One of our most memorable visitors was George Vose, who came to Iqaluit back in 1999.  George didn't fly his Cessna 172 up here from his home at Taurus Mesa near Alpine, Texas. Despite having logged tens of thousands of flying hours, he said he wasn't all that keen on the long flight over Hudson Strait in a single engine plane.  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.

So we went out for a couple of rides in C-GOLJ. Over the few days he was here, we explored the area about 100 miles around Iqaluit.  He pronounced it worth the trip from Texas.  George is pictured here with Iqaluit resident Scottie Monteith who joined George and Patrick Nagle for a local flight.

George was quite a pilot. You can read about one of his flying adventures in the book On the Wing, by Allan Tennant. It is quite an amazing story of George and Allan tracking a peregrine falcon from Mexico and the Caribbean all the way to Alaska in a Cessna 172.

In 2005, George was honoured with a well-deserved FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award after 66 years of flying! He was also honoured with a regional FAA Safety Team award in 2008.

In December 2014,  George wrote us that he was still going strong, maintaining his pilot and CFI ratings into his 90s. You can read a bit about him at the Hartlee Times.

We were greatly saddened to learn that George passed away on March 7, 2016, at the Fort Stockton Living and Rehabilitation Center, down the road from his home in Alpine.  He was a remarkable man.  He kept in touch over the 15 years since his visit here, and we looked forward to his emails and annual Christmas newsletter.  You can learn a little more about him through this obituary.