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The first balloons lifted off in a gray dawn, mere shadows without their burners lighting them from the inside. A half dozen more followed quickly to the cheers of thousands who had gathered at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. The crowd had endured several rainy days...
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A Piece of Yukon History touches down in Whitehorse
Yukon News, May 1, 2015
By Joel Krahn
Seventy years old and still roaring like the day it was built, a Second World War era DC-3 rattled into Whitehorse, the drone from the twin props announcing its arrival.
In a different era this would have been an everyday sight, but those who watched a commemorative landing on Wednesday afternoon saw a unique glimpse of the territory’s transportation history.
Dwayne King, a veteran bush pilot from Alaska with 49 years in the air under his belt, is leading a crew that is flying a vintage DC-3 from Florida to Siberia. “It’s part of your heritage, actually, in Whitehorse,” he said during a presentation at the Yukon Transportation Museum. “It’s part of what developed and opened up this part of the country.”
North to Alaska Flying with Bush Pilots Above the Arctic Circle
AOPA Flight Training, May 2013
By Kathy Dondzila
“I’m crossing the river,” radioed the Kingdom Air Corps pilot flying a Cessna 182. He had departed Fairbanks a half hour before us, where our six airplanes—a Cessna 206, the Skylane, two Skyhawks, a Cessna 150, and a 152—flying together on our way north from King Ranch (AK59), had stopped for fuel. An Aeronca Champ and a Taylorcraft were already at our destination, and a Piper Aztec would fly up in a couple of days.
We were headed north, way north—60 miles beyond the Arctic Circle—to a private grass strip in the middle of the mountains of the Brooks Range. The 150 and the 152 had a couple hours head start from our base in Chickaloon, Alaska, east of Anchorage; the two Skyhawks had departed next; and the Cessna 182 shortly after. I was flying dual with our chief pilot, Dwayne King, founder of Kingdom Air Corps…
At Home in the Kingdom
AOPA Pilot, February 2013
By Kathy Dondzila
The deep growl of the Cessna Stationair’s Continental IO-520 engine resonated in the afternoon air. Some of the village folks who had come to say goodbye covered their ears as it roared down the runway; most of the kids grinned at its deafening departure.
Dwayne King, founder of Kingdom Air Corps, had the heavy hauler in the air less than halfway down the runway, and wagged its wings at the waving crowd below. He would miss the teens he had just flown home to Anaktuvuk Pass (AKP) from a week of camp in the Brooks Range. They watched until the Cessna’s rumble faded as the airplane followed the John River around Kollutuk Mountain on its way back to Brooks Range Bible Camp, Kingdom Air Corps’ aviation-themed youth camp…
RESUMING THE JOURNEY
A series of articles on a pilot’s return to flight.
Aopa.org, March-August 2012
by Kathy Dondzila
After a nine-year hiatus, Kathy Dondzila is climbing back into the left seat of a general aviation airplane—all in preparation for some flights in Alaska this summer.
In 1975 I was living in the tiny town of Tok, Alaska (population 350). Friends of mine, Dwayne and Carolyn King, missionaries with Central Alaskan Mission (now Send International Missions), were based there at the time. Dwayne, a pilot, invited me to fly with him to Tetlin, an Athabascan Indian village about 20 miles southeast and a gorgeous flight over the rugged mountains.
I had no idea, then, how skilled Dwayne’s piloting was as he gently put the airplane down on the short, soft, snow-covered runway. I just knew I liked it!