Fifty years after aviation legend Max Ward was tearing up airstrips throughout the North, a new generation of bush pilots has emerged. Drawn to the Twin Otter's cramped cockpit and first class seats, these men and some women arrive in Yellowknife to launch their aviation careers.
Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 21/01) - Zoe Lambert gave up a successful health care job in central British Columbia to pursue her Northern dream of bush flying.
Ten years and some $50,000 in licensing and flight endorsements later, Lambert is loading cargo and directing planes at Air Tindi's float base in Old Town -- and she couldn't be happier.
Most Air Tindi aviators serve an average of one year as either a dock hand or dispatcher before getting into a co-pilot's seat.
"Sometimes you get impatient but this system works really well. We (dock hands) get to see the operation from the ground up. We're not just thrown into air planes cold," Lambert said.
The bush is where Lambert wants to be. Flying commercial planes holds little appeal.
"I've always wanted to fly Twin Otters and I always wanted to fly floats in the North. I'm not romantic about it, it's just a different kind of flying up here," she said.
As for being the only female pilot on the payroll, Lambert is quick to deflect the attention.
"I just want to be a good pilot. My gender is incidental," she said.
Several local companies hire licensed but inexperienced bush pilots on an internship-like basis.
Air Tindi is undoubtedly the busiest charter company with its 31 full-time pilots, a dozen ramp hands and 16 planes between their hanger at the Yellowknife airport and the Latham Island float base.
The company's size and reputation makes it a first choice for pilots like Lambert.
Once pilots put in a year of grunt work, the sky is the limit. Between scheduled and charted flights, pilots are commonly transporting cooks, geologists and canoeist into remote camps and lakes. No two days are exactly the same. Geography and landing strips are what sets bush pilots apart from other aviators. Forget the smooth, predictable tarmacs found at airports.
A bush pilot's landing strip may be a soft esker choppy water, uneven ice, lumpy snow or bumpy tundra.
Pilot Andrew Mackay and co-pilot Jeff Roberts recently spent five days delivering fuel for an exploration camp 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife.
Too far to return home each night, the pair spent the week housed in a canvas tent in minus -30 C weather.
Wes Siemens came to Air Tindi with 10,000 flying hours in Canada and Papua, New Guinea two years ago.
The chief pilot knows what he likes.
"It's a different set of challenges up here. There's not much in the way of visual references on the land (once you leave the treeline)," Siemens said.
Brad Avery grew up listening to the steady purr of planes coming and going from Latham Island.
Now a self-proclaimed "ramp rat" with Air Tindi, the 26-year-old commercial pilot counts himself lucky.
"I'm just happy to have a job here. I didn't care where they put me."
The supply of qualified, eager pilots arriving in Yellowknife each year is not new, says Bob Schnurr, Tindi's marketing manager.
He said pilots are pilots, no matter where they land or what they fly.
What sets bush pilots apart is their love of the unknown.
"They're not sitting in a cockpit having coffee delivered to them. It's a harder lifestyle but it's a lot more colourful and the ones that do stay and make a career out of flying in the bush do it because it's interesting," Schnurr said.
"We have a great group of people. Very resourceful, ambitious and good attitudes. We're very pleased."
