Denali’s raven: Leighan Falley
Flying from glaciers to gravel bars
The Alaska native, nicknamed “Denali’s Raven” because she can mimic the bird’s crow, was a mountain guide before she learned she and her husband were expecting their first child. Then she decided to train to become a professional pilot. “People laugh when I say this, but flying a single-engine airplane around the mountains of the Alaska Range is a lot safer than being a mountain guide,” Falley said, adding that consistent pay and the ability to be home each night with her family were additional incentives for the career change.
A third-generation aviatrix—who grew up stuffed in the back of a Piper Super Cub with a big Malamute dog or gear, and her father up front flying—Falley learned to fly in the Alaskan Range and has more than 2,000 hours. But she considers herself a rookie even though she’s in her fourth season with Talkeetna Air Taxi. Falley lands at a base camp at 7,200 feet on the Kahiltna Glacier, where she helps climbers load and unload, or stops for tourists to take pictures. “People come from all over the world to try to climb Denali Mountain,” Falley said, calling it “the most beautiful place on the continent.” Climbing season runs from April until June, and flightseeing picks up in July. “We’re not only talking to [our passengers] back and forth on the headsets, we’re actually spending time with them out on the glacier,” she said. “I think it’s one of the only places in aviation where passengers get to interact so closely with their pilot.”
Getting stuck on the glacier isn’t a problem for Falley. When a video crew she had hiked with as a mountain guide was shooting a film for Yeti (a manufacturer of outdoor products) about her life as a glacier pilot, they got stuck on the mountain for six nights. “We all treated it as a nice vacation to relax and catch up on sleep and still do a little bit of important work for the shooting,” she said nonchalantly.
When Falley isn’t flying one of the de Havillands, she’s either writing about flying, painting glacier scenes and airplane portraits, or flying the PA–22 to go camping with her family and coworkers. “The family just loves it,” she said. “The roads only access a mere fraction of the state of Alaska, so you really have to have an airplane to see the rest of it”—especially the gravel bars. AOPA
