Far North Rambles #17: I Did Not See You
Far North Friday: “I didn’t see you”: This is part 2 of the “you can never have enough cookies” reflection that I posted on May 1/20. When waiting to be picked up by a float plane, the words you don’t want to hear from the pilot are “I didn’t see you”.
Recall we were dropped off by float plane to set up a bush camp at Hill Lake, northwest of Savant Lake, Ontario. Unfortunately, the final camp location differed from the planned camp location that we left on the map at the air carrier office because a rocky shore precluded a safe shore landing by the float plane that flew us in (Photo 1). The second challenge was the air carrier that flew us out was NOT the same air carrier scheduled to pick us up. Our exact camp location depended on communication between the two different air carriers. The third challenge was an early winter snow storm grounded the planes on the pick-up day. Exciting consequences!
Photo 1: Our white (more or less) cotton tent nestled among the trees the day before the snow storm. This two-person camp was our base for the geological mapping project in the area. Image by Andy Fyon, Hill Lake, northern Ontario, Oct. 1976.
Although we were rushing towards winter “freeze up”, Hill Lake had not frozen yet, so we were confident that after the snow storm, the plane would be able to fly us out.
The day after the snow storm, the morning was a sunny, but very windy and cold. We suspected our camp might be hard to find (Photo 2).
Photo 2: Our white cotton tent nestled among the trees the day AFTER the snow storm. The combination of white tent + white snow + uncertainty about our exact camp location in the minds of the pilots, meant it was going to be a challenge for the pilots to locate the camp. Image by Andy Fyon, Hill Lake, northern Ontario, Oct. 1976.
A white tent hidden in snow-covered bush is not easy to see from the air (Photo 3).
Photo 3: Our white cotton tent nestled among the trees the day AFTER the snow storm. Although it was sunny, the combination of white tent + white snow made it impossible for the pilots to locate the camp. Image by Andy Fyon, Hill Lake, northern Ontario, Oct. 1976.
At about 9 am, we heard two smaller planes flying in to pick us up. It was a big lake and they flew over the far end of the big lake, where we had planned to set up the camp. After a couple of “fly overs” around the planned camp site, they landed at the far end of the lake. We learned afterward the pilots were assessing their options, given there was no sign of our camp. Clearly, there had been a failure to communicate between the two different air carriers that we had to move our camp from the planned location, due to safety issues. After about 5 minutes sitting on the water, the two planes took off and headed towards our actual camp. We ran to the rock promontory, jumped up and down, waved like crazy, but no, the planes flew over us - not once, but twice, as they followed the shore of the lake looking for our camp. After the second pass, we figured we would be walking for the next 3 days to get to the Savant Lake Highway. Fortunately, the pilots made a third pass. Bingo! A happy wing wave. They saw us and landed. I won’t lie. We were happy to see them.
It took a little longer to pack our gear into the planes because we deliberately had not taken down the camp until we were assured the planes were flying and they had located us. After we packed our gear in the planes, one of the pilots quietly said “we did not see you”. Now, at first that seemed a little odd, but we realized our white cotton tents and the aluminium canoe would not be easy to see on the snow covered land. Also, to minimize our camp footprint, we had not cleared out any trees and we had not built a dock. A cleared campsite and a dock might have been easier to see from the air. The other pilot then said “the best way to help a pilot find you is to throw rocks into the lake or get into your boat and rock it side to side.” It turns out, both those simple techniques create waves that are different from the waves created by the wind. Those different waves stand out like a sore thumb to a pilot’s eye.
So, in addition to finishing the last mapping project before freeze up and getting snowed on, we learned a trick to help a pilot locate us in the future. That was a lesson I have not forgotten …. but I never had the need to use. Fortunately, I never again heard the words “we didn’t see you”.
Andy Fyon, Sept 11, 2020 (Facebook, May 15, 2020).
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