Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 21, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - "That's it," said pilot Steven Bard of Summit Air, pointing to a black speck in the sky slowly descending toward Vee Lake, to which Bard was driving anxiously last Friday.

From left to right, Summit Air president Dave Mathieson, MMIST technician Trevor Fitzpatrick and Summit Air pilot Mark Elder stand beside the 450-pound (204-kilogram) load they'll drop from the plane in the air using advanced GPS satellite technology that has been used by the American and Canadian military. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

A woman out with her dogs in the surrounding forest stopped her truck by the lake, a dazed look on her face.

"Was that a parachute in the sky, or am I just seeing things?" she said.

As she later found out, the lake was the site of a unique demonstration, as pilots from Summit Air flying an SC-7 Skyvan dropped two 450-pound (204-kilogram) cargo loads (actually crushed rock stuffed in Tupperware containers) from an altitude of 700 feet (213 metres) using an advanced guidance system that has been employed by the U.S. military.

"We're going to be the first commercial operator in North America to attempt this," said Dave Mathieson, co-owner of Summit Air and pilot of the Skyvan, before the demonstration.

The guidance system, called a sherpa and weighing about 20 kilograms, is mounted to the top of the load, and houses a GPS satellite which guides the load to a predetermined set of co-ordinates and triggers a parachute to ensure smooth delivery.

The sherpa has been used by the American military in Afghanistan, said Trevor Fitzpatrick, a master parachute systems technician with MMIST, the Ottawa-based company that created and developed the sherpa.

"Our systems can take up to 2,200 pounds (998 kilograms)," said Fitzpatrick. "We started on this particular load with 450 pounds so that the pilots had an opportunity to see how the system works on a small scale. We'll gradually work our way up to the full weight if things go as smoothly as they did this morning."

While the first load landed slightly to the edge of the lake, the second load landed perfectly in the centre.

The demonstration now in the bag, Summit Air and MMIST are now mulling the long-term effect the technology will have on the ability of air charter companies to drop loads into heavily weather-beaten areas.

"We envision being able to re-supply difficult (communities) with food, fuel, supplies - anything they wish," said Fitzpatrick. "We're talking about areas that don't have a place where you can land the aircraft, or in weather that's possibly not conducive to landing an aircraft.

"You can drop the system through clouds."

Marc Elder, the Summit Air co-pilot during the demonstration, said he believes the system can be deployed anywhere in the world.

"I can see Summit Air moving with it certainly in Northern Canada. The issue with most companies that would like to use this is cost. But the Skyvan aircraft that we used today is by far the cheapest out there to dispatch load," he said.

"The possibilities are endless with this system."

Elder said he could not disclose which companies serviced by Summit Air would be interested in the new method of deployment.