# No Road Out. Quinhagak Flies Its Own Eyes > Quinhagak has no road out, so the roadless Yup'ik village learned to fly its own drones. Published 2026-07-17 by Alaska AI. 9 slides. Canonical: https://alaskaaihq.com/archive/2026-07-17/ ## The story No road out. So Quinhagak learned to fly its own drones. In a roadless stretch of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a lost boat or an overdue traveler is a life-and-death search. Quinhagak's drone team answers those calls from the air, week after week. The sky is the only road. No roads reach Quinhagak or its neighbors on the Kuskokwim coast. Rivers and airspace are the only ways through. A local pilot, instructor Sean Gleason says, knows the traffic patterns better than anyone from outside. They are training their own. On June 9, a dozen trainees from across rural Alaska came to Quinhagak to learn to fly. The local course runs 14 weeks toward an FAA Part 107 license on an Alaska DOT grant, one seat each for Quinhagak, Eek, Goodnews, and Platinum. It began at the dig. The drones first came to map Nunalleq, an ancestral Yup'ik village eroding into the Bering Sea. The pilots stayed, and turned the same eyes on the living delta. Nalaquq built its own eyes. Nalaquq, the village-owned company, wrote its own machine vision. A neural network spots a small aluminum boat on a search grid. A polarized-lens rig counts salmon in the river. The name means it has been found. Most of the eyes are human. Be exact about the machine. A neural network finds boats. A lens rig counts salmon. But people fly every drone, and the thermal reindeer counts and the archaeology are human eyes reading pictures, not algorithms. Own the eye, don't rent it. Elsewhere the sensor, the model, and the data belong to outside companies. In Quinhagak the pilots, the drones, and the machine vision belong to the village that flies over its own land, water, and people. ## What we verified - KYUK published its feature on the Quinhagak drone-training program on July 14, 2026, reported by Samantha Watson. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. - Byron Petluska said the program gets weekly search-and-rescue calls, sometimes three times a week, sometimes daily. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. - Instructor Sean Gleason said local pilots know their traffic patterns better than any outside operator. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. - Angelina Olrun, 19, of Mekoryuk, was a trainee interested in reindeer herding. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. - The drone program grew out of archaeologists using drones to survey the Nunalleq dig site near Quinhagak. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. - Nalaquq's team built a custom Convolutional Neural Network using deep learning to detect small aluminum-hulled vessels for search and rescue via consumer-grade drones. [academic.oup.com](https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/28/5/zmad030/7248802), report. - The team used a consumer-grade drone with a polarized lens filter to track and count migrating salmon. [academic.oup.com](https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/28/5/zmad030/7248802), report. - Nalaquq's services include remote sensing with specialized aircraft and sensors for 2D and 3D mapping of infrastructure and subsistence areas. [nalaquq.com](https://nalaquq.com/about-us/), report. - Nalaquq lists 'Automated Salmon Counts' and 'Detect Ancestral Archeological Sites' among its past drone projects. [nalaquq.com](https://nalaquq.com/search-rescue-training/), report. - A drone-training session was held June 9, 2026 in Quinhagak, Alaska. [alaskapublic.org](https://alaskapublic.org/programs/alaska-news-nightly/2026-07-14/alaska-news-nightly-tuesday-july-14-2026), report. - About a dozen trainees from rural Alaska attended the session. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. - The story aired on Alaska News Nightly on July 14, 2026, reported by Samantha Watson from Bethel. [alaskapublic.org](https://alaskapublic.org/programs/alaska-news-nightly/2026-07-14/alaska-news-nightly-tuesday-july-14-2026), report. - Nalaquq is an Alaska Native-owned subsidiary of Qanirtuuq, Inc., the village corporation for Quinhagak. [nalaquq.com](https://nalaquq.com/about-us/), report. - The program's course is a 14-week commitment that prepares participants for FAA Part 107 drone certification. [nalaquq.com](https://nalaquq.com/search-rescue-training/), report. - Applicants must be from Quinhagak, Eek, Goodnews, or Platinum, and a committee selects one individual from each community. [nalaquq.com](https://nalaquq.com/search-rescue-training/), report. - The training is funded by an Alaska Department of Transportation grant. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. - Applications of the drones include thermal imaging for reindeer counting, salmon/fish counting on the Kanektok River, and search and rescue. [kyuk.org](https://www.kyuk.org/science-and-environment/2026-07-14/quinhagak-locals-bridge-drones-and-traditional-knowledge-now-theyre-teaching-others-how-to-do-it), report. Slides and the deck PDF are linked from the canonical page.