AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2012 - 60

Flying Wild Alaska is Discovery
Channel’s answer to an aviation prayer:
a show that reveals the excitement,
drama, and community that exemplifies
general aviation. But thanks really
have to go to that ditsy heroine—Ariel
Tweto—who, in her quest for a TV career,
got her hardworking pilot-centric family
starring roles in one of Discovery
Channel’s most successful new shows.
It wraps up its second season in January.
Flying Wild Alaska chronicles the
day-to-day life of the Tweto family in
the remote Alaskan village of Unalakleet
(population 700). Jim Tweto is
chief operating officer of Alaska’s largest
regional airline—Era Alaska. It’s a
commercial operation that employs
more than 120 pilots and flies cargo,
groceries, pets, supplies, people—and
dead people—throughout northern
Alaska. Its headquarters is at Ted Stevens
International Airport in Anchorage,
and Unalakleet is one of the hubs. The
company has more than 75 airplanes
and handles everything from commuter
flights to off-airport bush flying.
The Tweto family—Jim, his wife,
Ferno, and daughters Ayla, Elaine, and
Ariel—are pilots (Ariel is taking flight
instruction during the second season)
and all work for the company.
Thanks to Ariel
Ariel, a bubbly, happy, star-struck
teenager in early 2005, headed to Hollywood
with a dream. She was playing
volleyball on Venice Beach when the skill
and antics of the athletic and beautiful
young girl caught the eye of the producer
of the reality show Wipeout. Ariel
was well known for her athletic prowess
in Unalakleet. She was a wrestler (co-ed)
and won a district title. She played basketball
across the United States and in
Europe. She was also a cheerleader and
medaled in the Seal Hop, a native Alaskan
event. She also wasn’t shy.
to swing onto (it was right in front of
her); she became a fan favorite because
of her “where’s the pole?” episode.
Ariel and Baynard then put their
heads together to create a reality show
for Ariel. For two years the pair pitched
show ideas with Ariel as the star, until
Discovery Channel focused on Ariel’s
family background. It was the gritty
reality of life and flying in Alaska that
attracted the network, says Discovery
Channel Vice President of Communications
Joshua Weinberg. Ariel grabbed at
the opportunity and begged her father
to consider doing the program. Even
“Pretty soon I realized that if I wanted
to explore [Alaska], I had to have an
airplane.” —Jim Tweto
So producer Tommy Baynard asked
her to compete on Wipeout, an extreme
“sports” show that puts contestants
on a giant obstacle course with wacky
obstacles like huge mud-covered balls
and slippery ropes over slimy water.
Ariel appeared, ran the obstacle course,
but was tripped up at the end when she
couldn’t find the pole she was supposed
though Jim and Ferno Tweto were hardly
the camera-seeking types, they agreed to
do the show for their daughter.
“I’m a proud father,” says Jim Tweto.
“I’ll do whatever I can for my daughter.”
A GA pilot
Jim Tweto grew up in Minnesota playing
hockey. He was good enough that
the University of Alaska offered him an
athletic scholarship. When he got to the
forty-ninth state, he fell in love. With
Alaska, with his future wife, and with the
best way to see the state—GA flying.
“The mystique of Alaska really got
me,” says Tweto, who learned to fly in
his early 20s. “I kept looking to the west
[from Anchorage] and thinking gee,
what’s over there? Pretty soon I realized
that if I wanted to explore, I had to have
an airplane.”
Looking west took him to Unalakleet,
Jim Tweto’s
relationship with
his exuberant
daughter, Ariel,
and their love of
flying are the basis
for the popular
reality show. His
favorite aircraft is
his Cessna 180
(right), making a
classic Alaskan
off-airport landing.
AOPA PILOT • 60 • FEBRUARY 2012
where he met Ferno. Her father owned
a small airline in Unalakleet. But when
Tweto decided he wanted to stay in the
village, he started by building fishing
boats. He named his company Gussik
Ventures—gussik means “white person”
in the Inuit language. Tweto’s boats were
adopted by the locals, and in the 1980s he
built nearly three-quarters of the fishing
boats in the region.
In 1984, with his commercial cer-
tificate, Tweto started flying for Ferno’s
father and, after the couple married,
they started their own company. With
just a Cessna 185 the young couple ran
the company from their small apartment.
In 1990 the Twetos merged with Hageland
Aviation and then in 2008 with Era Alaska.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2012

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