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Our Members
Kirsten Brazier
A 35-year-old Bush Pilot living in Red Lake, Ontario,
I am part owner, Chief Pilot and Operations  Manager
for a company called DaxAir Inc., which I helped to create
and license. My partner, an aircraft engineer, and I operate
one Beech 18 on floats, currently seasonally, servicing the
tourist market and local native communities during the summer
months.
I began learning to fly in 1992 and completed my commercial
license in the fall of 1995, all the while working odd jobs
in aviation to gain experience: dock/office for a local float
operator, flight operations at a regional carrier, air tanker
dispatcher, ramp rat and fuel truck driver. On the side I
worked many non-aviation jobs to help pay the bills too.
My first
flying job was on a C-185 on floats in Northern Saskatchewan,
my second was as co-pilot on a Beech 1900.
Desperate
for flying employment in the off-season, I had seized the
co-jo job, but soon realized I missed bush flying and would
not be happy in this new environment.
I went back to the bush soon after, and for the last 10
years have covered a lot of Canada and
flown various Cessna 185s and 206s; DeHavilland Beavers and
Otters; Beech 18s and Brittan Norman Islanders - some on
wheels,
floats and/or skis.
Along the way I earned my ATP (fixed-wing) in Canada, my
Commercial Helicopter license and finally US ATP - multi-engine.
A few years ago, I met my partner and we discovered our
ideals and standards really clicked. Together, we formulated
a plan
to purchase the Beech 18 I had been flying. At the end of
the season, we leased a hangar and proceeded to give our
new
aircraft a lot of desperately needed TLC. We created our
new company; including AMO, charter licenses and later our
base,
from scratch and began operations in the spring of 2004.
We had an abysmal first year, operating at a complete loss
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the aircraft flew less than 20 hours! Miraculously, we managed
to survive with the help of the banks, and are showing great
improvement for the current season, although we are not rolling
in dough yet!
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Ambassador Chapter