Off-Airport Training Programs
Your dream of flying a bush plane Alaska can come true, and you will come away with new skills that will help you in a real emergency off-airport landing.
Our programs run 3-7 days, you can do as little as an afternoon of training or up to 10 days.
Flight training in Alaska has many ups downs, but what mountain flying doesn't? You can enjoy flying through the mountain pass just like the old bush pilots did, ending your day landing at some of the historic places in Alaska's bush flying history. You will learn to "talk" with your airplane and understand how to feel what the airplanes energy is by using your outside references and the feel of the aircraft. While learning some of the old bush pilot techniques John has learned from many of the old Alaskan bush pilots, many of them has helped keep many aviators alive over the years in Alaska.
We customize our programs for each student and their skill level. Any pilot can come fly with us and expand their aviation skill set. We can set up a program that has short legs and more landings or longer distances and fewer landings. You set the goals in your training we are here to help you along the path.
A typical day in training
Early Morning
We will meet at 8am and talk about what we are going to practice that day, then have a Q&A session.
We typically fly shorter flights for around an hour each with multiple flights a day to build better muscle memory for our customers retention of the skills learned.
Morning Flight
We depart Willow airport for our first flight of the day.
Day one will be staying in Willow for the first flight so we can get used to the airplane and the way it handles while landing on a easy 4000 gravel strip.
Other days we will be building our skills from the previous day.
Lunch
After our morning flight we talk about what went good and what to watch for in the afternoon session.
Afternoon Flight
After lunch we depart for our second flight of the day, we will continue to build our skills, moving on to more advanced strips as the pilot becomes more proficient.
After the second flight of the day, we sit and talk about the things we have learned in the day. Most students are ready to be done at this point of the day, some may want to fly a third flight a day, for those pilots we will typically do this Q&A at a remote strip as well.
Evening Flight
For students that would like a third flight in their day we can accommodate, our afternoon flight will be polishing the skills we had learned earlier in the day. And maybe do some animal spotting on our way back to the Willow airport.
End of Day
We break for the day and enjoy the wonders of Alaska. Around 4 pm.
Graduation Day!!!!!
The last day
On the last day we hope to be proficient enough to show our instructor a new place to land, not just follow other peoples tracks. Perhaps its a trip to the Big Sue for a few beach landings then make our way up the Yetna and Skwentna Rivers to have lunch at the Skwentna Roadhouse.