Original subtitles

The gigantic state of Alaska

covers over 1.7 million square kilometers,

but over 90% of Alaska is not accessible by road.

So to get around this state, you need to take flight.

Alaska has six times as many pilots and 16 times as many

aircraft per capita, than the rest of the United States.

Aviation is a vital mode of transportation.

And to all of the planes in Alaska, the true workhorse

is the de Havilland Beaver.

It's tough,

it's got a lot of power.

I trust the Beaver.

And you could have things go wrong,

and it's just gonna keep going.

It's just a badass.

The airplanes in Alaska have to be tough,

and so do the pilots.

There's a lot of stuff that can go wrong,

flying on a float plane.

Hang on guys.

Holy cow!

I think Kodiak pilots are some of the best in the world.

I'll do the injury, you do the death.

These Beavers are part of history.

They're monsters.

(plane engine roars)

(wind whistles)

The de Havilland Beaver

was in production from 1947 to 1967.

Less than 1700 of these iconic aircraft were ever built,

and hundreds of these aircraft are still in service today.

The 70-year-old aircraft design is a proven work horse

and can fly in the most unforgivable climates imaginable.

Even with the Beaver, flying through stormy weather

on the island of Kodiak can be treacherous.

The weather's the biggest obstacle.

These low-pressure areas build out there in that environment

and they just come barrelling down

along the Alaskan peninsula.

It's bad is when they stop

and decide to park here for a little while.

For over 30 years

All summer long this plane has been working hard.

Bob Stanford and Island Air

have kept the island of Kodiak running.

Kodiak's extreme weather, rugged landscape, and rough seas

make this island one of the deadliest places on Earth

to access in a bush plane.

They specialize in flying to remote villages

on the island and transporting adventure seekers

deep into the back country.

My guys are ready, let's load up

Let's do it.

(plane engine starts)

Three days ago, Bob dropped off

a pair of outdoorsmen in Hidden Basin.

A storm quickly moved in

turning the remote camping trip into a nightmare.

We're in a bad spot.

We need help.

The wind is blowing at 80 kilometers an hour

and has torn their tent to shreds.

Without shelter,

these men are at serious risk of hypothermia.

They have requested an emergency rescue

but the conditions are still too rough for a flight.

We need something, we need help.

40 miles per hour is a no-go for our airplanes.

For the forecast we got two more days of

band winds coming and rain

all over again.

We know we're not flying, it's gusting 39 knots.

We just can't move through.

We're used to fast-moving weather but it's,

it's not moving.

It's just sitting here churning away on us.

The campers need help.

We're soaking wet,

we're cold.

Overnight the storm has slowed slightly

giving Bob a chance to rescue the desperate men.

Looked out there, the wind's dropped.

I see sunshine out to the East.

It's like, you know,

go time.

Get it tower, Beaver

4-7 out kilos based on outbound middle bay.

You're copy there Beaver, we're clear.

Now that I saw that wind's down and weather break,

you don't know when they're gonna come

but when they do you just kick in gear.

Off we go.

(intense dramatic music)

They probably had a

potentially pretty miserable night.

(intense dramatic music)

And I'll press you right now.

Just looking at the rivers right here

they are,

there's a lot of water here.

I mean, these are overflowing their banks.

I'm expecting them to be right in this area.

(intense dramatic music)

Welp, there they are.

They're in a tent down the beach.

(intense dramatic music)

That's and interesting tent setup there with the tarp.

I'm guessing the wind came falling through here

and just blew their whole camp flat.

It's a good way to stay warm and dry right there.

Hey how you guys doing?

Got swamped.

(lively dramatic music)

That's where we were sleeping tonight.

You can't stay out there for long without a tent.

We're surprised you came and we're happy to see ya.

Try to keep the tent up,

standing there it breaks flat.

They don't have a single dry item in their camp.

At a certain point the fun goes out of it.

(lively dramatic music)

The break in the storm

is quickly coming to an end.

Angry skies are lighting up the horizon

and the wind speeds are ramping up again,

making takeoff a challenge.

(determined dramatic music)

There's a big swell there,

10-foot seas.

I thought it died down

but it must've been just for that moment.

There is quite a swell.

If these big seas East

already this show is right in the water, so

either side of it you got more wind.

Well in between those areas,

you're gonna have shears.

I'm just gonna stay down

take a look here.

Wind shear is a quick change

in wind direction over a short distance.

As the plane passes through a shear,

lift and airspeed are lost.

Fortunately, Bob is able to fly below the shear

and get back home.

(wind gusts)

We work the windows, that what we gotta do.

We wanted to stay out six days.

The campsite got flooded and

this morning, about four in the morning,

it was so great to hear Island Air today.

The plane boss!

(laughs)

(triumphant music)

Float planes in Alaska

are not always on search-and-rescue missions.

Hey, I'll be in in about seven minutes.

In fact, they're usually used

as airborne taxi cabs,

taking adventurous souls to locations

far from people.

Ready for this?

One question, how did you get this thing

out of the Smithsonian anyway?

Yeah.

For those with the fear of flying,

a ride in a bush plane can be a harrowing experience.

Some of the planes flying through the skies of Alaska

look like relics from the past century,

because they are.

These aircraft can be sturdy and dependable,

but flying in any small aircraft

is terrifying for some people.

(plane engine roars)

Hang on guys.

I have a love-hate relationship with float planes.

Whoo!

So we're flying along and this turbulence hits us.

I really hate this.

Holy cow!

There's a lot of stuff that could go wrong

flying on a float plane.

That was a little ride, huh?

Bob Stanford has flown

over 40 thousand flights during his 30-year career,

and this vast experience helps him overcome

the challenges of flying in Kodiak.

Today, Bob is sharing his knowledge

with an up-and-coming pilot.

Dear Lord, keep us safe.

(chuckles)

Oh it's a technical little place here.

You can see the One Rock on the corner.

Yeah I think I see it

just below the water over there.

Don't want to get too tight on that rock, now.

There you go.

Look left for your

your transition point.

Oh, we gotta get them up.

Crops, pop it.

Gotta stay down, take him down slowly

you gotta stay down.

I know you don't want to, but you do.

Get ready with you front handle.

Energy,

day one maneuver, up and over

Pop and pull back.

There you go

now level out, start your acceleration again.

(triumphant music)

Going through this training thing,

like he's over there talking a whole lot

and telling me how he wants it to be done

and how it should be done.

You gotta take the

the loud talking, or yelling

whatever you want to call it

with a bit of salt.

He did good, he did real good.

I mean, I was impressed

so I'm proud of him.

Like all veteran pilots in Kodiak,

Bob Stanford has seen plenty of scary moments.

But one flight in particular

where he narrowly escaped death

haunts him to this day.

This was about 20 years ago

and I tell you it really messed with me.

I was going along, right where we're at now

and right about now I shoulda been climbing.

We have a wind that's a little different,

it woulda been coming from my right

but in that day it was the left.

I started right down this pass but I was,

I'll tell ya I was quite a but lower.

I was literally skipping along the,

on the surface and I could not get the plane to come up.

To this day I do not know why it didn't rise.

And I was right about here

literally in tree-top level

staring at those trees right in front of me.

I should've been able to just climb,

climb like a bat outta hell going outta there,

and I couldn't,

I could not get the plane to climb.

I said a prayer right then.

That's one of the moments I,

I said a prayer and

I told this aircraft to rise.

And finally, right about now

it released me

and I came right up over these trees and it let me go.

Why did that downdraft finally release me,

honestly

in my heart I believed that the good Lord

was trying to teach me something and

it's one of the few times in my 40-year career

that I asked for definite action and help

and I got it.

(dramatic music)

That was a moment that

I'll never forget.

(intense music)

That was a period in my life

where the fun went out of it.

It was all work, all the time

and for the next year I was hyper-aware

of everything I was doing in a plane.

The enjoyment level went out of it.

It wasn't a fun period.

Honestly it took me a whole season,

it took almost a year to get that feeling to go away.

So I guess it's a trust in yourself,

in your decision-making ability in that aircraft.

(triumphant music)

There are over 100 plane crashes

a year in Alaska,

and the crew of Tanalian Aviation

specializes in locating and salvaging remote wrecks.

Recovering a crashed aircraft is difficult enough on land,

but this time the team is headed to Six Mile Lake

to recover a valuable piece of wreckage

that sits underwater.

Today we're gonna fly out

and do a underwater salvage.

We're gonna go under the water

and tie onto a piece of wrecked airplane

and we're gonna try to sling it off

the bottom of a lake using the Jet Ranger.

It's going to be a challenge.

Yee-haw.

Clear!

This was a fishing lodge airplane.

He took off in really windy, gusty conditions

and got airborne maybe too soon.

A gust of wind got him, he couldn't overcome

and he cartwheeled, literally

like a gymnast,

wingtip-over-wingtip, end and tail.

And this wing snapped off

and went flying away from the rest of the wreckage,

because they got the rest of the wreckage out of the water

but they never got that wing.

Going out and getting this wing.

I've been wanting to do this for so long.

Oh, I'm excited.

I know, right?

Always down for a dive.

Fresh water dive too.

(laughs)

It's gonna be fun.

(intense music)

Because there's no runway,

Joel and Josiah must land on the rocky shoreline.

Touching down on a gravel beach is easy

for a helicopter.

I'll set down there and

be looking for ya.

Roger.

The uneven surface

is challenging for a wheeled aircraft.

(intense dramatic music)

Nice job, that looked good.

First thing we'll all do is

we have a boat hired, we'll go out on the lake

with the side-scan sonar and try to find the wing.

We have coordinates for it,

so hopefully that'll be the easy part.

Side-scan sonar is like a

super-high deluxe fish finder

but it can actually see

the bottom of the lake.

It can see outlines of things.

This is the eyeball,

it's a thing of beauty.

And so we use that at the coordinates

and see if we can't see this wing.

We're in 21 feet of water

and I can't see a thing.

Oh, yes I can hold on, man!

I'm holding on.

I gotta find my glasses.

(laughs)

There's fish, there it is.

That looks like it right there.

Yep, that's it.

All right, let's head on in Chuck, we got it.

All right.

All right, let's get suited up.

The frigid lake is just a few degrees

above the freezing point.

So we're gonna have dry suits

and hoods and gloves and all the

cold water Alaska diving gear that you need.

Just go for it and be careful, all right?

We'll be waiting here.

Sounds good.

On a dive like this, a wreck dive,

there may be a fair amount of current where the wing is.

We just don't know yet.

Visibility is another issue,

could be zero visibility down there.

(intense music)

They've been down there a long time.

I wish I was down there with 'em,

I could see what's going on.

I feel kinda outta control.

Of course the wing was nowhere in sight

once we got to the bottom so,

we just started swimming a grid

around that area.

Tammy and Josiah

see a white object underwater.

They know that they have found the missing wing.

I couldn't believe we found it so,

we high-fived and it was awesome.

The wing had sunk down into the mud pretty far

and the wing was upside down so,

I had to scoop out a whole bunch of mud

at the wing root to find someplace to,

to hook a line.

Somehow got a good place

and got a line on there and then was able to

get it all rigged with one tank of air.

I had serious doubts

I was gonna be able to pull it off the bottom.

(breathes)

What do you think, Josiah?

It's not very good because it's gonna try to

lift the wing flat.

It'll pivot as it comes up,

it' not gonna come up flat

like a halibut. (laughs)

All right.

(laughs) We're gonna head to shore,

I'll get outta this suit

and put my

helicopter hat on.

Right on.

Okay, I'm picking up

Okay we gotta a South wind,

so the wind's gonna try to blow the hook.

Weather is something you deal with in Alaska

so sure enough, true to form

we had winds, squalls going through,

so this time was no different.

Okay I'm coming up to you, Joel.

I'll try to get it in your hands.

Okay we're going down.

The wind is blowing the ship around up aloft

and it's blowing the long line

and the hook is swayin'.

It was tense, it was a little challenging

and we grabbed it

and hooked it on the line that was attached to the wing.

All right, you're good to go.

Okay, I'm hooked.

All right we're moving, we're moving.

(intense dramatic music)

Okay I'm just gonna start

putting a tug on it and see what I get here.

And then he starts to lift and

that's the moment of truth.

You just, you don't know

how it's gonna go.

All right I see a bunch of mud.

I think it's movin'.

I just started tugging on it

and felt it give a little bit

and then all of a sudden I looked down

and I could see mud below the surface

and I knew it was moving.

Right on, yeah I see mud on the water.

Yeah you're going up a little bit.

Yeah there it is, it's at the surface.

Woo-hoo!

Yeah!

Okay I'm just gonna sit here for a minute.

I'll put a tug on it and see if I can get it to drain.

Yeah just hold your position for a couple minutes,

just let it drain.

I can see water just pouring out of it.

Yeah, water is pouring out of it like crazy.

I just saw three fish fall out of the wing into the water.

Oh there's more!

There's fish pouring out of the wing!

Oh another fish just fell out!

Those were actually fresh water lingcod.

We call 'em burbot, we call 'em poor man's halibut.

You guys, he's going to the grass, he's going to the grass!

Go ahead and take it to the grass

over here by the camp fire

and set her down.

You're looking good.

You're down, that's good.

Yeah!

High-five!

Excellent, good job!

Is it still priced worth something?

This is probably 100 dollars.

If the wing were in better condition,

it would be worth up to 25 thousand dollars.

Even though the Tanalian team

won't see a big payday for this salvage job,

it's not just about the money.

The fact that we found it and got it outta there

is just so rewarding, it's awesome.

All right- Good day, man

Yeah. Had a good day.

That was good.

It just felt like a real sense of accomplishment

and it's always fun when you share that with friends.

The poor fish is still floppin' around in there.

(laughs)

In order to be able to conquer

such challenging flight assignments,

the pilots are always training to keep their skills sharp.

Today, Joel and Mark

are training with a barely-used

inflatable flotation device for the helicopter.

Danger, high pressure cylinder,

don't drop.

Mishandling may cause injury or death

I know.

I'll do the injury, you do the death.

Today we're gonna go out and deploy

our pop-out emergency floats on our R44

so that if we go down or we're over water,

we can pop these floats

and keep us from sinking or rolling over.

It could save our lives.

What it does is it

pops these snaps instantly

and the floats blow up like a big sausage,

and it's a little loud.

It's a little thrilling.

The water in Alaska is deadly, everywhere.

No matter where you are

if you go into the water it's gonna be cold

and you won't last long.

There's a lot of things that could go wrong.

When we pull the trigger, the cable could break.

And if the helium doesn't go down the hoses

and into the floats, we can go down

into the lake.

I'm a little worried about this whole thing.

Let's go.

Okay, I think we're ready.

Are you scared?

(laughs) Never.

I'm scared.

I'll take care of ya.

Okay.

Man, I hope these floats work, this is crazy.

I hate doing this! (laughs)

It's gonna go perfect.

Man, no it's not!

We're not gonna crash,

I don't think. (laughs)

Okay we just had an alternator failure

or else the belt is kinda loose.

Yeah, I just don't know.

The red light is on.

That's a little odd, isn't it?

The battery is the source of electrical power

for the helicopter and the alternator

is what keeps it charged up.

And so if we lose our alternator, we're in trouble.

Resetting the alternator should get it going again

but there's no guarantee.

Nice and easy here, nice and easy.

Pull on the power back-end.

It worked.

There we go.

The wind is pretty strong.

For the wind it's like a weather vane,

it'll try to turn you around.

So just stay on it.

There's a pretty good lake down there

we could go try it.

Yeah man, that looks good Joel.

Okay buddy,

(laughs)

why am I freaking out over here?

Okay the trigger is armed and ready to pull.

I hate this part.

We're deploying the floats.

Three,

two,

one.

(screams) Is yours blown up?

Are both of 'em blown up on your side?

Mine both are.

I'm looking out, yes.

I'm gonna set him down close to shore here.

Okay.

Nice and gentle, nice and gentle.

We are on the water.

Okay We are on the water.

Nice and gentle.

We gotta push forward, we're drifting into the reeds-

Okay,

we're backing up, we're backing up,

backing up, backing up, backing up,

push forward.

I know I'm a little bit of a nagging mom

doing this, but we only blow these floats

every three years and I'm a little bit

out of my comfort zone

because we don't do it all the time.

Okay that's lift-off.

It went perfect!

(laughs) Joel you're incredible!

Good job.

Okay my heart's beating outta my chest still.

Do we own any anti-adrenaline?

(laughs)

Whoo! (laughs)

That's fun.

Man, alive.

Whoo! (laughs)

(gentle music)

For Alaskan bush pilots,

flying is more than a job;

it is what they love to do.

Joel Natwick is passing on this passion

for flying to his son, Micah.

We're gonna climb up to about 1500 feet,

and work on spin control.

Today we're gonna go flying.

Micah my son, he wants to be a bush pilot.

I've been flying since I was about 11 or 12.

Okay, what do you do when you get into a spin?

You let the plane fly.

It's kinda been a dream of mine

to have one of my kids want to be a bush pilot.

And Micah is passionate about it.

All right, so let's go practice.

It's kinda like getting into a sardine can.

And crank it.

(plane starts)

Do a right turn,

do a left turn,

okay good way back by the bridge now.

(intense dramatic music)

Joel's priority

for these instructions is safety,

as he knows firsthand how deadly the Alaskan skies can be.

I was flying

out West of Port Alsworth

so I was crossing a ridge at a 45 degree angle,

but slowly was fighting the downdraft I was getting into

so my air speed was dropping.

Well then when I turned away,

I probably got a hit of about

60 or 70 knots on my tail

and that's when I went into a spin.

And the updraft was so dramatic

that it flexed my air frame, my door flew open,

the GPS flew off my panel and hit me in the face

and I thought, "This is it."

The tendency is to pull back

and slow your speed down really quick

but you have to ease back, you have to ease back.

Had I recovered facing the hillside,

I wouldn't be here.

I recovered facing away and flew out of it.

I'm really high above the mountains and kept going.

(intense music)

And those experiences, the more you have

the more you start to feel small.

I got five kids, man

and I've seen enough death,

I've seen enough crashes

to know that it can happen to me.

Okay you've got the plane.

I've got the plane.

(triumphant music)

Yeah let's just do a nice big circle.

Yes sir.

What's my air speed?

60.

Hey here's how we do a spin, right here.

Releasing the stick,

a little more,

do not lose altitude.

Pull that stick back,

back, back, back.

If you start losing,

add power to keep from stalling

and hold altitude, just hold altitude.

That good?

Little more,

atta boy.

Pass off, hit the brakes.

Slowly, gently.

That was awesome.

That was nice, that was really nice.

Okay you're good to go, man.

(triumphant music)

Joel is helping foster

the future Alaskan bush pilots

whether by wheeled aircraft,

float plane,

or helicopter.

The challenge of flying in Alaska

will always test the skills of a pilot.

But these brave aviators

are vital to Alaska by delivering people

and cargo to remote locations

and even saving lives.

Plus, their office window

has an amazing view.