Yellowknife (Jul 05/06) - There are some things about directing Nunavut air traffic that you just can't learn outside the territory, according to Bill Taylor, a longtime aviation instructor.

First and foremost on that list is how to help a plane touch down in a brutal crosswind on a treeless stretch of tundra.

"This is a unique environment," Taylor said last week, after Arctic College in Rankin Inlet graduated its first crop of home-taught airport observer/communicators.

The specialists are the backbone of the Nunavut aviation industry, Taylor said.

They provide pilots - and Environment Canada for that matter - with weather updates and keep track of incoming planes, helicopters or anything else airborne at 22 flight centres across the territory.

In fact, the only two airports with full-fledged air traffic controllers are Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, Taylor said.

"If these guys aren't there, pilots are taking their chances," said Taylor.

"The aviation community relies on (communicator/observers) incredibly."

Until this year, they learned their trade in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. But with a dire shortage of communicators across Nunavut, officials at Arctic College unveiled the nine-week Community Aerodrome Radio Services program at its Rankin campus.

Students learned everything from weather observation to radio communications - a rigorous course that officially came to an end June 26.

Cambridge Bay's Robert Aneroluk was one of three students who graduated during the low-key ceremony.

A former observer/communicator who spent about six years away from the profession, he said he has been attracted to airplanes since childhood.

"This is a very individual job," he said.

"I like working with pilots... and not having to worry about a boss!"

About 60 per cent of the course involved simulations and being able to practise in Rankin weather - as opposed to the relatively benign conditions of the NWT - was ideal for students, Taylor said.

"Some (of these things) people will never see in Fort Smith!"

Still, despite the success, Nunavut is in dire need of more communicator/observers, Taylor said.

The program - which runs three times per year - can handle 10 students and Taylor suspected it would take several years before the vacant positions were filled.

The other graduates were Matiasie Attagutsiak and Murray Tulugarjuk from Nanisivik and Iglulik respectively.