HUDSON AIR INC.
NEW PORT RICHEY, FLORIDA

Sheldon Air Service's mission is to provide safe, cost effective transportation throughout Alaska as well as to provide their customers with a flight of a lifetime! With over 12,000 hours of flight time throughout the Alaska Range in Denali National Park, David is one of the most experienced off-airport pilots who specialize in glacier landings. Sheldon Air offers a modern air service while preserving the personal touch of a family-run business. I wouldn't even consider going with a different company! We bought a Groupon and then opted to add on a glacier landing. Paula at Sheldon was very efficient in taking the reservation several months ago and calling a couple days before our July 2 flight. Paula, Holly, and David were all very nice and helpful. Sheldon Air Service was the only Talkeenta air taxi company to receive recognition from Alaska Air Carries Association for operating the 2013 year without any incidents involving aircraft. Your safety is important to us. Photo: Jerry Wortley, and Clint Johnson, NTSB, present David and Holly Lee with an award. We are an official 2018 In 1989, David purchased Talkeetna Air Taxi from former Alaska Lt. Governor Lowell Thomas Jr. He flew Cessna 185s and Super Cubs on wheel-skis and floats, flying hunters, and fishermen into the remote Alaskan Bush 365 days a year as a way of life, until he sold the business in 1996. He flew the next year for the new owner of Talkeetna air Taxi to assist the business transition. We are an official 2018 After high school I pursued my college education, worked at Reeve Aleutian Airways for a summer at the ticket counter and ran my own businesses. I always spent a lot of time at the airport in the towns that I was working in. The airport was a place of peace for me. I always found good conversation and a plethora of fascinating flying machines to look at. During this time I crossed paths with long time Alaskan pilot David Lee. A year later Hudson Air Service came up for sale in Talkeetna, which included a part 135 Operator's License and National Park Service Concession. David, who has over 30 years of flying experience in the Alaska Range, and is happiest running an air service out of Talkeetna, and me, who always dreamed of having an air service since I was a little girl, were flabbergasted that we were in the position to attain the Hudson Air Service certificate and start our own air service. May 28, 2010, on David's birthday, we opened Sheldon Air Service at the Talkeetna State Airport. We are completely in our element providing flights of a lifetime to the glaciers of the Alaska Range to our passengers and providing first-class air support to our international climber clientele. We are an official 2018 In 2004, Jok secured a piloting position with Hudson Air Service where he flew until Sheldon Air Service purchased Hudson Air on May 29, 2010. Sheldon Air Service is proud to have Jok Bondurant in the Chief pilot position for the company. We are an official 2018 Don's business sense was good and he would soon have a paying flight or two each day. It wasn't only Don's flying skills that became apart of legend, but it was his strong sense of knowing which jobs to take and which to turn down that led him to a success in this very demanding business, where four out of five people failed. Before you can attempt to land on a glacier, you must first make a low pass to look for depressions in the soft snow, as these depressions can be masking a crevasse which could easily swallow up a freight train, not to mention a little Piper Super Cub. Another problem often encountered is when there is a slight cloud cover that blends in with the surface of the soft snow in daylight. The human eye cannot distinguish where the surface of the glacier is and landings are all but impossible in these conditions. Don Sheldon carried several small Spruce tree limbs that he would throw out in a line, which would provide a noticeable dark line of points to mark the glacier surface elevation. Reprinted with permission from "What I enjoyed most was that he so unselfishly offered his services to those in need. There are several accounts of him making an unheard of flight maneuver in order to rescue climbers, ship wrecked boaters or lost hunters. Almost every effort to climb the mountain ranges around Talkeetna including Denali (Mt. McKinley) during the period of 1940 - 1970 likely involved this world renowned bush pilot. Sheldon was heralded for his amazing ability to land on the sides of mountains. Most of his career was spent flying people to some of the most remote locations in Alaska." In 1929 Pan Am teamed up with W. R. Grace and Company to bid for an airmail contract in South America. The new airline, Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra) flew weekly airmail from the US to Lima, Peru via the Canal Zone. A Ford Trimotor was purchased and Reeve trained with the Ford Motor Company on these aircraft, delivering the first to Lima in August 1929. Panagra offered Reeve the chance to fly Airmail Route 9 from Lima to Santiago, Chile, at this time the longest aviation route in the world at 1,900 miles (3,100 km). In 1930 the route was extended to Montevideo, Uruguay. During this time Reeve learned about bush flying, developing techniques to avoid coastal fog which would later serve him in Alaska and mountain flying skills. He established a speed record between Santiago and Lima, covering the 1,900 miles in 20 hours. Reeve worked for a month at $1 an hour repairing the plane, and then leased it from Meals at $10 an hour. Reeve was in business. His first charter was to Middleton Island, where the beach looked fine to land on, but the aircraft sank up to its wheels in the soft sand. An old block and tackle was found and used to rescue the aircraft from the incoming tide. Reeve managed to take off, and attempted to fly back to Valdez, but was forced to land at Seward owing to a storm. When he eventually got back to Valdez his tanks were almost empty, and he hadn't earned a cent. Reeve said this trip was worth $1,000 in experience. Reeve quickly learned that the bush pilot's biggest worry was paying for gas, which could be $.25 a gallon in one place, and $1.50 in another.