Chris Desmond has always known he wanted to be a pilot but was never interested in the airline route. After graduating from Aviation Flight Science in Spring 2018, he moved to Juneau, Alaska to work as a line pilot and training pilot for Alaska Seaplanes. There, he flies the Cessna 207, Stationair. and 208 Caravan and SuperVan.
A typical day at work for Chris is to show up an hour before flight time, preflight, get the bags and mail/UPS/freight loaded for the first flight, weather planning, figure out if the flight will be VFR or IFR and plan from there. “The company doesn’t limit us on how we get somewhere or tell us how to do it, they leave the planning and flying completely up to us, which leaves us the ability to show some of the cool things Alaska has to offer to our passengers which is a mix of tourists and locals in the summer time, mainly locals in the winter “ he says.
Chris came to WMU from Winter Haven, Florida. He visited as a senior and his tour demonstrated that the College of Aviation really is a tight knit group. “While it may be one of the largest flight programs in the country you can still know people on a first name basis.” He says WMU’s flight training prepared him for his current job because they stressed detailed and in-depth planning for every flight. “Statistics in Alaskan aviation show that it has to carry over or things can go bad, rapidly. Flying in Alaska requires a lot of self-preservation, you do your own flight planning, loading, safety briefings and you do a lot with limited resources, like looking at a camera that takes a new picture every 10 minutes.”
When asked if he had any advice for current students, Chris said “If you’d rather fly down low, close to terrain, single pilot, in arguably one of the most challenging environments in the works over flying on autopilot at 35,000’ come to Alaska. Rarely do you get above 5000’ and if you do, the views are phenomenal and work is rewarding. Have a plan A, no plan B, and never look back. “