Midnight Landing

As my readers have already guessed, cropduster types are often not like your average everyday folks.  They don’t seem to easily fit into any category. One pilot I have known like this was Donald Shoemacher.

I met Don shortly after I became a pilot myself.  He was flying for a company in Lewiston, Idaho.  He had served in the U.S. Marine corp during World War II and saw a good deal of combat in the Pacific theater, participating in some very bitter battles. Places like Iwo Jima, and other Japanese-held Islands. During these battles, he decided the Air Force was where he should have been instead of hitting the beaches as a ground pounder.

He made it home in one piece and soon learned to fly. He became a flight instructor, did charter type work and other general aviation flying, as well as bush flying in the outback of Idaho's wilderness areas. 

A good part of the state of Idaho is made up of tall mountains, deep canyons, all covered in big timber and much of it owned and managed by the U.S. forest service. As I have stated in earlier blogs, there are quite a number of landing strips scattered over these mountains and forests, most of them along the rivers and creeks in the bottom of the valleys and canyons. Many of these strips are short and are what is referred to as one-way strips, meaning you can only land going one way and there is no missed approach. Consequently, it requires a good deal of experience to access these little landing fields safely. 

Most of these strips are used and maintain by the Forest Service. They are used to bring in supplies and equipment to Forest Service personnel who are stationed in the outback. There are very few roads to these stations and what roads there are aren't very well maintained because of the rugged country.

One of Schumacher’s duties was to fly into these places with all kinds of stuff like mail, groceries, animal feed, small freight, as well as passengers at times.  Also, if a Forest Service person stationed in the back country was hurt or became ill it was a quick way to get them to a doctor. Because of the position of many of the strips, the weather was definitely a major factor. If the wind was wrong or there was limited visibility because of rain, snow or fog etc., one must use good judgment, extreme caution and extraordinary skilled airmanship to negotiate a landing and take-off at one of these strips. There are times when even an experienced pilot must say "No I ain’t going in there."

Anyway Don became very skilled at flying the out-back. A few of these strips were owned and operated by private individuals such as hunting lodges, summer homes, small ranchers, etc. Don became acquainted with many of the back-country folks and was much like the country mail carrier, he knew them by their first name as well as their family.  You know, as an example, "Well today I've got to go out and take Mrs. Jones a list of groceries."  He would then go into town and buy the beans and tatters and bags of flour and all sorts of other stuff and load it in a four-place plane and haul it into their strip.

One of these isolated customers had a strip near their home deep in Snake river country near the mouth of what was called Hell’s Canyon. Their only contact with the outside world was a very rough narrow dirt road carved out of the wilderness. It was a day’s drive just to get to a paved road. They kept in touch with civilization by two-way radio.

One night around eleven o’clock, the man sent a message to Shoemacher that said he had a medical emergency. His wife had had a heart attack. The man asked if him if he could fly into his strip at night and get her to a doctor. He said he would have bon-fire going at the strip for him.

Now this was a short one-way strip lying in a nook of the fairly broad area of the canyon. The strip lay perpendicular to the Snake river. To land there, one had to fly up the river and round a bend, make a ninety degree turn to the left, and about two hundred yards from the river, make a landing. The approach end of the strip was at least a hundred feet lower than the opposite end. A very tricky bit of maneuvering even in day time. I couldn’t imagine doing this as night.

Don wasn't sure he could even find the strip at night, but said he would give it a try.

According to his report, he took off from the Lewiston airport just before midnight and headed up the Snake river canyon. He could see the river below because of the reflection of a faint moonlight. He stayed directly over the river so as not to collide with the dark slopes rising on each side. Don had flown up the river many times in daytime, so he had a general idea of the area. He knew that the strip he was looking for should appear at a certain time.

Sure enough, as he rounded a bend in the river he saw the bright blaze of the fire that the owner had torched when he heard the plane approaching. Don knew full well that he would get only one shot at the strip and there would be no second chance if he missed. He reached the point of no return, left the river and turned toward the fire. 

He said he could not see the strip but knew it had to be just beyond the big fire so he made his approach directly toward the fire. When he reached a point within about fifty yards from the fire, he could just make out the near end of the strip. He chopped the power and touched down almost in the fire but quickly got on the brakes and rolled to a stop with only about twenty feet of strip left. His friend and wife were there anxiously waiting for him.

Without ceremony they quickly loaded the woman in the plane as soon as it stopped. Don quickly wiped the sweat from his face, swung the ship around and poured the coals to her and took off in the opposite direction that he had come. He related that the takeoff was as tricky as the landing.

He headed for the fire and manage to become airborne before he reached the fire. He said it was like diving into a black hole but manage to pick up the reflection of the river in a few seconds. Don said he stayed low over the middle of the water as he came down river.

He had given instructions to a ground crew to have an ambulance waiting if and when he returned. The woman was conscious during this scary ordeal and survived because she received the necessary medical treatment thanks to a brave and nervy pilot.

Don went on to become a cropduster pilot and eventually owned his own company, Shoemacher's Ag-Air. I flew for his company for some ten years.