Bush flying and a couple of great shows

I didn’t realize it had been so long since my last post. I’m getting back into the swing of things now and I’ll definitely be posting more.

Anyway, as of late I’ve been addicted to two new shows on ‘normal’ TV: Alaska Wing Men and Flying Wild Alaska.

The Discovery Channel series Flying Wild Alaska is mildly reminiscent of the canadian series Ice Pilots NWT, but is centered on Jim Tweto’s Era Alaska. Some people might recognize his daughter, Ariel, from the show Wipe Out. I’ve seen the first episode, and I’ve got to say its good reality TV. I’m not usually one to say good and reality TV in one sentence, but this fits the bill.

Alaska Wing Men, a three episode series, is on the National Geographic Channel (or Nat Geo, if you can bring yourself to say it). The episodes are Explosive Cargo, Gold Rush, and Deadly Skies. I’d link to the other two, but apparently they don’t have a site for the series. The series offers a look at the day-to-day lives of average Alaskan bush pilots. It also offers a little bit of a look into the kind of training a skills bush pilots need. I will say that on the whole it is a pretty good series, but one thing that drives me nuts is the way they’ve stitched together the footage. They’ve got some b-roll of a couple of planes flying and landing and doing airplane things that they use through out the show regardless of which pilot they are focusing on. This is a bit nit picky, but it drives me nuts when the pilot is clearly operating a turbine otter and they show a piston beaver landing and then cut to people hopping out of the otter.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out these shows in case any among you hadn’t heard of them.

Please ignore this bit, but I didn’t want to waste an entry on technorati:

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