Gary and Alice Nelson flew their Cessna Skylane from Washington State to Europe through Iqaluit in 2006.  Their trip report contains lots of interesting aviation and tourism information, with some great details about spots we don't often hear about, like Coral Harbour, Nunavut and some of the southern stops in Greenland.

They encountered some interesting weather, and have some good photos of approaches to some of the smaller airports on the way. 

Our Cessna 172 C-GOLJ is one of a very few private planes in Nunavut.  And though we're fairly far north by southern Canadian standards, our home in Iqaluit is not the most northerly spot for private aviation in Nunavut.  Check out this blog from Larry in Kugluktuk CYCO (formerly known as Coppermine) on the Arctic Coast.

The Great Arctic Air Adventure recently completed a trip to the North Magnetic Pole by float plane.  That’s not something you see up here everyday… visit their site for photos, videos and more. The trip took off from the west Coast, travelled through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and visited a number of Nunavut communties, including Cambridge Bay and Resolute Bay before returning south via the Nunavik region of Northern Quebec. The float equipped deHavilland Beaver would have reminded some of the older arctic residents of the kind of planes that found their way north in the 1940s to 1960s.

Paul Nopper and his Aviat Husky visited the South Baffin Island region a few times.  He has a great trip report on line, with lots of photos, of his 2000 trip to Qikiqtarjuaq through Auyuittuq National Park.  As you read, remember this was nearly 10 years ago: the prices have changed!

Paul had an experience on one of those trips that reminds us of the unforgiving nature of the terrain, and how fast weather conditions can

Meeting Brian Milton was quite an event.  He was the first person to travel around the world in a microlight, back in 1998. And that, of course, brought him through Iqaluit.  He had quite a story to tell about his amazing trip in an open ultralight.  Much of the story is detailed in his book Global Flyer. And you can check out this article which names him one of the Top 20 great British adventurers.

One of our most memorable visitors was George Vose.  George didn't fly his Cessna 172 up here from his home at Taurus Mesa near Alpine, Texas. Despite tens of thousands of flying hours, he said he wasn't all that keen on the long flight over Hudson Strait.  And he said he just wanted to have a look around, to see the landscape he remembered hearing about as a school boy in the United States.

Ras Nielsen has owned this beautiful Beech 18 since the 1960s. He stopped by Iqaluit on a refuelling stop on a trip from Seattle, Washington to the Stauning Air Rally in Denmark in May of 2007. This airplane really turned heads here in Iqaluit.

You can read the story of their adventure on his blog, which also has some great pictures of the trip. Click HERE and HERE, as well as on the picture at the left for more views of the Beech. (photos courtesy of John Graham).

Uwe Thomas Carstensen did a two part 'round the world trip in 2007. He arrived in Iqaluit in some rather bad weather on September 6, 2007. His website contains a trip report on the adventure, including photos of the Churchill, Manitoba to Iqaluit, Nunavut section.

Something you don't see lined up at the fuel station everyday in Iqaluit - float planes. The nearest water here is Frobisher Bay. Salt water, high tides, and pretty rough if the wind is blowing.  As a result, float planes are few and far between. 

But that didn't stop these intrepid amphibs from stopping by on a sunny Sunday in July 2008.  You'll see a Cessna 210 out front, a beautiful deHavilland Beaver, and a Bushhawk. We've even seen a Lake Amphibian once or twice.