Life of an Arctic Bush Helicopter Pilot Summer Edition *Part 2 of 2*
Welcome to another "Life Of" story about working in the Canadian helicopter industy!
*About the author: I’ve been a pilot in the Canadian helicopter industry for over 17 years with experience ranging from TV News to wildfire fighting, arctic science projects to Hollywood movie production, VIP transport to oil and gas work and many others in between. Join me as I share stories from some of those experinces!*
[https://imgur.com/3QnS9t9](https://imgur.com/3QnS9t9) \- Arctic Flowers!
You can find my previous stories in the collection following this link: [“Life of Collection”](https://www.reddit.com/user/CryOfTheWind/comments/xa3nv0/life_of_helicopter_pilot_story_collection/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
For Part 1 of these stories follow this link: [Arctic Summer Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/11goeme/life_of_an_arctic_bush_helicopter_pilot_summer/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Alright so back on land again I’ll take a quick look at the mountains that are along the Canada/USA border. There is a National Park along the border there with a Parks Canada camp setup including a runway for Twin Otters to land at. Ivvavik National Park in the Yukon is certainly more unique from most of Canada’s parks as it is a fly in only location with access provided by Twin Otter out of Inuvik and limited spaces per summer. On the helicopter side we don’t ferry guests to the park but instead provide other support for Parks Canada and Park Wardens.
[https://imgur.com/1SUpj1q](https://imgur.com/1SUpj1q) \- On the way to Ivvavik
[https://imgur.com/RpFLJnE](https://imgur.com/RpFLJnE) \- Welcome!
[https://imgur.com/T6tMxDx](https://imgur.com/T6tMxDx) \- The runway, those boxes have fuel drums in them
The most common jobs with Parks Canada in Ivvavik are visiting all the wildlife cameras and acoustic sensors they have set up in the area. I’ve already covered that kind of work in the Ice Pilot stories so can skip most of that and mostly leave this as a photo dump of the area. The short version is we fly out to them, and they swap out batteries and data cards to bring the collected photos/sounds down south for analysis. Another job there is general patrol of the border with Alaska. In that role we have a Park Warden onboard, they are an armed peace officers who can make arrests and enforce the various laws around National Parks. When doing border patrol in those mountains the main thing they are looking for is illegal hunting. It seems every once and awhile a bush plane will cross the border and go hunting, mostly by accident but poaching does happen sometimes. For us it’s mostly just a fun sightseeing adventure.
[https://youtu.be/RK0Tiu9fVaY](https://youtu.be/RK0Tiu9fVaY) \- Nice place for a break
[https://imgur.com/mgSJwts](https://imgur.com/mgSJwts) \- Lunch time on the tallest peak in the park
[https://imgur.com/ameWJ8q](https://imgur.com/ameWJ8q) \- Mountains on the border
[https://imgur.com/tEYb21A](https://imgur.com/tEYb21A) \- Border marker between Alaska and the Yukon on the coast (yes someone shot at it...)
[https://imgur.com/zsByXCT](https://imgur.com/zsByXCT) \- Parks finding their acoustic sensor
The campground itself is nice over all to stay in. They have the main buildings for Parks staff and us pilots that tag along and some hard walled/fabric tent combos for the guests staying. Besides the cameras/sensors the Parks staff also run guided hiking and canoe tours. I didn’t get to see any of that as I was mostly there in the spring/fall shoulder seasons when the equipment needs to be serviced but it sounded like cool adventure for those interested in multi day camping/canoe trips that come with a $10,000 or more per person price tag. Instead I was just happy to get the better views flying over the park have and enjoying hanging out with the crew on weather days.
[https://imgur.com/iLUBCVa](https://imgur.com/iLUBCVa) \- Main camp
[https://imgur.com/UXnJBUk](https://imgur.com/UXnJBUk) \- Cozy bedroom
[https://imgur.com/mGxaw8H](https://imgur.com/mGxaw8H) \- Foggy day, time for board games
One last task out there is recovering animal tracking collars. They have GPS tracking on them and are designed to fall off after a certain amount of time. We would then fly out to the last known position of a collar and pick it up. I wasn’t part of the tagging operation sadly, sounds fun going out with some tranquilizer guns to catch and release everything from muskox to polar bears. Still it is a fun game of hide and seek since the coordinates we have are not always super accurate. Muskox was our target for one trip and those animals will just go directly over mountain ranges rather than follow valleys. Puts that mountain flying training into good use crawling along ridge lines and into cirques looking for the glint of a metal collar in the sun. One neat thing about the tundra is the fall colours that come out for a couple weeks before the snow starts coming back. All those little green willows and other plants turn a brilliant red, yellow and orange that even my pictures don’t do justice.
[https://youtu.be/PZKVAF5P2L4](https://youtu.be/PZKVAF5P2L4) \- That collar is around here somewhere...
[https://imgur.com/lB8ryfz](https://imgur.com/lB8ryfz) \- Yellows!
[https://imgur.com/MnzDdQu](https://imgur.com/MnzDdQu) \- And reds!
Near Ivvavik National Park is the only offshore island in the Yukon Territory. Herschel Island back in 1889 and beyond was a whale hunting staging area. Around 1500 people lived on the island at its peak hunting whales for blubber and oil. By 1937 the island was mostly abandoned however many of those early buildings remain and there is a Territorial Park established there today. Much like Ivvavik if you charter a bush plane from Inuvik you can come and visit, there are no fees to stay on the island and two Park Rangers staff and maintain some of the buildings there.
[https://imgur.com/Dd2gxSO](https://imgur.com/Dd2gxSO) \- Herschel Island, camp is on the little spit on the left
[https://imgur.com/AHYGiNo](https://imgur.com/AHYGiNo) \- Camp, some buildings are original from the 1890s
So, what brought me to Herschel? I’ve worked a few different projects out there but the ones in the following pictures were for yet another Canadian government agency, this time the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). The GSC is a section of the Natural Resources Canada and they look into surveying all the land in Canada with goal towards environmental protection and developing natural resources. Some of their work also includes running magnetic observatories throughout Canada so if you’re a pilot wondering how they update the lines of magnetic variation on your maps you could probably find the answer with the GSC.
The project this time was actually a follow up to a survey that was conducted back in 1987. Herschel Island has been eroding slowly over the years and they were mostly interested in checking out the slumps around the island. Slumps in this context are sections of the land where the permafrost has started melting and the land turns to mud and slides off into the sea. Slumps will occur in land too and are another common subject of study for various agencies and university projects, mostly in global warming related studies. When sections of the land that have been permanently frozen for thousands of years suddenly start melting and collapsing the surrounding terrain they want to know if it’s a local issue or if there is a connected wider issue. In the case of Herschel Island specifically they have been tracking the erosion of the island for decades and expect the entire island to disappear. It was formed 30,000 years ago by glacial deposits and so is lacking any solid bedrock core to maintain it long term (geologically speaking).
[https://imgur.com/aeZ7XuJ](https://imgur.com/aeZ7XuJ) \- A slump
Slump studies are probably one of the messiest jobs I’ve worked alongside and that includes moving those drillers who get covered in all kinds of water/mud/grease/oil mixes. The scientists need to actually get down inside them and take measurements, samples and readings of various kinds. Guys like the two pictured are above have been doing this for a long time and are pretty good at keeping clean and when they can’t they are smart enough to bring spare clothing, so they don’t make a mess of the helicopter. In fact, these two were the same guys who did the initial survey back in 1987! I worked with a university group once and the PhD candidate student had never worked in the arctic or on a slump project before. This resulted in the worst mess I’ve ever had to clean out of a helicopter including a tourist on blood thinners who cut themselves getting into the tour chopper without noticing and bled all over the seat and door for the 12 minute flight. The mud that most of these arctic slumps are made up of dries into a fine clay that becomes rough dust that gets into every nook and cranny of the interior and can even cause electrical issues or gum up instruments. Even I got covered on that job when I went to check on them and stepped into some quick mud, they didn’t warn me about. Not a fun day.
[https://imgur.com/fkKCmAi](https://imgur.com/fkKCmAi) \- Muddy PhD student
[https://imgur.com/TrBln4j](https://imgur.com/TrBln4j) \- Muddy me
As normal for me on most of these jobs I spend most of my time sitting in the back of the helicopter enjoying my coffee and a book. Sometimes I’ll wander around the sites a little bit but since the mud chopper incident I’ve been a lot more cautious on how far and where I go. Still leaves me with plenty of nice photos of all the cool spots I get to land and enjoy views that most people will either never see or spend thousands of dollars to get much less intimate experience with.
[https://imgur.com/Pm1PGPv](https://imgur.com/Pm1PGPv) \- Another day another coffee
[https://imgur.com/nyPmjbT](https://imgur.com/nyPmjbT) \- Can't complain about the view
[https://imgur.com/djck6F6](https://imgur.com/djck6F6) \- Can even see the mountains in the distance
Back at camp the Park Rangers were excellent hosts for us. They had fishing nets set up to catch Arctic Char and were more than happy to share with us. Every morning when we were there a fresh fish already cut up for us to fry with the eggs and bacon we brought with us. They spend the entire summer on the island with the odd resupply when tourists come to visit. Competition for the job is fierce with over 200 applicants per position a year, to be fair they also tend to rotate the Rangers every season to give more people the chance to have the experience. Most Rangers come from the many local communities and so they are already accustomed to living in the spartan conditions in camp as a common local summer activity is living in the modern versions all along the arctic coast to go fishing in the sea. There is also a local herd of Muskox that live on the island in the summer months. Once the sea freezes they wander the land a little more but they are content to spend summers there. Often a couple will wander into camp to check things out. Makes for a good photo op! Once finished with their project it's back to Inuvik for a shower and then next assignment.
[https://imgur.com/YGmlByn](https://imgur.com/YGmlByn) \- Muskox
[https://imgur.com/eVqa2xo](https://imgur.com/eVqa2xo) \- Cleaning the catch
[https://imgur.com/27YlwaY](https://imgur.com/27YlwaY) \- Breakfast is served
For my last entry into the summer arctic stories we’ll go back to the fixed floats and this time working for Environment Canada on another science project. This time we will be doing animal capture! There are lots of different versions of this job as I mentioned before, sometimes it’s net guns or tranquilizers being shot out the side of a doors off helicopter, other times like this one I use the helicopter itself to drive the animals into a net for capture. The animal in question this time is the Snow Goose. Snow Geese migrate down south for the winter but in the early summer months they return to the arctic and many of them end up on Banks Island where the make their nests. During this time they lose their flight feathers and regrow them which means they are fairly easy to catch in large numbers.
Before getting to their nesting and summer hang out spots we need to set up camp. Sachs Harbour is the only settlement on Banks Island and is rather small with only 103 people living there in 2021. There isn’t much there but for us that’s only the starting point as the location we need to work is much farther north and not practical for us to stay there. After I fly the Longranger in the 9-hour trip to get there from Inuvik with fixed floats making things even slower than normal, I meet with the scientists from Environment Canada as well as a few students from a university who are helping the project and have their own side work to do as well. All the gear has been dropped off by barge or airplane before we arrived so next step is prepping it all to be put in cargo nets for me to sling it to our base camp location on the side of Siksik Lake. All said and done it was around 9 loads of gear and then another few loads of fuel drums needed. Environment Canada had a huge stash of 5+ year old drums there and throughout the project I’d make the odd trip back to collect a few more, slow work since I could only carry two at a time for weight and two trips would mean burning a drum worth of fuel at the main cache. Of course because the drums were old and stored upright in the snow every single drum had an inch or more of water in the bottom. Tipping a drum up on a rock to let the heavier water collect away from the standpipe was the standard procedure. With several fuel filters between the drum and the engine even if a little got by it wasn’t ever an issue, I got maybe a couple ounces of water during my fuel sump drains over 3 weeks.
[https://imgur.com/JeakYoa](https://imgur.com/JeakYoa) \- Packed and ready to go meet my crew
[https://imgur.com/WbYZxBr](https://imgur.com/WbYZxBr) \- Hexagonal formations on the way to Sachs Harbour
[https://imgur.com/GiGHOH9](https://imgur.com/GiGHOH9) \- Sachs Harbour in all its glory
[https://imgur.com/3SON9Fr](https://imgur.com/3SON9Fr) \- First load delivered, no remote hook so have to unhook them all by hand
[https://imgur.com/vWywgol](https://imgur.com/vWywgol) \- Next load inbound
This study goes on every year so they at least had some wooden foundations set up for the kitchen and supply tents. We won’t be so lucky for our sleeping tents though. For those we all have our own 2-person tent which we set up and then surround with a bear fence. Powered by a solar panel the bear fence is electrified to hopefully convince a random polar bear or grizzly that we aren’t worth investigating any further. The entrance is a small zig zag gap in the fence where a bear won’t be able to fit but given the number of curses out of the crew when someone brushed it by accident in the morning on the way to the kitchen tent it was also semi human proof. As we are planning to live out here for 3 weeks one of the heavier items I slung out was our food supply, an icebox full of frozen meat and veggies would keep cold long enough for us to finish the job. We even had a few extra camping perks like an oven that works on a Coleman stove to cook field brownies and cakes with! As is tradition on this kind of field work, we also supplemented our food with Arctic Char we fished out of the lake.
[https://imgur.com/uueDvuH](https://imgur.com/uueDvuH) \- Always out fishing
[https://imgur.com/jRjWsZS](https://imgur.com/jRjWsZS) \- Fresh!