I wear many hats as the publisher of Alaska Dispatch. My hands-down favorite one is Head of our Corporate Flight Department, so to speak.
Along with multi-talented -- and highly experienced -- pilot Burke Mees, my Iditarod consisted of flying my trusty Cessna 206 in the pursuit of our Dispatch brand of journalism -- hands-on, first-person, and found even in the remotest locations.
Jill Burke, reporter, and Stephen Nowers, photographer, dictated our schedule. With planned layovers in well-located villages -- and friends willing to rent us their houses -- we followed the race each day in search of the stories and visuals as they presented themselves. Equipped with hydraulic wheel skis, we were able to land wherever the story was: on the snowy Takotna River, the uneven sea ice of Golovin Bay, or the hair-raising, mountaintop strips that might be the only dry-land alternatives.
The balance of priorities between reporter and photographer is an interesting back story, too. The need for perfect natural light to illustrate a segment of the race can conflict with the location of the unfolding news story of the moment. So then we improvised a "ferrying" schedule for our two Dispatch passengers. Jill Burke, one night, slept on the floor of the school in Takotna while Steven took photographs back in McGrath.
Then of course there is the overall need to keep the load as light as possible. With four adults and winter gear, plus airplane covers and heater, we were hauling a lot. So that involved its own component of ferrying.
On reflection, it all worked well, and gave us what we want and need: the coverage that you, our readers, seem to enjoy.
Getting maximum performance out of an airplane without compromising the ambitious goals of the journey is what Bush flying is all about. As Burke Mees says, all of that makes for a good challenge that feels like a rewarding trip, once we're back in the hangar.
Alice Rogoff is the owner and publisher of Alaska Dispatch Publishing, an online news company that covers Alaska and the Arctic on AlaskaDispatch.com. Contact her at alice(at)alaskadispatch.com.