Seaplanes Along the Inside Passage - by Gerry Bruder (Paperback)

About the Book

What is it about Alaska that can make a young journalist from the East Coast abandon his career and become a bush pilot? Bruder's fascinating first-person account answers that question and lets the reader share his experiences as he becomes seasoned as a seaplane pilot flying the rugged terrain of Western Washington, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska.

The life of a bush pilot in southeast Alaska is filled with the exhilaration of having unique access to one of our last great spans of wilderness, balanced with physical discomfort, extremely long hours, and heart-pounding danger. Gerry Bruder gave up a promising journalism career to pursue his passion for flying. This true-life adventure provides readers with a fascinating firsthand account of the highs and lows of a modern bush pilot.

Book Synopsis

What is it about Alaska that can make a young journalist from the East Coast abandon his career and become a bush pilot? Bruder's fascinating first-person account answers that question and lets the reader share his experiences as he becomes seasoned as a seaplane pilot flying the rugged terrain of Western Washington, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska.

The life of a bush pilot in southeast Alaska is filled with the exhilaration of having unique access to one of our last great spans of wilderness, balanced with physical discomfort, extremely long hours, and heart-pounding danger. Gerry Bruder gave up a promising journalism career to pursue his passion for flying. This true-life adventure provides readers with a fascinating firsthand account of the highs and lows of a modern bush pilot.

Review Quotes

Seaplanes Along the Inside Passage: The Highs and Lows of a Modern Bush Pilot is the true-life memoir of an East Coast journalist turned Alaska bush pilot. Having accrued nearly twenty-four thousand hours of experience as a commercial pilot, author Gerry Bruder shares the highlights (and darkest moments) of his career. From abrupt engine failure while airborne, to ferrying a diverse array of passengers, to surviving flights in dangerous weather conditions, is a tell-it-like-it-is inside story of aviation life. Highly recommended. "What's the most stressful flight for a professional seaplane pilot? It's not being slammed and jerked and wrenched so hard in a gale you think the wings might come off. It's not having miles and miles to go while passenger's vomit dribbles down the back of your shirt. It's not flubbing a vital checkride, or getting trapped by fog in a mountain pass, or having a broken cockpit heater on a ten-degree January morning. None of these. The most stressful flight is riding back to base as a passenger with another company pilot after you've seriously damaged your own aircraft in a blunder." -James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review-The Aviation Shelf

About the Author

Gerry Bruder amassed about 24,000 hours as a commercial seaplane pilot in southeastern Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. He has also worked as a journalist for several newspapers and magazines. He has a B.A. degree from Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, and an M.A. degree from Ohio State University. His previous books include Heroes of the Horizon (Alaska Northwest Books). A native of Connecticut, Bruder and his wife now spend winters in southern Arizona and summers in Seattle, Washington, where Gerry still is a floatplane pilot.