Getting the game out
Mission Mountain Flying Services treks into the wilderness
The smell is off-putting. The Cessna 206 Stationair is crammed full of bloody bags containing pieces of five elk that were harvested in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of northern Idaho. Mission Mountain Flying Service is transporting the elk bagged by hunters traveling with Moose Creek Outfitters, a guided rifle hunt that takes its guests into the backcountry for elk, bear, deer, mountain lions, and wolf hunts. Pilot and owner Eric Komberec has flown into the wilderness from Missoula, Montana, a 30-minute trek, with his Cessna 206 full of goods for the outfitters.
He hauled in 1,000 pounds of oats and grain for Moose Creek’s 20 horses and mules, beer in coolers, and other supplies, quickly dispatched the load, and refilled his airplane with more than 1,000 pounds of elk meat and some large trophy bull elk antlers. When he returns to Missoula, a truck is waiting with hefty coolers to transport the elk meat to a storage facility where it will be put on ice and eventually distributed to the hunters when they return from the wilderness.
“It’s a typical Tuesday,” Komberec says of his day—which is actually a Friday (during the high season the days all blend together)—that has been spent coordinating the transport of supplies, the majority of which he loaded himself after taking out the back seats of the 206, flying alone up the Bitterroot Mountains, unpacking the supplies, repacking the elk meat, and an orchestra of fitting the massive antlers into his airplane. All the while coordinating his other business interests—a flight school, charter service, and aerial wildlife surveys—on his cellphone. Oh, Komberec is also the chief pilot for Neptune Aviation, one of the largest aerial firefighting companies in the United States, which is based in Missoula.
“For backcountry operations, you’ve got to be a bit of a morning person, which I’m normally not, but this is the busy season,” he says. “The secret to backcountry flying is flying when the winds are calm and the temperatures are cool. If we’re doing trips into the wilderness, we try and get them done early in the morning so we’re out by noon. That doesn’t always happen based on the client’s needs and the inevitable delays of the day.”
An aviation life
Komberec is a native of Montana. His father, Richard, flew smoke jumpers and started the Museum of Mountain Flying with friends Stan Cohen and Steve Smith in 1993 to preserve the history of the Johnson Flying Service, the premier mountain flying service in the Northern Rocky Mountains from the late 1920s to the 1970s. Since its opening in a small hangar in 1994, the museum has grown to include aircraft, automobiles, memorabilia, and more, highlighting the aviation history of Montana including an original Douglas C–47 firefighting aircraft restored and named Miss Montana, the A–26 Avenger from the movie Always (see Briefing: Always Airplane,” February 2026 AOPA Pilot), a Stinson Voyager 150, a 1929 Travel Air 6000, and many aircraft and memorabilia from the Johnson Flying Service (see sidebar). The younger Komberec is now president of the museum.
“My dad was a fire pilot, a fire bomber pilot, and I grew up around airplanes. Through my various career path decisions and flying jobs, here I am today, living my dream, flying air tankers, and running my business,” he says. “I’m lucky to have a wonderful wife that is a partner and who supports me in managing all of it.”
Komberec founded Mission Mountain Flying Service in Polson, Montana, in 2004, just over the Mission Mountains near Glacier National Park and at the south end of Flathead Lake. From the beginning, the business has provided U.S. Forest Service wildlife and fire support. It added scenic tours and backcountry charter services. The fleet has grown to include three Cessna 206s, two Cessna 172s, a Piper Lance, and a Piper Cherokee. There is also a Robinson R44 and a Bell 206B Jet Ranger, as well as a Turbine Commander. There are nine pilots, six mechanics, and three administrative employees, including Komberec’s wife, Tia, who is the office manager. The kids, Avian and Taylor, respect their parents’ lifestyle and work ethic.
“They are there to help, you know, open panels and drain oil and all that; wash airplanes and fuel airplanes,” he said. “I’m kind of an airplane fanatic, and everything I do revolves, one way or another, it seems, around aviation.”
A Montana business
Komberec calls Mission Mountain Flying Service “a multifaceted operation,” and what the business does is “anything we can do to make a living in Montana.”
The flying season is short in Montana; Komberec equates it to Alaska. They will start flying in April and pull up chocks in November. June, July, August, and September are the busy months. “They are the time we have to essentially make our income to survive the winter,” he says.
That means long days doing myriad tasks: fire detection and timber surveys for the U.S. Forest Service, backcountry charters from remote grass strips, point-to-point charters, and surveying millions of acres of national forests.
Our season is very short, so we have to make hay while the sun shines.
—Eric Komberec, pilot and owner
He also has a flight school called Altitude Aviation Academy that he runs to help build the ranks of pilots in the West. The school partners with regional airlines, FedEx feeders, and Neptune Aviation.
“We work with a few local companies to get a path from zero time to career pilot and job placement; to train them how we want and teach them a work ethic.”
Although he loves all the types of flying he does, he is especially proud of the company’s scenic tours and charter services to legendary backcountry airstrips such as Shafer Meadows, Spotted Bear, and Meadow Creek.
“It’s the excitement for customers to get to do a wonderful trip like into the Selway Wilderness, get a guided hunt, live off of horseback, and sleep in a tent, and then hunt and chase these large bull elk. I enjoy the logistics of getting in the customers and then getting—if they are successful—the game out.” 
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