Saturday, October 29, 2011

Kodiak's Sea Hawk Air service still flying high after 36 years

Kodiak, Alaska — Rolan Ruoss stood on the deck of a salmon seiner and knew he wanted to fly.

He saved his money, squirreling away dollars earned commercial fishing, and earned his pilot's license. He kept fishing, working through high school and college, then went on to flight school.

He began flying commercially, and today is the sole pilot for Sea Hawk Air, an air taxi service operating out of Near Island's Trident Basin.

Though it's been almost 40 years since he took up his dreams of flying, Ruoss still remembers the reason why he does it.

"That was an adventure I wanted to be a part of," he said.

Roads reach only 5 percent of the Kodiak archipelago landmass, Ruoss said.

"Getting there by air is essential transportation around here," he said.

"Getting there" means taking hunters, tourists, fishermen or anyone else aboard Sea Hawk's DeHaviland Beaver, an airframe that's been around since the 1950s — albeit with modifications and upgrades since.

"The Beaver really is the best airplane for the environment we're working in," said Jo Murphy, who operates Sea Hawk with Ruoss.

While Ruoss hasn't been flying as long as the Beaver has, he's seen aviation in Kodiak change from dominance by Kodiak Island Airways to a wide range of air taxis and small airlines.

"I didn't start commercial flying until 1979," he said.

A few years after that, Japanese demand caused a salmon boom in Alaska, and Ruoss' career took off.

"Good salmon prices help all Businesses," he said. "That money spreads throughout the community."

Fishermen with more money to spend when they go hunting, "They'll fly out instead of using their boat," Ruoss said.

In 1987, Ruoss bought into Sea Hawk Air, working with Tom Walters and Fred Patterson, who founded the company in 1985. Patterson retired in 1992, but Walters continues to operate in the Kodiak aviation Business with Maritime Helicopters.

In the late 1980s, Ruoss said the air taxi Business began to change as salmon prices declined and the Kodiak Island deer population crashed, turning away hunters. But almost at the same time, tourists began coming to Kodiak Island seeking bears — not to shoot them with rifles, but with cameras.

"Bear viewing helped pad the crash of the deer population," Ruoss said.

Demand for bear viewing exploded in the 1990s and declined only slightly when the Great Recession began.

"Kodiak is unique enough that people are still coming," Murphy said. "We've seen that the people are still coming, but June isn't as busy."

Peak demand comes later in the year, from the July-September time frame, she said.

While bear hunting season began Tuesday, spurring Business, bear viewing remains the earner for Sea Hawk, with Ruoss doing the flying and Murphy guiding tourists on the ground.

"After a few hours, they can come back totally soaked if it's raining, and they're still saying, 'That was the coolest thing we've ever done in our lives,'" Ruoss said.

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Information from: Kodiak Daily Mirror, Kodiakdailymirror.com">http://www.Kodiakdailymirror.com

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