Pilot/author produces children's book
Renowned Montana mountain pilot Dave Hoerner has come out with another book, only this time he’s going for a new audience: children.
“Peter Protector — Super Mountain Airplane” is an illustrated publication featuring a single-engine plane with eyeballs on his windshield, sort of a “Thomas the Tank Engine” in the air.
This book focuses on the story of The Magic Wolf Pack, with Peter Protector helping a wolf family find a safe place to live deep in the heart of the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Hoerner said it is the first of 10 books he plans for publication over the next couple of years, with Peter Protector finding new adventures in each one.
“I just wanted to do something for kids, do something to make them smile,” Hoerner said in an interview. “It was way harder than just writing a manuscript. You have to work with an illustrator and other layers” in the publishing chain.
Hoerner recalls exchanging illustrations and story text with his collaborators for about six months.
The inspiration for the book was the wildlife that Hoerner has flown over and watched carefully for the last 25 years. Among state and federal wildlife officials, Hoerner has been the go-to pilot for monitoring grizzly bears, wolves and most other big-game species in Northwest Montana.
Most people, he said, aren’t aware of the unusual behaviors that can be seen in animals from overhead in a circling airplane. Hoerner has a Cessna 185 that has been modified to make low-speed, tight banking turns relatively low to the ground.
“The amazing thing I’ve seen is they all have their own personalities,” he said of the wildlife he has watched. “Some grizzly bears will charge at the airplane and others will hide. They all do things different ... They aren’t just aimless animals running around without a brain.”
Besides Peter Protector, the animals in his book are his characters rather than humans.
“The next one is going to be about a grizzly bear on Mount Cleveland,” said Hoerner, adding that the next book will also feature a Peter Protector sidekick named Huey the Helicopter.
Hoerner previously published a book about his early days flying for an Alaskan gold company called “Flying Alaska Gold — Grizzlies, Gold, Gangsters,” and he wrote a technical flying manual called “Advanced Mountain Flying.”
“I wrote that one from the school of hard knocks,” Hoerner said. “You learn darn quick about when to go [mountain flying] and when not to go.”
But Hoerner’s days of being a hired mountain pilot may be limited because he recently took a job as the chief pilot and safety officer for the Montana Aeronautics Division. Because it requires him to travel to Helena every week, it will be difficult for him to continue being the on-call pilot for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Hoerner is looking forward to his new work and his new line of books. “Peter Protector” is available in Kalispell at the Book Shelf on Main Street and it is available at Amazon.com along with other online book vendors.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.