Over the years, we've met a wide range of pilots in a wide range of aircraft travelling through Iqaluit on their way to and from Europe and Canada's Eastern Arctic.  Ferry pilots, vacationing private pilots, adventurers going around the world, military pilots and many more.  Here are some of the interesting people we've encountered, and some of their stories.

Most stop through Iqaluit on their way between Canada and Greenland, as this is the largest airport on the Canadian side of the Davis Strait crossing.  For most people in smaller single engine aircraft, the route between Iqaluit and Sondre Stromfiord or Nuuk, Greenland offer the shortest time over water on a north Atlantic Crossing.

Others visit Iqaluit on the way to Pangnirtung, Qikiqtarjuaq, Cape Dorset, Kimmirut or other spots as far north as Pond Inlet, Resolute, Eureka and the North Magnetic Pole. More stories and links are added each summer season...

Werner Koch of Vancouver made a trip from CYPK Pitt Meadows, BC to CYGZ Grise Fiord, Nunavut in July 2011.  He went via CYZF Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, CYCB Cambridge Bay, CYYHTaloyoak, and CYAB Arctic Bay Nunavut,  to Grise Fiord. The return trip was via Arctic Bay, Cambridge Bay, CYCO Kugluktuk, CYVQ Norman Wells, NWT and Muncho Lake, BC.

This Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 (model 3000), serial number AT-1,  dropped by Iqaluit in July, 2011 on its way to the 40th anniversary Royal International Air Tattoo at the Royal Airforce Base Fairford, Gloucestershire, England.  The AT-6 is Hawker Beechcraft's new attack/surveillance aircraft, based on its T-6 Texan trainer.

Most of the visits we write about happened since our involvement with general aviation in Iqaluit began in 1993.  But this is one story that had to make the page even though it happened more than 40 years ago.  Mira Slovak made the Atlantic crossing via Greenland and Iqaluit (or Frobisher Bay as it was then known) back in 1968.  He did it in his motorglider, a Fournier RF-4D, built by Sportavia in Germany.  Think big wing, one wheel, and a 36 hp Volkswagen engine.

Jens Abildgaard was through Iqaluit a couple of years ago on one of his longer, international trips. He's done a 'round the world flight, a trip from Europe to the US and one to South Africa, all in a single engine plane.  His website has trip reports and other information.

You don't see one of these every day in Iqaluit.  It is an EADS 'Warszawa - Okecie' S.A. PZL-104MA Wilga 2000.  Quite a powerful, multipurpose aircraft.  Built in Poland by PZL,  they're used for everything from towing gliders, to training, to border patrol.  The Canadian Air Cadet program had purchased one PZL-104MA, and was planning to buy more, but EADS is apparently no longer making it.

Back in 2008, The Great Arctic Air Adventure completed a circumnavigation of Canada, which included a trip to the North Magnetic Pole,  by float plane.  That’s not something you see up here everyday… visit their site for photos, videos and more. The trip took off from the west Coast, travelled through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and visited a number of Nunavut communties, including Cambridge Bay, Coral Harbour and Resolute Bay before returning south via the Nunavik region of Northern Quebec. The float equipped deHavilland Beaver would have reminded some of the older arctic residents of the kind of planes that found their way north in the 1940s to 1960s.

Now, their adventure has been documented in a TV special airing on PBS.  Details, including the video trailer, are available here.

Matt Hyde dropped by Iqaluit in August of 2007 on a trip from Seattle, Washington to Baffin Island in his 1973 Cessna 182P.   Matt met us at the fuel station at CYFB. He dropped by at the same time as Indian Air Force pilots Rahul Monga and Anil Kumar. At the time,  Monga and Kumar were two thirds of the way through their record-breaking trip around the world.

Matt took some spectacular photos on his Baffin Island trip, including flying through the Aksayuk Pass near Pangnirtung, some great photos of Auyuituq National Park, and more.

Ward Welvaert is a professional ferry pilot who has flown a number of single engine aircraft between North America and Europe, via CYFB-Iqaluit, CYVM- Qikiqtarjuaq, and Kuujjuaq.  His website provides information and photos about some of his services, and his blog site provides some recent trip reports, including this one on ferrying a Piper Seneca through Iqaluit to Europe.

This 1928 Sikorsky S-38B (N28V) has certainly been one of the more unusual visitors we've seen at CYFB.  The restored beauty stopped by on Monday August 23, 2010 on the way from Minnesota to Berlin.  Tom Schrade of Unlimited Adventure is the owner and pilot of the S-38.  It was wet when they arrived on the Monday evening, but the weather was bright and sunny for their departure to Greenland on August 24th.

Paul Bossens, and Pete Koekelkoren made a successful trip in a Robinson R-44 Clipper II (OO-HEY) from Brussels, Belgium to Oshkosh for the airshow and then on to Los Angeles.  The trip covered more than 9,000 nm, flown over a month.

We've never met Reto Godly. But his trip report of an Arctic flight from Germany, to Norway to Canada and Alaska via the North Pole is quite something.  His website provides a day by day log of this flight in 2005, plus others he's made to Alaska, Africa, South America, and a circumnavigation of the world. The latter trip included a rather long stop in Iqaluit due to persistent bad weather.  Which happens around here sometimes.

His website features detailed daily trip logs, and photos.

Hans-Jürgen Schwerhoff, accompanied by Wilma Schwerhoff, flew a Cessna P210N Centurion around the world in the summer of 2010.  They started at home in Germany, heading south east, on April 8, 2010 and were back home in Friedrichshafen, Germany on August 20th.

In 1999, Mike Blyth and Olivier Aubert made quite an amazing trip in trike-type microlights from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Cape Town, South Africa. They did it the long way. Up through South and North America, and back down Europe and Africa.  They covered more than 25,000 miles over 8 months. We had the pleasure of seeing them when they stopped in Iqaluit on the way.