'Wild Bill’ Michel, who died in Denali plane crash, mourned
by Molly Rettig /
mrettig@newsminer.com
FAIRBANKS — The plane crash in Denali National Park and Preserve last week cost three men their lives. It also cost Alaska one of its legendary Bush pilots, miners a crucial supplier and the aviation community an icon.
Bill “Wild Bill” Michel, 61, ran All West Freight Inc. out of Delta Junction and was killed when his Fairchild C-123 crashed in Denali on Aug. 1. Also killed in the crash were John Eshleman, 52, of Wasilla and Paul Quartly, 66, of Wasilla.
“Bill’s passing has left a huge void,” said Dave Redgrave, logistics manager for Alaska Earth Sciences, a mineral exploration company in Anchorage. Redgrave has been a client and friend of Michel’s for about five years. “We relied on him for fuel and getting it done in some of the worst conditions across the state,” he said.
Michel was known in the mining and aviation communities in Alaska for being able to fly anything anywhere.
Although business partners and friends describe him as “capable” first and foremost, he’s also famous for his larger-than-life personality, pocket-pistol belt buckle, can-do spirit and attention to detail.
“When Bill was on the job, you just never had a Plan B,” Redgrave said. “He was an eminently capable human being.”
Michel’s trademark was flying heavy loads such as tractors, bulldozers, generators and fuel to remote places with short-field takeoffs and landings.
“Just about everything you would need if you were mining out in the middle of rural Alaska,” said Rob Stapleton, a pilot and photographer in Anchorage who knew Michel.
His aviation abilities were virtually unmatched, according to his customers.
“In a sky van, he was an artist. It was beyond a skill level, it was into the realm of being a true artisan in the way he handled that thing,” Redgrave said.
Though Michel specialized in large aircraft like the C-123, his hangar in Delta Junction also housed other airplanes and helicopters.
When Stapleton visited, one plane made a big impression: an experimental aircraft with a big, boxy fuselage and a radial engine in the same category as the Cessna 208 Caravan.
“Only a guy who was interested in carrying really heavy loads and moving stuff would really be interested in this stuff,” he said.
Tim La Porte, pilot and owner of Iliamna Air Taxi (225 miles southwest of Anchorage), said it will be nearly impossible to fill Michel’s shoes.
“He did stuff for the (Tazimina Hydroelectric Project) here that is totally irreplaceable. They were walking these excavators out in the middle of the winter out on cement blocks. They were doing stuff on the ragged edge on the side of a great big waterfall. (The manager) said he had them doing this work for him but he couldn’t even watch them do it.”
Though Michel did jobs other pilots wouldn’t dare, he never put business before safety, his acquaintances said.
He didn’t take reckless risks or carry more than he could handle.
“He was a very attuned and a very meticulous person,” said Fred Hurt, a miner who contracted Michel for a series of trips to Little Squaw Lake in the Arctic last summer. He delivered 18,000-pound loads with items like a front-end loader, Caterpillar and other machinery, Hurt said.
“He was very strict on his procedures,” he said. “He always did flyovers on the runway to make sure there were no bears or moose standing on the airport or crazy people running around on four-wheelers.”
Planes weren’t Michel’s only forte. He also built airstrips for customers such as Alaska Earth Sciences.
“We had some things started with nothing more than a frozen beaver pond in the Arctic down in the middle winter. He sketched out enough of a runway to get a (Cessna) 206 in it with a snowblower and enough equipment,” Redgrave said.
He was meticulous about all equipment, not just planes, Redgrave said. Michel’s high standards and precision made him hard to work with, several acquaintances said.
“You didn’t want to work with Bill. You wanted Bill to be doing your work for you,” Redgrave said. “Half the time, you had to ask yourself who was paying who here.”
Michel was an eccentric Alaska character, friends said.
“His belt buckle had a Derringer, a firing Derringer,” said Steve Borell, executive director of Alaska Miners Association.
He also was described as tremendously courteous and funny.
“No matter how hard he was working, he always had time to pause and tell a story or a quick joke, always at his expense, never picking on anybody,” said Redgrave.
Hurt compared Michel to the Energizer bunny.
“He would come over at 10 or 11 at night getting ready to start another project. I kept asking ‘Bill, when do you ever sleep?’”
When he wasn’t flying freight, he was spending time with his wife, Barbie, and flying his daughter around in his red helicopter, Hurt said.
Michel is greatly missed personally and professionally.
“People are so totally devastated, they don’t have any idea how they’re going to move their fuel, their drills and their products to these weird places,” La Porte said.
And for his passion.
“It’s difficult for me to conceive of an Alaska without Wild Bill going full-throttle, bouncing off runways,” Redgrave said. “It’s gonna be much less fun without Bill.”