bush pilot

noun

1. a pilot who flies small aircraft over rugged terrain or unsettled regions to serve remote areas inaccessible to or off the route of larger planes:

   Bush pilots brought supplies to the Alaskan village once a week.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bush pilot¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Perhaps my favorite Amos role was as bush pilot Buzz Washington in the 2006 Alaska-set Anne Heche comedy “Men in Trees.”

From Los Angeles Times

In the 1970s, geologists confirmed what a local bush pilot long suspected: The red-stained creeks that veined the tundra hinted at a massive mineral deposit.

From Salon

Just down the beach, another setnet site was worked by the family of bush pilot Jay Hammond, who later would be a two-term Alaska governor from 1974 to 1982, during the start of the oil pipeline boom.

From Seattle Times

He took a freight plane to Nome, then found a bush pilot to fly him to Brevig Mission, on the western end of the Seward Peninsula, with no roads leading in or out.

From Washington Post

On learning his long-estranged father has died, he flies his family — he’s also an accomplished bush pilot — back to his old haunts, where there are apparently copious wide, flat, smooth straightaways that will serve for landing strips.

From Los Angeles Times