Hay River (May 02/05) - After five decades in the aviation business in the North, Merlyn and Jean Carter of Hay River have some great stories to tell.

"When you fly that long, lots of things happen," says Merlyn, who is pilot for Carter Air Services, while Jean runs the business.

The Carters were recognized April 6 with honourary life memberships from the Northern Air Transportation Association.

Merlyn once landed on a frozen lake and went through the ice. The aircraft didn't go completely through because the nose caught on the edge of the ice.

Then there was the time he landed a twin-engine, wheeled Lockheed on the ice of Great Slave Lake to pick up prospectors. The left-side engine seized up.

"I couldn't leave the airplane there, things were melting," Merlyn recalls.

So he rigged up the tail wheel with some rope to keep the plane from spinning around on the ice, took off and landed safely in Hay River.

And in the 1960s, Merlyn and Jean, along with another couple, were forced by bad weather to land on the Arctic Ocean coast. The men went to find firewood, and the women waited in the plane.

"All of a sudden, I felt something move the plane," Jean says.

It was a 100-foot-long ice pan that pinned the plane to the shore.

Merlyn got out of the jam by guiding the plane up and over the ice pan and then dropping down into the water on the other side -- and taking off.

Merlyn, 71, says he had not been expecting the honour, which was presented at the association's annual meeting in Yellowknife. "It was really something. We were very surprised and, in a sense, overwhelmed," says Jean, 69.

The couple started their charter service in 1962.

It moved fish and other freight, and flew hunters, prospectors, trappers and others all over the NWT.

Merlyn first came to Hay River in 1952, where his father, George, was a commercial fish buyer.

In the beginning, Merlyn flew with legendary bush pilot Stan McMillan onto Great Slave Lake to pick up fish.

"I came here for one year to make a little stake and to go south," he says, noting he didn't like Hay River back then since it was small and not too exciting for an 18-year-old.

"But I had work and I liked to fly," he says.

In 1953, Merlyn earned his pilot's licence in Saskatoon. He is originally from Meadow Lake, Sask., while Jean is from nearby Golden Ridge. They married in 1956 and she moved to Hay River.

While Merlyn was flying, Jean stayed at home and ran the business side of the operation, and often worried about her husband.

"When the planes are late, you're out there watching the sky," she says. "Why do you think I have white hair?"

Over the years, close to 50 pilots got their starts at Carter Air Services, which at its peak had six planes.

One of them, Darcy Fleming of Hay River, is now flying 747s with Japan Airlines. Another, Clay Gamble of Vancouver, is a pilot with Air Canada, while Brian Stook of Calgary went on the fly fighter jets with the Canadian Armed Forces.

A love of flying

Merlyn says he has always liked flying and still does.

However, he is not so excited about today's instrument flying, especially the global positioning system.

"That spoiled the fun in flying," he says, noting GPS points a pilot in the right direction. "I always had to find my own way."

That included following rivers and watching for landmarks on the ground.

The couple still has a Cessna 180 at the Hay River Airport. They say that, while Carter Air Services is no longer active, the company still exists and they hope their grandsons may eventually take it over.