SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Extravagant proposals are normally saved for romantic comedies, but one Yellowknife pilot decided to make it a reality for the woman he loves.

Vanessa Chaykowski, left, and Tilman Frers share a post-proposal moment at the tarmac for Summit Air on Saturday. The couple officially got engaged in the air over Madeline Lake, and Yellowknifer was able to catch them on the tarmac for a reenactment. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo

Tilman Frers, a pilot with Summit Air, enlisted the help of his coworker and fellow pilot Samantha Merrit to make a grand gesture of love on Saturday for Vanessa Chaykowski, a customer service representative for Yellowknifer.

"The idea for the proposal came pretty naturally," Frers said.

"In January, I decided to propose to her, and started thinking of a spectacular way of doing it since there was absolutely no doubt she was going to say yes. Vanessa, even though not a pilot herself, loves flying and being around planes. Her dad is a pilot, and she has worked for the airlines herself."

Frers, who grew up in Westerstede in southern Germany, moved to Yellowknife two years ago to work as a pilot and met Chaykowski through friends shortly afterward.

Taking a proposal to the air is a grand enough gesture, but Frers wanted to take it a step further. He took to Madeline Lake with a container full of water and red food colouring, and painted a heart in the snow large enough to be seen from the air.

Frers then called Chaykowski under the ruse of wanting to go for lunch. After he picked her up, though, he told her he had to go into work to cover for a mechanical flight, something Chaykowski didn't think to be unusual.

"I knew he had to do his mechanical flight," Chaykowski said once the plane had landed.

"When we were up in the air, I thought it was odd that we were flying low, but I knew that we were just doing a test flight. If I hadn't known anything about aviation then I might have caught on a lot sooner. My dad's a pilot, I've gone flying - it all sounds normal to me and that's why I didn't catch on until the pilot looked out the window, and that's common, so I didn't quite look the first time."

Eventually, the pilots commenting about the thing in the snow drew her curiosity, and that's when she looked out and saw the heart.

"I saw the full actual heart and knew it could only mean one thing, and then he was coming up to me," Chaykowski said. "I was so blown away and then he asked me if I recognized the lake and I was trying not to cry, and he asked me to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him - and I said yes."

Yellowknifer was on the tarmac waiting as the plane circled back to land, and got a chance to speak to the couple when they were getting out of the plane.

"I had great anticipation and I was pretty confident about what we were doing, and I just hoped it would be a surprise for her," said Frers, who was grinning the moment he left the plane.

"He was really, really nervous," teased Merritt, who'd taken over the flight while Frers went back to propose.

The couple plans to wed in September, or October at the latest, with a honeymoon stop in Germany to celebrate with Frers' family.

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