Two of Summit Air Charter's Dornier Do 228 STOL aircraft getting ready to head out of Inuvik.

Developed by Germany's Dornier Flugzeugwerft in the late 1970's as a follow-on to the Do 28 piston engined utility transport, the Do 228 featured a new high-lift wing design, new larger fuselage and twin Garrett turboprops.

With performance characteristics very similar to the venerable deHavilland Canada Twin Otter, Summit Air Charters operates nine of these versatile aircraft mostly in support of mining and exploration in the southern NWT. 

Interestingly, one of the first Do 228 operators in Canada was Aklak Air in Inuvik who leased one example of the type for a while back in 1990.

NavCanada's Canadair CRJ-200ER C-GNVC on the ramp prior to departure.

Originally delivered to the regional CityLine division of Lufthansa, this CRJ-200ER is now used by NavCanada for flight testing instrument approaches at airports across the country.  It was in town verifying the new RNAV/GNSS approach that replaced the old RWY24 LOC(BC) approach.  Apparently the new ILS systems do not produce a suitable back-course signal for approaches from the direction opposite of the glide path/localizer beams.

Kodiak 100 N708 s/n 100-0007 on the ramp in Inuvik.

When Alaska Airlines CEO Bruce Kennedy retired in 1991 he devoted his time to humanitarian and religious organizations.  While doing missionary work he recognized the need for a modern, reliable bush plane that could get in and out of the short, rough fields at tiny African villages.  To meet that need he founded the Quest Aircraft Company and oversaw the design and certification of the Kodiak, a lightweight turbine-powered STOL aircraft.  Tragically, he lost his life in a crash just as the Kodiak was about to go into production in 2007.

The aircraft pictured here is the seventh unit off the line, delivered to the US Department of the Interior in late 2008.  Quest currently has a three year backlog of orders and intends to produce at least 80 airframes in 2009-10.

Japan Air Lines Boeing 747-400 flight 007 on air route NCA30 over Inuvik
enroute from New York JFK to Tokyo Narita at flight level 340 (34,000ft.)

The early 21st century marked a major change in air travel between eastern North America and Asia.  Prior to that, the usual route was across southern Canada to a refuelling stop in Anchorage, Alaska followed by a trans-Pacific flight skirting the edges of Russian airspace.  In the late 90's, however, a combination of new longer range aircraft, new air routes over Russia, and increased ETOPS times for twin-engine jetliners made flights along the direct great-circle route through the Arctic more practical.

With the burgeoning economy in the Pacific Rim, there are now hundreds of flights per week between North America and Asia, many of which pass directly overhead or within a few hundred miles of here.  Outside of ATC radar coverage for much of the trip, controllers rely on sophisticated computer software and frequent position reports to maintain 5 mile horizontal separation between aircraft.  Increasing, the position reporting is done automatically with GPS through satellite data links directly from the aircraft's flight management system to controllers on the ground.  A mandatory requirement for all aircraft to be TCAS equipped allows a reduced vertical separation of only 1000ft. between passing aircraft.  NavCanada also maintains a network of remote-operated VHF transceivers that maintains voice communications along all the busiest tracks.

I frequently get asked if any of them would ever land here.  There is no technical reason preventing it.  Our 6000ft. runway is a bit on the short side but the pavement is load-rated for even the heaviest aircraft and if they dumped fuel on the way in there shouldn't be any issues, even with a reduced runway friction index in the winter.  At only 150ft. wide, turning around would be a bit tight for the bigger planes and for an A380 or the stretched A340's it would be impossible without running onto the gravel shoulder.  Getting out wouldn't be an issue either.  They'd just have to leave light on fuel and stop in Fairbanks or Yellowknife to top up before carrying on their way.  The answer I always give to the question is "Why would they want to?"  There aren't many conceivable reasons.  On-board medical emergencies or even major mechanical problems probably aren't good enough.  Best to just press on for another hour to a more suitable alternate.  But never say never.  There's a whole lot of nothing for a thousand miles to the north, east and west of here and as they say, "Any port in a storm."

This USAF C-37A (Gulfstream G-V) was in Inuvik early this week ferrying the NORAD/US NORTHCOM commander General Gene Renuart on an inspection of Canadian air defense facilities.

Escorting the 4-star general was a handful of CF-18 Hornets and a CC-150 Polaris (Airbus A310-300) air refueling tanker.  The Polaris didn't land but held over the field at 20,000ft waiting to tank one of the escort fighters for the trip back to Cold Lake.

North-Wright Airways Beech 99 C-FKHD parked on the Dempster Highway 6NM south of Inuvik.

It's been a while since anything interesting has come up but this one was worthy of posting.  It's hard to decide whether the pilot was unlucky by running out of fuel on approach into Inuvik or lucky that he just happened to be within gliding distance of one of the only straight stretches on the only road within hundreds of miles.  He pulled off the dead-stick landing with no damage or injuries and once all the paperwork was done the aircraft was checked out, refueled, and flown off the highway.  There were no passengers on board at the time of the incident.

Not much room for error as the Beech 99 is flown off the narrow gravel highway.

This CanJet 737-800 was here overnight for the crew change on the Amundson icebreaker.  This aircraft flew with Ryanair since new and only came to CanJet this spring.

I'm really starting to look forward to these Coast Guard charters coming in as they certainly like to shop around for their carriers.  So far they have used at least four different operators for the long-haul portion of the crew change operation.

This is the first 737 NextGen series that has ever landed here and at 189 seats ties with the 727-200 as the largest passenger aircraft we've handled.  In fact, I can't even find anyone that recollects seeing even a 737 Classic here before.  The usual 737-200s looked somewhat 'quaint' parked next to it.

Only a handful of the expected nineteen International Air Rally participants managed to brave the lousy weather all the way to Inuvik.

The International Air Rally is an annual aviation event presented and organized by Aviation Connection, the officially appointed trustee of the Governor General’s Cup.  The 2008 edition of the Governor General’s Cup was entitled “The MacKenzie River Challenge” starting in Winnipeg, Manitoba on July 17 with teams proceeding north to Inuvik on July 20.

At least that was the plan.  Unfortunately, the weather was marginal VFR for several days and only the IFR-capable entrants (and the hardier VFR folks) were able to make it all the way to Inuvik.

One of a pair of colourful Canadair CL-215 water bombers that arrived in Inuvik on Monday.

Operated by Buffalo Airways under contract to the Government of the Northwest Territories, two CL-215's showed up to stand fire watch during this period of extreme forest fire hazard. 

First introduced by Canadair in 1969, the CL-215 is the most widely used purpose-built fire fighting aircraft in the world.  125 airframes were manufactured before production ended in 1990.  Many aircraft have been upgraded to the CL-215T turbine version (although the ones here have the original R-2800 radial engines) and Canadair (now Bombardier) still manufactures the follow-on CL-415 turbine powered aircraft.

With the forest fire hazard here still 'off-scale-high' the CL-215's were joined a few days later by this Douglas C-54G water bomber.

Central Mountain Air Dornier 328-100 in the overnight parking area.  This charter brought in a group of senators on some sort of Northern tour.

Now that summer is here we are starting to get the usual stream of interesting aircraft that seem to turn up once the snow goes away.  Most of these transients are types I've never seen here before so I try to grab a decent picture before they disappear again.

This Saab 340 of Alaskan carrier Peninsula Airways was in from Anchorage doing crew change for workers refitting the Kulluk offshore drilling platform.

The ongoing refit of the Kulluk continues to generate interesting traffic.  Built in the 1980's by Canadian Marine Drilling, the Kulluk is one of the few drilling platforms in the world designed specifically to operate in the Arctic Ocean.  Mothballed for almost 20 years, the platform is being refitted by Shell Oil for work in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea.  In addition to the Cougar Helicopters S-61N's that are in and out on an almost daily basis, PenAir is also here several times a month with their Saab 340's, Beech 1900's and Fairchild Metro 23's.  This season Canadian Helicopters also brought in an AgustaWestland AW139 dedicated to Kulluk support operations.  Waaaay nicer to be strapped into for two hours than a Bell 212!

On lease from Era Helicopters, this AgustaWestland AW139 is flying for Canadian Helicopters in support of the Kulluk operations.

Basler BT-67 DC-3 turbo-conversion "Polar 5" after arrival in Inuvik.

For those unfamiliar with the cultural reference, "The Six Million Dollar Man" was a 1970's television show about the exploits of a severly injured astronaut who was "rebuilt" with artificial limbs and sensors giving him super-human strength and vision.  The opening monologue was somthing along the lines of "..we can rebuild him; better, stronger, faster."  In the case of the Basler Turbo-67 DC-3 conversion they have accomplished essentially the same thing (even in about the same price range) with one of the aviation's most legendary aircraft.

Upgrades to the stock DC-3 include a lengthened fuselage, structural enhancements, wing modifications, advanced avionics, and of course replacement of the venerable Wasp radials with Pratt and Whitney Canada PT6A-67R turbines.  The end result is a practically zero-time aircraft with roughly twice the range and cruise speed as the original DC-3 and a slightly increased payload as well.

The aircraft pictured above is C-GAWI "Polar 5" which is used in support of Arctic and Antarctic science expeditions by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research of Germany.  It was also the subject of a feature article in the March 2007 edition of Airways magazine.  Originally delivered to the USAF in 1943 as C-47 42-100764, this airframe underwent conversion in early 2007 and is operated by Triumph Airways on behalf of the Institute.

Kenn Borek Air's BT-67 C-GMKB was also a frequent visitor to Inuvik last year however last heard it was in Calgary "recovering" from a serious take-off accident in December at Mount Patterson in the Antarctic.

Canadian North 737-200C C-GOPW unloads in Inuvik

A couple of months ago I wrote about why the northern carriers continue operating their fleet of aging 737-200 aircraft.  With the price of oil above $100 per barrel and jet fuel prices continuing to rise (the local price for Jet-A in Inuvik is over $5 per gallon!) I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what the replacement options were that I had mentioned.  I dismissed all of them at the time and concluded that the "737 Jurassics" would keep flying as long as the carriers kept making money at it.  Now I'm wondering if that profitability might be coming to an end sooner rather than later due to what has to be extremely high operating costs.

To recap my previous post, the main issue keeping the 737-200s in the sky is the lack of another equivalent combi aircraft that can effectively combine freight and passengers on the long, thin northern routes.  Even before the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in 1996 and several other lower profile in-flight cargo fire incidents, the FAA and Transport Canada were already tightening the rules for aircraft cargo area fire protection.  Currently these include (depending on the exact classification of the cargo area and type of aircraft) various combinations of smoke and fire detection systems, extinguishing agents, smoke barriers and fire resistant coverings.  A new build combi aircraft that met the new type approval requirements would be a challenging project.

So here is my list of what I saw as the possible options.  It should be noted that most of them would just be a very expensive way to get around a well-intentioned set of regulations although, quite frankly, so is flying 737-200 aircraft in the 21st century.

1) Upgrade the Existing Fleet

There are a number of things that can be done to the existing 737-200s to reduce their operating costs.  Quiet Wing Corp. in the USA offers an approved upgrade package for the 737-200 that consists of winglets and modifications to the flaps.  They promise fuel savings in the 3-5% range and increased performance as well.  Another way to take advantage of this mod would be to trade off the performance advantage by installing the slightly less powerful (and more fuel efficient) JT8D-15 engine in place of the thirstier JT8D-17 powerplants.  If you really wanted to get silly you could probably fit a pair of CFM56 engines from the 737 Classic series.  There would be enough existing common parts from the newer 737s and certainly retrofitting CFM56s in place of aging Pratt & Whitneys has been done before with both the KC-135 and the DC-8.  However, in addition to the huge price tag for that, you would end up with a real oddball aircraft that would be very difficult to support in such a small fleet.  Even just the winglet/flap/JT8D-15 upgrade would still be hard to justify.  You'd have more fuel efficiency but you're still looking at an old aircraft and big dollars at C and D check time.  It might be worth it on a really good (late build/low time) airframe though, and some of the ones up here are.

2) Go to Dedicated Freighters

Because of the ability to maximize payload, freighter aircraft can always fly more efficiently than passenger flights.  Smaller, more efficient passenger jets (or turboprops!) could handle the passenger service and leave the freight to others.  But even that seemingly simple solution has some big problems.  The first are passenger issues.  Given a choice I'm sure most people would prefer travelling in a spacious 737 instead of a cramped regional jet.  A turboprop solution would be a non-starter on a competitive route.  Then there is the issue of baggage.  As Air Canada Jazz found out flying RJs between Edmonton and Yellowknife (and to a lesser extent so did Canadian North with its Fokker 100) Northerners are not known for travelling light.  It is not uncommon to be in the check-in line for a north-bound flight and see every single passenger check in the maximum allowed baggage weight and many with even more than the max (and happy to pay the excess charges).  No problem with a 737 but trying to get 50 people, 3500lbs of baggage and fuel to make the trip into an RJ just doesn't work.  So then you have to find a more suitable aircraft and that isn't easy.  Generally, you end up right back with a 737 again, flying half empty most of the time (if its not a combi).  Still, I think this one is the 'default' solution.  Without the airlines getting creative, this will eventually happen out of necessity.

3) Build a Combi That Meets the Requirements

There are two ways to approach this one.  The easiest is with a permanent, fixed bulkhead between the passengers and the cargo.  Its has also been done before.  Alaska Airlines replaced their 200-series combis with a modified fixed bulkhead 737-400 and a cargo area that met all the requirements.  First Air also used a similar solution to replace their HS-748 combis with newer ATR-42 aircraft.  The drawback to this is you lose the flexibility of the moveable bulkhead to adjust for variations in the passenger load.  It makes weight and balance a bit trickier but it is a fairly low risk solution.

Alternately, one could come up with a way to make a moveable bulkhead.  Notionally, you could start with a Classic or Next Generation 737 QC (quick change) aircraft.  These planes have a main deck cargo door and the seats mounted to pallets on a roller deck which makes it easy to pull out the seats and roll cargo in.  Now if you took off one row of seats on a pallet you could use the space to mount a fold-down bulkhead wall and any necessary fire extiguishing agents and cargo protection electronics.  Maybe a mechanical or inflateable smoke seal that mated to one of four preset pallet positions and some kind of zip in liners for the cabin walls?  A 737-500QC with this setup would be an almost exact replacement for the existing 200-series combis.  I'm sure this one has been looked at by Boeing and dismissed because of the tiny market and potential liability issues.  But if someone wanted to cover the development and certification costs I'm sure it would be technically possible.

4) Get an Exemption to the Rules

This is the simplest idea of all.  Certainly if one considers the risks it would obviously be safer to fly a new Next Generation combi than an aging aircraft built when people danced to disco music and wore bell bottom jeans.  Given the special needs of maintaining transportation links to the far North the regulators might go for it.  I guess if you were serious about it it wouldn't hurt to ask.  You might have to give a little something though like having a dedicated load master sitting with the cargo in flight on 'fire watch' (more on this in a minute).

5) Go to a 757

This idea is really crazy but without a doubt its my personal favorite.  At first glance it might seem odd to suggest replacing a small 115-seat 737-200 with a much larger 234-seat aircraft when your biggest problem is serving long, thin routes with average loads in the 50 passenger range.  But if you look closely there's more to it than meets the eye and I've even heard that First Air seriously considered it a few years ago to replace their 727s.  For starters, even though it is a much bigger aircraft, the 757 burns LESS fuel per flight hour than a 737-200.  That's right, those big, high-bypass turbofans (the P&W or the Rolls-Royce versions) are just that much more efficient than the smokey old JT8Ds.  Add to that the fact that its a newer aircraft (they only went out of production in 2005) and your overall operating costs will be lower.  But wait, there's more.  When designing the 757, the potential launch customers had some special requirements.  One wanted an aircraft with enough power to operate at max weight out of the hot and high conditions at their hub in Denver.  Another wanted something that could get in and out of the short runways of their hub at La Guardia Airport in New York City.  So Boeing stirred in enough magic that the 757 is certified to operate from the 6000ft. runways that are common in the North.  It would also have long enough 'legs' to do whatever charter work might be required of it (non-stop Ft.McMurray to Halifax?).  Now, granted, there would be a requirement to purchase some new ground handling equipment (mostly airstairs) for all the Northern destinations.  Another plus is that the 757 is based on first generation electronic flight controls that have been well tested over the years.  This means you wouldn't have the issues with extreme cold weather and 'state-of-the-art' electronics that seem to be common in Canada. 

OK, so its cheaper to fly and can get in and out of all the required destinations.  How does that replace a combi?  Well, a plane designed for 200+ passengers has a pair of cavernous baggage holds.  Easily enough space for 100 pax worth of luggage AND the equivalent of two or three main deck pallets of a combi.  If you wanted to get really creative, you could custom build mini-ULD containers of about 70 cubic feet that would fit in the 757 cargo holds.  5 of those would equal an existing main deck ULD container and you could carry at least 10 of these below deck and still have room for a large load of baggage and loose freight.  And it gets better yet!  In the 1980s Boeing offered and certified an actual 757 combi (the 757M).  There were some restrictions, however.  For some reason they only had two main deck pallet positions.  Furthermore, a caveat in the FAA Type Approval requires a person on-board, with no other duties, maintaining a continuous fire watch over the main deck cargo.  Most airlines must have thought that kind of sucked and only a single 757M was ever built (still in service with Nepal Airlines).  However, it would still be possible and legal to convert a 757-200 to a 757M.  Most of the parts are compatible with the 737 (same fuselage diameter) and there are currently lots of 757-200s being converted to full freighters.  If that was done, in addition to the lower deck cargo you would also have the option to carry a pair of main deck pallets for those peak freight loads in the spring and early winter when the highway river crossings are unavailable.  You'd have to grab some flunky from the cargo shed to babysit the freight on the way but it wouldn't be a regular occurrence.

So we've got the freight capacity that we need, now what do we do with all those seats?  If I was running the airline, I'd replace the existing layout with a 90-seat all 'business class' configuration and just keep charging the regular, everyday high fare.  That number of seats would be adequate to meet the usual loads and given a choice between an economy class seat in a noisy old 737 and a no-extra-charge business class seat in a quiet, modern 757 I know which one I'd pick.  Any airline that did that would quickly dominate the passenger market and likely push any competition off those routes entirely.  Who wants to go first?

This pair of DHC-6 Twin Otters waits for the call outside the Aklak Air hanger at Inuvik.

With the rollout of the first new-build 400-series Twin Otter approaching I thought it would be appropriate to look back at the series of aircraft built by deHavilland Canada that so perfectly filled the tiny niche market of short-field high-performance bush planes.

Originally a division of the British deHavilland Aircraft Company, after WWII deHavilland Canada started production of it own designs focusing on the unique requirements of the Canadian wilderness.  Despite changing owners several times in the last 25 years (being owned by the Canadian Government, Boeing, and now Bombardier Aerospace) the company has produced many innovative and commercially successful aircraft over the last 50 years.

Their first offering (not counting the DHC-1 Chipmunk trainer that was designed during the war) was the venerable DHC-2 Beaver.  Developed in 1947, the Beaver literally redefined what a "bush plane" was supposed to be.  Its STOL capabilities and 2000lb. payload were so impressive that during the 20 year production run deHavilland sold over a thousand aircraft to various militaries around the world (mostly the US Army).  Of the 1700 built a large number are stilll flying today, many with a conversion to turbine power.  I recall flying in one many years ago on a trip out to the middle of nowhere on the Arctic Ocean for an ice monitoring project.

The follow on to the Beaver was the DHC-3 Otter, a larger version of the Beaver with a new high-lift wing able to carry twice as much payload.  First flown in 1951, the Otter was a huge leap forward in capability.  Almost 500 were built and it again caught the attention of the US Army which purchased the bulk of the production as the U-1A Otter. 

With its attention now focused on the military market, the next in the series was the DHC-4 Caribou.  Built primarily to meet a US Army specification for a twin engine tactical transporter, the Caribou first flew in 1958 and most saw extensive service in Vietnam although many were built for other militaries (including Canada) and a few civilian operators.  Very few Caribou's are still flying today but there are some and even a handful of conversions to turbine power.

Canadian Forces DHC-5 Buffalo 452 on the ramp in Inuvik after a local SAR mission.

Designed as an improved Caribou, the DHC-5 Buffalo was again aimed at the military market however just prior to full production the main customer (again the US Army) was mandated out of fixed wing aircraft operations.  In the end, by 1982 only 122 examples had been built (all military) after 20 years of extremely low-rate production.  An attempt at a civilian version designated the DHC-5D 'Transporter' was cancelled after a dramatic crash of the demonstrator at the Farnborough Air Show in 1984.  Most existing military operators have or are planning to retire the Buffalo very soon so more airframes will likely be showing up on the civilian market.

737-200 C-FJLB as 'Air North 467' on the ramp at Inuvik instead of the usual 'Empress 467' of Canadian North.

Flying scheduled and charter services from Whitehorse, Yukon for over 30 years, Air North began jet operations in 2002 with a pair of ex-Royal Aviation 737s.  Making the most of their two birds they connect Whitehorse with Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary on a daily basis while (usually) keeping one aircraft on the ground at all times to save on insurance costs.  Occasionally though they will make arrangements to allow the second one to be chartered out.  In this particular instance Canadian North happens to have too many of their own 737s down for maintenance at the moment and needed another aircraft to fill in on their northern route out of Calgary.

This Nolinor 737-200C C-GTUK sat on the ramp at -40C all day last week on a charter doing a crew change for the scientific expedition on the Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen.  From one extreme to the other, this bird was picked up late last year from the Moroccan carrier Royal Air Maroc.

I've often speculated about how much longer the Northern carriers are going to continue operating their aging fleet of 737-200 aircraft.  After a bit of research on the subject I've come to the conclusion that they'll just keep them flying until something better comes along.  Here's the top 10 reasons why:

First Air L-382G Hercules C-GUSI unloading on the ramp in Inuvik

While Inuvik is fortunate to have an all weather highway to the south there are two river crossings on the road that are unavailable during freeze up (November) and break up (May).  During these months our only access to the outside world is via air.  Late night freighters are common at this time as well as heavy freight loads on the scheduled flights.

The L-382G (also known as L-100-30) 'stretched' Hercules is the most common version in worldwide commercial service.  First Air operates the only civilian Hercules fleet in Canada with two aircraft based in Yellowknife.

Commercial Hercules operations in the Canadian Arctic date back to 1967 when Pacific Western Airlines became the first carrier in Canada to operate the type.  During the seventies and eighties they operated a fleet of the bulk cargo carriers mostly supporting Arctic oil and gas exploration in the winter and worldwide charter freight in the summer.  Unlike most of PWA's Northern legacy which was passed down to Canadian North, the last PWA Hercules (C-GHPW) was purchased by Northwest Territorial Airlines in 1985.  NWT Air was purchased by First Air in 1998 and C-GHPW makes up the other half of their current Hercules fleet.

The bulk of the Aklak Air fleet lined up on the apron at Inuvik.  In order of appearance:  Beechcraft 99 C-GKBK, Beechcraft 100 C-GWWA, Embraer Bandeirante C-GKCP, deHavilland Twin Otter C-GDHC

Operated for Aklak by Kenn Borek Air, these aircraft represent most of the regional traffic between Inuvik and the surrounding communities.

Interestingly, C-GKBK was once flown by my brother-in-law on a United Nations contract in Pakistan back in the early 90's when he was with Kenn Borek.  He now drives 737s for WestJet.

Canadian Forces CC-177 (Boeing C-17 Globemaster III) 177702 touches down on runway 06 at Inuvik.

Officially delivered by Boeing to the Canadian Forces at Long Beach, California only a few days ago, this C-17 arrived in Inuvik on its very first operational deployment delivering refueling equipment for the FOL.  With a 170ft wingspan, length of 174ft and a maximum gross takeoff weight of 585,000lbs this is the largest aircraft that has ever landed at Inuvik.  Several more flights are anticipated over the next while.

Canadian Forces CC-177 (Boeing C-17 Globemaster III) 177702 on the ramp at Inuvik.

The second of four strategic airlifters purchased from Boeing, these airframes were originally intended for the USAF but were granted to Canada in order to accelerate delivery.  Canada has traditionally relied on commercial cargo freighters for strategic airlift but during global crises and natural disasters the commercial capacity is quickly used up.  Adding the C-17 to its inventory will allow Canada to have an indigenous capability to move heavy loads and strategic cargo wherever and whenever required.  In addition to the C-17, Canada has also contracted with Lockheed-Martin for 17 new C-130J transports to replace its aging Hercules fleet.

More photos of the C-17 are here.

Buffalo Airways Curtiss C-46D C-FAVO takes on a load of avgas at Inuvik for a charter flight hauling building supplies.

Delivered to the USAF in 1945 as 44-77846 this C-46D is one of two Commando's currently in service with the 'flying museum' of Buffalo Airways .  Based in Hay River, Northwest Territories, Buffalo operates a large fleet of classic propliners including DC-3s, DC-4s, C-46s, PBYs and a recently acquired pair of L-188C Electras (among other less glamorous types).

Blower 134 pulls off to let a Canadian Forces CC-130H (KC-130 tanker) pass on taxiway 'B'

Winter arrived right on schedule today with several inches of snow falling on the airport.  Most of the snow fell in the space of a couple of hours early in the afternoon resulting in a successful 'all hands' effort to keep the runway clear.  Inuvik actually gets less snow than most places in Southern Canada but by mid-October the temperature stays below freezing so the snow doesn't melt until May.