by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 26/97) - Commercial flight in the North is older than the city of Yellowknife itself.

Flight opened up the vast spaces and resources of the North to prospectors, merchants and industry from the South.

The city, established after gold was discovered on the shores of Yellowknife Bay, has flourished as a staging and resupply point for mineral exploration and trapping.

For 50 years airplanes have been flying to and from Yellowknife airport, delivering the goods, people and equipment that have fed the NWT economy.

"The North was opened up by airplanes and maintained by airplanes," said "Buffalo" Joe McBryan, who's been flying in the North for 30 years. "They complement each other very well."

From its official opening, Aug. 11, 1947, until July 1, 1995, the Yellowknife airport was administered by the federal government. In 1995 it and eight other territorial airports were handed over to the territorial government.

Today, the airport handles about 10,500 tonnes of cargo and over 200,000 passengers each year.

Changing technology

In the old days, pilots had little in the way of electronic navigation. Today, the longer of the Yellowknife Airport's two runways offers Instrument Landing System linkage, which guides approaches to the runway.

A Global Positioning Satellite approach system has just been installed for the other runway.

Before the airport was built, planes from the south landed at a rude gravel airstrip, built in 1944 at a cost of $450, a half kilometre from the airport. Most planes headed north from the airport left on skis or floats, since there were few airstrips in the settlements.

"Back then it was a way of life," said McBryan. "There were virtually no roads in the NWT, so people learned to fly like they learn to drive in most other places -- just like a farm boy learns to drive a vehicle when he's really young, in this case it was planes."

McBryan, an early starter

McBryan, who has owned Buffalo Air since 1970, recalled his how grade school teacher would let him out of class to take flying lessons. By the time he was in Grade 10 he could fly on his own.

During his 26 years of flying in the North, McBryan has seen commercial flight go through a number of changes.

"We weren't nearly as dependent on government and environmental groups as we are today," recalled McBryan of his early days. "We were supported mainly by Northern bush people."

The passenger lists have grown and the backgrounds changed. Today government officials, geologists, biologists and residents travelling to and from the South pass through Yellowknife.

"An airport is a very good barometer of the health and activity of an economy," noted airport manager Tom Cook.

Eighteen of the NWT's largest private companies have a presence at the airport, companies such as RTL Robinson, Ptarmigan Airways, First Air, Brandenbury Expediting, Buffalo Airways.

A changing business

The business of running an airline has also changed dramatically since the early days.

A cell phone is McBryan's constant companion. He answers questions from a newspaper reporter while on the run, pausing only to answer numerous phone calls coming in on the cell phone.

During one call, from California, he discusses moving some freight up to Yellowknife, but insists it be delivered in trailers rather than containers. None are available to lease.

McBryan tells his contact in the South to check the Internet to find out what trailers are available to buy and get back to him that day.

While the way business is done has changed, McBryan insists the thing that brought airplanes to the North has not -- opportunity.

"You've got to make a deal with the devil to come back four times to investigate 'em all," he said.

"This place is vibrant with opportunities for anyone willing to get up in the morning and go to work."