Seventeen years above the North Country.

Locally owned and flown from Harris Airport — carrying forward the flying operation Bruce Mowery started here in 2008.

Our heritage

North Country Heli Flight was founded by Bruce Mowery in 2008. Bruce — a multi-engine, instrument-rated fixed-wing and helicopter pilot — built NCHF on a foundation of patient instruction, conservative weather decision-making, and exceptional scenic territory you cannot get anywhere else in the Northeast.

In 2026, NCHF entered a new chapter with three local partners taking over operations. The aircraft is the same R-44. The hangar is the same hangar at Harris Airport (83K). The mountains are the same mountains. What's new: a resident CFII-H on the field, a modern booking experience, and a renewed commitment to sharing this airspace with everyone who's been waiting for the right reason to look at the Adirondacks from above.

The team

Three partners. One hangar.

Walter Dusseldorp

Chief Instructor · Operating Partner · Flight Operations & Marketing

CFII (Helicopter), Private Pilot (Airplane Single-Engine Land), MBA, adjunct professor at Rutgers University. Lead pilot for tours and the resident Chief Instructor for flight training. Also runs customer experience, dispatch, scheduling, and marketing for the partnership. Creator of Flight Path Pioneers, the free FAR/AIM study tool used nationally by student pilots.

Walter brings a rare blend of frontline healthcare, aviation operations, and academic leadership to NCHF. His career began as a medic, advanced through flight medicine, and then ran the full helicopter rating ladder — Private, Commercial, CFI, and CFII Helicopter. On the fixed-wing side he holds Private Pilot ASEL and is working through the Airplane CFII add-on, expected by end of 2026.

That progression — medic to flight medic to CFII Helicopter — gives him an unusual lens on the work: high-stakes systems, precise procedures, regulation, and decision-making under pressure are the same skills whether you're at a patient's bedside, in a transport aircraft, or in the right seat of an R-44.

Michael Galli

Finance & Regulatory · Operating Partner

President of Hickory Homes and Properties, Inc., a third-generation general contracting company now in its 40th year. He leads the family business with the same principles he brings to NCHF: quality craftsmanship, straightforward client relationships, and longstanding partnerships with trusted tradespeople throughout the region.

He earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Iona College in 2003 and lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife, two children, and golden retriever. Family remains the foundation of everything he does. Some of his earliest and most meaningful memories were made in the Adirondacks, and being part of NCHF brings that lifelong connection full circle.

A lifelong aviation enthusiast, Michael earned his Private Pilot Helicopter rating in December 2025 and is currently pursuing his Instrument and Commercial Helicopter ratings with Walter at NCHF.

Within the partnership, Michael oversees financial operations, including bookkeeping, banking, monthly close, tax filings, FAA documentation, insurance compliance, and quarterly financial reporting to the partners.

Christopher Charnesky

Maintenance & Logistics

Liaison with the maintenance shop, monitors the maintenance reserve, tracks ADs and component lifing, parts logistics, hangar relationship at 83K.

Pilots in command

Walter Dusseldorp — CFII Helicopter — is the primary tour pilot and Chief Instructor. Bruce Mowery, founder of NCHF, is the designated backup pilot for FAA Part 91 scenic tours only when Walter is unavailable. Bruce is not part of the instructional staff and does not conduct training flights. He remains current and Robinson SFAR 73-compliant; he’s been flying these mountains for seventeen years and is named on the partnership’s aviation policy.

Seventeen years of Adirondack flying experience in the cockpit — now under new ownership — operating under FAA Part 91 §91.147 and Part 61 training. Robinson SFAR 73-compliant pilots with recurrent training every 24 months. The R-44 is maintained to its 100-hour and annual schedules with full Airworthiness Directive compliance. Fully insured for hull and aviation liability. Students provide their own renters / non-owned aircraft insurance with NCHF named as additional insured before solo flight.

Hangar at 83K

Harris Airport (83K) is a privately-owned, public-use airport in Fort Ann, NY — twelve miles east of Lake George Village, about thirty minutes from Saratoga Springs and Glens Falls. We've been hangared here since day one. The airport is our partner in safe operations and easy customer access.

Free parking on the field. Detailed directions arrive in your booking confirmation.