Norman Anderson has flown for 33 years for Skybird Aviation in the Los Angeles area, now serving as its director of operations. Flying top-of-the-line airplanes, he transports business people to their meetings around the world, including recent trips to Tel Aviv, Barcelona, London, Nice, and Milan.

As much as he enjoys the work, Anderson recalls fondly the special functions he performed at the start of his career, in Page, Ariz. From 1969 to 1974, he worked for Page Aviation, which contracted with the Agriculture Department's Forest Service and the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management to help their workers fight fires on federal land.

Most of the time, Anderson flew tourists on scenic flights over such natural wonders as the Grand Canyon, Marble Canyon, and Lake Powell. The Cessnas he piloted also picked up rafters along the Colorado River and returned them to their cars.

The BLM and FS flights usually occurred following nights of heavy thunderstorms that set off sparks in the dry woods. Anderson recalled that Utah's Kaiparowits Plateau and Kaibab Plateau, on the Grand Canyon's northern edge, were particularly susceptible because of their altitude and heavy pine cover. The company relied on Anderson and his fellow pilots to direct the ground-based firefighting crews to flames that otherwise would be missed until great damage had been done.

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