A Day Aboard an Air North Hawker
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Our very pleasant flight attendant Edith again came through the cabin offering drinks and snacks as we plied our way across the dark green forest, lakes, and rolling mountains below. Peering through the 748’s large oval windows from 20,000 feet, one can’t help but marvel at the vast emptiness of Canada’s thousands of square miles of uninhabited hinterlands. Not being able to see any sign of mankind for as far as the eye can see, it is easy to debate the hypothesis in one’s mind that the planet is becoming over crowded. Certainly not in these parts was my conclusion! With the pleasing hum of the eagerly working Rolls Royce engines filling the cabin, several passengers (including myself) indulged in a short nap in preparation for the remainder of the day.
After a very enjoyable 68 minutes in the air we were landing on Old Crow’s gravel airstrip, which is situated immediately adjacent to the Old Crow township. The longest road in the area is the road that connect the airport and the town, a distance of about 2000 feet! A crew of men, a pick-up truck, and a loader were waiting for the 748’s arrival as we taxied into the parking area in front of Old Crow’s new, rustic terminal building. Once again, some passengers got off to stretch their legs, but there was much work to do in a short order of time.
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The bulk of our cargo out of Whitehorse was destined for Old Crow, so the forward freight hold had to be unloaded, as did the remaining seat packs. I could see that even with the waiting help, there was much work to be done, so the crew kindly accepted my offer to help with the unloading of the seat packs. A three-person human chain was formed between the cabin area where I was unloading the seat packs (which on this flight primarily consisted of heavy packs of canned soft drinks) and the forward cargo door. This allowed Captain Kiriak to start his walk around and prep the aircraft for the next leg of our journey.
Once the forward cargo hold was empty, and the cabin was emptied of the seat pack cargo, Edith went back to the terminal building to collect the passengers. Quite a few passengers joined the flight at Old Crow for the onward sector to Fairbanks, although some of the passengers were actually destined for Whitehorse (and onward to Vancouver) as well as Dawson City, but they had to board the flight in Old Crow as the summer schedule does not route the aircraft back through Old Crow on the return journey.
International Sector to Fairbanks
We were on the ground in Old Crow for 39 minutes and were once again airborne for Fairbanks at 13:25, with almost a full passenger cabin. For those that wanted, Edith served a somewhat larger sandwich on this leg along with the usual drink service. Reason being that Old Crow-Fairbanks is the longest sector of the day, with a 90 minute flying time. A number of passengers were tourists on their way between the Yukon and Fairbanks, with some being European and others being Canadian. Everyone was enjoying their journey, talking about their travel plans and reading guide books, while Edith did a fantastic job delivering Air North’s famous Northern hospitality, specially considering that she had only been on the job for less than a few weeks!
The time passed quickly, and after about 75 minutes in the air we were approaching what seemed to be the suburbia of a large North American city. We were approaching the outskirts of Fairbanks across the border in Alaska, and it is quite remarkable how large a city Fairbanks has become. The city is fed by en extensive freeway system not unlike Seattle, and it seems completely out of place when compared to the other communities in the region. The urban sprawl, road networks, and industrial infrastructure of Fairbanks dwarfs even Whitehorse. We landed at 1435 after exactly 90 minutes flight time from Old Crow, and the aviation enthusiast’s attention is immediately drawn to the collection of active DC-4s and DC-6s that deliver cargo and fuel to the isolated communities of central and Northern Alaska.
We taxied to our parking position abeam the main Fairbanks terminal building, situated between a Condor 767 on one side, and an Alaska 737-800 on the other side. Air North’s Fairbanks representative met the flight, and all passengers including the itinerants had to deplane and be cleared by US Customs and Immigration officers. It took about twenty-five minutes for all the itinerant passengers to be cleared, while the 748 was fueled and serviced, and then Edith led us all back into the sunshine and across the ramp to our waiting 748. Once we were boarded and comfortably seated, the Fairbanks originating passengers were boarded, all in a very leisure and relaxed manner, and once again, the flight was pretty close to full for the return journey to Dawson City and Whitehorse.
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