Review of Michael Vlessides’ The Ice Pilots
Since the television series Ice Pilots, NWT debuted in 2008, thousands of devoted fans have tuned in weekly to watch the Buffalo Airways team keep vintage aircraft like Douglas DC-3 Dakotas, DC-4s, and Curtiss C-46 Commandos flying in Canada’s North. Viewers are equally riveted by the show’s “characters”: the McBryan family, headed by no-nonsense “Buffalo” Joe; the pilots and ground crew who have the tenacity to stick it out in this tough environment; and the many hopefuls who don’t.
In The Ice Pilots: Flying with the Mavericks of the Great White North, author Michael Vlessides captures the show’s winning formula. Like the series, expect to find expletives sprinkled liberally throughout the text, often coming out of the mouth of Joe, his son Mikey, or the various pilots, engineers and rampies Vlessides interviewed while embedded at Buffalo during the summer of 2011.
Fans will also enjoy Vlessides’ detailing of Buffalo’s fire suppression work with Canadair CL-215s. As the author notes, this makes up over fifty per cent of its business but gets short shrift on the program because it takes place during the summer filming break. While the blistering cold may make for better television, aviation enthusiasts will appreciate this side of Buffalo’s operations, and Vlessides’ account of flying two CL-215’s to Turkey across the Atlantic in 2008 makes for engaging reading.
The author also spoke with Yellowknife-area bush pilots not employed by Buffalo, such as Carl Clouter, and he shines when detailing their exploits. Other northern flying legends such as Max Ward, Fred Carmichael, Lorna DeBlicquy, Willy Laserich, and Merlyn Carter, and two major stories from NWT aviation lore – Chuck McAvoy’s disappearance and Martin Hartwell’s amazing survival story – get mentions as well.
The book is meant to accompany the show, however, and so the focus is on contemporary operations and is packaged to appeal to the casual reader. Researchers will be disappointed if they go looking for any substantial history of Buffalo, Joe McBryan, or northern aviation more generally. There are no references for follow-up, no maps, and very few photos. This is not to say that Vlessides is not interested in the history. In fact, he writes that on several occasions he tried to corner Joe for information on the airline’s past. He was generally rebuffed by the busy owner who sees the show (and by extension the book) as son Mikey’s domain. Mikey, unfortunately for aviation historians, is only interested in the company’s future. Nevertheless, he is responsible for bringing the excitement and adventure of Buffalo Airways, and Canadian frontier flying more generally, to people around the world through the show. And now with the publication of The Ice Pilots, he and Vlessides have captured Buffalo’s stories and personalities in a well-written and enjoyable book.
The Sky’s No Limit for Girls in Yellowknife!
On March 10, 2012 from 10am to 4pm, girls ages 8 to 19 can enjoy a free helicopter ride courtesty of Trinity Helicopters and local Yellowknife sponsors (like Buffalo Airways, Canadian North, etc). In addition to free rides, young women and their families can meet inspiring women in civilian and military aviation, check out static aircraft displays, and enter contests – all as part of Women of Aviation Worldwide week!
For more information and to register for your free ride, please go to www.girlsfly2.ca or their Facebook page. Please share this with your networks!
Flying High in Yellowknife
Last weekend I was lucky enough to be in Yellowknife, NWT for the Midnight Sun Float Plane Fly-In doing research for my book on northern Canadian aviation history. Here’s a little photo album from this amazing event:
After a great meet-and-greet on Friday night and a pancake breakfast Saturday morning hosted by the Piro family, I boarded a Buffalo Airways Douglas DC-3 along with 20-odd other passengers for an aerial tour of YK.
Our pilot was “Buffalo” Joe McBryan (below) himself, and co-piloting the aircraft was Tyler Sipos. And of course they have a few good luck charms, like this polar bear I’m holding.
I guess I behaved okay (and didn’t get airsick), because he then invited me to join him, his granddaughter, and the director/videographer of Ice Pilots NWT for a trip down memory lane for a 50th anniversary special. Up we went in the Norseman again, this time bound for Gordon Lake.
There was no sleeping in the next day for me, though, as I had an interview lined up at 8:30am with a local aviation legend. Then at 9:30am I was back in Joe’s orange jeep headed to his dock in preparation for the bush pilot memorial fly-by.
After a bbq lunch it was tour time at the Buffalo hangar, where I got to see Joe’s office just full of aviation history books, photos, and even a motorcycle!
Sunday night was the wrap-up banquet and auction. My new friend from Cold Lake, Terry, gallantly bid my book up to $100 – so I thought he deserved a kiss to go with it!
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