 Michael J. Ebersole is senior pilot and an air operations manager at Grand Canyon National Park. He has been a professional pilot since 1971, and has worked and flown at Grand Canyon since 1975. He presently holds a Commercial Pilot's Certificate with Instrument Rating in land and seaplanes, and is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an Advanced Ground Instructor and an Aviation Safety Program Counselor. Mike's aviation career includes flying military personnel throughout the Hawaiian Islands while in the U.S. Navy, working for Piedmont Airlines as a line pilot, and conducting air tours of the Grand Canyon (in airplanes and hot-air balloons). He has been a pilot with the National Park Service since 1983. Missions are diverse, and consist of wildland firefighting, search and rescue, wildlife surveys, law enforcement, etc. Mike assists in supervising all park air operations at the Grand Canyon and recently concluded a two-year tenure as Chair of the Southwest Interagency Aviation Safety Committee. Since 1984 Mike has also been heavily involved with the Department of Transportation and the Department of the Interior regarding aircraft overflights of National Parks. He presently serves on a national overflights team, bringing to the job the dual perspectives of professional pilot and park ranger. Mike has received numerous awards for his work in various aspects of aviation. Mike first became involved in search and rescue as a park ranger at Grand Canyon in 1978. The subject, an elderly hiker, was never found, and Mike was profoundly influenced by the incident. In 1981 he joined John Bownds and David Lovelock as part of the original "Searchbusters" team. He co-authored the CASIE search software, and continues to promote the use of computers in SAR through teaching, writing and helping manage actual and simulated searches. Mike received the Arizona State Award for search and rescue from the National Association For Search And Rescue in 1991.
Mike Ebersole
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