History / Pilots / Planes: Kingfisher Aviation Kodiak, Alaska


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About Us ~History - Pilots - Planes~	//All panel DIVs removed!

The story behind our company name

During one summer at Zachar Bay Lodge, a belted kingfisher flew into one of the large glass pane windows of the lodge, and knocked itself out. Glen nursed the bird back to health over the course of several days and released it back into the wild. The next morning when checking on the floatplane, there was the belted kingfisher sitting atop of the tail of the Aeronca Sedan. After seeing the kingfisher on the tail, it was decided that the company would be called Kingfisher.

Where it all began

Glen Eaton started Kingfisher Aviation in 1998, operating a 1947 Aeronca Sedan floatplane for Zachar Bay Lodge on Kodiak Island. The company was created because of new regulations imposed by the FAA for lodge-operated aircraft to become air taxis. The first few years of operations were mainly for lodge operations with the Aeronca, but we slowly outgrew the reliable, old sedan. In 2001 the purchase of a new Bush Hawk spurred Kingfisher Aviation into more air taxi work. After a single season of operating the new Bush Hawk, we were so impressed by the airplane that we put our order in for a second Bush Hawk.

Kingfisher Air, Inc. was created and is a partnership between brothers Glen & Kyle. Our focus is to create an air taxi in Kodiak that focused on providing excellent, safe and educational bear viewing tours for our clients utilizing the best equipment available. The purchase of Highline Air in the fall of 2003 helped to secure an attractive base of operations, office and hangar on the Lily Lake floatplane base in Kodiak. We took delivery of our second new Bush Hawk in May of 2004, and have been making an impression on our clients ever since.

Our Pilots & Family History

The Eaton’s have a long history in Kodiak and with aviation. Marty & Linda Eaton originally moved to Kodiak in 1965, and they raised their three sons here, Andy, Glen & Kyle. Flying has been in our family’s heritage for generations, starting with Linda’s father, George Iley Steinke, who purchased his first airplane in 1925 and taught himself to fly. He earned pilots license #1582 (when the licenses were issued in numerical order). After decades of barnstorming, being a corporate pilot, starting an airline and all aspects revolving around aviation, George Steinke was inducted into the Arizona Aviation Hall of fame in 1991.

Glenstarted flying in 1991 and has been flying commercially since 1995. He has accumulated over 5,000 hours of flight time, most of that being in Alaska. Working for different air taxi services - Island Air (Kodiak) & Pen Air (Kodiak, Bethel, Dillingham) has given Glen a broad range of experience with different aircraft and management styles. We have taken his experiences and developed our company policies to focus on a safety first approach. Glen graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a B.S. in Biology. Although not professionally employed as a biologist, he gets to utilize much of the knowledge in the everyday aspects of flying around this remote and wild country, especially while taking our clients on the bear viewing tours.

Kylestarted flying in 1998 and has been flying commercially since 2001. He has accumulated over 4500 takeoffs & landings over 2200 hours of flight time, most of which is in floatplanes around the Kodiak Island area. Working at Zachar Bay Lodge since the age of 10 provided great opportunity to spend countless hours in and out of floatplanes, bears and the remote lakes and rivers throughout the Island. Kyle also has experience flying in along the Central California coast, Western Arizona, and throughout the Idaho and Washington mountains while attending college at the University of Idaho. Most of his flying took place in his Aeronca Sedan, which he would take out on weekends and days when not attending classes. Kyle earned a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Idaho in 2003.

Our Aircraft: The NEW Found Bush Hawk FBA-2C1

What is a Bush Hawk? That is a common question that we are faced with on a daily basis, which we are more than happy to answer. It is a 5 place (pilot plus 4) aircraft that is being built NEW outside of Toronto Canada which is designed to meet the needs of the Alaska operator looking for a utility aicraft. We figure our payloads to be 850 pounds -- which is slightly more than the Cessna 206 or Cessna 185 aircraft that operate around Kodiak. It has the same cabin size as a Cessna 206, but we can legally carry more weight, load and unload from either side of the plane, and performs better at gross weights. It is not a replacement for the de Havilland Beaver, but if you have more than a Beaver load, it is typically more efficient to use 2 Bush Hawks than a Beaver & 206.

Our Bush Hawks were built new in 2000 and 2004. They feature a 300 horsepower Lycoming IO-540 engine, 84" Hartzell Roundtip Propellor, Aerocet Fiberglass/Composite Floats and 4 large easy entry doors with large bubble windows. It has a cantilever wing (no wing strut to impede movement on the float!) and a steel tube cage around the passenger compartment, which is skinned in aluminum. The Bush Hawk cruises at approximately 115 knots on floats. Having a new floatplane is very unique -- the newest Cessna floatplanes around Kodiak were built new in the mid 1980's and there are some planes flying that date back to the 1940's (like the Aeronca Sedan we owned prior to the Bush Hawk).

If you are interested in the Bush Hawk, please let us know and we are more than happy to provide information. You can find out more at www.foundair.com and we also have a website dedicated to the Bush Hawk called www.AlaskaBushHawk.com.

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site created & maintained by: Kyle Eaton.
Last page update: January 10, 2012