The call of the sky: Bush pilot Michelle Masden followed her dream and opened a floatplane business based out of Ketchikan.

• Author: Matise, Linda

A love for flying, ambition for success and steeled determination were the building blocks that turned a child's dream into a thriving Ketchikan floatplane business-Island Wings.

Owned and operated by Michelle Masden, Island Wings is acclaimed by tourists and locals to be a professional, people-oriented service. Although she relishes a degree of triumph, she always credits others who helped along the way.

"I think that what makes a business take off is just plain, old-fashioned stubbornness and tenacity. Never give up," Masden says. Island Wings is by no means a traditional business with a businesswoman at the helm. Masden's office is unique. She does business from the left (pilot's) seat of a cockpit while operating a serious kind of flying machine. You've likely heard of gear up landings, usually in the context of an emergency airport landing. Well Masden has no landing gear. Her plan has floats and lands only on the waterways of the Alexander Archipelago-an area consisting of about 1,100 islands that are the exposed tops of a submerged section of the Coast Ranges.

In her words, the rewards of being the pilot and her own boss are "independence, flying in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and the abundance of thank you's from tourists and residents." They often send photos, small gifts and notes of appreciation for having made a floatplane trip the highlight of their vacations. On the other hand, locals reward her with bags of smoked salmon for delivering daily necessities and medication.

Island Wings is published in six tourist guides, and visitors from cruise ships know it is the genuine ticket to experiencing Southeast Alaska's wilderness. Those with advanced reservations are met by a courtesy van and transported to the airplane. In a sense the Internet has been a conduit for attracting new customers-albeit 75 percent of the referrals are by word-of-mouth from satisfied customers. Tour flights range from afternoon trips through Misty Fjords National Monument and over Soule and Through glaciers to guided hiking, fishing and bear-watching excursions. Log onto islandwings.com and review several vacation packages.

Masden also transports more rugged outdoorsmen and women to U.S. Forest Service cabins located on remote lakes and to lodges for a week's fishing. Some lakes are surrounded by pristine old growth forests with gentle slopes of alder, cedar, hemlock and spruce trees. Others are framed by vertical rock walls that were carved...