Kitty Banner Seemann
Kitty Banner Seemann
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Show notes
In this conversation with Kitty Banner Seemann, we talk about her spectacular experiences flying as a bush and glacier pilot in Alaska in planes full of mountain climbers, hunters, and adventurers to remote locations in some of the most challenging flight conditions imaginable, all described in her book Wings of Her Dreams: Alaska Bush and Glacier Pilot Kitty Banner.
The blurb:
A reflection and look at the adventures during Kitty Banner’s time in Alaska. Experience her flights, landings, and takeoffs on high altitude glaciers loaded with gear and mountain climbers from all over the world who came to Talkeetna to attempt ascent of one of the toughest mountains on earth, Denali. Kitty Banner was born into a loving, adventurous, Irish-American family in Chicago, Illinois, joining three older brother and welcoming a second younger sister. The siblings enjoyed excellent guidance from their parents, who encouraged them to contribute to the work of the family business, to live life fully, to be considerate of others, and to strive for excellence. All generously shared their variety of interests, which ranged from hiking, fishing, climbing, target shooting, sailing and water sports, to snow skiing, horseback riding: and, in the case of her brothers, a passion for flying.
Kitty was captivated by aviation and tried sky-diving before taking her first flying lesson from a unique and accomplished aerobatic pilot, a professor of geomorphology and flight instructor, David Rahm. Once licensed as a pilot, Kitty went on to obtain an instrument rating, her Commercial License, and her Glider and Flight Instructor Ratings. Inspired at the age of 14 by the motivational exhortations of Wilferd Peterson, author of The Art of Living, Kitty, in turn, became a motivation and inspiration to all who came into contact with her. Having visited Alaska at age 19, hiking and exploring with a friend, Kitty could scarcely wait to return and, by age 22 with her pilot license in hand, she revisited Alaska, where she excelled.
Kitty flew as a Bush Pilot and as a Glacier Pilot, mastering a variety of aircraft including heavy load transport with tundra tires on off-airport remote sites; seaplane and float operations, landings and takeoffs on the ice and snow of high altitude glaciers; and flying with exterior loads as well as exterior mounted cameras for aerial filming and action photography. Kitty s evacuation flights included, among others, a newborn baby and his mother, survivors of two separate aircraft crashes, many mountain climbers from a world-wide number of countries, countless hunters and fisherman,and even sled dogs.
Kitty’s more unique projects included: Aerial Photography of Mt. McKinley, Denali, and the Alaska Range with Wili P. Burkhardt, Switzerland; The Bush Pilot Film with German filmmaker, Martin Schliessler for German television; Aerial flying in Little Switzerland for Mt. McKinley National Park film by filmmaker, Robert Fulton; A Documentary about Alaskan Bush/Glacier Flying with Sir Edmund Hillary that included Kitty as Seaplane Flight Instructor for John Denver, already a licensed jet pilot; She flew as a contract pilot for Talkeetna Air Taxi, Hudson Air Service, Doug Geeting Aviation, and for Jim Okonek, K2; Kitty is often named as the inspiration for the role of Maggie O’Connell played so well by actress Janine Turner in the made-for-television series Northern Exposure. Kitty had much to learn and to experience; to quote Holly Sheldon of Sheldon Air Service, one of the first chicks to become an accomplished glacier pilot.
The Alaska Air Carriers Association & The Alaska Aviation Community honored Kitty Banner and Kimball Forrest as an Aviation Legend. Kitty Banner and Kimball Forrest were the next generation of pilots by creating K2 Aviation.
Transcript:
Liz Booker (00:00)
Hello and welcome. I’m Liz Booker, Literary Aviatrix, and I’m excited to talk with the co-author and subject of the September, 2024 Aviatrix Book Club discussion book, Wings of Her Dreams: Alaska Bush and Glacier Pilot Kitty Banner.
Kitty Banner Seemann, welcome.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (00:18)
Thank you, Liz. I am so excited to be talking to you and I’m here in Whitefish, Montana right now.
Liz Booker (00:27)
My gosh, I can’t believe it. And I’m glad you told us where you are because you do seem to get around and I can’t wait to hear about that. Good for you. I am so excited to talk to you about this story that you published and about what you’re doing now. Can you start us off with a synopsis of the book?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (00:43)
Well, the book came about from Ann Cooper, who is the writer of the book. I have a lot of journal entries. I always kept a journal. But Ann, as you know, has written many books that are just really wonderful on women, aviatrix. And she was very interested in writing about a bush pilot, glacier pilot in Alaska. And I said, well, I would be interested as well, but I’d like it to be a mentoring book as opposed to, you know, this whole life story.
But of course, that is a big part of it. So we had met many times, oftentimes in Oshkosh, at the EAA Air Venture and in Ohio to meet with her. She’s come to Colorado when I was in Colorado. She’s gone to Alaska. She’s interviewed a lot of my friends and she’s had a great time doing it.
She has now passed on, we’re very sorry to lose Ann. She was full of life and spirit and had a wonderful, wonderful sense of humor. Really a delightful person. So in writing the book, it was how girl from Chicago gets interested flying which direction she’s going to go and flying in Alaska and some of the exciting adventures and the obstacles but through it all persisting and really having a passion for single engine flying. And so she incorporated a lot of my friends from Alaska, which was great. So there’s a lot of, there are a couple of different readings from other pilots in the book.
The name of the book, Wings of Her Dreams actually came from Galen Rao, who was a photojournalist and incredible climber, mountaineer. And he wrote an article on me in the Alaska magazine, Airfest magazine. And Wings…
are like dreams is kind of what he wrote about. And in my journal, I have giving wings to your dreams means you motivate yourself to turn the dreams into a reality. And that’s what I worked very hard to do from a young girl growing up with the passion flying with my older brother. I definitely had a passion that someday
I wanted to jump and even better fly the airplane. dreams are the stars in the sky. Actually, Ann Cooper wrote a book, Stars of the Sky Legends All, and I think you know that well. It’s about guiding our path and the courage to become, to follow your dream. And wings, beneath our wings are what help us through
Liz Booker (03:33)
That’s right. It’s beautiful. Yeah.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (03:45)
just being persistent in following that passion. it’s really a compass. Dreams are the compass for finding this exhilarating life and passion through aviation. And so that was a big part of the title of the book. And that’s something I truly believed in. I’m a big dreamer and I have just real adventurous thoughts staying curious has always been part of what’s kept me going and meeting other people I mean so many of my adventures I’ve got to say have been through mentors and other adventures because i was a bush pilot and glacier pilot you really live vicariously through their climbs and then there was often a celebration at the end whether they summited or not on Mount McKinley now called Denali.
Liz Booker (04:45)
Well, I have so many things to say. So first of all, I read this book with a huge amount of respect for the kind of flying that you were doing, a lot of admiration and a fair amount of envy for the lifestyle that you got to live up there and the really interesting people that you talk about. And the book reads to me, I…
haven’t read it recently, but I went through a period of my life where I was a huge fan of Outside Magazine. And so this feels like a really long Outside Magazine article. And I know, I think I saw mentioned that you had an article written about you and Outside, but that I was too young to have read it at the time. And I would love to go back and see it. But that’s kind of how this book read to me. it brought me sort of into the circle of this really, it feels like a very, down to earth, yet elite circle of pioneers and wanderers and the climbing culture and everything. think anybody who is into climbing would love to read this book about these clearly are huge rock stars in the world of climbing.
And then the folks that you learn to fly from, we’re just an amazing and interesting, fascinating cast of characters that you bring us into this world through this book, so thank you so much for sharing it. And can you say a little bit more about, so Anne wanted to write this book, that’s cool, and you mentioned that you wanted it to be sort of a mentoring book, so can you just say a little bit more about what your motivation to participate in it was and what you hope it achieves?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (06:09)
Yes, and she did.
Well, you know, from a mentoring point of view, it definitely was a challenge. I mean, the flying that I went through. I really took a different direction because just to back up, when I think it was 1977, when the Navy was accepting seven female pilots, I had hoped to be one of them. So I went to Glenview Naval Air Station, had my first introduction, was invited back.
but I had broken my back in a parasail accident and laid up pretty much the year before and in a back brace. So I knew I couldn’t pass a physical and there was no continuing on, but I had already had the passion for going to Alaska. I had wanted to go up there to school.
I was accepted. If Fairbanks didn’t go, ended up going to Ireland to study the book of Kells in Dublin. And everywhere I went the next day, something was bombed. And I called and said, I’m going to continue transferring from the school I was at, Regis College in Denver, to Western Washington State College. A very dear friend mine told me about it. And that was the threshold to Alaska.
Being from Chicago and continuing north, it was all calculated risks. I got a job, first of all, at the Boulder Airport, and I was the little gas girl there. After college, where I was the little gas girl in Bellingham, Washington, where I went to school at Western Washington. So on my resume to date, it says Chief Fuel Dispersal Technician, Bellingham International.
So when I was in Gascow, and I met just wonderfully interesting people that were flying up to Alaska, coming down from Alaska, Richard Bach came through, and his buddy in the biplanes and Ernie Gann, Ernest Gann lived out on Fire Island, he’d borrow my my little truck I had to go do his errands while I was fueling his airplane. So I met incredible people along with David Rahm, who was a geomorphologist at Huxley College at Western Washington State College, who then became my instructor. But.
Anne and I, Anne was very intrigued, Anne Cooper was very intrigued in the process. And that’s where she started writing the book. How does this girl get from there to Alaska and start flying the bush and the glaciers?
So that’s kind of how Anne was intrigued. As well, Sharon Reines did the picture behind me, a watercolor. And it’s several of her watercolors are in the book, Stars of the Sky. She’s wonderful. I’ve met her. And then I was able to buy this when we were at the museum. I was doing a presentation at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.
So, Anne kind of wanted to live vicariously through this process. And that’s kind of how we started. And I said, well, the mentoring part is who I am. And it’s what I like to continue to do. I’m sponsoring a couple of girls in Mexico that want to get their license and they come from poor communities, we’re trying to get scholarships for them and but they have a passion and there aren’t many Mexican women flying. South American yes, but Mexico no.
So I split half my time now between Montana and Mexico and with season, I mean in Alaska quite a bit as well in the summers.
Liz Booker (10:33)
So when you say mentoring, you’re hoping to inspire and guide young women specifically or people to Alaska and bush flying specifically?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (10:40)
I think all of it really, but I definitely have a passion for young women to continue. Just two days ago, I did a presentation at Ryan Airfield and it was the REF back country field and pilots came from all over the country as far as Texas and while they came from Boise, from Oregon, all over. So that was really fun. And it was mostly all the guys that flew in and their airplanes, but there were a few girls that I invited as well. And they were very stimulated and I could tell they had the spirit for adventure. And I will say Alaska is…
And flying the mountain, flying the glaciers is the ultimate in seeing the engine flying for me.
Liz Booker (11:36)
Yeah, no kidding. You can definitely, you get the sense of that for sure. So there’s so much that appeals to me about the flying that you describe in the book. Like it sounds really challenging, really, you and the elements and really needing to understand them in order to be successful and survive. The thing that terrifies me is the cold. So it’s like.
I find so much appealing, but the cold is just the one thing in the world that I just am not sure that I could survive and do and enjoy. So that’s definitely something that would hold me back. So help us understand. And like you said it a couple of times, how does a girl from Chicago get to Alaska? So you talked a little bit about it, but I know in the book you talk about your brothers and kind of how that was your launching point. So tell us about that.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (12:07)
Yeah.
Yes, my brother Denny, the oldest, on the GI Bill when he left, when he had done his Navy career flew all over, traded airplanes up and into jets. And he was a great inspiration. And my brother John, who was an adventurous pilot down in the Grand Canyon, dropping ice cream and letters to all the boatmen on their trips through the Colorado River, he had more of the adventure in spirit. So from the two of them, and I have another brother, Jim, who
also was a pilot but didn’t take it very far. He was kind of an early pilot.
But the inspiration came from flying with them for sure. And it was also when I went to college with Dave Brown, I was flying rivers, know, just knife edge turns. And he was in your show pilot, had a book, a young man, 30 vintage lift off trainer. He also had a pit special and a system 180. So it was really fun learning from him. He later died flying for King Hussein in an air show. was flying the Bulldog and it didn’t pull out like the other airplanes and he’d become a really good friend of King Hussein and Jordan.
So much of the passion and flying across the country with him in the Booker was amazing, open cockpit and we would trade notes back and forth and then all of a sudden you would have a pencil that would fly off somewhere and then you’d grab another one and pass it back and forth. So, and then much of it was upside down over some of the geology camps and through the bitter roots and actually so much through the area that I’m in now and that I hike in. So a lot of mentoring. When I got the job from Jim Sharp, who had bought Roberta Sheldon, Air Service, Talkeetna Air Service, after Don Sheldon, one of the most famous, if not the most famous, bush pilot in Alaska and glacier pilot. He died in 1975. So I never got to meet Don Sheldon. But Jim Sharp bought it from Roberta.
And the name was changed to Talkeetna Air Taxi. And I was asked to fly for him that summer, but I had committed to Carolyn Cullen, a World War II pilot, friend of Amelia Earhart’s. She’s at Okloft’s airport on Martha’s Vineyard. Amelia, according to Carolyn, had stopped to see her before her transatlantic flight, left one of her flight jackets. And Carolyn used to say, Kitty, you’ve got to be good.
Even better, and she knew the score. So I would fly with her in a J -3 Cub. She’d have me take my shoes off so could feel the vibration of the rudder pedals and it was quite an experience. But I was up there in August of 76. I took the job with Talkeetna Air taxi and at that time was flying the Cub on hydraulic wheel skis. I had gotten a lot of my training through Mike Fisher who was kind of the town inventor and had been a pilot for Don Sheldon. Just a wonderful guy and a brilliant mind as well.
So we did a lot of the flight training and glacier work. First glacier landing was coming into the Buckskin Glacier parking along the Moose’s Tooth, which is this high vertical rise, and then you’re packing your runway off of the glacier with snowshoes, and that can take up to a good hour or so. Land uphill, take off downhill. And then my first solo was at the Ruth Glacier, and that is one of the steeper inclines.
So when you’re landing, you’re coming in and you are on the slot where the landing area doesn’t go up and down over the firewall, it just gets bigger. And you have to time that between crevasses and a birch run on the terminal end and pretty much land 75 % power.
to go up and then all of your fuel is on your right tank because you do a left turn and you don’t want to drop a wing if you have weight in the left wing. So there were a lot of different variables and learning from Mike was great. And then right on the yoke of the airplane, it says, if in doubt, don’t.
Liz Booker (17:31)
I loved that. I loved that. Yeah.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (17:36)
Well, if in doubt, don’t. When you’re going into the glaciers or sandbars or anything else, there’s so many things to think about. There’s a side cut, there’s false lines of the glacier, double fall lines. There’s shadowing. There’s deep snow. So oftentimes the old guys used to drop spruce boughs out of the airplane and that would give them some depth perception.
We would take plastic bags, put a rock in it, see how far it drops and just to give you a little depth perception, once you land you go down and pick up the bags, because there’s very little depth perception when you’re coming into this icy white glacier and full power going uphill. So you have your weight adjusted properly, your fuel adjusted properly. If it doesn’t look good, don’t do it. Find an alternate. And that’s pretty much the same on the sandbars and everything else. And in one day’s time, flying time, you are on the sandbar and then you’re up on the glacier, then you jump into the float planet Christensen Lake and you’re flying floats. And that’s all within a day’s flight.
Liz Booker (18:59)
It’s absolutely extraordinary. Like I’m sitting here listening as a fan girl, as the reader of the book and like doing the interview, but I’m also sitting here as a pilot going, my goodness, never in my wildest dreams did that kind of flying exist like in my head. And then as you know, I went into the military and enlisted and then became a pilot. What’s that?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (19:01)
You had an incredible career. Yes, you’ve had an incredible career. Really, you have done well.
Liz Booker (19:28)
Thank you. I have done some fun and interesting things in terms of flying. Like the closest I can get to comparing my experiences are the things that I really enjoyed with the helicopter that I flew, which were, you know, doing approaches and hoisting over water or landing on the backs of ships.
And so I wanted to share that, like one of the things that I did not know existed were these short takeoff and landing competitions that they do, you know, in these bush aircraft, the big tires and those kinds of things. And I’m obsessed with it. I’m obsessed with it. I want to do it so badly. And it took me a while to understand why it was so appealing to me. And it was because those were the things that we would practice these minimum speed landings with the helicopter to simulate, you know, being one engine out and having to land on the back of a ship.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (20:01)
Amazing. Alaska Bush Wheel Tires. Yeah.
Liz Booker (20:28)
And so I was really good at that. loved doing it. I love that challenge. And so I love these competitions. I totally want to do it. We’ll figure out if I can ever make that happen in my life. But those are just like for show and practice for the real thing that you were doing. Real life and death situations, sometimes like to rescue people who there was no other way out for them.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (20:52)
Yeah, there’s a lot of rescues, but I just wanted to add you’d be perfect for landing your helicopter right on the perch up at the Sheldon’s LA. And it’s hanging right off of the rock.
Liz Booker (21:07)
Yeah. yeah. yeah.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (21:07)
Yeah, there are a lot of, you know, at that time in the 70s, 80s, they said 1 % of those that climb Denali didn’t make it. And it was hard because the weather was always so bad. And the climbers were there either in the Buckminster dome, getting their supplies ready that we had a little shelter area for them. And you got to know them and you had plenty of moose meat and you catch salmon like crazy, so they would be over for dinner.
And it was really hard when one of them in a party didn’t come back, because you’re flying German, Austrian, Japanese, French, Italians, Russians, Koreans, the Americans. And back then…the deposits were made via postal. There was no email. So I was going back and forth getting deposits because if you didn’t have a reservation to fly in, you had to wait to get somewhere. And oftentimes there’d be a standoff at the Fairview Railroad Station.
And you try and scalp as many parties as you could and get them in the back of your pickup that didn’t already have air support. And then of course there’s reconnaissance. So everybody was on a CB radio and you would go back and forth flying on your CB, finding them, making sure everything was fine, if you could locate them and if you could have good communication. And oftentimes people, climbers were injured.
Liz Booker (22:29)
I loved that. I love that story.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (22:49)
And then you’d have to coordinate a helicopter ride out or get a large airplane from Elmendorf to come in and pick up a whole party if they’re there for over a week or so. And the weather’s been down. There’s an injured person. They’re out of food, things like that.
Liz Booker (23:14)
You talk in the book or Ann talks about sort of these two kind of eras of flying in Alaska. One was just the real like early days pioneering. And then I can’t remember the word that she used to describe sort of the second phase of that. And she kind of described you coming in at the tail end of the pioneering era and in this new phase. Can you talk about those a little bit?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (23:35)
That’s what I told Ann that I was, I felt like I was the new generation of the old Bush pilots. And it was very fortunate because they were still there and I learned so much from them. Doug Geding who later, he flew for Hudson Air Service. He came in 1976 from California and he and I would talk about this. I mean, it was pretty amazing because we were kind of the newcomers, the new generation.
Liz Booker (23:49)
I see.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (24:08)
And they love to share their stories. They love to share their expertise. And you’re flying their airplanes. And there was so much to learn. We were very fortunate in that respect.
Liz Booker (24:26)
And then so that ushers in this new era of you and people of your time period. What I’m really curious about was, first of all, how many years did you fly Alaska? Because I see it. Go ahead.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (24:38)
It was fun.
Yeah, it was a little over 10 years, but I would have to leave often in the winter. I had to money in my back pocket to come back in case we lost an engine early spring. So I had to keep working. Whereas, you know, at that time there were three air taxis that couldn’t support enough traffic in the winter. So, Clif Hudson always did most of the winter flying. But I would be there from, say, March until November when it started getting cold, hunting season was over, freeze up, and then I would either continue back to Colorado where I had a job or to Chicago and then come back early spring. 70s, 80s,
Liz Booker (25:26)
And this was in the 80s, Mostly late 70s or 80s. And so I’m curious to know, do you have a sense of how the aviation culture has evolved or changed, or would you find that it’s pretty much the same?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (25:37)
It’s amazing. No, not at all. It’s cool. I mean, it just gets better and better because when I had gone up, there were a lot of there was a lot of drinking going on with the older crew that had lived there at the Fairview bar. And I would go in with my I remember my mother sending pound cakes for my birthday and I’d go give it to some of the old timers and they’d be in the Fairview bar.
So the camaraderie was really interesting. until they started some of the cross -country skiing, actually until the pipeline started, and then a lot of attorneys and young families moved to Anchorage. And then all of a restaurants started happening, nice restaurants in Anchorage there would then be trips up to Talkeetna and 10K cross -country trips, things like that. So it got progressively more and more fun younger and younger.
You know, some of the old trappers and miners, they were dying off. And so a new chapter was beginning. And it’s exciting. You go to Talkeetna today and there are now sidewalk cafes and there’s prayer flags. A lot of young people. They started the radio, local radio station, which is wonderful. That hadn’t happened before. Communication was pretty limited to Dorothy’s general store. She had the tallest antenna and she would relay communication oftentimes to me for pickups because there was the Bush line and that was on the radio and that’s how people communicated their needs and information.
Liz Booker (27:40)
And so you think it still has sort of that small community feel that it did before? And you, you hear a lot of people who lament, you know, the modernization of what was once a quaint community. You seem to be energized by it and excited by it.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (27:52)
Well, I’m excited about it because I still go up in the early spring and I go up in the late fall. In the summer, it explodes with, there’s a lot of cruise line traffic, and there’s a beautiful hotel that they built, just very close to Talkeetna. and they bus people into Talkeetna to go shopping and it’s great for the community, for the shop owners and all, but it definitely is a lot of traffic coming through and it’s not the Mountaineers anymore. Before it was the base camp for Denali, Mount McKinley expeditions. So it would swell with this international traffic. And now it’s now in the heat of the summer, it’s a lot of visitors that drive through to Telkitna, take the classic Alaska train to Telkitna.
or they’re part of the cruise ship group that are bussed into Talkeetna. So in that respect, yes, it has definitely changed. But I try and hit it off season.
Liz Booker (29:04)
Yeah. So if somebody read your book or heard your story and was like, want to go throw my hat in the ring in Alaska and go fly up there. You were in a very unique situation. You knew people who knew people who were there, and that’s what got you there. How would a person get into flying in Alaska and into that community these days?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (29:27)
Well, it’s more challenging now than when I had started. And the FAA has cracked down quite a bit on many of the things. When we flew, it was a Cessna 185 in a super cup. And you would take the door off, you’d load it with all the gear. And I joke saying, well, you could take three Germans in gear or five Japanese. Because they were just all crammed in there.
Liz Booker (29:32)
Mmm.
Right.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (29:54)
and getting a spot to take their photographs en route to the glacier. At that time, there was only one seat in the airplane. That was a pilot seat. Everybody was sitting on their pack, their backpack with a seatbelt. But now that’s different with the FAA. Everybody has a seat. So that now has gone to larger aircrafts and now they’re flying turbinators and beavers.
So that’s changed. That also changes the glacier tracks for 185s to go in because you’ve got bigger skis and it freezes up and it gets pretty sporty landing in some of those tracks.
So that has changed. The insurance has changed for people flying in Alaska. When I started, I didn’t get my commercial till I was in Alaska and I was restricted to 50 miles, which was perfect from Talkeetna. So they would stuff.
totally stuff the Super Cub with gear and then me get in it and say, well, just, you know, y ‘all just see how it feels on takeoff and if it’s not good, shut it down. So that has changed, that’s different.
So in a pilot going up, I think you need to have the hours. You have to have Alaskan hours and you have to communicate with out of Telkitna, K2 aviation run by Suzanne Rust, Telkitna Air Taxi run by Paul Roderick. And those are a couple of really great both all flying the glaciers, flying sightseers, flying hunting season and then Telkitna
Keaton Air, and I worked for all of them. When I first went up, I worked for Talkeaton Air Taxi. I flew for Hudson Air Service. I started K2A Aviation with my partner Kimball. So was Kitty and Kimball K2A Aviation. had a large European client base. And then, and that was…
with deregulation Doug Geding, because we had bought one of the old air taxis unlimited throughout the state of Alaska. So when Doug started with the deregulation, I also flew for Doug Geding as well. And then I’ve done special projects. I did a film project. was asked by, it was the Aspen Film Company.
who asked me to teach John Denver to fly flow planes. I’m an and he is an avid pilot, of course was an avid pilot.
wanted to fly floats, loves Alaska. So he came up and I took him to a German lodge. We had a great time. And we were in a cub, no starter. So I’d have to prop from behind on the pontoon in my waiters on the lake with him with the controls. And I think it was day three. We were up there about six days being filmed and it was day three. He said, is this something I’d have to do? I’d have to prop the airplane. said, yes. And I never asked him to do that.
And he did successfully. He was great. So there have been a lot of projects that it’s been really fun working on. So I think if somebody’s interested, they need to spend time in Alaska. They need to work for somebody. They need to build Alaskan airtime as it is now.
Liz Booker (33:30)
Yeah.
Okay, that’s good advice. Thinking about the kinds of flying that you were doing because, you know, for somebody who… I flew with former army pilots who were completely comfortable around terrain and I would get them over the water and they were terrified. And then they would fly me into the mountains and I’d be like, okay, we’re a little close. You know, you do get comfortable and confident in the environment that you fly in. So reading about the flying that you’re doing there, everything sounds scary and dangerous to me.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (33:57)
Yeah.
Well, it’s all calculated risks, that’s for sure.
Liz Booker (34:15)
Exactly, exactly right. But I’m curious to know as a pilot, what was the one thing or what were the conditions that terrified you the most? Like that you knew you were going to fly and you might encounter this thing. What was the one thing that just scared you?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (34:33)
Well, I think that the biggest thing is having a good mechanic and maintenance. So, but I did, I was crossing and I had a radio operator and it wasn’t Francis Randall, who is, was this spectacular woman. she was a violinist from Fairbanks and she was on the glacier every summer and quite well known. And she loved to play her violin and nip a little bit.
Liz Booker (34:40)
Aha! Wow.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (35:00)
And I used to fly her blueberries and all sorts of things along with doing her laundry and flying that up. And one day she said, Kitty, I’m so tired of white. Everything’s white. And I said, Yeah, you’ve been up here a long time, Francis. She goes, Yes, I’m really tired of white. So we went down, we cut a whole bunch of branches and flew them up in them.
middle of the night, it’s 24 hour daylight, and made park service rules. And so when she woke up out of her tent the next day, she was covered in this forest with green branches and all. But she was a conduit on the glacier with a radio back to Talpitna giving us the different heights of if we can sneak in either up the Turmoil Marine of the Taheltna Glacier or to get through One Shot Pass, which is a V -notch.
and it spills you right over into the terminal marine area, which is all crevassed. And then you work your way up to the Southeast Fork, which is the base camp for Denali Expeditions. So I had another radio operator before Francis could get there. And as soon as I went through One Shot Pass, there was definitely a change in temperature and moisture.
And I’m in a 300 horsepower fuel injected Cessna 185. And it started running so rough. So you go through procedures, you don’t want to change too much, but you have to limp your way to the glacier to land because there’s nowhere to land below. And when I landed safely and got Cynthia out and all of the gear, radio gear, I did a run up and I ran it up for quite a while.
thinking could there be icing? Could there be, you know, what’s going on? It’s fuel injected. And checking mags. And I came out empty. There were a group to come out. But I came out empty to have a check and went over to the 76 gas station. Usually we pumped out of a 55 gallon drum with two filters and you’re pumping and pumping. But there was also Gene Jenny at the 76 station who had her truck.
that could get to you. And we checked for water in the fuel, no water in the tank, no water in the airplane cells. And it was written up that you can get induction icing in an induction, know, in Cessna 185, which was very interesting. And Mike Fisher wrote that report for the FAA.
So that was one thing. And then the other thing is just the maintenance on the aircraft. I had five people on board. There were six of us. And we were in the 185. We went to the Ruth Glacier. And you come up through the Ruth Gorge, which is so gorgeous. And you get to the Sheldon Ampli Theater. And then you make a turn. And you land at a very, one of the steepest glaciers, which is the Ruth Glacier. And the mountain house, the mountain hut is right up above.
Liz Booker (37:50)
wow.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (38:16)
and we had a beautiful landing. Everybody gets out of the airplane and they’re throwing snowballs and it’s time to get in. You readjust the weight of people. You give them different seats. And as we were taking off, I was just about rotation and there was just this huge bang and it caught everybody’s attention. And so I recycled the hydraulic wheel skis.
and one came down and I had a visual check from the right seat passenger. Mine came down visual check. I had skis. Do you go back and land on the glacier or go back to Talkeetna? And we were to go fly around the ice field. There’s a gorgeous ice field that comes down. Everybody’s on intercom. And I said we were going back direct Talkeetna. So I kept the skis down until you’re out of the glacial area retracted the skis and did a on the way through the gorge it was just a shuddering and the rudder pedals were shuddering and you could just feel it through the airplane.
So I got a straight -in approach landed on both mains because you don’t want to hurt the skis for one thing with all that P -Tex and kept the tail up and actually kept a little power to make a right turn onto the taxiway, stopped, the tail dropped.
What had happened was the whole tail wheel stinger assembly had sheared off the airplane and was hanging by the rudder pedals. And I had called in the mechanic was there, Harold the wrench, we used to call him, came out and he said, this is the old, this is the Porter rig. And I said, what do mean the Porter rig? What’s a Porter rig? He said, no, that belonged to a fellow named Mike Porter.
And it couldn’t pass inspection because it had all these hairline fractures in the stinger. And so it was put in a hanger. Well, the airplane I had been flying, which belonged to another air taxi operator, that couldn’t pass either because you’re flying mostly off the village airstrip, which is very bumpy right off the river and the Fairview bars right at the end.
So they switched the old Stinger assembly, tailwheel assembly to the airplane, not knowing that that was in worse shape. And I had the flight with these people on board. So everything worked out fine. But I would say maintenance is one of the huge things. And of course, the weather. Weather is another important factor, as well as the reconnaissance. I feel when you’re doing reconnaissance on your climbers, when they’re up high,
You’re flying in some narrow areas and there’s a lot of reverberation in some of the canyons and you don’t want to set off an avalanche for the climbers below. So there’s a lot to think about while you’re still, you know, still flying and giving sightseeing flights and everything else. And it’s oftentimes on the sightseeing flights you’re doing a lot of the reconnaissance.
Liz Booker (41:24)
Wow. Incredible.
So you mentioned how some of these fun experiences, there’s this laundry list of really great projects that you got to be a part of, flying camera crews and those kinds of things, this opportunity to teach John Denver. I’d love to hear like, what’s the highlight of your experiences in Alaska? And then were there any low points?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (41:46)
Okay.
Well, I can start with the low points and that is it rained a lot. And you have a lot of people always knocking on your door and they’re so anxious to go. So you turn that into a bright side and say, let’s all get together for dinner. Let’s cook up some moose meat. Hey, I need a picnic table built. Here’s a bunch of logs, go to it. You give them projects. Yeah, right.
Liz Booker (42:30)
Give them work.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (42:30)
And they’re eager, they have a lot of energy and they’re all excited. And so some of the low points are just long, drawn out days that you know all of this traffic is building up, all this excitement and adrenaline is building up and you can’t do anything about it. So you’re waking up early, you’re going to the up the hill where you have a visual to see, you know, kind of
guesstimate if you can get up through the turmoil moraine of the glacier to sneak in to base camp. So those are, and sometimes it gets lonely, I will say that. It’s a lot of journal writing. have years of journal writing. So between that and a lot of reading, but there was always something to do. There was always something fun.
and in Talkeetna. Talkeetna loves to celebrate every occasion. know, Fourth of July, the Moose Drop Festival, the Fairview Bar would get a lot of good music that would come through.
And just wonderful people to talk to plus just the history of being there with the old timers I would sit on the bench at the B &K where you got all your canned food at that time and Talk to them about experiences which were incredible. So you could always turn it around There was always a bright side to it and I have a very dear friend Suzanne Who is Mike Fisher’s partner and she had a spectacular garden and so we would
make wraps, you know, it’s kind of like a bun with an egg and wrap it in these huge, lettuce leaves because everything with the 24 -hour daylight in the glacial till being very fertile, gardens are phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal as many have seen at the State Fair.
So there was always some downtime to visit with a lot of the villagers. And of course, Roberta Sheldon had become one of my best friends. And I was halfway between Roberta Sheldon’s age and her kids. So I was friends with them and with Roberta, teaching Katie how to drive the trucks, know, stick truck and…
Liz Booker (44:50)
Mm. Mm -hmm.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (44:54)
delivering pies out to, you know, kids out, Don Lee’s family that live out in the bush that didn’t always have a whole lot to eat and.
Liz Booker (44:56)
That’s perfect.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (45:05)
So I can’t say there was a whole lot of downside, sad times. Of course, losing some of the old timers was probably one of them. But you celebrate those that are alive. Rocky turned 90 and we took him to dinner and I made a cake and I took Kit Kats and I cut some of the chocolate off and made a log cabin on this huge sheep cake. And we’d celebrate. You tell one person and that goes through the whole village, which was about 200 people at that time that again would swell with international traffic with the climbers.
And then a lot of the people lived up and down the track. So they would come in to tell Keetna. It was funny because the Fairview Bar had at the front door, and this was for mostly a lot of the people that lived up the track trying to get away from everything and maybe they’re writing books. They were like elves in the forest, I think. They had some brilliant music talent or writing talent, but they would come into Talkeetna and on the front door of the bar would say, hippies use side door. And then you go to the side door and it says closed. So that was all taken with a sense of humor.
But the bright side really was living through everybody’s adventure, whether it was the climbers on the mountain that would come back and they want you to have a drink with them at the Fairview bar. So I wouldn’t, you you’ve got to fly early in the day, you’re flying late at night and.
Liz Booker (46:30)
That’s cute.
Mm
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (46:49)
So I would never get a beer or wine or anything that would take too long to drink. I would just get a shot of Jack Daniel’s. And then when everybody goes, Prost, cheers, I would throw it right over my shoulder. And so there was a whole wall that was in the Fairview Bar that is shellacked with Jack Daniel’s shots. But you were there to celebrate with them. then.
Liz Booker (47:15)
That’s awesome.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (47:15)
And then Fisherman and Hunting Season, which was a whole different clientele. And that was always interesting because you’re down at the float plane, you’re…
know, cleaning the window, fueling the airplane, pumping the floats, leaky rivets, and then you load the hunters and a lot of them were old timers from Anchorage and they’re like, where is the pilot? And you taxi out and they’re apprehensive, but you do a great job for them. You’re celebrating with them again at the Fairview bar with a shot over your shoulder.
Liz Booker (47:54)
Yeah, you mentioned that, just kind of glossed over the apprehension. You were the first woman doing all of this stuff up there.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (48:02)
I don’t know if I was the first woman doing it. I was probably the first doing an air, having an air taxi in Talkeetna, flying the mountain. But I’m happy to say I’m not, if I was the first or second or whatever, I’m not the last. There is a great community of women flying in Talkeetna today. And I love it from mechanics to heli flying to fix wind.
Liz Booker (48:12)
Mm -hmm.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (48:32)
And it’s really encouraging. It’s really wonderful.
Liz Booker (48:38)
Well, so, but you must have come upon, you know, people, knew there were a couple of instances where you mentioned in the book, but where people were hesitant to fly with you. How did you deal with that?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (48:47)
Well, again, it would go back to hunting season and I was brought in to fly, to pick up Cliff Hudson’s people. And I remember he’d say, it’s that away. And he’d give me a heading to go out to a lake. Well, there are a lot of lakes. I remember landing on one and I see a cabin, I yell out to the cabin and this old timer comes out and I’m asking him, is this, know, bullshit in a lake? No, this is another.
Chitina Lake and it’s that way. So you fly that away. And I remember coming in and it was on a Sunday and there had to be 30 guys all up on this bank and they’ve been drinking. They had been hunting. They had their moose. And so they’re they’re kind of lively and bloody and ready to get off the mountain or get off the get off the lake back to work.
So I shut down and I’m on the float and as I’m kind of drifting in I said, hey I heard there’s two and a moose for Cliff Hudson. Will they all stand up? Right? So I find the two and one guy reached out, he was really funny, this big burly guy who had been in Talkeetna a couple days before and saw this traveling band theatrical group come through and Roberta had me, it was my birthday September 1st, and she had me go up on stage and I’m to kiss the guy who looks like a frog, he turns into a prince.
Anyway, this hunter, big burly hunter had been there before he went in to the lake. And he stood up and said, hey lady, you the lady that kissed the frog? And of course everybody laughs and I go in and get the two in a moose and I’m loading the moose because you have to put in the whole CG of the flow plane. And I said, and what I had learned was you fly out the moose and one guy, you leave the other guy with most of the gear, the rifle, everything else, because they won’t pay to come back to get the rest of the moose.
So that was a little bit of a heated discussion. And you can’t argue with them when they’ve been drinking. So load the airplane, load the guys. I asked to make sure their rifles, you know, everything was checked. It wasn’t. We checked it, put the rifles in. We taxied out. They’re on tach time. And I said, now look down, look at the floats. And they did.
Liz Booker (51:23)
Hmm.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (51:31)
And they said, we can’t see them. And I said, now we have to taxi all the way back, unload a guy and the rifles and all the gear and take one guy out with the moose to help me carry it off of the airplane to a truck. And that’s how I dealt with it.
Liz Booker (51:52)
Yeah, I thought you did a great job there. You’re like, okay, you don’t believe me? Let’s, let’s go try it.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (51:54)
Right. I know it was kind of ad -lib as you go, but that was way I found that it would get their attention. And of course that’s added time on the tax that they have to pay for.
Liz Booker (52:09)
Yeah, that’s right. So you mentioned this company K2 that you started up there and then you stopped going to Alaska and had this business with your husband that involves skiing. Talk a little bit about that business.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (52:24)
Well, I had again come down from Alaska to, this was towards the latter part, to correspond with Europeans to get their deposits and all. So I was pretty busy doing that. My brother said, let’s meet in Colorado, let’s go skiing. So my brother John came out and was only there a few days and then left with his friend to watch the spawning of the baby whales on the Baja.
So I stayed to homes at a place and I met somebody who said, would you like to go skiing the next day? I’d met him at a race at Winter Park, Colorado on my way up to the Vail area. And I said, sure. So that morning he didn’t show up and I’m walking down with my skis to go skiing and I see the van driving around.
and he stops, I jumped in the van, and the person that he worked for was a fellow by the name of Bob Seemann who met us later that day skiing. And we rode the chair together, which was really interesting, towards the end of the ski day, and we both owned property one mile apart in Alaska.
And I didn’t know I had been featured in Outside Magazine because he was a subscriber and it wasn’t on the stands and wasn’t thinking about it. so he had read the whole article. so it was kind of funny that we had property in Alaska, in Malaparte. He had homesteaded with his dad and his brother -in -law, who was a five -time Olympian biathlete.
Three, I believe, as a contender and two, John Morton, brilliant writer. He’s got, I think, at least four books about the Olympics and being a biathlete.
Anyway, they went in Homestead at four or five acre plots on KD Lake. And I used to fly in and out of KD Lake that whole summer. Somebody was building a cabin back in the woods. So we got to know each other. I had to be back in Alaska. I came back the next year and had some time to ski. And he was at the ski area and we started talking and I said, we started
And I had to be back in Alaska and I invited him to come up to Alaska and get his pilot’s license. He had started off early. His dad had flown 55 missions in World War II. His uncle 30 some missions in a B -17. His dad was in the B -25.
Liz Booker (55:13)
Mmm.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (55:17)
And so he had started learning, but had a really bad experience. High winds that came, nor ‘easter winds that shut down his flying. He had a scary experience. So it was maybe even a little harder when he came to Alaska, the confidence to fly. So Mike Fisher would work with him during the day. I would fly with him at night.
Liz Booker (55:29)
Hmm.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (55:38)
And of course, 24 -hour daylight, it’s like an orange, Julius sky with Denali. was all these different colors of orange, red, and yellow all mixed in. Just beautiful. So we had some really highlight trips, and he was able to get his license in Alaska. And so.
He then was working in the ski industry in Colorado. So when I went down to Colorado for my job, we started working together in the ski industry, eventually married, and we built our cabin in Alaska. That’s when I went back and…
had a job actually flying fish and game, which was really interesting. So Bob is cutting logs on what later became our cabin on K .D. Lake what was amazing with flying fish and games, we would put the radio antenna off the strut, take off on floats, and we would fly around tracking all the salmon that were picked up by the Yukon fish wheel, which was this big wooden fish wheel bucket that would come, it was in the river and it would just scoop up the salmon. Then they’d put a transceiver, kind of the butt end of a cigar down the salmon let them go and the whole idea was to see how far the salmon would go up for spawning because at the very end was Devil’s Canyon unrated whitewater. Can they get through this unrated whitewater which was proposed to be a hydroelectric dam site that Roberta and others were firmly against.
So anyway, we would fly and we tracked the salmon and all of a sudden the salmon would be going through this little stream way up in the hills. And we realized it was eaten by a bear who we were now tracking a bear. Anyway, the feasibility study just to go into that was three phase. And one was obviously the salmon.
Liz Booker (57:29)
Mm -hmm.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (57:52)
And another one was recreation. Can kayakers successfully run through Devil’s Canyon? So ABC had been up there the year before one of the kayakers was killed. And so it could have been shut down right there. And I had that year been flying up to High Lake and there were hydrologists up there.
There was so much rainfall they said, please tell the kayakers that are here now to do Devil’s Canyon that it’s very risky and it’s very probable they won’t make it. So I flew back to Talkeetna, told John Watson and the fellow crew they have perception kayaks.
what the hydrologist had said. And I ended up flying them and they successfully kayak Devil’s Canyon. And then Jim Ockinick flew them landed on the river up above Devil’s Canyon. they successfully Rob Lesser, John Lawson and John Markle successfully kayak through Devil’s Canyon and made it down into Talkeetna. So came in and 180 and did it all a roll to celebrate saw them come right in.
Talkeetna means where the rivers meet the Talkeetna, Chulitna and the Susitna River. They form right at Talkeetna and then flow down to the Big Sioux Cook Inlet. So it was very exciting. Yeah.
Liz Booker (59:27)
And so you had this business up there and then you moved to Colorado and is that where you spent most of the time sometimes?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (59:34)
Most of the time I was still going back and forth to Alaska. I’ve got to say when we started K2Aviation with Kimball Forrest, Kathy Sullivan was Ray Genet’s German Swiss climber on Denali. And so I had dinner with him before he left to climb Mount Everest. And Kathy Sullivan, his partner is a dear friend of mine, who later ran Genet Expeditions. So Ray went up and he had gotten dysentery. He gone up Denali five times. He just races up, catches his crew, summits, comes down, then went to Nepal, got dysentery.
He was in a hospital, I believe, for a while in Kathmandu. And then he was on Everest, saddled with the weakest member of the German team, which was the expedition leader’s wife. But he was also used, because he was so strong, to ferry oxygen tanks back and forth from camp to camp. Well, they summited and bivouacked at the just off the summit of Denali. She made it and and he left he he died there. Raygenet died.
She made it down maybe another thousand feet. She died and then the Sherpa who I believe got snow blindness told this story, but Kathy was there had done the hike in Six months pregnant with their second child and with a one -year -old on her back
So Michael Covington Fantasy Ice Climbing School was there. They got a helicopter for her to come back to Anchorage and have her second child. So, Tarris and Adrienne. And they’re very dear friends of mine.
Liz Booker (1:01:20)
Yeah, crazy.
Yeah, that’s a really impactful story. Part of the book as well.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:01:37)
So I would go back and forth in the summers from Colorado then to fly special projects. And then I was flying for Doug Yeating and working on our cabin. And I flew for Jim Sharp, well, I started with Jim Sharp, but K2 was then bought by Jim Ocknick, great guy. And Brian, his son, is just a famous mountaineer on Denali. Really great family. And we used to laugh, I used to laugh with Jim because he would say in different publications that were printed that I was his chief pilot. And I go, Jim, I’m your only other pilot. Okay, I’ll take it.
Liz Booker (1:02:23)
That’s awesome. In our correspondence, you mentioned that you recently celebrated somebody’s wedding in a hangar. You have two sons, you mentioned who are pilots, tell us a little about them.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:02:34)
Yes, so I want to read this to this was sent to me and actually by John Morton and he said, if I can find it here, he said, I recall hearing that a parent is to give your kids wings, teach them to fly and then let them soar. He said, it has been said that you have certainly done that very effectively with your boys, Mick and Corey. And that was really cute because I think they did get the passion for flying. They had a pretty famous grandfather from World War II. Bob’s a pilot. I, the flying I’ve done in Alaska.
And so Mick and Corey both went to Montana State and Bozeman for school. And the School of Great Falls Aviation School had just moved a center curriculum to Montana State out of Gallatin Field. So when I went up there with Mick for parents weekend, not knowing what he wanted to major in, we found out about this and a light lifted. He said, I can double major. This would be great environmental studies and aviation. And it’s actually what Cory then two years later did also. So I was standing at Gallatin Field, happened to fly in on the day that Mick was doing his solo, which I didn’t know.
So I’m standing at the base of the control tower and everything is being broadcasted live, you know, from a speaker from the control tower. So I see him take off and instead of landing his third landing, did a couple more rounds and then I’m watching all the traffic coming in, the commercial traffic, the bike lanes, the helicopters, and anyway, he landed safely, which was great. He went on to after, well, he got his flight instructor ticket and he was the tail wheel instructor while he was going to college. And then he got a job with Horizon Air and then the parent company, Alaskair.
And now for several years, he’s been with FedEx. So he’s been in Hong Kong with his wife, Alyssa, who’s from Whitefish. They met at college. And just recently, they were in Germany the last couple of years. And they’ve got a little three -year -old. And I’m sure his whole room is airplanes. So I think he’s going to be a budding pilot at some point. And then our son Cory, who is a back country pilot as well as Mac, flew for Red Arrow out of Kalispell City and flying rafters and incredible scenics around Glacier National Park. He was hired by Wheels Up and now he’s with NetJets and still doing incredible back country flying. We just came from an aria
Brian Airfield. There was a fly -in there two days ago. did a presentation generally based from the book. So that was really fun. They flew in from all over. I had mentioned it earlier. So a lot of backcountry flying here in Montana, which reminds me so much of Alaska because you’ve got this incredible Glacier National Park with unbelievably spectacular relief.
Liz Booker (1:06:02)
That’s so great.
I bet.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:06:16)
high glaciers and airstrips all over the area, private airstrips, and everybody seems pretty nice about it landing on their private airstrip. So it’s really fun.
Liz Booker (1:06:35)
Well, that’s amazing. Well, Kitty, your sense of adventure and your prowess as a pilot are an inspiration to me and I’m sure to just thousands of other people. I’m so glad that Anne had the foresight and the interest and the passion to take the time to write the story about you and that you kept your journals so that we could get your words in there as well, because that really enhanced from my perspective, this story. And it is just a beautiful book.
I mean, it’s a really lovely publication. It’s beautiful paper, kind of almost glossy paper with lots of photographs throughout. I really love the actual book itself. So it’s a…
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:07:13)
Yes.
Yeah, I’m glad it’s here. And I just wanted to read one just fun picture because I mean, the whole flying in Alaska was fun. And yes, Ann Cooper had that excitement and she’s written books about amazing women. So when she approached me, I was…
Liz Booker (1:07:26)
please. Yeah.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:07:38)
That was really an honor for me, and especially getting to know her. But very small in the book, on one of the pages, do you remember Banana Republic? They used to send out catalogs way back, and they would have different writers or different personalities writing about the product. And it was very safari at that time. Everything was safari.
Liz Booker (1:08:03)
Yeah.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:08:03)
And the print was beautifully done on old recycled paper and drawings and things like that. So they asked me to do a review on the Amelia Earhart Expedition flight suit. So this is in the book and it says, “5am I receive a radio patch from Mount McKinley. There’s no break in the storm. Five days after summit. No food. No more fun here. Please come.
“I rub the gravel from my eyes and jump into the same garment I wore last night to the old Fairview Bar and Tell Keaton. My Banana Republic Expedition flight suit. The most versatile article of clothing in my wardrobe. I replace the pumps with glacier boots and slip a buck knife on my belt in case a bear decides on breakfast between bed and my Cessna Sky Wagon.
“The rescue goes smoothly. A quick flight to the storm riddled mountain. Easy sighting on the glacier. Painless landing below base camp. Then direct anchor city. But I wonder, was it the rescue or my banana republic flight suit that made the handsome French climber ask me to join him for his first real dinner in weeks?”
Anyway, we laughed so much about that.
Liz Booker (1:09:28)
It’s so great not only do I want to buy the suit, but I want to come fly in Alaska now.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:09:31)
Right, and they sent all these suits to me in Talkeetna, half a dozen of these suits in all these different colors. So I gave them out and we were all walking around in these, you they real baggy suits and you’d cinch it with a military belt. We were all walking around in our expedition, they would call it the Kitty Banner Expedition flight suit. that was fun. Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Booker (1:09:54)
That’s awesome. That is so great. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about that we haven’t touched on?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:09:58)
No, just well, you asked where you can get the book and it was published by Finney Publishing, El Cricin, and he sold it to Roman and Littlefield. So if there are authors out there, and I hope because I love reading all the books and I thank you so much for the book club, which is really wonderful. And I’ve a lot of book signings at different places with Anne or or not, and so I meet all these wonderful authors.
So I was researching National Book Network as an independent publisher outside of DC. So that might be interesting to some of the young or whoever writers to literally start if they’re not already established with somebody. And you can get to, you know, you can Google it through Amazon or Barnes and Noble will, you know, you can
Liz Booker (1:10:47)
Yeah. You can visit the Literary Aviatrix website and I have links to purchase the book there.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:11:01)
Well, that is the best place to get the book. It’s terrific. Yeah. That’s in your notes, something about where you can get it. So get it right from Liz.
Liz Booker (1:11:10)
Thank you.
Yeah. And you, are you on social media? Where would we find you?
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:11:16)
Well, I am on Instagram, but I don’t post very much. I’m living through my kids adventures and they’re both extremely adventurous as now their wives are. Yes, we just had a hangar party wedding a couple months ago. was incredible. Friends of Corey’s flew there 300 extras. was thinking of Patty Wedge staff who I love. She is cool.
Liz Booker (1:11:24)
Okay.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:11:44)
And these brothers have two 300s, I think they’re three 40s extras. And they did a complete air show smoke on and we’re all out on the lawn. He’s on the Whitefish airstrip, the grass airstrip, and then our hangers right there, family hangar. And because Cory has been flying remote control airplanes, he’s been since 11, the whole hangar is loaded with all these flying RCs, big and small along with our, we have an American Champion Scout and all four of us went in on a Stearman biplane. So both Mick and Corey fly the Stearman. Mick flew for americanhistory.com from Florida all the way to Vermont, giving rides at air shows and all.
And that money went towards bringing back over 100 MIAs from World War II to Arlington Burials. Pretty incredible. So they’ve got a love of, I mean, we fly over the lake and aerobatics and just, it’s a beautiful sense of flight as well in the biplane.
Liz Booker (1:13:05)
Kitty, you are just too cool and so are your people. I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to meet you and I hope this isn’t the last time. Thank you so much for your book and your story and for everything.
KITTY BANNER SEEMANN (1:13:15)
Well, absolutely, Liz. Pleasure to meet you. And we should go to Alaska together. Let’s get in on that.
Liz Booker (1:13:23)
Sounds good. Definitely. If I’m going to Alaska, I want to go with you.
