Yellowknife (Aug 15/03) - Thirty-nine years after his plane disappeared in a remote part of present-day Nunavut, a memorial service was finally held for aviator Chuck McAvoy and his two passengers, Albert Kunes and Douglas Torp.

"It's been a long time and we've done a lot of mourning," said Ken Weaver, who emceed yesterday's ceremony, held at the Adlair Aviation Hangar.

About 100 people attended the service for a man many remembered as funny and outgoing.

"He always had a big, boisterous laugh," said Trevor Teed, who knew McAvoy as a young boy.

Weaver also had fond memories of McAvoy from his childhood.

"I remember when I was younger I climbed into a wood-box with him and we would pretend we were flying. He was always laughing," Weaver said.

Mike Vaydik, who was in his teens when McAvoy disappeared, remembered the pilot as a local celebrity.

"He was well known in the community and a lot of the young boys looked up to him as a hero," he said. McAvoy went missing in June of 1964 during a flight from Bristol Lake near the Arctic Ocean to Itchen Lake.

His plane went undiscovered for 14,299 days until helicopter crew spotted the wreckage on Aug 4.

"It was a tough time when the plane went missing," said Weaver.

"We were all hoping that he would be found, but that turned out to not be the case," Weaver said.

Teed said pilots and prospectors would always keep an eye out for McAvoy's Fairchild 82 when they travelled in the bush.

"It was a matter of practise to look for the plane," he said. "I'll probably still look for it."

Rocky Parsons, who flew for Associated Airways around the time McAvoy disappeared, attended the service even though he didn't actually know the aviator.

"It's important for pilots to stick together," he said. "If we don't stick up for each other, no one else will."

Goldie Lodge, McAvoy's sister, remembered her brother as a kind man who loved to play pool.

"Nobody every had anything bad to say about him," she said.

Lodge read aloud several poems to commemorate he brother's life including one that brought her to tears.

"It's not what you take with you, it's what you leave behind," she said.