Letters to the editor
Information for the traveller.
ANDREAS ROHDE
Dear editor, Being fascinated by bush flying, I particularly enjoyed the ‘Glaciers Galore’ article in the February issue. With superb images and insight into the pioneer Don Sheldon, it certainly caught my interest.
For readers who are also keen on bush and mountain flying in Alaska, I wish to recommend a ‘must read’: The Don Sheldon Story - Wager with the Wind by James Greiner. Sheldon was a bush pilot who devoted himself to flying climbers, teams and expeditions out of Talkeetna to surrounding lands, mountains and glaciers in the Mount McKinley (Denali) range. He not only mastered flying onto and off glaciers but was also honoured for many search and rescue flights, and retrieval of frozen beings and bodies, often under horrific mountain weather conditions. Sheldon surely earned a distinguished place in Alaska’s bush flying history – as have DHC Otters and Beavers, and Cessnas! With today’s commercialised set-up, I hope that flying onto these mountains never develops into having masses of tourists stamping around on the glaciers – just for ‘having done it’ and ‘the experience’, to use some sales and PR jargon!