Yellowknife (June 27/03) - Jamie Tait has been flying in the North for 25 years and he says there's nothing he would rather have underneath him than two floats.

"I've had to set my plane down on the Alaska Highway a couple of times," said Tait, owner of Yellowknife's Summit Air.

"When you run into problems up here, there aren't many places to land. If you don't have floats (on your plane), you'd better hope there's a highway nearby."

The scarcity of landing zones is the main reason why float planes have become the workhorses of Northern aviation.

"The North wouldn't have opened up without them," said Boyd Warner, operations manager at Arctic Excursions.

Float planes have been used to do everything from transporting groceries to Cambridge Bay to tracing diamond sediments along in the Mackenzie Valley.

Frigid temperatures, snowstorms and malfunctioning compasses make the North one of the most challenging places to fly.

"It can be difficult at times," said Jeffrey Lai, a pilot at Summit Air.

For many isolated communities, bush pilots provide a vital link to the outside world.

"We haul groceries and cargo to places that don't have any road access," said Lai. "Lots of times, we're the only connection they have."

They also provide essential medical services to many Northern communities.

"When something goes wrong, time is the most important element," said Paul Laserich, head of Adlair.

Laserich's family has been ferrying pregnant women and heart attack victims out of isolated communities for the last 50 years.

"My father has actually had six babies born in his plane," said Laserich.

The construction of air strips in many Northern communities has displaced Beavers and Otters as the primary means of evacuating people. Adlair recently purchased a Lear Jet that cuts flying time in half. But Laserich still has a place in his heart for the older float planes.

"They're great to fly," he said.

Float planes like Beavers and Otters also have remarkably long shelf lives.

"They are extremely reliable planes," said Laserich.

"Ours was made in the 1950s and it still flies great."

More than 20 aircraft from across North America are expected at this weekend's float plane fly-in.