Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Jul 24/98) - Whether one or all five of Fort Simpson's flight services specialists will have to find work elsewhere is still in question.

At a meeting held last Tuesday, Don Henderson of NAV Canada, told an audience of 10 people, including pilots and flight services personnel, his organization still had to conduct an air traffic analysis to decide whether the Fort Simpson airport would be converted to an airport advisory service or to a community aerodrome radio station (CARS).

One local flight services specialist, who requested anonymity, said he and his family have been prepared for a possible move since the review process began a couple of years ago.

"There's no real apprehension at all about where we're going or anything," he said, acknowledging that all moving expenses would be covered by NAV Canada.

An airport advisory service would require four flight services specialists -- one fewer than under the current structure. A CARS setup would involve six observer-communicators (five full-time, one part-time), who would all be hired locally, according to Henderson, because they would have a vested interest in the community.

However, with a CARS, the flight services specialists would no longer be needed, in which case they would be offered jobs in other parts of Canada, said Henderson.

Observer-communicators would provide local weather conditions to pilots. They train for nine weeks, as opposed to a full year for flight services specialist, and must be certified by Environment Canada.

As either a CARS or an airport advisory service, the airport will be operational 24 hours a day, Henderson said.

The aforementioned flight services specialist said he doesn't feel safety would be compromised at the Fort Simpson airport so long as observer-communicators, should they be required, undergo the proper training.

"If training is going to be enhanced in Fort Smith, as they say it is, then there shouldn't be a problem, no," he said. "It's all dependent on that."

The final decision will be made after a study which Henderson said he will recommend is done after freeze-up. His reasoning for that time frame is because pilots' participation will be required and they are too busy right now in the midst of peak season. He estimated that the conversion to a CARS or an airport advisory service won't take place for at least a year.

NAV Canada, a not-for-profit company created in 1996 to deliver aviation services under a fixed budget, is in the process of restructuring flight services across the North. Pilots flying in the Deh Cho region will rely on Yellowknife to provide detailed information about weather systems in their flight paths. They will be able to pick up fax packages, sent by Yellowknife, from CARS or flight services stations when they land en route.

Tuesday's meeting wasn't as well attended nor nearly as hostile as Henderson's previous visit in December of last year.