressive is the Upper Copper/ Upper Susitna Management Area’s complex network of high elevation water flowing into a thousand small streams and fast-flowing rivers of ever-increasing volume, until poured out into the mighty Copper River or Susitna River. For reference, the entirety of the Copper River watershed from the highest elevation mountain ranges to the Copper River delta, where the river flows out into the Gulf of Alaska, encompasses 26,500 square miles. Wetlands, ponds, and lakes of various sizes dot the countryside and add to the rich diversity of habitat and life that have adapted to this cold, harsh environment. 

Fixed-wing airborne efforts gathering information for both radiocollared and non-radiocollared wildlife are conducted throughout the year, save for a break during the hunting season of August/September. Efforts include systematic surveys of wildlife abundance and population composition, monitoring of collared animals for productivity and survival, locating animals for capture, or even conducting snow surveys, among other things. 

Concurrently, fixed-wing pilots are called upon yearlong by ADF&G fisheries biologists to track radiotagged fish (Arctic grayling, whitefish, rainbow trout, lake trout, and salmon) to determine their movements within the freshwater system, to determine specific location of seasonal habitat use, and to help conduct population estimates throughout the Copper River Valley.

The scope of management obligation requires the combined effort of a small but dedicated ADF&G staff to meet the demands of responsibility to the public we serve. Oftentimes, based on the need for fuller coverage within a narrow window of opportunity, ADF&G calls on a few private individuals within our small community to collect pertinent data from the backseat of fixed-wing airplanes; these dauntless individuals have regularly included Jan Maslen, Caroline Ketron, Tim Skiba, Alysia Hancock, Tessa Wittman, and Seth Wilson.

Facing such formidable terrain challenges yearlong on a repetitive cycle is at the heart of ADF&G’s undeniable reliance upon a handful of specialized, highly skilled, and trustworthy bush pilots for the efficient monitoring and management of these varied populations. Collectively, this small group of intrepid pilots possess centuries’ worth of tried-and-true remote navigation experience within the Copper River Valley airspace and beyond, sometimes under less than favorable weather conditions while flying over an unforgiving and indifferent landscape. 

To say that they have mastered the skills of remote aviation, landscape navigation, mechanical aptitude, interpersonal communication, situational awareness, a very learned ability to observe and read the minute details of fluctuating weather, acute resourcefulness, self-reliance, and an ability to remain calm under great duress is a colossal understatement.        

Glennallen ADF&G utilizes the services of a set of primary pilots regularly and the services of other Alaska-based pilots as needed to fill gaps in availability or to provide more complete coverage during coordinated survey efforts. So, who are these purveyors of the air enabling easy access to far-flung wilderness settings?  

Harley McMahan (McMahan Guide & Flying Service) is a Gakona-based fixed-wing pilot with 56 years of flying experience, 48 of those while working for ADF&G tracking radiocollared moose, caribou, bison, sheep, goats, wolves, and radiotagged whitefish, king, sockeye, and coho salmon. Harley often flies ahead of incoming helicopters during capture work to locate target animals.  

Annually, Harley is contracted by other local agencies to conduct bald eagle nesting surveys along the Copper and Gulkana rivers. Harley’s youngest son Alex carries on the family legacy of plying the air as both a fixed-wing and rotor-wing pilot in the Army and now Alaska National Guard.

Jerry Lee (Basin Airmotive) is a second-generation Tolsona and Mendeltna-based fixed-wing pilot with 60 years of flying experience, who regularly conducts caribou, sheep, and moose survey work for ADF&G. As is often needed, Jerry serves as a spotter from his plane to locate target animals during capture work, ahead of an incoming helicopter crew. Jerry continues in his father Al Lee’s line of work as a contract pilot for Glennallen’s natural resource management agencies.

Chuck McMahan (Gakona Guides) is a Gakona-based fixed-wing pilot with 54 years of flying experience to his name, including radio telemetry work tracking various fish and wildlife species within the Copper River Valley. Like his brother Harley, Chuck is a second-generation bush pilot who has passed on his love for flying adventures and flying skills to his sons, Johnny and Bryan. The fourth generation of McMahan pilots are currently earning their wings with guidance from Chuck.  

Being a third generation fixed-wing pilot based in Gakona and Palmer with 27 plus years of flying experience, Johnny McMahan (JM Guide Service) is key to accomplishing annual ADF&G moose counts and snow survey field work. The current McMahan family pilots carry on a way of life and tradition first begun by Cleo McMahan in the Gakona and Meiers Lake area.

Leif Wilson (40-Mile Air) is a Tok-based pilot with 43 years of flying experience in both fixed-wing airplanes (43 years) and rotor-wing aircraft (15 years). In his 31 years of work for ADF&G, he has especially enjoyed and specialized in animal capture work from a helicopter. Piloting a helicopter during animal capture work requires highly specialized skills to safely maneuver the aircraft close-in enough to the targeted animal to enable the accurate delivery of a sedating dart by the biologist. Leif is also called upon regularly to transport biologists to remote locations for mortality signal investigations and carcass and radio collar retrieval.

Mark Stott (Backcountry Helicopters) is a Fairbanks-based helicopter pilot with 16 years of flying experience and 14 of those years as a contracted pilot for ADF&G. Mark routinely transports biologists to remote locations where animals are captured via aerial darting and then fitted with radio-collars; this particular work requires deft maneuvering skills close-in to safely access individual animals quickly, while enabling the biologist to accurately deliver the sedating dart from the moving aircraft. Mark also has 3 years of fixed-wing plane experience flying for 40-Mile Air. Mark is the first and only Alaska bush pilot in his family.

A formally educated wildlife biologist in his own right, Don Welty (McCarthy Air) is a McCarthy-based fixed-wing pilot with 44 years of flying experience and 35 of those years flying contract work for ADF&G. Because of Don’s proven skills and expertise, ADF&G biologists rely on him to transport observers during annual Dall sheep and mountain goat survey work in the Wrangell and Chugach mountain ranges, where the margin of error is thin for safely navigating sudden down drafts and strong channelized currents of wind. A career in aviation runs in Don’s family with both his daughter and son-in-law plying the skies for a living.

Lance Williams (Wing and A Prayer Aviation) is a Cantwell-based fixed-wing pilot with 34 years of flying experience, 23 years of that flying for ADF&G.  Due to the sheer distance from Glennallen to GMU 13E (adjacent to Denali National Park), ADF&G biologists call upon Lance throughout the year to conduct summer caribou and sheep counts and winter moose counts in that portion of Unit 13.  Lance’s wife Dana partners up on these counting expeditions as the official backseat observer and data collector. Their 18-year old son, Reid, is currently pursuing his own certification to become the third generation of aviators in the Williams family.

Bruce Dale is a retired ADF&G biologist/pilot with 40 plus years of flying experience, 30 plus years of that flying for ADF&G. He has worked various wildlife projects across Alaska from Unimak to Kaktovik including bear, wolf, and moose projects, with his primary focus being on caribou. Glennallen ADF&G biologists now depend on Bruce to conduct flights for the purpose of photographing large aggregates of caribou during the summer when caribou are piled onto the remaining patches of snow for respite from biting insects. These extensive photo sets enable biologists to count the Nelchina caribou herd.

Due to frequent scheduling conflicts for these in-demand primary pilots or because of need for more aerial coverage to accomplish a population survey, Glennallen ADF&G calls upon other local backcountry pilots, who are no less important for realization of population management objectives.  

Those who round out our team of reliable and highly skilled pilots include Bryan McMahan, Martin Boniek, Mike Meekin, Matt Keller, Scott Quist, Tom Seaton, Troy Cambier, Truman Tripple, Jake Combs, and Rob Kozakiewicz. Rick Swisher, former pilot with Fairbanks-based Quicksilver Air, has been a go-to helicopter pilot for many years but is now retired from the aviation business in Alaska.

Glennallen ADF&G biologists gratefully acknowledge each of these pilots, their steady character and dependability, their reliable insight and understanding of movement patterns by wildlife and fish, their constant vigilance of fluctuating weather conditions, their dedication to safety, and their considerable efforts throughout the year which enable ADF&G managers to achieve high quality oversight and management of these wild Copper River Valley animal and fish populations.

It’s hard to imagine where ADF&G would be without each one of these fine pilots and their invaluable skills and expertise. These pilots exude calm, clarity, and capability, deeply tempered by a strong measure of confidence that is borne of daily risk and daring just to complete the task before them, while ensuring their own and their passenger’s safe return. Theirs is a world of broad horizons, narrow margins for error, and unimaginable raw beauty. Given an option for another occupation, few pilots would have it any other way, and we are sincerely grateful to be in their passenger seats year after year.