Sheldon Air Service

Saturday July 19, 2025, my partner and I went bear viewing with Sheldon Air Service. The trip was nothing short of amazing, greatly exceeding expectations. Communication and planning was very friendly, efficient and clear. Pilot and bear viewing guide Udo was early at the agreed location and so were we. So we took off well before schedule. The flight itself was stunning, the landscapes very diverse and colorful. Udo landed effortlessly on the beach of Lake Clark NP. I have no words to describe the beauty of the the hours that followed. Let the photos do the talking. It is a memory for a liftime. I feel priviledged to have walked in the fields filled with bears that came up to a few meters close, looking at us, but doing their bear-thing not being bothered by our presence. We had 2,5 to 3 hours time on the beach with the bears. On the way back, Udo showed some more highlights along the coastline, like waterfalls, belugas and we saw a black bear chasing a brown one. Udo is also very knowledgable about the area and history and develoment. He speaks Dutch as well as English. Long story short: Sheldon Air Service comes with my heartfelt recommendation.

We had a great experience with Sheldon Air Service last week! The weather in Denali was perfect, giving us a nice ride around the mountains. Our pilot was amazing, explaining all the views and showing us where to look. We did the glacier landing, and I highly recommend adding that to the ride. We hung around the glacier for about 20 minutes soaking in the views. I would definitely come back to Sheldon Air Service again for another ride!

Sheldon Air delivered an exceptional experience! We were greated warmly on our arrival and throughly enjoy our glacier landing flight. The pilot, Tom, was very knowledgeable and friendly. The authenticity and professionalism of Sheldon Air is 5 star. This experience was one of my favorites from our trip!

We had a very unique adventure flying with Sheldon Air over Denali (Grand Adventure tour with glacier landing) after walking into their office and booking a flight the same day. Special thanks to Robert for his warm welcome, and a big thanks to Cami, who joined our flight to take pictures for the company. We hadn’t expected it, but Cami ended up capturing some truly beautiful shots of us throughout the entire experience. Having those moments captured made the whole experience even more memorable. Highly recommend this experience to anyone visiting the area!

Talkeetna has a long history of being home to some of the best pilots in Alaska and Udo's team at Sheldon Air Service absolutely carry on this fine tradition. I chartered Sheldon to get to a remote part of the Alaska Range and Udo's professionalism delivered - I felt completely safe with his judgement in what turned out to be challenging flying conditions and he got me to where I wanted to be. I'd recommend Sheldon for any adventure flying or sightseeing!

What a fabulous experience we had with Sheldon Air!! The whole team there is warm, personable, and professional. They run a great operation, and we had an unforgettable flight with Udo around Denali and landing on a glacier!! My husband is a pilot and he was impressed. I highly recommend them and was excited to hear they do bear spotting flights as well. You won't go wrong choosing the crew here for your personalized Alaskan flight!!!

It was a super cloudy day so our options were really limited, but they did their best to get us up in the air and show us some of the backcountry. Our pilot, David, did an excellent job of locating wildlife and circling back to give us a good view. He knows the area really well . No pilot in talkeetna has been flying longer than he has and his experience really showed on our trip. We may book a second trip with them if the clouds depart, we liked them that much!

Last month my husband, son and I had an AWESOME experience flying with Udo and Tanya on Sheldon Air! The views around Talkeetna & Denali were breathtaking and landing on the glacier was unforgettable. My son spent the last 10 months traveling around the US and he said this was the best day of the trip by far. Thanks Udo, Tanya & the whole Sheldon Air Service team for helping make this day an awesome family memory. I would highly recommend Sheldon Air Service. Kathy, Kevin & Brian.

What a great experience! This was a bucket list item that I didn't know I was missing. Chris at Sheldon Air Service was the perfect pilot for this grad adventure. I called early in the morning and let it be known that I wanted a flight on one of two days, time didn't matter. I was contacted a couple of hours later to let me know I could join three others on a flight at 4 pm. Yay! The ground crew (sorry didn't get names) were very helpful and supplied dark sunglasses and overshoes (the glacier landing was a bit mushy for my tennis shoes). Chris gave a great safety briefing and we were off. They don't fly if the weather is hiding all of the mountains and glaciers. We had some clouds, which I think added some mystery to the sights. The small Beaver plane had room for 5 plus the pilot (you got to let him com) but ther were only 4. I got the back seat so I could see out both sides. The plane was clean and the flight was generally smooth. The pictures just can't do justice to the amazing views and the scale of the mountains and glaciers.

Great family owned business whose owners are closely tied to the area historically. Great grandfather Sheldon's homestead was on the side of Denali...it has now become the only privately owned land on Denali. They do rescue flights and bring in climbers. Safe group who know Denali well...

On a recommendation from a friend we booked a flight to see Mt. Denali out of Telkeetna, which also happens to serve as the starting point for mountain climbers who attempt to reach the mountain summit. The price was substantially lower than the cruise / tour groups excursion prices and they showed great flexibility, while delivering on their promises and more. We had originally scheduled a Thursday afternoon flight and they suggested I check in with them on weather conditions at least a day before the flight. One reason why this was important as we had the option of landing on the glacier if there was snow on it. I updated them that we had some flexibility on the flight as we were had a cancellation on another side trip and we were heading up the day before in the afternoon. Sky was encouraging for us to come up earlier as this gave us ability to fly out on Wednesday afternoon taking advantage of clear weather (which there is only ~35% chance), unfortunately it appeared that snow was unlikely. On the positive side the weather on Thursday was degrading so we felt optimistic and our fare was additionally reduced due to elimination of the glacier landing. We drove down from Fairbanks and arrived around 4 PM and they quickly oriented us including weighing us to ensure we could all safely make the trip (They may have known we were cruising earlier in the week...). We boarded a Cessna 185 which seats 5 (Our group and the pilot giving us the most flexibility). The flight was smooth, and the nice weather gave us a very good view of the top of Mt. Denali and awesome ones of the surrounding glaciers and landscapes leading to it which were over 60 miles away from Telkeetna. It was an unforgettable trip, one that we all will remember! One spectacular event was that the pilot took us into a light rain that had formed a rainbow. His approach to it caused a 360 degree rainbow that surrounded our plane. The photos we took did not do all that we saw justice, absolutely amazing.

We were lucky enough to find this flightseeing company via a Groupon deal, and after reading the reviews, we decided to pay extra for the glacier landing. Our pilot Dave was the best and we felt incredibly safe the whole time with extremely smooth takeoffs and landings - piloting is his full-time job and he's been doing it for 30+ years! During the summer season it's mostly tourists and during the off-season it's Alaskan residents who are trying to get to the more secluded areas of the state. We had the best luck, as Dave informed us only 20% of the time is the weather good enough for Denali to be seen from Ruth Glacier. He was good at spotting wildlife and pointing the animals out to us, as well as sharing fun bits of trivia (since eagles have no natural predators, you have to get out of their way as a bush pilot because they don't know to be afraid of your plane!). My husband and I had fun riding with three older ladies, one of which was back for a second go. Keep in mind if your party is small that you may be paired with another group - I believe their minimum to fly is at least three people. The only difficulty with really any flightseeing tour is that it's contingent on the weather being good, and in early August, this area is often rainy and cloudy. That means it's not really a tour that you can book well in advance and requires that you be flexible if the need arises to reschedule. I'd highly recommend planning for it earlier in your stay so that there's some backup time to reschedule. But the staff at Sheldon were a dream to work with and very responsive to my calls, even though we had some issues with our phone service. Definitely the highlight of our Alaskan honeymoon and worthy of any trip to the Denali National Park area!

Holly from Sheldon Air Services is wonderful to work with. She is extremely accommodating and worked with our large delegation until after midnight to make a tour happen. Their driver Gary is also great. I would highly recommend their company. The tour speaks for itself, but the people at the business are outstanding. John

We were on the fence about doing a flightseeing tour, as we hate 'touristy' activities. We saw a Groupon for Sheldon and decided to just do it. We were not disappointed at all! (It was not cheesy touristy, it was amazing.) On our way up to Denali, we stopped to see about rescheduling our flight for that day. Dave (the pilot) suggested against it, as conditions were not optimal. The policy of Sheldon Air Services seems to be that even if they could fly you up that day, they won't do it if it will be a disappointing flight due to weather conditions. They would rather wait than to send you away with a disappointing experience. That's when they won us over 100%!! On the day of our flight, we chose to pay extra for the glacier landing, which was sooooo worth it! Dave The Pilot narrated and answered our questions throughout the flight, and was a wealth of knowledge. The glacier landing was amazing, almost surreal. We stayed on the glacier long enough to explore and take some photos, and watch a few other planes land. The entire flightseeing experience was amazing, and we are so happy we chose to do it. We have recommended Sheldon Air Services to our friends (and strangers we have encountered) because they are a top-notch organization. If we could give extra stars, we would!!

Outstanding grand tour of the Denali National Park with a glacier landing. Dave Sheldon, the owner, was referred to me by a knowledgable local who goes back years with Dave. Jock the pilot was extremely knowledgable about the geology and glaciology and expertly handled the plane for both take-off and landing. Definitely a highlight of the trip and a fantastic last jaunt before flying out of Anchorage in the evening.

After going on a K2 aviation tour first, I rate this service 4 stars. It was fun. The staff was really nice. The pilot was knowledge and gave lots of info about his local experience. I didn't feel like I got as much information as I did from K2 though. We stopped on the Glacier for what felt like "too much" time. It was supposed to be a 2 hour trip, but was really 3+. Not a complaint just an observation, for planning purposes. The plane was a lot older than expected, but felt safe. I would recommend it.

If you are looking for EXPERIENCED pilots, look no further than Sheldon Air Service! The name alone is legendary. Everyone else is just an imitation. I would not fly with any other in Talkeetna.

We just took a flight see tour with Sheldon Air. It was amazing. Our pilot, Dave, did a fantastic job. The ride was smooth. The landing on the glacier was flawless. In flight, Dave explained the geological features and answered everyone's questions. He pointed out where we were likely to see moose and deer and helped us spot them when he saw them. For a friendly, fun, and informative tour, pick Sheldon Air!

I've had the privilege to fly with Sheldon during some of my Mountain adventures. Holly takes an interest in people as individuals and makes you feel at home, especially when waiting out the weather in Talkeetna. Our drop off and pick ups were safe and professional, nothing like seeing that beautiful beaver popping out from a hole in the clouds to bring you back for some brews at the Fairview. The original Sheldon cub still sits in the hanger reminding aspiring climbers of those who came before!

Wow, what an awesome experience with SAS. We arrived and they knew exactly what we needed to do, where to put our stuff and told us they'd call when the weather was clear so we could go grab lunch. The best part was fresh baked cookies on the ready for weary travelers flying in and out. Holly Sheldon was tremendously nice showing us around town and setting us up with a hostel not to mention her awesome dog, Rocky. She even prepared a dvd with images of the range and a mixed cd with some up to date music. We had a great experience and will definitely use them again. I'd highly recommend you do the same. Also, it's nice to support a family owned and operated business with great service and respect for the customer.

Words, pictures and video do not adequately describe what we experienced on our SAS scenic tour. We took off and landed on Fish Lake .. Our pilot and guide "Jason" was very professional and informative about what we were seeing as we fly through these majestic natural wonders. This is a MUST DO to really see the very best Alaska has to offer. This was an experience of a life time !! Thank you so much.

Great flight wonderful time. Our pilot was a bit dry but a great guy well worth every penny. What fun

My friends and I flew with David to and from the Pika Glacier in Little Switzerland for a 5 day climbing trip and had a fantastic experience. First, David was really flexible about timing, which made logistics much easier for us given our tight timing and weather windows. Second, I trusted David's safety consciousness and flying skills completely. He was also very knowledgable about the area and told us some really interesting stories as we flew. Finally, the whole staff was friendly and helpful and generally went above and beyond to make sure we had a great experience. Holly warmly welcomed us back from the glacier with homemade cookies and lemonade - truly an awesome way to return from the mountains! I would absolutely fly with SAS next time I'm going anywhere in the Alaska Range.

We took SAS as our flight service to and from Denali Base Camp. The flight out was great, and David handled the plane with an exceptional level of expertise in some less than perfect flying conditions. On the way back, we were picked up by Jok, and we upgraded to get a flight out through the Ruth Gorge. This was, without a doubt, one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. The pilots were extremely saavy at their craft, and are knowledgeable about the Alaska Range. I would recommend that everyone fly through the Alaska Range at least once in their life, and when you do, fly SAS!

We bought a groupon for this company last winter and planned to go for our anniversary in July. Per the groupon, my husband called to make a reservation and they told him to call back the day of at 8am. He did and was told that a flight had already gone out and to call back at 11am. We did and were then told that we had to wait until their agent in downtown Talkeetna sold more seats on the plane so that they could leave full. We spent 30 minutes sitting across the street from the agent, who spent a majority of her time on the phone. As we had to be back in Anchorage by 6pm, we made other arrangements. At 3:15pm we got a frantic call from Sheldon Air asking us if we could be at the hangar by 3:30pm. We declined as we, at that point, had been waiting all day. It was very bad customer service and not the ideal for someone excited to spend their anniversary in an airplane over Denali.

We left Denali National Park quite late after a long hike in the park. We flew our airplane in, but, by the time we hiked back to the airfield, we realized we could not get any AvGas at that hour. We thought we could make it home, but decided to top off in Talkeetna to be safe. We called Flight Service and they put us in touch with Sheldon Air who sells gas. Holly said she would meet us at the field and open up to give us gas. What I did not know Holly is the daughter of the famous Don Sheldon who pioneered glacier landings, and took early climbers up to McKinley (google him). She told us that Sheldon Air is taking the grandchildren of those early climbers up to McKinley now. We also didn't know they have flight seeing and glacier landings like some of the other operators. We will be sure to use and recommend Sheldon Air for our flight seeing and glacier landings in the future. It is good to know there are people still out there who know the real meaning of customer service. If we were not able to get gas, we would've been sleeping in our airplane in the parking lot. Thanks Holly for helping us out!