Captain John Bryan Carricaburu is PenAir's chief pilot and his son, first officer John Brent Carricaburu, also flies for the Alaska regional airline. Waiting in the wings is John Brent's son, John Blake, 7, who already romps around the house wearing aviation headphones.

John Bryan and John Brent are the sixth father-son combo to work for PenAir but the first to fly as pilot and co-pilot in scheduled service.

"I look at it as an opportunity to learn," said Brent, 26, of flying with his dad.

"Everybody learns from everybody," Bryan said. "You're always learning in this business -- or at least you better be."

Bryan's grandfather was a pilot, as was his mom, and if Blake one day goes airborne, it will be four generations of flying Carricaburus.

Brent was exposed to aviation his whole life.

"I just had a ball flying around with my dad," he said. "I had a blast as a kid."

Brent, however, won't push his son into the cockpit.

"I'll leave it up to him," Brent said. "Right now he's going for the professional baseball player option. But I'll expose him to it and let him make the decision."

That last name, incidentally, is Basque, and when the pilots meet Alaska Natives, it sometimes gets shortenend. "They call us caribou," Bryan said. "They look at it and say caribou. It's easier to pronounce."

Bryan is excited about how technology is improving air safety in Alaska, in particular the Capstone program that uses global positioning for approaches in rural communities.

"It's just going to revolutionize air transportation in the country," Bryan said. "And the weather reporting is better in Alaska than even 10 years ago."

A veteran pilot in Alaska, Bryan has had his share of close calls, be it mechanical problems or weather closing in.

The biggest challenge facing Alaska pilots are weather and distance. How do PenAir pilots deal with Alaska's fog, mountains, wind, whiteouts, icing, vast distances and low visibility?

"Training and not pushing the elements, the conditions," Bryan said. "Recognize dangerous situations and staying away from them."

Another safety factor is educating passengers about Alaska's tricky skies to avoid pilot pressure.

"We just will not fly when the weather is marginal," Bryan said. "We'll just wait for a nice day. They don't have to get there on time."

With technology and computers boosting air safety, Brent hopes the most exciting thing that happens on his flights is whale watching.

"I'm hoping my most exciting stories are boring compared to what those guys have done and seen," he said of veteran PenAir pilots.

In addition to being PenAir's chief pilot, Bryan is the company's director of flight personnel. He is proud that PenAir recently was the first carrier in the state to receive five stars in the Medallion Safety program.

"We're trying to get away from that Bush pilot stigma," Bryan said.

Before Brent became a commercial pilot he took a psychology degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage. This fall he'll attend officer training school with the Alaska Air National Guard to learn to fly a tanker.

"In a nutshell I'm going to get top-notch training in a Boeing 707 turbojet," Brent said. "It's very valuable training. They do a very thorough job."

Meanwhile, his dad will keep flying in Alaska, from Atka in the Aleutian Islands to Sand Point in southwest to the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. PenAir serves 36 communities in Southwest Alaska with 35 aircraft and 400 employees. It is the official commuter airline of the Iditarod. It also does cargo shipping, small package express, mail delivery and charter service throughout Alaska, Canada and the United States.

After 35 years as a pilot, including 29 at PenAir, Bryan is comfortable in Alaska skies.

"I'm home every night, and the PenAir family is part of my family at this point," he said. "And after all these years I still enjoy the beauty of flying around this state."