I grew up in and around airplanes. Both of my parents were pilots and our family business was Sky Flight, Inc. which operated the local airport, and provided a wide range of aviation services including charter, instruction, maintenance, sales, agricultural chemical application, game patrol, search and rescue, and fire patrol. I cannot remember my first ride in an airplane. I did not know how extraordinary it was for me to be able to fly with my father over Yellowstone National Park multiple times each year. Fire patrol over Yellowstone National Park was done with a two passenger Piper Cub. Sometimes we flew visitors and tourists over the park in a larger airplane and I’ve viewed the park from the windows of a variety of different airplanes both as a passenger and as a pilot.

The community of backwoods pilots was fairly small in the 1950s and 1960s. We paid attention to other operations that flew small aircraft in remote places. In Montana, Johnson Brothers Air Service in Missoula became famous for pioneering smoke jumping for rapid response backwoods fire fighting. Our company worked closely with Johnson Brothers on several projects over the years and I got to ride in a Ford Tri-Motor that was operated by Johnsons. Horizon Air, now owned by Alaska Airlines, got its start with a small charter and sightseeing company in St. George, Utah. And the company that got my attention and captured my imagination was up in Alaska, where one of our pilots went to work for a while. Talkeetna Air Taxi flew flight seeing tours around Denali, then called Mt. McKinley. Denali is North America’s tallest peak at 20,310 feet above sea level. Flying around the mountain and the numerous high peaks in the area required high performance aircraft.

The Piper Cubs we flew over Yellowstone had small four cylinder engines ranging from 95 to 150 horsepower. The tallest peak, Grant Peak, in the Beartooth Range, is 12,800 feet. On a cool morning with light winds, a 95 horsepower Cub can climb higher than that, but without oxygen, the safe operation ceiling for the plane is 12,000 feet. We flew around Granite Peak, not over it. The pilot I knew that had flown for Talkeetna Air Service flew with an oxygen mask up at 18,000 feet around Denali on multiple occasions, though they flew at lower elevations and a greater distance from the mountain when flying tourists. He flew a Cessna 180 and also a DeHavilland Beaver during his time in Alaska. The Cessna could carry three paying passengers and the Beaver could carry five. His stories of his Alaska adventures inspired me to think, for a time, that being a mountain pilot was the career I would pursue.

As it turned out, I never became a commercial pilot. I flew light airplanes as a hobby for several years, but that hobby isn’t the most compatible with the salary earned by a minister and flying is a skill that must be exercised regularly for safety. We decided to sell our partnership in an airplane and invest the money in our family before our children became teens. I haven’t regretted the decision. I was able to maintain the level of safety I desired when I was flying and I chose to stop flying as a pilot when I felt I could no longer afford to do so safely. I have, however, kept the old dream of flying around Denali alive over all of these decades.

Taking a tour around Denali presents some challenges for us. First of all, one has to get to Alaska, which we have not yet done, but may do so in the next few years. Secondly, it isn’t inexpensive to book a trip. Flights with Talkeetna Air Taxi cost upwards of $300 per person, with the deluxe flight including a ski landing on a glacier costing around $600. And the biggest challenge with all mountain flying is the weather. Not every day provides an opportunity to see the mountain. There are plenty of people who have traveled to Alaska and not seen Denali because of clouds.

In my imagination, however, I can give myself time to wait for the weather. There is a lot to see on the ground. Talkeetna isn’t a big town. There might be a thousand residents and it is not officially incorporated. That hasn’t kept the residents from electing a mayor, however. In 1997, Stubbs the cat was selected as Mayor and although Stubbs is no longer alive, the town has continued with the tradition. For a while they had co-mayors, both cats, one named Denali and the other Aurora. Denali is no longer living, but I think Aurora is still the mayor of the town. I’d hang out around Nagley’s store or West Rib Pub & Grill just to get a look at the cat. I like cats, but they don’t always like me. Not long ago, when we took a trip on a sailing vessel, the ship’s cat seemed perfectly friendly and I though it was enjoying my petting until it gave the back of my hand a bat with its claws and drew blood. I don’t seem to be very good at reading the temperament of cats, but as long as my trip to Alaska is a fantasy, I can imagine that the cat would like me and allow me to scratch its ears.

I am not able to predict the future, but there is still a pretty good chance that one day I will have the opportunity to take a ride in a small airplane around Denali. Chances are it will be in a bigger airplane than the Cubs of my youth. I think Talkeetna Air Taxi mostly flies DeHavilland Otters that have been retrofitted with turboprop engines these days. They can carry up to nine passengers with a single pilot. Paying the $600 for the deluxe flight doesn’t guarantee a seat next to the pilot in the front where you can take pictures out of the windshield, but every seat is a window seat and there is a lot to see. And while I wait to see what might happen, I still can go flying on YouTube and in my imagination.

Flights of fancy can be wonderful all by themselves.