Arctic Bush Pilot: From Navy Combat to Flying Alaska's Northern Wilderness

256 Pages·2000·13.762 MB·English

by  James Anderson, Jim Rearden

Navy Combat to Flying
Stebithern Wilderness
A MEMOIR: james "Andy" Anderson as told to Jim Rearden
I've never read a book that
so skillfully puts the reader
into a bush pilot's head and
so compellingly captures
the drama, adventure, and
misadventure of Arctic flying
—Cliff Cernick,
Flyer magazine
ISBN 0-945397-83-6 $16.95
BACKED BY WIEN AIRLINES, former Navy combat pilot
“Andy” Anderson pioneered post-World War II bush service to
Alaska’s vast Koyukuk River region serving miners, Natives,
sportsmen, geologists, adventurers, and assorted bush rats.
He flew mining equipment, gold, live wolves and sled dogs,
you name it—anything needed for life in the bush. He sweated
out dozens of dangerous medical-emergency flights, “always at
night and in terrible storms.”
Illustrated with 50 historical photo's and co-authored by one
of Alaska’s most popular writers, ARCTIC BUSH PILOT is an
exciting and sometimes nostalgic account of a pioneer pilot and
his special place in Alaska aviation history.
ARCTIC BUSH PILOT brings alive the beauty
of the Koyukuk region and its people.
—Paul Haggland, pilot, Fairbanks, Alaska
I’d have died of pneumonia one winter if Andy Anderson hadn’t
flown me from Huslia to the Tanana Hospital in rotten weather.
—Sidney Huntington, Galena, Alaska
ISBN O-BMSaBV-flB-b
9 780945 397830
FROM NAVY COMBAT TO FLYING
ALASKA'S NORTHERN WILDERNESS
A MEMOIR:
James "Andy" Anderson
as told to Jim Rearden
EPICENTER PRESS
Epicenter Press Inc. is a regional press founded in Alaska whose interests
include but are not limited to the arts, history, environment, and diverse
culrures and lifestyles of the North Pacific and high latitudes. We seek both
the traditional and innovative in publishing nonfiction tradebooks and
giftbooks featuring contemporary art and photography.
Text © 2000 Jim Rearden
Photos © 2000 Jim Rearden unless otherwise credited
Publisher: Kent Sturgis
Editor: Don Graydon
Mapmaker: Russell Nelson
Proofreader: Sherrill Carlson
Cover and text design, typesetting: Elizabeth Watson
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
on a computer disk, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Permission is given for brief excerpts to be
published with book reviews in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and
catalogs.
ISBN 0-945397-83-6
To order single copies of ARCTIC BUSH PILOT, mail $16.95 (WA residents
add $1.46 sales tax) plus $5 for Priority Mail shipping to: Epicenter Press,
Box 82368, Kenmore, WA 98028; phone our 24-hour order line, 800-950-
6663; or visit our website, EpicenterPress.com.
Booksellers: Retail discounts are available from our distributor,
Graphic Arts Center Publishing, Box 10306, Portland, OR 97210.
Phone [phone].
Printed in Canada
First printing May 2000
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My thanks to every Indian and Eskimo villager, every miner and trap­
per, and every bushrat who lived in the Koyukuk Valley and Brooks
Range where I flew, for in one way or another each contributed to
the development of scheduled air service there.
Frank Tobuk and Warren “Canuck” Killen, Wien Airlines
employees at Betties, kept me flying; Canuck was my right arm.
Neither of these fine men ever failed me.
The Wien brothers, Noel, Sig, and Fritz, and the next genera­
tion of Wiens—Richard, Merrill, and Bob—all contributed whole­
heartedly to my bush operation at Betties. The Wiens taught me
much about the fine art of Alaska flying.
Russell “Mac” McConnell, although he was a Betties FAA main­
tenance employee, contributed much to my flying program; Mac
could do anything.
My heartfelt appreciation goes to my first wife, Hannah, who
did a superb job of overseeing the Betties roadhouse operation and
raising our children. My thanks to our children, Mary, David, and
Phil, for their acceptance of a difficult situation.
To my wonderful parents, my thanks for a responsible Christian
upbringing. To my brothers Carl and Louis and my sister Hope, my
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ARCTIC BUSH PILOT
thanks for a lifetime of moral support. And to Betty, my wife ol three
decades, at my side in sickness and health, in good times and bad,
goes my deepest appreciation. My thanks to her three children,
Cheryl, Julie, and Jay, for their understanding and steadfast faith in
both of us.
Thanks too to Cliff Cernick, of Anchorage, for his professional
on-the-mark line editing. William O. Seymour, professor of journal­
ism at the University of West Virginia, made helpful comments on
the manuscript. Thanks to Ernest N. Wolff for permission to use bio­
graphical details on men of the Chandalar that appeared in his book­
let Frank Yasnda and the Chandalar. Last, my appreciation to Jim
Rearden for producing a lucid, accurate record of my aviation career.
—JLA
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Half a century ago I participated in a tiny part of the aviation history
of Alaska. When I established scheduled flights in the Koyukuk River
valley, which straddles the Arctic Circle, I wasn’t thinking of history
or of being a pioneer. I simply filled a need and took advantage of an
economic opportunity. But eventually the satisfaction of serving
became as important to me as the economics.
I was fortunate to arrive at Betties, where I was based, at a period
when there was a great need for aerial transportation. At first, my
small, inefficient planes could only haul freight of limited size. As my
business grew, I flew increasingly larger and more dependable freight­
carrying airplanes. When I ended my seventeen-year bush flying
career, my planes were delivering some of the bigger stuff: refrigera­
tors, 4-by-8 sheets of plywood, entire dog teams.
At first, most villages I served had no airport; when I left, most
of these villages had an airport that could handle twin-engine planes.
By then these villages also had good radio communication.
At first, villagers rushed to meet my plane whenever I landed,
much as pioneers of the early west gathered at a depot to greet the
train. By the time I left, only those who had business at the airport
met my flights; airplanes had become commonplace.
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ARCTIC BUSH PILOT
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PREFACE
I enjoyed being a bush pilot. I enjoyed flying. I enjoyed the
magnificent wilderness land over which I flew. I enjoyed the people I
served. For these reasons my years at Betties seemed almost like a
paid vacation.
Remembering these pleasures, and reliving my experiences by
writing about them, has given me much satisfaction. I would like
to believe that this review of my time as an arctic bush pilot will
contribute in a small way to the history of Alaskan aviation.
James L. “Andy"Anderson
Dr. Edward Wiegand of Sandusky, Ohio, fishes in Agiakhake
above the timberline in The Brooks Range, jim rearden photo
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