by Chris Meyers Almey
Northern News Services

NNSL (June 09/97) - Score one for the bush pilots.

Ottawa is going to continue to let them carry canoes, kayaks and caribou lashed to their floats while transporting adventurers or hunters around Canada's hinterlands.

That's not the way it looked several days ago. It didn't matter that Northern pilots had been doing this for decades.

Somebody in Ottawa decided they shouldn't be able to strap a boat or moose to the floats and carry passengers at the same time. Now that's out the window.

"It is a significant victory for Northern float plane operators," said Don Douglas, executive director of the Northern Air Transport Association.

The regulation was impractical Douglas said, so the pilots appreciate that Ottawa has seen their concerns.

Douglas said it is always a tough fight dealing with Ottawa, but they are used to it.

"We are persistent and keep coming back with facts until we get what we need," he said.

Last October the new Canadian Air Regulations came into effect. The regulations included some major changes for Northern air carriers.

The new rules would have forced pilots to fly in the passengers and their boats separately, doubling flying time and costs.

Art Laflamme, director of commercial and business aviation for Transport Canada, said last week the department has issued an exemption to the regulation, with conditions attached.

In effect, they will be asking the Canadian regulatory advisory council for consideration to amend the regulations that came into effect eight months ago.

"Our primary thinking is safety and our bottom-line position is we won't allow safety to be compromised," Laflamme said.

The law governing carrying extended loads had not been clear in the old regulations, he said.

Float-plane operators were supposed to go to the regional office in Edmonton and say, "I want to carry this small boat," he said, so there would be an engineering review.

Realistically, however, few pilots would bother flying to Edmonton to ask permission to carry a bear, lumber or other minor items on their floats.

Under the regulation, only if a pilot had design approval, could a load on the floats and passengers be carried at the same time.

"The air carriers objected to this," Laflamme said, "because the feel they have a long history of carrying loads safely without design approval."

So when Transport Canada reviewed the concerns expressed by the Northern pilots, it granted a compromise based on the successful track record of the industry, Laflamme said.

There are still conditions on allowing a float plane to carry both an external load and passengers at the same time, he said.

One of the keys is a pilot must secure the load and then make a short test flight to before picking up the passengers. Loads cannot block any exits and must be secured by a minimum of three straps or ropes.

Boats must also have the bow facing the tail of the airplane. That may look odd, Laflamme said, but to have the bow facing forward causes more turbulence.

Load weight, speed and angle of takeoff must be considered as well.