Self-Reliant Pilot focuses on flying small taildragger aircraft and landing them in remote and challenging terrain in wild Alaska. It displays the inspiration of flying in Alaska, defining who are the incredible pilots that fly Alaska's backcountry and showing the training necessary to become the best pilot you can be. It discusses the weather related problems of flying in Alaska and shows ways to minimize the difficulties. It also discusses the elevated aircraft accident rate in Alaska and how to substantially reduce such incidences.

Self-Reliant Pilot serves as a primer for Alaskan style training. Once a pilot learns how to train according to the book, additional or new training can be carried out, without difficulty, because the pilot has already learned the foundation for training. Self-Reliant Pilot is a classical training manual because it is written in a contemporary style that is always current. As time goes forward, the strategy for training will remain the same.

Seventy-five distinctive narratives in the last part of the book show general aviation topics and authenticated experiences of a skilled pilot flying Alaska's uninhabited backcountry. The narratives include the inspiration of flying Alaska's coastal mountains, glaciers, and fjords; flying and landing in Alaska's backcountry in winter on skis and in summer on Bushwheels; flying wildlife surveys and observing rare wildlife encounters.