Trapper Wings

Practical? Well not in most places. But my use of an airplane to run my trapline back in the mid 1980s is something that’s often brought up in conversations of my days of long lining in South Dakota. The Fur Boom years of the late 1970s into the mid 80s was an awesome time to be a trapper.. Fur was abundant in many areas and prices keen. In fact, a hustling trapper in a good area could average $4000 a week for the season…and no I’m not exaggerating. But how in the world did I get into flying my trapline? Well it’s an interesting story that starts a decade before in my home town of Columbus, Ohio.

In my senior year of high school I had opted not to enroll in the college prep chemistry class that many of my pals were taking.. I instead took what was called Aviation Science. This course was essentially a ground school for students interested in an aviation career. When I had gotten my drivers license two years previous, this freedom gave me the chance to extend my trapline to a point where part of it was near the Columbus, Ohio International airport. Seeing the big jets land & take-off as I ran my traps before school excited me…. and the “short of it“ was that I was hooked on flying & knew I wanted to be a pilot. However, flying lessons where expensive and even though I was able to ace the ground school course in high school and take a few introductory flights.. getting a private pilot license was financially out of the question. Reality set in… Likely I would never own or fly my own airplane…

Fast forwarding eight years and I was settling into a job as a Government Trapper. Moving to the river town of Chamberlain, South Dakota my duties included animal damage control of ten adjacent counties. Government trappers in the west use a little bit of everything in an attempt to stop livestock damage.. Besides the obvious steel traps and snares for coyote that stressed cattle and killed sheep, we also used sodium cyanid “M-44 getters”, we trapped beaver, skunks, bandits or any wild animal issue a rancher needed assistance with… My job was to solve the problem. When snow blanketed the area, we scheduled the state aircraft and aerial hunted areas that had a historical problem with coyotes. These aerial hunts reintroduced me to flying and this new found association with trapping intrigued me.. Plus, at this stage of my life… I was in a position to do something about it.

With a little research, I located a Cessna pilot training center in the small ‘berg of Wagner, South Dakota, about 100 miles from where I was living at Chamberlain. Lee Crisman of Crisman Aviation would be my instructor. Typically new pilots are trained in a Cessna 152, a small 2 seat tricycle gear aircraft that’s easy on fuel and inexpensive to rent. But my needs for a pilots license were somewhat more specialized and at the advice of State ADC pilot Gary Hanson and instructor Lee Crisman, I made the decision to learn to fly a “tail wheel or tail dragger” aircraft.. Tail Draggers are much more difficult to land than the more modern tricycle gear configuration… as the rear wheel sits far behind the main gear. This “dragger” configuration allows for rough field takeoff & landing… however when landing a “tail dragger” the pilot must be diligent with the controls and fly the plane even while it’s on the ground …until full stop. Tail Draggers have a ferocious tendency to “ground loop” which means the lighter tail of the fuselage wants to swing around on landing with a violent “loop” that can damage wings, propeller and worse. All that said… I was up for the task and I would buy my own “tail dragger” aircraft to learn in.

There are several types of small aircraft configurations..The usual propeller in the front type, then turboprop, the pusher type (or propeller in the back), twin engine, high wing, low wing, tricycle gear and tail dragger. In the flat farm and ranch country of the Dakota’s dictated that a high wing, tail dragger would be ideal.. My aircraft of choice was the Piper PA-18. Known as the Super Cub.. this plane sported a160 HP (some modify up to 180HP) engine, light fabric skin and tundra tires perfect for bush flying. However, I quickly learned that this Cadillac of light planes was out of this trappers price range.. so I settled on buying a 1948 Cessna 140. I found the ex-mail plane (yes my first airplane was a plane that carried U.S. mail in western South Dakota) hangared in the small town of Lemmon and it’s price.. $6000.00 cash.. With hopes that this Cessna wasn’t a real “Lemon”…. I bought the 36 year old plane with fur money that I had saved. The Cessna 140 has a metal fuselage and cloth wings with flaps.. A 90 HP Continental O-190 engine and spring main gear. I was a the basic of basic airplanes and a fantastic trainer.. Plus perfect for what I wanted it for…the trapline.

The plane was ferried to Wagner since I couldn’t fly it yet and I began lessons in earnest. My high school aviation science came in handy for the ground school.. although I had forgotten most of it.. but it was easier the second time around. The flying was easy, very fun and soon I had made my solo flight. A young pilots solo flight is pretty exciting… I’ll never forget Crisman climbing out of the plane and saying “Tom your ready.. Take off, fly a pattern and land… I’ll stand here on the runway and watch you. If it doesn’t feel right, add power and go around!”

It took me 3 attempts to land but once I did it… I was set… Confidence in flying is just like trapping or bowhunting and comes from repetition and good experiences.. After my solo, I started commuting by air to the flight lessons from Chamberlain which saved me 4 hours driving. The flight to Wagner was less than 40 minutes and I was building “Pilot in Command” hours. Upon completion of all the lessons, my FAA check ride was scheduled and done at the state capital airport in Pierre. I’ll never forget the day I received my Trapper Wings…

My “bird” opened up an entirely new trapping world to me.. I could scout new trapping areas, I could locate coyote & fox dens, I could find hidden marshes and count the rat houses. I could use my plane to fly over ranches with coyote deprivation and see the whole picture. The aerial perspective immediately gave me a visual of the predator travel ways and best set locations, the easiest access into areas.. The benefits where endless. I remember thinking on one scouting flight….”This airplane is going to simplify my life..”

Boy… was I wrong! Things were about to change Big Time….. BaM! I get a call from my ADC Supervisor.. “What’s this I hear you have your own airplane and you are using it for state ADC work???” Suddenly my plane was an issue in my job. Many of the ADC trappers had quads, snow machines, argo’s but a plane… well this was new territory… I was a government employee… and using an aircraft while “on the job” was taboo. Needless to say my days as a government trapper were numbered. I had somewhat stepped over the line.. albeit I didn’t intend it to be so.

I had been hired by ADC Supervisor Alvin Miller in the summer of 1984 with permission to continue my personal trapping business as a side line while I worked for him in the South Dakota Game Fish & Parks Animal Damage Control Division.. This leniency was unprecedented. Miller told me he wouldn’t stand for any “conflict of interest” issues…. but he knew at the time I was an instructor at the Fur Takers Trappers College, had a lure & scent catalog… that my scent business was booming & I had a trapping book which I was writing.

There was no doubt I had much involvement in my own trapping business yet, Supervisor Miller agreed be flexible. And the other South Dakota trappers were understanding as well… In fact, I met some of the best trappers on the planet while working in the department.. guys like Kenny Johnson, Rob Curtis, Steve Thompson, Joe Grimson, Blair Waite and others who’s names have escaped me all these years. It was a fantastic experience and one I’ll always cherish.

My first son Jeremy was born in August of 1986 and I resigned my job as a government trapper that same day. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave the security of my ADC job in South Dakota.. But by this time, I was the “Question Box” editor of Fur-Fish-Game magazine, I had written two trapping books, made two trapping VHS tapes and was still instructing at the FTA trappers College. At this time only Craig O’Gorman and I were marketing “how to” trapping programs available to trappers on VHS. ‘Bottom line was that after a little more than two years in ADC, I was now back to full time trapping on my own and now “THE SKY WAS THE LIMIT”!

My aircraft was an asset. For one.. antique airplanes appreciate in value if well cared for. Also, the ranchers who’s land I trapped enjoyed the notion that I was a pilot. It gave me instant credibility ( although many knew me from ADC work ). Utilizing the Cessna was practical for me in South Dakota. You must remember in these days there was no internet, no Google earth. I had purchased large township maps of my entire ADC trapping area (ten counties) which where one inch to the mile in scale and covered nearly the entire wall in my trap building. Combining this map with my airplane allowed for interesting concepts and teaching aids for my trapping videos and personal trapper lessons.

Setting up a flying trapline involves some forethought. First… sets need be made in areas where the plane can land and more importantly takeoff safely (it takes more distance to take off than to land). This was pretty easy on some ranches. Other ranches that weren’t conducive to actually landing at the sets ( or taxiing between sets of which I did sometimes) needed more organization. And this is where my ranchers came to the rescue. My flying trapline was a novelty to these cattlemen and they were eager to help me in any way. Many ranchers provided me a vehicle to check sets.. I could land in their driveway or on the road in front of their place and utilize a vehicle left for me. Some offered ATV’s to use. Some older ranchers wanted to spend time with me and I could do a low flyover of the ranchers house or tractor if he was in the field and he would immediately head over to a predetermined landing spot ( usually the long gravel ranch driveway) and pick me up.. We would drive to the catch areas as I had seen the animals “tied up” from the air. 

The amazing thing was not only the active participation and affection all the ranchers gave me.. but the speed I could run the traps. A typical line would require 10 hours to check by vehicle. The distance between ranches in South Dakota is pretty extensive and there where always numerous gates to open. Good coyote catches require plenty of sets and distance between sets. In my system, even on large ranches I would only gang set 2 or three locations and attempt to work out the aircraft access. I’ll admit that there were locations on most ranch that I didn’t set because of access.. but the plane allowed me to spread out and cover miles quickly making my line longer than was practical by vehicle.

Another key point of practicality was that the engine of my Cessna 140 had been rated with a fuel STC. This was a certification by the FAA to allow my aircraft to operate on regular gasoline and not the usual aviation gas (AV gas). Av gas was nearly three times as expensive as car gas. Airplanes aren’t like a pick-up that averages say ten miles per gallon. Aircraft operate on gallons per hour… and my Cessna burned five gallons an hour. So besides being faster, the plane was also more economical in the fuel department.

At this time in east river South Dakota (and still to this day), trappers could operate with a 48 hour trap check laws. This was a big deal as longliners could run two traplines alternating the checks every other day. In my trapping business, I had daily scent and lure orders, video and book orders, snares, dye, wax and more.. Even with pal Jerry Herbst running my trapping business.. there were times I needed away from the daily rigors of the line. With the Cessna I could run BOTH of my traplines in less than a full day… thus allowing for me to stay within the trap check laws and gaining a needed day off…

Of course on the flying trapline, I was only checking traps with live animals in the sets. Conibear cubbies & drowning sets weren't retrieved. Also, snapped traps or adding new sets to the line weren’t tended or made when I was utilizing the plane.. All these chores were done as usual with the truck the next time over the traps.

Other trappers have utilized aircraft on their traplines. In the “Hay Day” of top fur prices Alaskan trappers would use a small plane fitted with snow skis to fly lake to lake and tend cubbies for high dollar, winter caught pine marten and lynx. Lynx could bring $1600 per pelt and there were Alaskan trappers who bought new airplanes with their Lynx check in these days..

My aircraft was always an interest to students who came for personal trapping lessons. Although I never became a commercial pilot and couldn’t advertise a trapline flight as part of the school- most students who came where offered a flight if they wanted to go up… and most did. Often ranchers wanted a ride over their property and I took many kids, grandkids and others on “joy rides” which helped extend my trapping permissions and build loyalty with land owners.

I flew my Cessna to Ardelle Grawe’s Trapper Days one year in Wahpeton, North Dakota.. Also to Lagrange, Indiana for the Fur Takers Trappers College.. as well as numerous other trapping events. Many of my Facebook pals messages me with fond memories of seeing my Cessna wag the wings as I flew away from these trapper events.

Of course there where a few close calls in the bird. Like the time I was scouting new ground near Murdo, South Dakota and stopped for fuel.. There was a very stiff cross wind and on landing… I ground looped the Cessna. It was a butt pucker moment.. but I was able to keep wing tips and prop off the asphalt so there was no harm or foul. It was the only ground loop of my piloting career and something I didn’t want to do again.. In another incident, my left front main gear tire hit a hidden rock in a cut corn field near Gan Valley, South Dakota and blew out the tire on landing… After wrestling the Cessna to a clean stop…. I had to pull the tire & rim.. get a ride to Chamberlain.. fix it and return to fly the bird home.. Once I landed in a snow storm to dispatch a coyote and in low visibility on take off … nearly clipped a 3 strand barbwire fence… I saw it at the last second and quickly pulled back on the elevator and jumped right over it.

As most trappers of that time remember…. in 1992 I got the chance to do my TV series on ESPN and began to move away from trapping and more into bowhunting. It wasn’t as easy a decision that some may think.. as at the time I was at the top of my game as one of the most well known and successful trappers in our industry. My ESPN days allowed me to continue to fly and because the nature of adventures I was doing on the network, I had many opportunities to fly different type aircraft as well as ride in some amazing aircraft. Many remember when I did the Navy F-14 flight syllabus and this experience was amazing.. Other aircraft we featured were P-51 Mustang, B-29 Bomber, SF-260 Sai Marchetti, glider, hang glider, accelerated free fall training. I eventually went on to get my float plane rating, as well as several type ratings.

In my Flying Trapline days, there weren’t cell phones with cameras and if you didn’t have a camera or someone to take a picture.. you didn’t get a picture. Plus, I was horrible about taking photos and the unfortunate reality is the few photo’s I have of my Flying Trapline where taken by ranchers who made an effort to drive out to my plane & take a photo… I owe a big Thank You to the ranchers who took pictures of my catches & Cessna as these are all the photos I have from this era.

With fur prices as they are now and the availability of on-line maps and satellite images.. It’s likely the era of the Flying Trapline is gone.. But there was a time and a place where it was not only practical… but efficient, and I was able to not only fulfill a childhood dream… but have an experience on the the trapline of which few will ever know.