A volunteer helps unload a dog
from PenAir's Caravan after its
participation in the race. The dogs
are the true athletes of this event,
and their well-being is paramount.
FLIGHT RULES
In facilitating this event the FAA works
closely with the Iditarod Trail Committee
and, for the duration of the race, grants
operating rules closely following many Part
135 operations. Some of the stipulations
are—regardless of number of seats—no more
than two passengers per plane, day VFR
only, and no carriage of hazardous materials
while passengers are on board. With this last
restriction, and with passengers on board, all
fuels, oils, and flammable products can only
fly via the Cessna Caravan or be moved to
the checkpoints via snowmobile.
The largest aircraft used for moving supplies, equipment, and people during the race
is the Cessna 208 Caravan, whose services
are graciously donated to the race by
Anchorage-based operator PenAir. A full-service Part 121 carrier throughout the year,
the PenAir Caravan is not restricted by the
Iditarod limits on number of passengers or
hazardous materials and can and does fly
IFR when needed.
PenAir Caravan pilot Bill Batman, 42, origi-
nally from Minnesota, moved to Anchorage
in 1996 and has flown as a commercial pilot
for PenAir since 1998. Just one of approxi-
mately 100 company pilots, Bill seeks out the
Iditarod Caravan duties each year, and has
done so for the last six. Although approved
for single-pilot operation, the PenAir
Caravan is always flown with two pilots.
Mainly in the Saab 340 the rest of the year,
Bill said he looks forward to the Iditarod “as
it feels great to get back in the Caravan for a
few weeks each winter working with the
dogs and all the great people.”
A typical flight mission during the race
for the Caravan may be transporting 30 dogs
and four people and baggage from the
Unalakleet (UNK) checkpoint back to
Anchorage (ANC). The UNK-ANC flight is
392 nautical miles, and considering winds
aloft and the Caravan’s average true airspeed
of 165 knots, the flight takes about two hours
and 20 minutes. (Unalakleet is the same vil-
lage as in the Discovery Channel program
Flying Wild Alaska.)
Brittany Hanson managed the logistics of flight operations
for the 2011 race, coordinating the movement of dogs, people,
and supplies.
SCOTT IVANY
Of the 26 private aircraft that make up the
Iditarod Air Force, N2430F, a wheel-ski-equipped Cessna 180, is owned and flown by
Iditarod volunteer pilot Scott Ivany. Having
moved to Alaska from Battle Creek,
Michigan, in 2004, the 35-year-old is manager of an Anchorage commercial
construction firm and has donated his plane
and pilot services to the Iditarod for the last
two years.
Iditarod pilots are not paid for their
services and only receive fuel, oil, and
required maintenance for their aircraft
during the race.
As of the mid-point of the 2011 race, Scott
had already flown 45 Iditarod trips and
nearly 70 hours. He is the holder of a commercial pilot certificate and has about 1,300
hours’ total time, and that number is one of
the lowest total flight time hours of any of
the Air Force pilots. Scott’s C-180H was built
in 1966 and was repainted and given a new
interior in 2008; it’s equipped with a Garmin
496 portable and a panel-mount Garmin 430
WAAS GPS and is IFR current. A Sportsman
STOL kit lowers the stall speed and shortens
the takeoff distance—a valuable factor in
taking off and landing on the sometimes
short, snow-covered frozen river surfaces at
Iditarod remote checkpoints.
Being safety conscious, as all Alaska bush
pilots must be, Scott always flies with a personal locator beacon (PLB), snowshoes,
sleeping bag, and propane heater kit for the
engine. For the snow-covered operations at
checkpoints, this C-180H is modified with
Airglas 3600 skis, which also retain the
wheels. The 88-inch McCauley prop, one-piece windshield, and P. Ponk beef-up kit
allow heavy loads to be an easier strain on
the aircraft. (P. Ponk landing gear beef-up
kits are common on bushplane C-180s and
C-185s.) Scott is the fourth owner of N2430F,
and the airframe is approaching 7,000 hours;
it’s on its fourth Continental O-470 engine.
A typical trip for pilots like Scott would
be in mid-February, long before the race
starts. It could include a hop from N2430F’s
home base of Lake Hood Strip, a gravel runway near Ted Stevens Anchorage
International Airport, to Willow, Alaska,
about a 60-mile hop north. There, a temporary warehouse is set up to store bales of
straw and musher supplies, each bale carefully wrapped in plastic and weighed. After
loading up, Scott may be dispatched, for
instance, out to the Shageluk checkpoint
(11th of 23 in the 2011 race—the trail route
changes somewhat between odd and even
years). Anchorage to Shageluk is about a
320-statute-mile flight. The day’s flights also
could involve supplies for two or more
