This was my 3rd fly out caribou hunt, and the first in a completely new area, style, and with a different transporter.
My coworker and I have been planning this hunt for the past 4 years. We had our drop and pickup planned with a pilot who unfortunately died in a mid air accident early last summer so we scrambled and got set up with Kavik Aviation. We were told our River selection and strips would be fine despite switching from a 185 to a 206. As well as our pilot, who would be the owner who had been flying in the Brooks range the previous year. All of those turned out to be lies.
We drove up to Fairbanks the day before and were in communication with the actual pilot (younger kid who was safe and had a little experience flying a super cub for an outfitter) who’d told us in the morning we were meeting at 0800 for a 0830 departure. At 2200 the night before he calls to inform us that he had been scouting our strips that day in a cub and they were too short for him to bring the 206 in/out of. Fine, (I’m a pilot, I get it) when we asked about other options he found along the River he didn’t scout anything else out, and the owner was there in Fairbanks when he landed and took the 206 from him to fulfill other contracts so getting us into another location wasn’t possible anyway. At that point we’d had a contract for that date to get out in for over a year with the River named and the strip grids given. Why wait until the day before to scout a strip? Why pull the plane from your pilot on a contracted flight? It went so far as the pilot was so distraught in being stuck in the middle that he was giving us other outfits phone numbers to see if anyone could salvage our trip.
We did end up getting out in on a different River, set in on top of an outfitter and guide with 3 other camps set up along the first 10miles of the River, a homestead we knew nothing about (pilot knew about all of it and never said a word to us about any of it until it was too late) who left us a note that we were camped in their back yard from their jet boat. When we called for our scheduled and promised back haul of meat, the pilot didn’t have the plane again, the owner had taken it. Come to find out, about every 4-5 days to work his other obligations. So we came out early to ensure we could get out of the field and take care of the meat bulls I shot.
As a commercial pilot and pilot in Alaska myself I was absolutely disgusted at the way we were treated and the way this operation worked. I can in no good faith recommend anyone use Kavik Aviation or the services of Jamie Hastings or Blue River Aviation. I use real names because I have nothing to hide, nor do I want anyone else to come to Alaska and have to deal with the issues we did.
In true Alaskan hospitality, when I was telling a friend about what we went through, he offered to take us Halibut fishing so my buddy didn’t go home empty handed.
My coworker and I have been planning this hunt for the past 4 years. We had our drop and pickup planned with a pilot who unfortunately died in a mid air accident early last summer so we scrambled and got set up with Kavik Aviation. We were told our River selection and strips would be fine despite switching from a 185 to a 206. As well as our pilot, who would be the owner who had been flying in the Brooks range the previous year. All of those turned out to be lies.
We drove up to Fairbanks the day before and were in communication with the actual pilot (younger kid who was safe and had a little experience flying a super cub for an outfitter) who’d told us in the morning we were meeting at 0800 for a 0830 departure. At 2200 the night before he calls to inform us that he had been scouting our strips that day in a cub and they were too short for him to bring the 206 in/out of. Fine, (I’m a pilot, I get it) when we asked about other options he found along the River he didn’t scout anything else out, and the owner was there in Fairbanks when he landed and took the 206 from him to fulfill other contracts so getting us into another location wasn’t possible anyway. At that point we’d had a contract for that date to get out in for over a year with the River named and the strip grids given. Why wait until the day before to scout a strip? Why pull the plane from your pilot on a contracted flight? It went so far as the pilot was so distraught in being stuck in the middle that he was giving us other outfits phone numbers to see if anyone could salvage our trip.
We did end up getting out in on a different River, set in on top of an outfitter and guide with 3 other camps set up along the first 10miles of the River, a homestead we knew nothing about (pilot knew about all of it and never said a word to us about any of it until it was too late) who left us a note that we were camped in their back yard from their jet boat. When we called for our scheduled and promised back haul of meat, the pilot didn’t have the plane again, the owner had taken it. Come to find out, about every 4-5 days to work his other obligations. So we came out early to ensure we could get out of the field and take care of the meat bulls I shot.
As a commercial pilot and pilot in Alaska myself I was absolutely disgusted at the way we were treated and the way this operation worked. I can in no good faith recommend anyone use Kavik Aviation or the services of Jamie Hastings or Blue River Aviation. I use real names because I have nothing to hide, nor do I want anyone else to come to Alaska and have to deal with the issues we did.
In true Alaskan hospitality, when I was telling a friend about what we went through, he offered to take us Halibut fishing so my buddy didn’t go home empty handed.
