Exploration Pilot: The Flying Adventure

The adventure begins with a rocky start; Krogstad’s flight instructor dies in an airplane crash. That realization seems to cast a residual shadow on Krogstad’s entire flying career. Through twenty years, more than ten thousand hours of flight, and more than a million miles of flying in extraordinary airplanes—single engines to jets—on extraordinary missions, Krogstad experienced more close calls, near misses, and potential disasters—as well as some calamities—than most pilots ever hear about. Krogstad has landed and taken off in every state in the continental US, and his Alaskan adventures are among the most diverse and exciting as any pilot could experience. Every flight project was uniquely challenging and often carried with it the risks borne of unproven techniques and equipment. The technicalities of the work, the equipment, and the flying environment were complex, and Krogstad clearly defines them as they contribute to the bizarre events that defined his flying experiences and career. The gradual loss of hearing clearly loomed as the eventual loss of Krogstad’s license to fly, but the actual end of his flying career was the devastating result of a personal disaster that haunted his being long after retiring from flying.