Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Aug 11/00) - This pilot prefers flying float planes.

"All the other planes are flying from runway to runway, but we're able to land at different areas and see different parts of the country," David Musselwhite explained, "people's cabins and stuff like that."

Musselwhite flies Cessna aircraft -- 206s, 207s, 185s and 180s -- equipped with either wheels or skis.

"I prefer the 206 turbo," he revealed. "The 206 turbo is 350 horsepower, and it's got turbo on it, so it produces 350 horsepower continuously."

Musselwhite works for Arctic Wings, but not full-time. In fact, he's only working for them while on vacation from his GNWT job.

"We meet a lot of interesting tourists coming up to look at the land, and also interesting people that are kayaking or canoeing. In the fall, we have hunters, sport hunters, coming up."

Musselwhite said he enjoys "meeting all the people and finding out where they're from and what they do, and why they like their sport, whether it's kayaking or canoeing."

His interest in flying comes naturally; his father was a pilot during the Second World War.

"I sort of got interested through that," Musselwhite said. "We operated a farm in Manitoba. We had our own farm airstrip, so we had an aircraft on the farm all the time."

Musselwhite has been a pilot since 1967 and moved to Inuvik in 1976. He's owned several aircraft over the years. With a laugh, he said that "most flights are adventures."

"A lot of these people we take out, well, most of them are quite prepared when we take them out, but some are overprepared. And some are taking out unnecessary things for canoe trips and stuff like that," he said.

"A lot of people with canoes go out and have problems with bears and stuff like that, so we have to go and rescue them."

Musselwhite has seen many interesting sights in his travels, but said some of the more unusual would be mirages which appear over water or the delta in certain conditions.

"It's there but it isn't there. For example, you might see the mountains. You know the mountains aren't really there, but the mirages show the mountains right in front of you."