We interrupt our usual newsletter to bring you
Bush Week
For the last several years, JAARS has orchestrated an exercise for trainees that they affectionately call Bush Week. The purpose of this exercise is to simulate the recovery of a crashed aircraft. The facilitators take our training 206 aircraft out into the woods beyond the runway, push it into the underbrush, drive a few branches through the fuselage, and then leave it to us to fix.
This year, our class was “scheduled” for what we thought was a regular lesson—a clever cover to get us out of the hangar while the facilitators set up the event. Just before noon, we were notified of an “accident.” We received the scenario, investigated the site, and were given 24 hours to formulate a recovery plan.
In previous years, participants were tasked with patching the fuselage and swapping the engine. This year, however, our facilitators raised the challenge: we had to completely disassemble the aircraft, hike it more than a mile along a narrow trail, carry it across a river, and then reassemble it—while repairing the damage. Fortunately, our team was rock solid, with a wide variety of skills and talents.
I couldn’t be prouder of them. One teammate with ropes and zip line experience rigged an ingenious system to move the 600-pound fuselage across the river. Another built a cart that hauled our supplies and later carried each heavy piece of the plane through rough, uneven trails without fail. One teammate had a sharp mind for aircraft systems and guided us through disassembly and reassembly. And everyone brought hard work and steady leadership to the table.
Of course, even in a simulation, the dangers are real. We were reminded of this when the fuselage slipped while being unloaded and fractured a teammate’s foot. The urgency to work quickly can make you forget just how risky these situations are. In a real recovery, losing a teammate to injury wouldn’t just mean fewer hands on the job—it would add a serious logistical and medical challenge to the mission.
That moment has stuck with me. It reinforced a lesson that in aviation recovery—and in life—people are your most valuable asset.
Here are my key takeaways from our Bush Week:
