Ice Pilots NWT is a new "reality TV" show on Canada's History Television channel.  It tells the story of Buffalo Airways, an airline based in the Northwest Territories. Buffalo is renowned for its fleet of classic rotary engine planes, and for their ability to deliver the goods to many small communities in northern Canada.

The show has the usual reality TV trappings, but features a fair bit of flight time in many of Buffalo's ancient aircraft.  The show has great website, including video of full episodes of the show on-line.

In the summer of 2009, John Lovelace of "Wings Over Canada" fame, undertook a major flight project to celebrate the Century of Flight.  The Cross Canada Century Flight saw 100 small planes to make the long trip.

The success of the Cross Canada Century Flight has led to the creation of the Century Flight Club.  They're planning annual general aviation flight events.  In 2010, the Midnight Sun Challenge will see 100 small planes travel to Whitehorse, the capital city of Canada's Yukon territory.  Yukon is a great place to visit, with the colourful history of the Gold Rush, strong aboriginal cultures, and miles and miles and miles of beautiful scenery.

They're taking registrations for the Midnight Sun Challenge now, but the places will probably go quickly.  For more information, visit their website.

Now that winter's here, the number of smaller planes coming through Iqaluit using 100LL avgas has dropped off again.

Very little avgas tends to be used over the winter months, so it is likely the number of drums on hand will remain relatively unchanged. We'll update this avgas check about once a month until we reach spring.

Current price per 205 litre drum is $449.31 (At July 15, 2009).  You have to buy the whole drum.

Contact Uqsuq Corporation for information about aviation fuel at CYFB Iqaluit, Nunavut. The details are on our Iqaluit Airport Information Page.

Check out our Trip Reports and Visits pages for some new additions.  We have links to a trip report from Washington State, USA to Europe by Gary and Alice Nelson; the blog from another Cessna 182 trip from Vancouver, BC to Europe, and a link to blog of an ultralight pilot who took is Challenger from Montreal to the Arctic Coast community of Kugluktuk.

Have you made an arctic trip in a small plane?  Send us your story!

Air Canada Jazz is beginning daily flight service between Montreal/Ottawa and Iqaluit starting in March 2010.

The announcement was made on November 9, 2009.   The airline plans to use the Bombardier CRJ-705 Regional Jet on the route.  This is Air Canada's first move to serve Canada's Eastern Arctic, though it follows service expansions to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Whitehorse, Yukon.

Air Canada Jazz also announced an introductory fare of $659 one way (before taxes) between Ottawa and Iqaluit.  That spurred immediate announcements of similar seat sale fares by both Canadian North and First Air. On November 10, Canadian North posted a $659 (before taxes/one way) seat sale fare, while First Air posted a $599 (before taxes/one way) seat sale fare on Ottawa/Iqaluit route. Within a day, all three airlines were posting nearly identical fares on the Ottawa/Iqaluit route.  While these price ware fares are less expensive than recent fares on the route, they hardly compares to fares of less than $100 one way in the current price war on the Yellowknife/Edmonton route in the Western Arctic.

The Yellowknife/Edmonton price war was created by the recent move into that route by Air Canada and Westjet, in direct competition with northern carriers Canadian North and First Air. Fares have dropped dramatically, but the northern carriers argue this kind of intense price competition isn't sustainable in the long run.

First Air and Canadian North have competed on the Ottawa/Iqaluit run for years.  And both airlines are renowned for complimentary hot meals and the kind of cabin service that used to be common across the country, but now seems to be found only in the north, or perhaps in Business Class down south.  But regular fares on both airlines can be expensive.  It isn't unusual for a regular return ticket between Ottawa and Iqaluit to run up to about $1,900 after taxes. 

Many Nunavut residents welcome the possibility of lower fares on the Ottawa/Iqaluit route, but there are also concerns that driving those prices down will drive up fares on other routes to the smaller in the Eastern Arctic and have a major impact on the viability of the two northern carriers.

Canadian North and First Air are both Inuit owned. First Air is owned by the Makivik Corporation.  Canadian North is owned by NorTerra Inc.

Gerd and Dorothy Wengler have joined a very elite group. That, of course, is the group of pilots who have landed their private aircraft at Canadian Forces Station Alert, the most northerly airport in North America.

Alert is a restricted military site, so just getting permission to go there takes a lot of work.  And then there's the flight to the top of Ellesmere Island, some 4000 kilometers north of their home near Toronto, Ontario . There is only one small civilian community on Ellesmere - Grise Fiord, about 700 kilometers south of Alert. And there's a weather and science station about halfway up at Eureka. Making that trip is not something for the faint of heart.

Gerd and Dorothy made the Alert trip in mid-August 2009, from their home in southern Ontario.  And from this article on the Canadian Forces website, it sounds like it was quite an adventure.  They made the trip to mark the Centennial of Powered Flight in Canada.

This wasn't their first trip to Canada's Eastern Arctic in their Turbo Skylane.  They visited Iqaluit in the summer of 2005 on the way to Europe. They were back in 2007 for a sightseeing trip to Pangnirtung, Qikiqtarjuaq and Greenland.

We're looking forward to a trip report from Gerd on the Alert trip.  You can read his trip report on the 2005 Europe trip here.

Iqaluit's first Air Show was quite a success.  It brought together a number of static displays, plus a fly-by featuring two Canadian Forces CF-18s, and a show by the Canadian Forces Skyhawks parachute demonstration team.

Overcast skies and cooler temperatures didn't stop hundreds of people from coming out on Saturday, August 22nd to the north apron at CYFB in Iqaluit.

There was lots to see.  On display were First Air's new Boeing 767 cargo plane and an ATR42; four aircraft from the Canadian Forces (CF-18, Aurora, Twin Otter and Seaking helicopter), Transport Canada's ice surveillance DASH-7; a Canadian Helicopters Bell 212; a Canadian Coast Guard BO-105-CBS helicopter; and of course, our little Cessna 172.

Canada's Defence Minister Peter MacKay dropped by, along with the Chief of Defense Staff General Walt Natynczyk. They were in town to observe the Canadian Forces northern military exercise, Operation Nanook, which was underway that week.

Along with the static displays came a chance to see local aircraft at work. Throughout the show, just about everything was on the move: charters, scheduled flights and medevacs: including Kenn Borek Twin Otters, King Airs and DC-3, Air Nunavut's King Airs (which did a fly-by mid afternoon); a Canadian Forces Hercules, a Canadian Forces Challenger jet, and the First Air and Canadian North B737s, DASH-8s, and ATR-42s.

We had a couple of hundred kids (and quite a few adults, too!) visit OLJ during the show.  As you can see from the photo above, the chance to get behind the controls of even a small airplane was irresistible to many.  As one child was heard to say, while pointing across the tarmac at OLJ,  "Mom, I want to go and see the kids' plane!".

Credit for the event goes to Iqaluit Airport Manager John Graham, and Eric Leuthold and his crew at Frobisher Bay Touchdown Services. It was an excellent volunteer effort that brought rave reviews from those who attended.

It's here!  That simple paper pilot license you've carried around for years is being replaced.  Transport Canada has made significant changes to the document, adding more details, including pilot photograph, ratings, machine-readable bar codes and a number of security features.

Most classes of current Canadian pilots are expected to apply for the new documents now.  Current Private Pilot licences were originally set to expire December 31, 2009. The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association  reports that the deadline has been extended to June 30, 2010.  

Commercial Aeroplane and Helicopter and ATP licence holders should also apply immediately. Current licences will now expire June 30, 2010. This is  an extension from the original March 31, 2009 expiry first announced by Transport Canada.

Glider Pilot, Balloon Pilot, Gyroplane pilot permit, recreational and ultra-light licence holders can start applying for the new document on January 1, 2010.  Those categories of existing licences will expire on December 31, 2010.

Don't wait until the last minute to get your application in for the new Canadian Aviation Document Booklet.

Want to know more?  Check this FAQ at the Transport Canada site.

More information about the new license document is also here on the Transport Canada website.

The Advisory Circular from Transport Canada is here.