Flight of the Red Beaver: A Yukon Bush Pilot Adventure

Airplanes were my first love from earliest boyhood memories, and I watched with awe as World War II fighters streaked overhead. I was born in Spokane, Washington and joined the US Naval Reserve in high school and served six years (two years active duty on the USS Hassayampa AO-145 in the Pacific), being honorably discharged April 25, 1958 at Treasure Island, CA. In 1959 I received my first flight lesson, and after 15 flying hours I purchased a Piper J-3 Cub N 42200 for $900 and later an Aeronca Chief. In the 60s and 70s I was a commercial pilot (Bush Pilot) in northern Canada and flew Super Cubs, Cessna 185s, de Havilland Beavers, Otters, Twin Engine Beach 18 - sea planes, Piper Aztecs and the last two licensed B-25s in Canada (WW II Bombers used for water bombing forest fires). In 1971 I began flying my favorite sea plane THE RED BEAVER CF-IBP into the beautiful, vast, and rugged wilderness of the Yukon, NW Territories and British Columbia, a land of wild rivers, thousands of pristine lakes, great fishing, and abundant wildlife, and logged over 4,000 hours in sea planes. On June 30, 2003 I happily retired to my home in the small, quaint farming town of Fairfield, Washington, just south of Spokane. I enjoy hiking and kayaking with my grandchildren, traveling, exploring, reading, writing, flying and sometimes I dream that I'm once again flying THE RED BEAVER. Stories of close calls, a crash in a ski plane on a frozen lake, watching packs of wolves (Larry’s favorite wild animal), listening to the lonely haunting cry of the loon (the voice of the wilderness) and grizzly bear encounters abound. But it’s also about the fulfillment of a boyhood dream to go north, build a cabin and live off the land.