As a child in Manitoba, Garth Evans would pretend his father’s boat was a float plane. One thing that could get him to pause was an actual float plane flying overhead.
“I would always stop what I was doing, and go look at the plane until I could no longer see it,” said the pilot. “And to this day, if I’m working in the garage at the lake and I hear a float plane, I drop what I’m doing, I go down to the dock and I watch it until it’s out of sight.”
In two weeks Evans will be making the nine-hour trip up from his home outside of Winnipeg to Yellowknife for the Midnight Sun Fly-in, alongside many other floatplane pilots across Canada.
The Midnight Sun Fly-in is returning to Great Slave Lake this summer after a hiatus due to Covid-19.
It’s been nearly thirty years since the fly-in first took off.
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This year, the fly-in will take place from July 6 to 9 at Rotary Park in Yellowknife. Many events included over the three days will be free, except for the fish fry and steak barbecue with live entertainment.
Tickets cost $70 for each event.
Larry Buckmaster, a second-generation pilot of 50 years, has been flying into Yellowknife for the fly-in for fifteen years.
This year he will fly in from Kelowna, BC.
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Buckmaster and his wife used to own a charter company in Hay River, and they were too busy to participate in the fly-in, he said.
Now that they’re retired, they make the nine-hour trip in their Cessna-185 every second year. It’s also a chance for them to visit with friends and family in Yellowknife.
Evans has been participating in the fly-in since 2009, when a friend of Evans’s asked if he’d like to join him.
Flying into Yellowknife is an indescribable experience, said Evans, adding the camaraderie and community of floatplane pilots keeps him coming back.
“We don’t seem to get tired of it.”
