Mikaela Young |
At the age of 26, she is considered the youngest to ever pilot a Fire Boss and the first female in the world. She is praised for her impressive flying and instincts beyond her years, according to officials at Dauntless Air, the company that owns the contracted firefighting airplanes.
Young grew up homeschooled along with four siblings on an off grid, 320-acre homestead near Talkeetna, Alaska. Her family lived in tents for three years while building their house. When she turned 15, she started logging seven days a week to pay for her first truck. Young credits her work ethic to her parents.
Young also has family ties to Ketchikan as the granddaughter of local resident Louise Clark. Clark wrote in an email to SitNews that she is very proud of her granddaughter.
Young was inspired to get into the aviation world after participating in Build A Plane, a nonprofit that gives Talkeetna youth the chance to rebuild an airplane. After rebuilding a Cherokee 6, Young decided to pursue a career turning wrenches as an airplane mechanic.
Young had “wicked” motion sickness growing up and never thought she would be a pilot. But her need to “try everything” and learn more about the planes she worked on changed her mind.
She convinced a coworker to instruct her and within a year she had earned all her pilot ratings, including private, commercial, and multi-engine. She got her start in commercial aviation as a flight engineer and then moved up to piloting World War II DC-6 and C-46 planes, the giant cargo planes that transport fuel and food to remote Alaskan villages.
“I like the flying world more than the wrenching world because there is always something new. Different weather, scenery, and emergencies,” Young said. “Wrenching was a lot of the same tasks every day.”
She saw the Fire Bosses, the water-scooping airplanes that look much like crop dusters with floats, for the first time while flying cargo across Alaska. These floats give them the Fire Boss name and separate them from the SEATs flown in the Lower 48 with a wheeled configuration.
Young in Fairbanks, AK with Fire Boss |
Then, a year ago, she met Mindy Lane, a SEAT base manager with the BLM Alaska Fire, and Sonny Amboni, Dauntless pilot, who explained the requirements to become an aerial firefighter. At the beginning of the fire season, the BLM AFS contracts four Fire Bosses to respond to wildfires throughout the state and orders additional when fire activity increases.
“I thought (Fire Bosses) were pretty cool and convinced (Dauntless Chief Pilot and Director of Operations) Jesse Weaver to hire me,” Young said. “Flying a Fire Boss is awesome! I love being the only one in the cockpit.”
A Fire Boss is an AT-802F aircraft equipped to scoop and drop 800-gallons of water on wildfires. Two postcard-sized scoops on the bottom of each float pylon fill the tank as the plane skims over water as little as 4-feet deep in a matter of 15-seconds. Their ability to scoop from a body of water near a wildfire make them a valuable firefighting resource, especially in Alaska, where fires are remote and there is an abundance of water.
“Flying a Fire Boss is challenging. Scooping is the most difficult thing I have ever done in an airplane,” Young said. “You are flying across water at 60 knots when you put the probes out to scoop water. Initially it dips the nose and you have to correct for that. As the hopper fills with water the plane starts to porpoise from sloshing water and you are eating the wake of the plane in front of you. You’re heavy and slow and the plane doesn’t want to fly.”
Young flying a Fire Boss. |
This year, Young flew her first fire in her home state of Alaska. It was small smokey spot fires, but her second fire was “big flames.”
“It was cool,” Young said. “I can’t believe I get paid to do this.”
When asked what she thinks about being the first female Fire Boss pilot, “It’s pretty cool to be given the chance. I don’t see it as a big difference. I have always worked in a male dominated field. I do like being the youngest working with all these grandpas. It looks like bring your grandpa to work day.”
Look for Young in smokey skies, flying her favorite Fire Boss – named “Caroline” with a painting of a woman firefighter holding a Pulaski much like Rosie the Riveter – as she fights fire across the country.
Story by Public Information Officer Kelsey Griffee, Alaska Wildland Fire Information Center Small edit By Mary Kauffman, SitNews to include information about Young's family ties to Ketchikan. |
Representations of fact and opinions in comments posted are solely those of the individual posters and do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.
Send a letter to the editor@sitnews.us
SitNews ©2022
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska
Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews are considered protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper freelance writers and subscription services.
E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us
Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.