Original subtitles

The wide open land in the back country of

Alaska calls out to those who love

solitude, nature, and wildlife.

In all of your time here, has there been any bear

attacks here?

Yeah, oh yeah.

But getting into these remote locations

can be dangerous.

I cannot believe the guy survived that thing.

Man that is a tight spot.

If something goes wrong, you are own your own.

We opened the hood and started trying to diagnose

something.

Oh, (bleep), I'm not getting any fuel.

That is all a part of the adventure.

I've got a pretty strong wind right here.

It looks like the load is really swinging there, that

was just the turbulence pushing me around.

I don't like this.

Alaska has almost 230,000 square kilometers of

wilderness area, more than the other 49 states combined.

Alaska's official nickname is the last frontier, and for

the men and women who prefer to be surrounded by nature,

rather than steel and concrete, Alaska has countless

opportunities to get away from civilization and go off

the grid.

That's all I got for ya.

Thanks for the mail you went to grab.

Thanks Jim.

Yeah, this is awesome.

And with over 250 villages that are not

connected by a road system, Alaskans rely on small

aircraft for travel and shipping of goods.

Here, we got some stuff from island air for ya.

Alright, thanks Pete.

Between private and commercial pilots,

hundreds of flights occur daily.

But that much air traffic, crashes are inevitable.

When a car crashes on a highway, the wreckage is

quickly removed to clear the lanes for traffic,

but when an airplane or helicopter crashes in the wilderness

of Alaska, removing the wreckage can be an almost impossible

task.

But with so many valuable parts available for salvage,

there are brave pilots who fly into the untamed wilderness

of Alaska to find and salvage these remote wrecks.

One of the things Tanalia Aviation, we're known for,

and Joel Natwick specifically is our aircraft salvage work.

I've probably gone and got 30-40 airplanes over

the years, all over Alaska, there's a high demand

for guys like us.

Even though the crash might be significant,

and might be a bad crash, a lot of very expensive parts

do make it through, headsets about a thousand bucks,

the tundra tires can be $5,000 and on and on.

Alright, so we got the coordinates, we're heading up

near Yentna.

We just got a call that there was a Super Cub that a guy

crashed into the trees, he was flying in kinda bad weather,

next thing he remembers was waking up in the hospital.

The pilot was lucky.

Alaska averages over 100 plane crashes a year, and one

out of every ten are fatal.

One of the things that's difficult is that we're looking

for a white aircraft in the snow, it's gonna be tough

to find.

Okay we're going over the spot right now, let's just

keep on straight.

I bet he's close to these hills here.

Yeah, man oh my, this is the hard part.

These are really thick right.

Yeah.

And every tree that's fallen over looks like a wing to me.

I'm gonna pull up the coordinates, let's make

sure that the coordinates are in there correctly.

Okay, yeah.

GPS coordinates are critical for any operation like this,

if I have one number off it can be hundreds and hundreds

of feet, being off by a couple hundred might mean

whether we can find it or not.

GPS finds your location by communicating with

four or more satellites in orbit.

Okay we are .6 beyond our point.

Yeah I think the guy sent us wrong coords.

This is when it gets frustrating

Man maybe its in the next stand over.

Yep, yep.

Let's go all the way into those trees over there.

I got it.

I got it right on my nose here down there, see that

big tree right there, the big green tree?

Yeah I see it, that is hard to see.

You need to log the best landing spot as closest.

We can't land right on top of the wreckage cause

it's in the trees, so we're gonna have to land about

maybe a quarter mile away and walk into the woods to get

to it.

This okay?

Yeah that's good man.

Alright!

Now that the small plane has been located,

the team calls in a second helicopter to assist with

the heavy lifting.

I cannot believe the guy survived that thing.

Man that is a tight spot.

Bucky is so good!

Haha, yeah right.

How are you feeling about it?

Uh, I'm scared.

Yeah I'm glad you're doing it and not me.

It'll be interesting to see what it looks

like on the ground.

Here we are.

Holy cow, wow.

Every time you go flying, you think about where

you're gonna land if you have an engine failure,

and you take the risk of crashing every time you leave

the ground so it just kinda brings it home when you

walk up on a wreck like that and see it.

Damn fuel coming out.

Yep, that's not good.

There's still fuel in it?

There's fuel coming out.

Untangling the wreckage from the tree requires

cutting the plane into pieces, one spark could ignite

the plane fuel and cause an explosion.

Ready?

Mission accomplished.

Now they can begin to dismantle the small aircraft.

Okay, right wings off, nice.

I think this is frozen into the ground, actually.

Oh, okay.

We have a real job on our hands.

The props off.

There you go.

Josiah why don't you go get the jet ranger,

we're ready for ya.

The team straps up the wreckage.

This is going to put him and the helicopters to

the test, this is gonna be a real strain.

I'm nervous, I've got the butterflies.

It'll be challenging.

We're right underneath ya.

Okay.

Josiah, the helicopter pilot, must lift the

cable and the wreckage straight up through these dense

trees.

They're in the trees!

The line really started to swing, the hook started to

oscillate.

(suspenseful music)

Once I got the weight of the fuselage on the line, you're

looking at the load and glancing at your torque gauge,

and I was right at 100% picking it up.

Straight up, looking good!

That's about as good as it gets right there.

And that's Josiah Freeman right there!

He's a free man, haha!

Woo!

Very good!

Good job!

Thanks!

The celebration is short lived, because

Josiah still has to lift three more loads of wreckage.

He's on!

Yeah, you're good to go!

Straight up, beautiful!

You're clear, you're totally centered!

Okay you should be above the trees right now!

Very nice, looks good!

The next load will be the net with all the parts and pieces!

Okay, we're ready for him.

Just comin' up, nice and slow!

He's good to go!

The team is working well together, and quickly

lift most of the wreckage away from the remote location.

Yeah that's all of it Josiah!

You're good to go!

Okay!

Josiah was nervous going into this, I mean I knew

he could do it, I probably have more confidence in him

than he has in himself.

He did it better than all of our expectations.

Josiah's good at anything he does.

Man, very good, great job that was a tight one!

Yep, I'm worn out.

The untouched wilderness of the Alaskan

back country is an outdoorsman's paradise.

It should be on the bucket list for anyone who wants to

get away from civilization and enjoy the beauty of nature

and with a floatplane, any body of water, even a river,

could become an airport.

Just see the tips of the camp!

Yeah, right there at the tall trees.

A float plane lands on the river, it's the only spot

on the river a beaver can land.

Untouched, the last frontier.

Guys, here we are.

Alright, safe and sound.

So we operate Alaska Bush Adventures.

These two are going deep into the backcountry

of Alaska to look for wildlife.

He's off, we're all alone.

Time to get comfy.

From there we'll take about a 27 mile boat ride upriver

where we have a base camp set up.

Looks pretty good, doesn't look like -

Any bear sight?

any bears got in here.

They usually like to tear stuff up.

Nothin's been in here.

So we came up here to this upper base camp with the plan

to load the Argo up with enough rations to last a few

days, tent, and miscellaneous gear.

What is that right there?

Bear protection.

Ready, lets do it.

We drove out of camp in the Argo.

This is a rough ride, whew!

Alright, here we go!

These brave explorers are venturing even

further off the grid.

Out here, there are no roads, no cellphone service, and

the only way to get back home is by plane, so they are

on their own and if something goes wrong, they have to

fix it themselves.

We're going through difficult forest,

crossing streams, going up mountains.

Its about six miles, but its a rough six miles.

A few times I got so scared I closed my eyes.

The hillsides are covered with older brush,

and that's where these bears like to hide so when you're

driving in the Argo if you have to cut a trail through

the alders.

See how much cooler it is in here?

Yep.

That's why the bears like it.

The bear trails are in there and their beds are in there,

so you could easily jump a bear in there.

You've always gotta be paying attention to what

you're doing.

We started to climb our first hill, the Argo started

to sputter out and it was losing fuel, wasn't getting

enough fuel.

We were able to get it started a few more times, and

go a few more feet until we couldn't get it to go anymore.

Let off, gun it.

May have water in it.

At that point the Argo wouldn't start anymore, so we

opened the hood and started trying to diagnose something.

(bleep)

Not getting any fuel.

Might make a phone call.

I then got on the Sat phone, and called back to Anchorage.

Hey this is Ryan Crank, Alaska Bush Adventures.

We got a problem.

A satellite phone communicates by connecting

with orbiting satellites, as opposed to cell phones

which connect with towers on the ground.

Y'know it was running great on ground and as soon

as we hit a hill it started cutting out.

These phones are best used for emergencies,

as they cost ten times as much per minute as a cell phone

call, but when you are stranded in the bush of Alaska,

it is money well spent.

Okay, yeah.

I think we're gonna be alright.

The conclusion was we had plugged fuel lines and

vapor lock.

Look at the load we have in here, could've pinched

that line.

But as soon as we opened the gas cap, we then got

fuel flow.

We did a little rearrange of our load, and it fixed

the problem.

(engine running)

Vapor lock.

Took us about an hour to get that situation remedied,

and then we were off.

A minor mishap in the game of life.

We have access to miles upon miles of untouched

unharmed land.

Good vantage point up here.

Great (bleep), God almighty.

We got up here to the first ridge top, and we

made camp there to be ready for the following morning.

Home sweet home.

Home sweet home.

It was a clear, beautiful night, stars

were out, and shortly after nightfall the Northern Lights

were out.

These explorers were lucky to be able to repair

the off road vehicle in the field, otherwise they would've

been stranded.

When you're stuck in the back country of Alaska, any mistake

can have severe consequences.

Right now we're loading up our beaver from Pacific Wings,

we got Cole over here, he's our pilot, he's getting

untied so we can start loading up.

Loading all the gear, let's do this.

Dan and I are doing this completely on our own, no

guides, the only help that we have is with Rocky's Marine

and Pacific Wings giving us transportation.

But as far as protection, cooking, it's all on us.

Here's food for thought, in all of your time here,

has there been any bear attacks here?

Yeah, oh yeah.

Buddy of mine who was a guide up on Amalty, he got a couple

years ago, he went in after a brown bear -

That's a problem.

It got ahold of him, yeah.

Yeah, that is a problem.

Here in the Southeast, it's well known for it's very

large Boone and Crockett size black bears.

Kuiu Island has the largest population of black bears

per square mile than any area in Alaska.

The difference between a black bear and a brown bear is

that black bears are not intimidating, if you see a

brown bear, grizzly, they're just, your hair stands up

and you know you're on guard, but a black bear, that's

why they're so dangerous.

If they come after you, they're gonna eat ya.

Yeah, yeah exactly.

A black bear's just gonna slap you around, normally.

Yeah, normally.

So they say.

These two outdoorsmen are flying to a remote

Alaskan island where they will then travel up and down

the shore in a small boat.

However, when they wake up on the island, they find

an unpleasant surprise.

Just woke up, the high tide came in extremely high

last night, higher than we thought, and swept away

some of our equipment, and most importantly

our gas can for the motor.

So we're stuck.

We've gotta go patrol the beach and see if we can

find the gas can, cause without it we're hosed,

we have no transportation.

Rookie mistake, not knowing the difference in tide

height between high tide and high high tide, y'know

we went to bed, woke up that next morning, I noticed

our spare gas can was laying on it's side, and

I looked around, and no gas can.

So this was the high tide mark yesterday, so we

put everything above the high tide mark because you don't

want things to float away.

This is the high tide mark when we woke up, so everything

below it in this 12 foot safe zone, decided to wash

out to sea.

Joey went west, I went east thinking that we could see the

gas can floating in the bay out here.

Pretty disappointed.

Rookie mistake.

But it happens.

Without the gas can, our hunt was over with.

That's the bad thing about doing it yourself,

you have nobody to blame but yourself.

I'm a guide, I should know better.

Say embarrassing, an understatement.

Lucky for these two, they brought along

a satellite phone.

Hey Cole.

High tide came in, 17 foot high tide last night, floated

our boat motor gas can out.

We lost our gas can, we need a gas can.

Cole's gonna get hold of Casey and get one out to us.

Luckily Cole answered his phone from Pacific Wings,

and he was able to gather up a gas can and bring it

out to us.

We called up Pacific Wings, to see if they'd bring us

a new gas can, and here they are.

He's out there trying to find our gas can right now.

I think he found it.

He did he found it, he landed.

Sure enough, he had found our gas can, and how ironic it

was just one set of rocks over from when Dan had stopped

looking when he went east.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, have a good one, good luck!

Lesson learned, always have a satellite phone.

Aircraft in Alaska are used to transport

all sorts of things, from lost gas cans to heavy machinery.

So this should be big enough to slide the snow

machine on and sling it out of there.

With so much land, and so few roads,

moving heavy machinery by aircraft is common in this state.

Clear.

A snowmobile, or a snow machine, is a vital

mode of transportation for the Alaskans in the back country

during the snowy winter months, but getting these

300 kilogram machines delivered in the summertime requires

air power.

Okay, you're good to go.

Okay, picking up.

Just seconds into the flight, they see

a problem.

Okay, come on back down, come on back down,

unshackle, the shackles positioned the wrong way.

There's a shackle and it ended up upside down, that's

something that can split and possibly break that ring.

Joel makes another run under the helicopter

to fix the shackle and reattach the line.

It was a little daunting to have 2500 pounds

hovering above my head and then go hook the line on.

You're good to go.

Everything's good, looking good, looking good.

Okay, tension on it, you've got tension on it.

Okay, it's airborne.

There's no roads out where we're going, none, you can't

drive there, so it's a very Alaskan thing to go

and pick up a snow machine and sling it.

Joel will fly first in the airplane to help

guide Josiah as he follows behind in the helicopter

carrying their heavy cargo.

Josiah, you got me?

I don't see you but I hear ya.

Okay, I'm gonna do a left 360, okay, so you can see me,

and then I'm gonna take you to red path, semi 12 o clock.

Okay.

If Josiah cannot find Joel, there will be

more at risk than just a delivery of the snow machine.

Josiah flew out light on fuel because he's carrying

a heavy load, so he really couldn't afford to get off track

very much.

How you doing on fuel?

I don't have enough fuel to wait for ya.

He can't afford to fly around, he's burning fuel.

He's gotta get to where he's going.

I don't see you, I got my lights off.

I don't see you yet either.

Okay now we're 5 o clock, same altitude, coming

up on ya.

Did you see me Josiah?

Yeah I gotcha.

Alright just follow me.

They are back on track until the Alaskan

weather creates a new challenge.

I hate to think we're lookin at snow, but look

at that.

Yep.

Alaskan skies are famous for dirty tricks.

That's probably going to be in the vision by the

time we get out there, Josiah.

Oh, I don't have the snow baffles on.

Snow baffles keep heavy wet snow from entering

the engine.

We don't purposefully take off and fly in snow

without those baffles on.

Without them, the engine could flame out,

and the helicopter would crash.

That's precip coming down.

We can't mess around with thunderstorms

and turbulence like that.

It's really reduced the visibility.

Pretty unfriendly.

Definitely snow coming down from a huge cumulo build

up here.

I got a tail end right now.

Turbulence from the squall has the jet ranger

and his heavy load in it's grip.

A pretty strong wind right here.

I don't like this.

It looks like the load is really swinging there.

That was just the turbulence pushing me around.

I've known of guys that've had loads come

swinging around right up next to their rotor blades,

and that's bad.

It's like it's spinning all around.

If necessary, Josiah can hit a switch

and drop the load.

It would destroy the cargo, but it could save his life.

Of course, you're always ready to punch out the load

if something goes wrong, your finger's ready near that

trigger.

You said you slowed down to like ten miles

or something?

I'm not gonna talk to ya that much Joel, I'm just

working it.

Josiah you doing alright?

I'm not gonna talk to ya for a minute.

When Josiah told me he can't talk for a while, I knew

that he had his hands full.

I've never heard him say that before, I can't talk

right now.

It just makes you wonder what's going on, man

If you've gotta punch it, get back out over the water.

Okay.

Josiah was dealing with snow, and turbulence,

and a load that was oscillating, and it was a very

tense moment.

I don't have the punches, I was just working

that turbulence in that squall and I don't have the snow

baffles on, I just couldn't talk to you back then.

Its okay, I understand.

Just figuring out how to get back over the load and stop

the swing was intuitive, but it definitely

caught me by surprise.

I was also watching the deck angle of the

helicopter was like nose down and nose up, until the load

was looking like pulling on the helicopter.

Oh yeah.

Just like back in the old days when I used to ride bulls.

Haha.

You ride bulls now you're slingin bulls.

It's really hard, yeah.

It's looking pretty stable now.

So does he want it closer to his cabin or

closer to the runway?

Leon wants us to set the machine down between

the little airstrip there and the cabin.

Okay, did you land to the west?

Yes.

Okay, thanks.

I'm shuttin down.

Just when they thought they were finished,

another emergency occurs.

Because I was so much faster than the jet ranger, I got

to the valley way ahead of Josiah and he actually lost

track of me.

And since Josiah is already running low on fuel

there's no time to spare.

Joel you on here?

You on here Joel?

Josiah you're flying past the valley, you're going

to the wrong valley.

Oh where am I going?

Calling on Jim.

The feeling you have when you complete a job

like that, especially with some difficulties in the middle,

and you set the load down safely and nothing's been

directed, it's a great feeling.

Hey guys!

Thank you!

It's not even Christmas!

Yeah, just add snow.

Just add some snow.

Looks like it came out just great.

Can't wait!

Perfect!

You can drive it off.

There it goes!

Alright, we'll see you guys.

My clients are really happy, and they'll be playing

all winter on that snow machine next year.

Whether recovering valuable plane wreckage,

exploring the back country for fun, watching the wildlife,

or delivering cargo, just being in the expansive wilderness

of Alaska is an adventure not to be missed.

I'm really glad I got the experience of coming here.

I think everybody ought to do it at least once.

It's an experience.

We all kinda thrive on adrenaline rush,

on the fear, kinda wanna be put to the test, that's what

makes you feel good, is when you have to overcome

something you're not sure you can do.

Good job.

Yeah, that went well.

I love doing these things with Joel, he's a great boss,

and we have fun together, we just end up doing all kinds

of crazy things in crazy places.

You add all these little experiences up, it just

makes life worth living.

Unbelievable, I love Alaska!