AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 112
PILOTS ALASKA PILOT
Elwood Schapansky
The bush pilot professor
B Y K AT I E W R I T E R
112 | AOPA PILOT January 2018
TOM LIPPERT
ELWOOD SCHAPANSKY'S last day as a paid pilot was full of mixed
emotions. As a bush pilot in Alaska for more than 40 years, he
had gotten to do what he loved: He highlights flying de Havilland
Beavers on skis for Talkeetna Air Taxi as the biggest thrill of that
career. "You get to fly into the Alaska Range, land on a glacier, get
out, and look at the stunning beauty. It was a dream come true."
Earning a doctorate in physics from Colorado State
University in 1972 was not nearly as fun as flying airplanes for
a living, he said, but it helped him land a job as a physics teacher
at Santa Barbara City College in California. There,
he also taught aeronautics and wrote the very first
Biennial Flight Review manual.
In 1975, Schapansky went to Galena, Alaska, to
flight instruct. Without Alaska flight time, it took
luck and timing to get a job as a bush pilot. Galena
Air Service hired and trained him when the tundra fires demanded more pilots, beginning his
commercial piloting that extended through 2013.
"As a commercial pilot, you have a plane load of
people whose lives depend on your skill and judgment," he said.
Schapansky has flown high over the mountains and low along the coasts. "Always have a
way out-even then, unpredictable events can
happen," he advised. Schapansky has used this
mindset to keep a clean safety record. "You have
to know your own confidence level, so that when
you attempt something you are certain of the
outcome."
Schapansky came close to disaster when piloting a Piper Aztec out of Chignik Bay, Alaska. With
a load of wet fishermen, shortly after takeoff, condensation from the passengers fogged up the
windows. He managed to glimpse an approaching cliff through the side vent and turned in the
nick of time. "There are some
things that are just so unpredictable and you must act quickly,"
LOGBOOK
WHO | Elwood Schapansky
he said.
HOURS | 13,000 hours total
Schapansky continues to
time, 6,432 Alaska time,
challenge his piloting abilities
1,268 ski time
CERTIFICATES AND
while enjoying such activities in
RATINGS | Single- and
his retirement as baking zwiemultiengine land and sea,
back bread, teaching physics
commercial pilot, ATP
AIRCRAFT | Taylorcraft,
to youngsters, and making Ulu
Piper Cub, Cessna 185,
knives. He and his wife, Karen,
Bonanza, Beaver, Beach 18,
bought a ranch in Cuyama,
Grumman Goose, Widgeon
EXTRA | Schapansky
California, where together they
survived a battle with
created a rustic 1,300-foot-long
salmonella that he
runway. She gets her dream
contracted from dissecting
the stomach of a
ranch and he continues to live
rattlesnake.
his dreams: sharing his passion
for flight with others, including
his five granddaughters. AOPA
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018
Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - Intro
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 7
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - Cover4
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