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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
If you're not a fan of flying, try spending a few hours around the 20 flying enthusiasts who came to Yellowknife from all over Canada and the U.S. this week and you won't stay that way very long. Their joy for flying spills over to anyone nearby.

Brian Branscomb and Dave Williams from the San Francisco area flew the Air Cam, a open cockpit plane with two engines, 25 flying hours to get to Yellowknife to join fellow flying enthusiasts on Aug. 3. - Heather Lange/NNSL photo

Kyle Mostowy from Victoria B.C., who organized the flying posse which is unrelated to the Midnight Sun Float Plane Fly-In held in Yellowknife two weeks ago, describes Air Sport Adventure as a loosely-based group of flying enthusiasts who get together once a year. He said this was the second year for the group and last year about 100 airplanes flew to Whitehorse. They had to scale back the number of planes considerably this year because a lack of infrastructure for small privately owned planes in Yellowknife.

This year approximately 18 airplanes and two helicopters took part, most of the airplanes being built from a kit. Their primary purpose?

“To share the adventure with everyone else,” said Brian Branscomb, a pilot from Half Moon Bay, Calif., 25 miles south of San Francisco. He flew 25 hours to get here in a home-built Air Cam, which had an open cockpit, two seats both with flying controls and two engines.

With no obstruction to the view, the Air Cam conjures up memories of Indiana Jones movies and pictures of First World War planes. Goggles are a must, as is a love for all kinds of weather, because rain or shine you experience it all in the cockpit.

“It was made for a film company in Africa following around a herd of elephants for a whole migratory season," said Dave Williams the second pilot and owner of the Air Cam. "It was made to operate in the bush with two engines so if one engine fails, you can fly it home. It's open so the camera can look outside.”

Williams said one of the draws of flying to Yellowknife was all the old planes up here like the DC6, DC4 and DC3. Williams said he started flying in the 1960s in a DC6.

Eric Henderson of Whistler, B.C., flew a helicopter up and described a surprise close encounter with buffalo.

“We stopped in Hay River and then came up around the north side and got ourselves into some of the cumulus clouds and took her down by the highway and then it cleared and we found a herd of buffalo. It was just gorgeous. First moments in Yellowknife and we run into a bunch of buffalo,” said Henderson.

John Howroyd built his plane from a kit, taking 12 years and $50,000 to complete. He said it was all worth it and that Yellowknife was a unique location to fly to.

“Its a nice town to be in. It's an aviation-oriented town and has got stuff that is interesting to see,” he said.

He brought his 12-year-old grandson, Nicholas Croft, with him. Croft landed the Air Cam in Yk from the co-pilot backseat, and has been flying his grandfather's RV-series airplane for a few years.

Adlair Aviation Ltd. hosted the pilots at its hangar and provided parking space for the aircraft.

The pilots will be heading home on Friday.

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