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.