Meet Alaskan Bush Pilot Stephanie Blanchard

It might seem obvious that becoming a pilot involves learning a lot about airplanes. Sometimes, though, it is surprising how much flight training teaches us about people—especially aviation folks who offer encouragement, and often much more.

As with many things, that experience is magnified several times over if you live in Alaska.

Just ask Stephanie Blanchard, who resides in Seldovia, where she owns a bar and grill, flies a Cessna 170B, and shares her experiences on Instagram as @tail.dragger. She also flies Part 135 freight missions when her schedule allows and recently earned her rotor rating.

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Blanchard did not come from a family of pilots, nor did she spend her childhood dreaming about flying. But she got to know people who helped plant the seeds. In the first instance, while working for a hospitality company that provided staffing support for lodges and resorts, many of which were remote and accessible only by floatplane or helicopters.

At one lodge, she said the hosts were offering helicopter sightseeing rides to their guests. During a lunch for employees, Blanchard struck up a conversation with another woman who turned out to be the helicopter pilot giving the rides.

“I started asking her all these questions about flying, particularly how she got started and what the process looked like and she was very open about it,” said Blanchard. “Then in my mind I thought, if she can fly helicopters, maybe I can fly helicopters.”

That thought percolated for a few years before an aviation opportunity arose in the form of a well-known—some might say legendary—bush pilot, who befriended Blanchard and nudged her onto a path toward becoming a pilot.

“I was living in Seldovia, I bought a business here, a restaurant-bar, in 2013,” she said. “There’s just a big  aviation community here, a lot of people who fly in. I met Jack Barber, who’s been my mentor.”

Barber, longtime owner of Alaska Air Taxi flying service, had been a bush pilot for 50 years or more. When they met, she began telling him about how earlier brushes with aviation had caused her to dream about flying someday.

“Prior to all of this I worked at lodges that were remote, that were only accessible by floatplane,” she said. “And I remember getting my first ride in a Cessna 206 to go to a job at a lodge, and I was just the most excited passenger ever.”

After acquiring the restaurant-bar, she started thinking about how an airplane could help make her operation more efficient.

“All of our restaurant freight has to be flown in because it’s all frozen fresh,” she said. “After hanging out with Jack and paying for all of this freight to get brought over, I thought, man, wouldn’t it be great to save money and buy an airplane, get my pilot’s license, and fly my own freight. That would save me a ton of money, right?”

Now she laughs at the notion of saving money by flying airplanes but appreciates the benefits of being a pilot and owning an aircraft, such as freedom and autonomy.

“That’s kind of what got me motivated,” she said. “I really just wanted to fly my own freight and be able to get out of town.”

Around this time, as she started to think more seriously about flying, Blanchard began tagging along with Barber, who had transitioned from flying air taxi missions and was focusing more on freight flights. She told him that since his right seat was available, she would accompany him if he didn’t mind. Barber not only took her on as an occasional passenger but gave her lots of stick time and essentially began training her, unofficially, as a copilot.

Blanchard recalls flying with Barber one day in a Short Skyvan, a twin turboprop freight hauler. At one point, after acquainting her with the aircraft’s GPS navigator, he told her to “follow this magenta line, stay at 3,000 feet, and let me know when we’re 10 miles out.”

With Barber, flying became more routine, more natural, and more appealing.

“I started really falling in love with flying and the scenery of Alaska,” Blanchard said.

She said Barber often poked fun at her for her constant expression of wonder when flying.

“This is amazing. I couldn’t stop saying that,” she said.

Blanchard had decided a boat might make more sense for transporting her restaurant-bar supplies, and she discussed the plan with Barber one day.

“So I’m sitting there with Jack, and I’m showing him the boat I want to buy, and he said, ‘For half that money you could buy an airplane,’” she said.

She mentioned to him that while flying “would be awesome,” she did not have a private pilot certificate and buying an airplane seemed a bit premature. But Barber just kept talking, seemingly dismissing her doubts. 

“He says, ‘Well, my buddy’s got this 170B for sale. It’s an awesome airplane,’” she said. “And he starts listing all the mods: ‘It’s got the 180 horse, and it has the extended baggage. It has the Horton STOL kit, the extended wings.’ All these things.”

Barber told her the Cessna 170B would be an ideal trainer for her.

“You have to learn tailwheel. It’s the only way to learn,” she said he told her. Only later would she come to appreciate the importance of these details.

The next day they checked out the vintage Cessna and everything fell into place.

“I was just in awe of this airplane,” Blanchard said. “So that night I was writing the check and I was buying it.”

Barber began teaching her to fly the new-to-her airplane.

“He had this idea that the best place for me to learn to fly was on the ice—on frozen lakes,” she said.

It was winter, so they started off operating from Lake Hood’s frozen surface before progressing to other lakes in the area.

“He had a friend who lived up at Wasilla Lake, and he would measure the ice for us on days when we were planning to go flying,” she said. “I didn’t touch a runway until maybe two months into my training. I was just landing on ice all the time. It was kind of a different flight-training deal.”

Blanchard built her flying time quickly, and soon Barber told her they would have to find an instructor to take her the rest of the way to her PPL. Blanchard was confused until Barber explained that he was not a CFI. This was a textbook case of the “Alaska effect” seeming to magnify the freedom and autonomy of aviation. 

Blanchard worked with a local instructor and passed her check ride about five months after buying the airplane and got to work on advanced ratings. She met a CFII who was planning a trip to the Lower 48, so she offered to fly him down in exchange for instrument training.

“I spent most of the flight under the hood,” she said.

A commercial rating came next, and soon she began flying for a Part 135 operation, taking tourists on bear-viewing flights, transporting fish and other missions, all while looking after her restaurant-bar.

“While running the [business], I have been trying to work 135 jobs on the side,” she said. “The first few years I was flying a 206 on wheels. We were doing bear-viewing tours and lodge support, picking up and dropping off passengers, and transporting fish back to Anchorage.” 

Later she began working at a hunting lodge, flying a Super Cub and a 185.

“I did two seasons at the hunting lodge, and that was incredible,” Blanchard said. “That type of flying is next level. It made me such a better pilot. The places we went…I cannot begin to describe.”

All of her flights for the lodge were off-airport operations involving unimproved strips. Indeed, she said her boss, in an effort to dissuade other pilots from landing in the same areas, often made sure the strips they used were not too inviting. One highlight of working for the lodge was the opportunity to fly a turbine de Havilland Beaver, which was one of her longtime goals.

All the while, she has juggled her flying schedule so she could continue to fly freight for her restaurant-bar—with a few exceptions.

“The other day I had a bear trip, but it was also a freight day,” Blanchard said. “I will take a bear trip over a freight day. We have an operator in Homer who will fly the freight for us.”

Most of the time, though, she makes the runs between Homer and Seldovia.

“Homer is only a 10- or 15-minute flight,” she said. “I’m just commuting. I mean, a lot of people drive an hour to get to work.” 

Like a lot of Alaskan remote communities, airplanes are the lifeline in and around Seldovia. General aviation is an integral part of life. While the Alaskan aviation lifestyle provides a lot of pure joy, situations can get serious quickly, and pilots have to be ready to respond to a variety of challenges.

Blanchard remembered the feeling of accomplishment she experienced when flying a patient to a hospital for emergency care.

“This is the reason I got my  license,” she said. “I can help people when they really need it. I can give back to the community.”

Proficiency remains another serious issue for any pilot operating in Alaska, where the terrain and conditions, while often stunningly beautiful, are also unforgiving. Blanchard emphasizes that Alaska is not for everyone.

“Unless flying is going to be your priority, don’t even start,” she said, noting how challenging flying can be in the state compared with other regions. “You have to do it every day. You need to be proficient or it isn’t going to work out well. You always have obstacles. You have weather conditions. There is no weather reporting in the places we fly. You have to be able to read the weather.”

Blanchard said she is always learning, and occasionally receives a surprise, like when she recently landed at a familiar remote strip.

“It was a really challenging short strip,” she said. “You have to come in really steep. It had been raining the night before. Tall grass made it difficult to tell just how wet the strip was. So I go to land, and I’m on these 35-inch bushwheels, and there was zero braking authority. I used up way more runway than the day before.

“That taught me a really important lesson. Just because I landed in one spot one day, it doesn’t mean that spot is going to be landable the next day. You start to get overconfident, and immediately you get corrected. You get humbled.” 

Despite the challenges, or more accurately because of them, bush flying remains Blanchard’s aviation inspiration.

“I like that every day is different,” she said. “I get to show people the best part of Alaska, which is seeing it from the air.”

Combined with spectacular flying opportunities, she said Alaska’s no-nonsense culture has been a perfect fit for her.

“No one cares about fashion or the car you drive,” she said.

For Blanchard, the Last Frontier is a singular spot.

“I have flown all over the Lower 48, and there are some amazing places, but there is nothing like Alaska.

Follow Blanchard on Instagram (@tail.dragger)

Visit Blanchard’s Restaurant 

Nestled in the heart of downtown Seldovia, Alaska, Stephanie Blanchard’s Linwood Bar & Grill combines small-town charm with stunning waterfront scenery.

The menu features a variety of options, including locally sourced seafood, burgers, pizzas, soups, and salads, along with a selection of local beers and wines. Beyond the food, the restaurant is known as a community gathering place, hosting live music and events that showcase performers from across Alaska and beyond.

Whether you’re stopping in for a meal, drink, or evening of entertainment, the Linwood Bar & Grill delivers a warm, welcoming atmosphere and an authentic taste of coastal Alaska.

This article first appeared in the September/October 2026 Issue of Plane + Pilot magazine.