As you drive past Hay River’s Airport and look both to the run way and to aircraft parking/storage areas, it can seem that you have returned to a former time. Buffalo Airways has several Douglas DC-3s lining the airfield awaiting use in transport in and around the Northwest Territories. They are colourful workhorse aircraft – usually bright green on white or orange on white, easy to see and easy to be seen in. The reminiscence of former times is there for me with these aircraft. As research chemist, my father did a lot of flying between Canada and Europe with the parent and subsidiary plastics companies – Britain, Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton. On one of his early business trips in the sixties one of the gifts he brought back for me was that of a blue and white dye-cast model of a Douglas DC-3 advertising BOAC Airways, a plane model I would play with in my childhood and something kept still as remembrance of my early years.
Listening to Over the Rhine from the Ohio Disc 2; songs standing out are Long Lost Brother, She and Nobody Number One.
Quote to Inspire – “When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don’t give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself.” – Edward Steichen, quoted in Penelope Niven’s ‘Steichen: A Biography’.
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
I also had a DC3 model. I threw it at my older brother one day because he was picking on me. It broke into a thousand pieces. 😦
Hey there …
For me, it was getting into my cousin’s model cars. I was the one who would push them forward and back and occasionally a wheel or something would need repair. My poor cousin!
Thanks for looking in on the DC-3s; I’m hoping to ride in one sometime … I used to do a lot of bush flying in this region. There were times when the small Cessnas, Islanders and Otters would finally come to rest that I’d feel very much like ‘kissing’ the ground … so glad to be alive after flying through fog and different weather situations. Some of our bush pilots were American and went on to work with different jets on aircraft carriers.
Still … flying is something I like to do.
When I was taking flying lessons while at Texas A&M University, a couple of friends and I flew a Mooney from College Station, Texas, to Dallas and then to Nashville, Tennessee. One of the other guys was flying as we got near Nashville. He was the experienced flyer of us three. He cut the engines and we coasted into Nashville. I was as white as a ghost when we got back on the ground, and I quit taking flying lessons.
i have always loved the DC3s.
Hey there, Mark:
Are you a pilot – have you flown them? Or are you like me, someone who’s aiming for a flight in one?
Thanks for stopping by and having a look around In My Back Pocket Photography.
Not a pilot, just a lover of airplanes and especially the DC-3. My dad was a recreational pilot and I spent many hours of my childhood in and around airports and airplanes. I recently watched a documentary that featured Buffalo Airlines and their pilots. I would love to fly in one someday.
Wouldn’t that be neat to cluster a few photographers for a week and travel the high arctic along with Buffalo Airways transportation schedule/routes? I’ve yet to see Inuvik, Norman Wells and other points north.
Hmmh? Interesting …. I wonder if we’d have any takers? I’m sure Buffalo Airways would be interested …. I’m going to think on this …. 🙂
I love that idea! That would be quite an exciting trip. Keep me posted.