Yellowknife – and the Northwest Territory

by Bill Odell

Yellowknife - The capital of the Northwest Territories and the most northerly city in Canada. Yellowknife lies on the north shore of Great Slave Lake. The Dog rib and Yellowknife Dene people originally occupied the site, and whites didn’t settle there until 1934, following the discovery of gold on the lake’s shore.

This first gold boom petered out in the 1940's, and Yellowknife dwindled to a ghost town. But in 1945 came a second gold rush that put Yellowknife permanently on the map. The local landmarks are the two operating gold mines flanking Yellowknife: Miramar Con and Giant Yellowknife.

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Flight Board

Yellowknife

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Pilot Aircraft From To Remarks

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1 DC-3 CYZF CYQH-CYEV Passenger Service

2 DHC-2 CYEV CYSY-CYEV

CYVQ See narration -Emergency - Medivac

3 C-46 CYZF CYVQ-PAOR-

PAMR-PAOR-

CYVQ-CYZF See narration - Petroleum supplies

4 DC-3 CYZF CYEG-CYZF See narrations - Special cargo

5 DC-3 CYZF CYOA-CYZF Rotating employees at Ekati Mine

6 DHC-2 CYZF CEV4-CYZF See narration - Cargo - mail

7 DHC-3 CYZF CYFS-CYZF See narration - Cargo - mail

8 DHC-3 CYZF CYHY-CYZF Cargo - mail

9 DHC-3 CYZF CYSM-CYZF Cargo - Perishables

10 DHC-2 CYZF CYWO-CYZF Cargo - mail for the Gold mine

12 DC-3 CYZF CYHY-CYSM

CYHY-CYZF Passenger

13 C-46 CYZF CYXY-CYZF Cargo – mail.

14 DHC-3 CYZF CYWY-CYZF Cargo - mail

15 C-46 CYZF A 3 day trip See narration - Cargo

16 C-46 CYZF CYJT-CYFS

CYWY-CYVQ-

CYGH-CZFM-

CYEV See narration - cargo

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Norman Wells and Inuvik - After getting yourself settled at your new living quarters in the new lodge, a check of the flight board has you scheduled for the Yellowknife -Norman Wells-Inuvik passenger flight with a DC-3. You will be boarding ten passengers for Norman Wells, returning oil well workers who rotate out periodically, and six passengers for Inuvik, four of which are natives returning from a stay at the hospital in Yellowknife. The flight to Norman Wells takes us over Snare River airstrip and Ft. Norman. For the first time you are getting a touch of the mountains.

Norman Wells is a nice little community with oilrigs located on artificial islands in the Mackenzie River. The permanent population of Norman Wells is about 800, added to this are the workers for the oil field, which fluctuates. The principal industry or business is of course oil and gas production.

There’s the strip, seat belts fastened, the approach is smooth and uneventful. After off loading the Norman Wells’s passengers and cargo, we take on four passengers for Inuvik. The flight to Inuvik takes us down the slope and over Ft Good Hope.

Inuvik is a small town on the east channel of the Mackenzie River Delta, 97 km south of the Beaufort Sea, in the Northwest Territory (NWT). Inuvik is located on a small wooded plateau within the northernmost reaches of the Richardson Mountains. As such it is the main supply depot for petrochemical exploration activities in the Beaufort Sea area, with strong infrastructure facilities in mining, oil and gas manufacturing, construction, transportation and storage. Head out in the morning to Norman Wells and Yellowknife. Note: This flight is going to be a heavily used flight when work starts on the Mackenzie Pipeline

Meanwhile back in Yellowknife.... Bush Pilots Division has entered into an agreement with Imperial Petroleum Company in Norman Wells to transport parts and equipment to a repair facility in Anchorage, Alaska for repair and to transport repaired items back to Norman Wells. According to estimates this should amount to two or three flights a week.

Ah but wait! - The move to the Northwest Territory has been timed just right for Bush Pilots Division. The Mackenzie Valley pipeline construction has been given the go ahead and we are smack dab in the middle of the whole thing. The bulk of the items to be flown, places a requirement for us to get a larger aircraft. From on-going studies that we have been making there are three C-46’s available and they fit the bill perfectly. As we wait for the surveying and design to get started, one will be based at Norman Wells to handle the cargo and fuel delivery runs from there, the others at Yellowknife. We will use one for the cargo runs to Ekati and Inuvik, the DC-3 will handle the passenger runs.

The first C-46 flight - Check of the flight board shows you are scheduled for the first C-46 flying a positioning cargo run to Norman Wells where you and your crew will be stationed to fly the Norman Wells - Anchorage flights. You have never flown this route so better check the company routing for the flight. This is going to be a long flight and you have a lot of studying to get through. After the run up to Norman Wells your route is Norman Wells (CYVQ) to Northway, Alaska (PAOR) for a fuel stop and then on to Anchorage Intl. Airport (PANC). Your cargo is for the Alyaska Pipeline Service Company Shops. After a layover they will have a return load of cargo to Norman Wells. (The period of this flight, as it is the first, will be set in the winter) With the parts loaded on the C-46, you file your flight plan.

Taking off from Norman Wells, you will have to watch your climb out as the mountains get taller rather quickly and you have to climb to 8500', your assigned level. Lots of snow up here now (hope you didn’t forget to set the weather). Your route takes you right over Mayo, with Dawson off to the left. After a long flight Northway is about 28 miles ahead so lets start down on our approach. Our stop at Northway won’t be too long just refueling for the leg to Anchorage.

Everything taken care of in Northway, our route to Anchorage is PAOR-GKN (115.6)-BGQ (112.5)-PANC. Here again watch the climb out as these mountains get even higher, you might want to request an even higher flight level. Starting to snow as we take off but we should be out of it quickly. We won’t be starting our descent till we get close to Big Lake. Our runway at Anchorage is 6R. You have a layover at Anchorage as they off load and reload the aircraft. Departing in the morning you will be flying the flight in reverse with an assigned flight level of 9,500'.

Another contract that Bluegrass has signed is to fly cargo to/from the Gold mines at Yellowknife and Lupin to Edmonton. This flight will be made three times a week with a C-46. The planned route of the Yellowknife flight is: CYZF - YZF (115.5) - YHF (113.9) - YZH (112.5) - YEG (117.6) - CYEG. The Lupin flight will be in an Otter and the route will be CYUN - CYZF - etc.

With your load aboard you are on your way to Edmonton. This is a winter flight and the departure time is 0900. At Edmonton you will pick-up a load of egg’s and other cargo for Yellowknife. An uneventful flight, very smooth and enjoyable. Now if you can get unloaded, refueled and reloaded, you will be on your way back to Yellowknife. Would like to get there before dark, going to be close.

At Yellowknife, Bush Pilots Division has a new customer, Ekati Mining Company. We will be flying food shipments and other cargo from Yellowknife to the Mines at Ekati (CYOA), from time to time there will also be passenger run’s cycling their employees in and out. They work in two-week shifts, two weeks at the mine and two weeks at home. These passenger flights will be from the mines to Norman Wells, Fort Simpson, Hay River and Deline. Use the Otter for these pax runs; they actually will be charter flights!

Your flight today is the Otter, flying employees rotating back to work in the mines at Ekati. Your flight route is CYZF - direct to CYOA. The return has employees heading home and mail.

Rae Lakes - Take the Otter to Rae Lakes. There’s a load of building supplies for Hawk’s Fishing Lodge. Said they’d meet the plane with a pick-up truck. They need the supplies real bad to protect one of their buildings from the snow. There is a snowstorm predicted for the area.

Everything is loaded and off we go, sure hope the snow holds off, as Rae Lakes is just a short dirt strip that is hard enough to find in the winter but in snow? Our route is CYZF - CEV4. Well you could have bet on it, starting our descent and here comes the snow. Think I will get in before it amounts to anything; the big question then, is do we get out or have to layover. They say there is room in their hanger if we have to stay. Wow! This is wicked, but have the runway, let’s get in and get this offloaded, as they need it real bad. Won’t take long to load the pelts. Ok everything is turning out pretty good, all loaded but look at that snow we have to taxi through to the other end of the runway. A tail dragger just isn’t the plane for this, can’t see a damn thing. Ok lined up, flaps set, let’s move out. Gonna climb out and get to the top of this snow then turn home. It’s not snowing in Yellowknife, here we come.

Ft Simpson - Ft Simpson is a very old - thousands of years - meeting place for the various tribes. They met regularly to solve problems. The white man came and established a Fur Trading Post in 1804 and became the District Headquarters of the Hudson Bay Company. Our flight from Yellowknife to Ft Simpson is in an Otter with a load of food products and mail. We take off (winter) at 0910 in a snowstorm, climbing to 6500' to get on top. Smooth up here as we head on our way. 50 miles out and the cloud cover thins out and we start a descent to 4500'. Our runway is 3. Eight miles out we turn to our down wind leg and it starts snowing again.. Turning base as we descend to 2000'. Turning final and have the runway. After taking on fuel and our cargo load we head back to Yellowknife.

Back at Yellowknife. There is a large load of mining equipment for Yellowknife at Edmonton, take the C-46 with a load of empty fuel drums to Edmonton and load the mining equipment. The course to Edmonton is: CYZF-YHY-YOJ-YPE-YZU-CYEG

Off at 0903 into a jet-black sky, climbing to 7000', setting course to Hay River VOR 113.9. This flight is going to be instruments all the way; nothing to see it is so dark. Passing Hay River turning to High Level VOR 113.3. Ah! A bit of light in the sky, dawn must be bursting. Enough of that, the sky is once again all black clouds full of snow. Turning on High Level new course to Peace River VOR 117.2. Over Peace River, changing course to Whitecourt VOR 112.5. Making a fuel stop at Whitecourt, I am due a landing without snow or ice, just once. ATC has given us rwy 29, turning down wind. Here we go on base leg, turning final, have runway. Taxiing to the ramp, while they fuel us up I am going to get a sandwich and coffee want one?

Let’s head for Edmonton, a short hop, and setting course to YEG VOR 117.6. COM– company just said that the outfit we were supposed to pickup our cargo from has moved to Red Deer Industrial, an airport about half way to Calgary. After we unload at Edmonton we will load some aircraft parts for Bluegrass Maintenance, lock-up the plane and take a layover and head to Red Deer in the AM.

Had a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast, just as soon as we load our parts that were not delivered last night we will be heading down the road to Red Deer. Red Deer is going to be a very easy flight as we will be right on line with rwy 16 as soon as we get on course. Runway in site cleared for long approach and here we go. Well looking at that load I think we better take the parts off and load the long stuff first then fit the rest around. Everything fits nicely and our weight and balance is well within the envelope, so lets taxi out. Cleared for 16 and a course of 320E to YEG. Climbing to altitude and turning on course to YEG. We won’t be stopping at Edmonton and our course is CYQF-YEG-YZU-CYPE. Landing at Peace River for fuel.

All refueled and ready to roll at Peace River. Our course to Yellowknife is: CYPE- YOJ-YNY-CYZF.

After unloading at Yellowknife, there is a load of mixed cargo for Norman Wells. A deserved layover at Norman Wells, load a shipment of empty fuel drums and deliver to Whitehorse in the morning. Buffalo Air at Whitehorse will have a shipment of mining equipment from Alaska for Yellowknife. Just as soon as you off-load at Yellowknife and refuel, you have a ferry flight to Whitehorse as another large amount of the cargo is scheduled in on Buffalo destined for Yellowknife.

Mackenzie River -(Fall Flight). The board shows that you are up for an Otter flight hauling medical supplies, food and freight to villages along the river. Your route is CYZF-CYJT - CYFS-CYWY-CYVQ-CYGH-CZFM-CYEV

After setting the Real Weather, time is 0930, fully loaded with supplies and mail, ready to roll on Runway 26 at Watson Lake heading to Ft Providence where we will pick up the Mackenzie River and follow it on our flight eventually ending at Inuvik. Fort Providence up front there, we will land on runway 12. Taking off from Fort Providence start a right turn to intercept the Mackenzie River. Weather is fairly good with very little cloud cover; visibility hampered a bit due to haze, but good VFR conditions. The terrain will be fairly flat until we get down river to Norman Wells. River is clear of ice and flowing smoothly. Clouds are getting a little darker but everything is go. Ok fueled and loaded, lets taxi out as we head to Norman Wells. As you climb out, pick up the river and continue on. Have you noticed that the banks of the river are getting higher? Hills are appearing on both sides. Weather is good, Mt Clark ahead, it’s around 5000', clouding up again. Just in case - CZFN - Tulita runway 5/23 and 3000' at 372' and an NDB 392 is about 40 miles ahead as an alternate.

The next, scheduled stop after Norman Wells is Fort Good Hope. This is where the road that has been following the river ends, no roads past here until we get way up there to Tsiigehtchic on the Dempster Highway from Dawson City. Taking off on 27, here we go to the end of the road. Pick up the river on the left, a little over 75 miles down river to Fort Good Hope. Flying in the Bush, you want to always be on the lookout for a suitable emergency landing spot. Usually the gravel banks along the river are the best; inland you hit the soft tundra, which can give to the landing. I saw an Otter that had it’s left wheel sink to the axle. N-o-o! I don’t plan on an emergency, h-m-m-m, not a bad idea though. Fort Good Hope in site, our approach will be for 24.

Supplies off loaded we depart Fort Good Hope on 24, after climb out, turn right and pick up the river to Inuvik (Zubko). This is the longest leg of our flight, there being nothing in the way of a strip or settlement in between. Nothing but Eskimo’s and reindeer out here, this is Reindeer grazing land. At Inuvik, Zubko is the airport, forgot to mention this earlier, up here most of the roads are closed during the “SUMMER” due to the perma-frost situation that makes the roads impassable. Note- this flight will be flown often in the C-46, supporting the Mackenzie River Pipeline construction.

ATP Capt. Bill Odell, bgas004

wradodel@tampabay.rr.com