Frank Church Air taxi

[BigCountry34]

Getting ready to schedule flights for my Frank Church Wilderness Hunt. Just seeing if anyone has any personal experience’s flying into the Frank Church on recommendations of which company to use. I am leaning towards Smith Aviation, pilot worked for Arnold aviation for years which is well known throughout the Idaho backcountry and McCall Aviation has a good Hunters special package which includes cost of extra load for hauling out game. Both of the above will fly meat out and hold in cold storage while you continue to hunt. Just looking to see if anyone has personally flown with either of the above or other carriers they would recommend. Thank you

 

[BuckSmasher]

Can't help with either of the above but flew with Gem Air a few years ago and it was a smooth and satisfactory experience.

Bear huntin'? Elk?

 

[BigCountry34]

I have also spoke to gem air and was impressed with them. I am going to be mainly hunting elk but will also have bear, mt lion, and a wolf tag with me as well.

 

[Britt-dog]

Just tagging along for input

 

[mtnbiker208]

middle fork aviation out of challis.

 

[elkliver]

A

Thread 'Frank Church Solo Elk Hunt Report 2024'

Aug 24, 2025

Every year I see questions about how to hunt the Frank Church. Access, partners, where to go, how to do it. Lots of questions, but seldom any trip reports. I figured I could give back instead of taking for a change. Sorry for being so verbose, but I like to be thorough.

I usually hunt the early season in the Frank, but my daughter was due in September this year so I had to find a different hunt. Being unsuccessful in both of the controlled hunt applications, I was stuck with the pumpkin patch of 39 or late season in the Frank. I chose the latter.

Step 1: Research
When I received...

• Aginor
• Replies: 42
• Forum: Elk

• 

Might be worth touching base with the author of this recap. I think they used Smith Air

 

[BigCountry34]

I will definately do that. Thank you.

 

[Chugach]

I can strongly recommend Smith Air out of Cascade. I have flown with them several times in the past 2 years! Great people with a ton of hours in the back country.

 

[826]

middle fork aviation out of challis.

I've flown with them on several occasions, top notch outfit.

One thing to consider that I don't see brought up much is how much worse the weather generally is in McCall than in Challis. You have a much higher chance of being delayed due to bad weather flying from the McCall side than you do the Challis side...McCall can be a foggy SOB a lot of the time, Challis not so much.

We were in there a few years ago and supposed to fly out the same day as our buddies, we got to Challis on schedule, they ended up staying 3 more days before the weather cleared enough to get into the McCall side.