The 2013 Iqaluit airshow was held in conjunction with Nunavut day evenings on July 9, 2013.  The weather co-operated for this edition of the bi-annual Iqaluit Air Show.  This event has proven popular over the last few years, and this year was no exception. There was a big turnout for the static displays, and the fly-by of Royal Canadian Air Force Aurora and CF-18 aircraft.

Here in the Eastern Arctic, air travel is the way everyone gets everywhere.  There are no roads between communities, or to the south.  So we all rely heavily on the aviation industry for things like transportation, shipping, medical emergency travel, search and rescue, and exploration.  That translates into lots of interest in planes and flying.  We were lucky enough to participate in the the first Iqaluit Air Show in 2009, when we owned a Cessna 172 here.  It was was fun then, and fun now.

CanAero Publishing has a website with interesting information about their books, ebooks, and Canadian aviation generally.  You'll find some interesting slide shows and articles as well.  CanAero was known for publishing Aviation Canada magazine.  Check out Bob Baglow's CanAero site here.

Jack Wiegand completed the trip of a lifetime in just 58 days. He planned to set a Guinness World Record as the youngest person to fly solo around the world.  He was in Iqaluit for a few days between May 6 and 10, 2013.  His stop here was a bit longer than expected, due to some bad luck with a forgotten passport.  But with that behind him, he set off to see the world and complete his mission.  You can check out Jack's trip on his website, his Facebook page, or his daily Blog.

He was flying a 2006 Mooney Ovation2 GX N432BG.  And he used the trip to raise funds for a couple of his favourite charities.  You'll find more about that on his webpage, along with a complete live track of his round the world flight.

The photo shows Jack in his immersion suit in front of Frobisher Bay Touchdown Services here at CYFB, Iqaluit, Nunavut, just before he headed off to Greenland for the next leg of his trip on May 10th. Clck on the photo to enlarge.

Matevž Lenarčič is attempting something few have tried.  He's flying an advanced ultralight from Slovenia to Iqaluit, over the north pole, and then back to Europe over the north Atlantic.

The project is called Greenlight Worldflight. It takes him through northern Europe, to Svalbard, Norway and over the pole. On the Canadian side, he landed at the Enivronment Canada weather station at Eureka, then on to Resolute Bay, Nunavut and arriving in  Iqaluit on May 7, 2013. After a few minor repairs, he left Iqaluit May 10th, heading south to St. John's Newfoundland. From there, he's following the path of Charles Lindbergh across the North Atlantic to Kerry, Ireland, and then back to Slovenia.  A remarkable trip.

And he's doing it in a small plane.  He's flying the Pipistrel Virus-SW in a standard configuration.  Along the way, he's planning to collect black carbon data for scientific analysis.

We're following his trip on the Greenlight Worldflight website tracking page, which is using real-time tracking data from Spidertracks. You'll find lots of great information about the trip on the Greenlight site.

This Airbus A320-232 Prestige (A6-HMS) was in CYFB Iqaluit, Nunavut on April 23, 2013 to pick up Shaikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, the Crown Prince of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates. He was in Nunavut on a polar bear hunting trip to the high Arctic. He visited Resolute and Grise Fiord earlier in the week.

A6-HMS is operated by the Dubai Royal Air Wing, the government airline of the UAE.

The Polar Pumpkin has made to the north pole. Alaskan bush pilot Art Mortvedt achieved his goal of flying his 1980 Cessna A185F N90SN to the geographic north pole on April 6, 2012. Mortvedt is a veteran of many expeditions to Antarctica, and 6 seasons of scientific work on the northern polar ice pack.  He landed this plane at the south pole in 1999.

Mortvedlt  made it as far north as the Eureka weather station on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut in 2011.  But bad weather and the closing of the Russian Barneo ice station made it a bad idea to try the Eureka to 90 North trip that year. He has a detailed trip log posted on his website, including photos taken along the way.

He spent more time preparing for the flight and speaking about the trip in various places in the United States. Here's Art at Oshkosh explaining the story of the Polar Pumpkin.

His website features a flight log of this year's trip which took him from Alaska through the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut in Canada, and on to Barneo and the pole.

This 1966 Piper PA-30 Twin Commanche N8234Y had a gear-up problem on landing at CYFB Iqaluit, Nunavut around 6pm local time on March 30, 2013.  The plane was up from the US, having just completed a leg from Kuujjuaq, Quebec. The owner reports that they had a good gear down indication on final, but the right gear was not fully locked when they landed. The other two landing gear collapsed during the landing.  He says it was  "actually not very dramatic, and the damage was light".  The plane skidded on its belly and came to a stop on the west edge of the runway..  Emergency crews were called out, but there was no fire or fuel leak.

Local crews spent a number of hours trying to jack it up and get the gear to drop and lock.  This photo shows the work underway trying to get the plane back up on its wheels. The mishap closed the first 4,000 feet of the 8,500 Runway 34 for about a number of hours while the plane was moved, however most of the evening turbo-prop scheduled flights were able to land.

The plane remained here for a couple of seasons while the owner arranged for repairs.

The Northern Air Transport Association is holding its annual conference and trade show in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories from April 8 to 10, 2013.  NATA brings together commercial aviation operations across the Canadian North.

The Airbus A380 returned to CYFB, Iqaluit for some additional cold weather testing in January of 2013.  They spent the better part of a week here, testing a new Rolls-Royce engine. As always, a plane that big in a town this small creates a lot of attention.  Bert Rose and Cam McGregor, part of the original Polar Pilots group here in Iqaluit, got a tour of the plane with test pilot Thierry Bourges.  This photo is Bert Rose sitting in the left seat.  Quite a difference between the cockpit of a C172, and the Airbus A380!

You'll notice the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine, painted blue, in this photo of the A380 parked on taxiway Bravo at CYFB, Iqaluit.  The photo is courtesy of Airbus. Click on the photo to enlarge.

A dramatic search and rescue near Arviat, Nunavut on January 9, 2013 turned a rescuer into the rescued.   Around 3:45 pm that day, a Custom Helicopters Bell 206 Jet Ranger (C-GGZS)  that had been hired pick two hunters off of the sea ice broke through the ice on landing.  The hunters who were to be rescued by the helicopter had to help the pilot from the machine as it slipped partially into the water and turned on its side.

The hunters were overdue from a seal hunting trip on the night of January 8th. They were on an ice pan that broke off from the land fast ice, preventing them from getting back to their snowmobiles and equipment.  The Canadian Forces Search and Rescue were called in when the men didn't return to Arviat as planned.  The Joint Rescue Control Centre dispatched a Hercules search aircraft, which located the men early on the morning of January 9th  Attempts by local Arviat searchers to reach the men by boat failed due to the extreme cold. Temperatures at the time were below -30 degress celcius, with wind chills making it feel like about -50.

The Canadian Forces then called in the private helicopter which was based in Gillam, Manitoba.  Hunter Joe Karetak picks up the story here.

The Custom Jet Ranger C-GGZS arrived on scene and attempted the rescue, with the Hercules circling above.  When C-GGZS ran into trouble, Search and Rescue technicians parachuted down from the Herc to assist.  All were picked up by a Canadian Forces Griffon helicopter which was enroute to the scene from CFB Cold Lake, Alberta. The Griffon arrived about 20 or 30 minutes after the mishap with the Custom Helicopters machine, according to a Canadian Forces spokesperson.

The two hunters and the Custom pilot flown to Arviat,  Nunavut, where they were treated for hypothermia at the nursing station and released.

The Transportation Safety Board is interviewing everyone involved in the incident, but may not conduct a full investigation, according to CBC North News. Here's the Civil Aviation Daily Occurence Report on the incident

A Perimeter Aviation Fairchild SA227-AC Metro III (C-GFWX) crashed at Sanikiluaq, Nunavut around 6:15pm Eastern Time on December 22, 2012.  The plane was chartered by Keewatin Air, and was enroute to Sanikiluaq from Winnipeg, Manitoba.    There were seven passengers and two crew aboard the flight.  A six month old child was killed in the crash.

The plane was on a second landing attempt on Runway 27 at the time of the crash.  The Transportation Safety Board says it landed hard, and then went down beyond the west end of the runway.  There was blowing snow at the time.  There was no post-crash fire, and most of passengers were able to get out of the plane on their own.  People from the community drove to the crash site with snowmobiles and sleds to transport the injured to the local nursing station.  Sanikiluaq is small Inuit community on the Belcher Islands, in the southeast corner of Hudson Bay.  It has no doctor or hospital.  The pilot and co-pilot were flown to Winnipeg for treatment, and later released.

The wreckage of the plane has been removed from the crash site, and stored in two sea-lift containers.  It will be shipped south at the beginning of the summer shipping season.

The death of the infant is prompting some calls for the use child safety seats on commercial aircraft.

The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. An investigator was in Sanikiluaq on December 27, 2012. They'll be examining the flight data recorder, which has been recovered from the crash site.  Information on the TSB investigation, including a Google map of the area, is available here

NavCanada, the company the runs Canada's air navigation system, has recently made available electronic versions of the Canada Air Pilot (IFR approaches plates, etc), various VNC navigation charts and other publications.  You'll find the order page here.  There is a fee for online purchase of the publications. The files are downloadable PDFs, that allow you to print your required pages.

For Nunavut, you'll want E-CAP1 for IFR; the map at the left shows the VNC chart numbers; Hi and Lo level enroute charts are also available.

If printed at the correct resolution, the electronic versions are authorized for in-flight navigation. (Up to 4800 optimized dpi colour (up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi colour and 1200 Input dpi).

Seems like just about every network has an aviation-related program these days.  And National Geographic TV Canada has added one to their mix of shows.  Alaska Wing Men takes on a number of flights with pilots flying small, single engine aircraft in the challenging skies of Alaska.  The show is features alot of flying, including some interesting glacier and rough terrain landings.  Check it out here... they have shorter video segments from the show available for on line viewing.

The Air Line Pilots Association says creating GPS approaches for both ends of all northern airports would improve air safety in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.  Devin Lyall told CBC News the Association has identified 28 airports in Nunavut and the NWT that would benefit from the additional GPS approaches. He says airports would also benefit from lengthening and paving, though he acknowledges that comes at a high cost./ Lyall says the ALPA has formed a committee on Remote Operations, which includes pilots from First Air, Canadian North, Calm Air, and Air Alaska.

Photo at left shows Cessna 172 C-GOLJ turning final for 24T CYXP Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Click to enlarge.

Transport Canada has introduced new regulations requiring "private turbine-powered and commercial airplanes with six or more passenger seats to be equipped with an alert system known as the “terrain awareness and warning system” (TAWS).

In a written statement on July 4, 2012, Transport Canada noted the following:

"The new regulations will replace the current regulatory requirement for a ground proximity warning system (GPWS) under section 605.37 of the Canadian Aviation Regulations. In comparison to GPWS, TAWS gives the flight crew much earlier acoustic and visual warnings of a collision, and does so under conditions where GPWS cannot. "

"The regulatory amendments require TAWS to be installed with an enhanced altitude accuracy function. TAWS requires precise altitude information to work properly in all climates. Without the enhanced altitude accuracy function, TAWS may give altitude readings that are incorrect by up to 500 feet because of factors such as air pressure and frigid temperatures."

The Canadian Aviation Regulations are available on line. And here's the updated Advisory Circular 600-003 with more details on the requirements (Oct 2013)

If you're not familiar with TAWS, here's a quick look at the system by Universal Avionics.  And here's a background paper from 2006 from the International Civil Aviation Organization discussing the value of TAWs based systems.