Terminal Velocity

In 1957, Jim Thurston's first flight in a pilot seat terminated with his one-eyed flight instructor making a forced landing in a Virginia farmer's beet field. Forty seven years later, his final flight as a pilot terminated smoothly in a floatplane on the glassy waters of Halibut Cove, Alaska. During the intervening years, Thurston accumulated a rich treasure trove of anecdotes and photos about Alaska aviation, wildfire firefighting, the Great Alaska 1964 Earthquake, and every-day living going back to Alaska's territorial days. He also narrates his early life as boy raised in New England, his experiences as a smokejumper, and his undertakings fighting wildfires in Idaho and Alaska. Later, he describes his professional transition from forester to pilot to aviation manager and eventually his controversial founding of the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Aircraft Services (OAS).