Michelle Masden, pilot and owner of Island Wings, and a self-described “flight junkie,” has spent over twenty-one thousand hours, or almost two and a half years, above the Earth’s surface. She conducts business from the left seat of her magnificent flying machine, a Cessna 185, as a year round floatplane pilot in Ketchikan, Alaska. A love for flying, aspirations of success, and plain old fashioned tenacity were the building blocks that turned a child's dream into a thriving Ketchikan floatplane business - Island Wings Air Service, est. 1993.In addition to showing visitors the beauty of Alaska, she transports campers and hunters to remote areas, facilitates aerial surveys of wildlife with biologists, and conducts fish spotting trips with commercial fisherman. It is not unusual for her to make five or more trips a day, yet she never tires of showing others the spectacular beauty of the area. What does Michelle do on her rare days off? She flies of course. “Passion is good fuel to get you through life,” she says. “Alaska is vast, beautiful and diverse, and I love how free it feels to fly through it.” What are the rewards of being the pilot and her own boss? “Independence, flying in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and an abundance of thank you notes from visitors and locals alike."

 

HER WEBSITE: www.islandwings.com