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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
It was an excellent weekend weather-wise for the Midnight Sun Float Plane Fly-in, but for the second time in as many years, attendance was down for the biennial event.

Old friends lingered over breakfast and coffee on the former Ward Air dock on Back Bay, sharing memories and making new ones on the opening day of the Float Plane Fly-In. - Jack Danylchuk/NNSL photo

"The weather was perfect; we had a nice crowd for the Ice Pilots Jamboree," said Hal Logsdon, president of the NWT Float Plane Association.

More than a hundred people thronged Pilot's Monument for the fly-past Sunday morning, then lingered in Old Town for the MLA barbecue on the Ward Air dock. Another 200 attended the closing banquet Sunday evening.

There was no shortage of space for visiting aircraft. It might have been otherwise if a trio of pilots from British Columbia wasn't grounded in Fort St. John for most of the weekend by bad weather. They appeared in time for the closing banquet Sunday, bringing the float plane total to 17 for the three-day fly-in.

In 2009, organizer Yvonne Quick blamed the global economic downturn when 22 planes made the journey to Yellowknife, almost one-third less than the 30 that attended the fly-in two years earlier.

With the exception of Joe McBryan's Norseman and a brief appearance by Max Ward and his single Otter, vintage aircraft were absent; most of the fly-in pilots arrived in familiar Cessna 185s.

Far from dismayed by this year's turnout, Quick said she was pleased with the attendance at barbecues and banquets. She cited weather in British Columbia for keeping all but three of 10 pilots registered from the province from making it all the way to Yellowknife.

Smoke in northern Manitoba forced another four aircraft to turn back, she said.

"So I'm not disappointed at all," said Quick.

Quick said several pilots used the fly-in as a launch pad for exploration of the Northwest Territories, and included Great Bear Lake, Bathurst Inlet and Nunavut in their flight plans.

During the weekend, visiting float planes were scattered at docks around Old Town, with space for several more.

"We thought we weren't going to have enough, but with the cancellations, we had plenty of space," said Logsdon, who welcomed a proposal for float plane docks and a walkway on Morrison Drive outlined in the latest version of the city’s harbour plan.

"If there is parking for visiting float planes, people are going to come here. It has tremendous tourism potential. I'm convinced we would fill any space provided with visiting float planes."

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