Far North Rambles #21: Ze Plane, Ze Plane

It is interesting that in a certain context, a small event can trigger lots of excitement.

There is no doubt about it. The arrival of the food plane was always cause for excitement in a Far North bush tent camp. Aircraft are an essential element of a remote, fly-in bush tent camp. The plane flies people and camp gear to the campsite. The plane flies the people and gear back to home base after the project is finished. The plane delivers fresh food and mail each week to the camp.

We used to work as weather allowed. If it was sunny, you worked. If it was raining, you generally did not work, because of safety considerations. Bush camp life was interesting, but always focused on the mapping: a) long days of mapping; b) long evenings to plot up the results of the day’s mapping; and c) routine camp maintenance work, like extending the length of the dock as water levels dropped. There was some time for distraction activities, such as fishing on rain days or during the occasional evening. Meal time was as much work debrief time as it was a social time. Each camp took on the personality of the people in camp and I remember them all fondly.

But, without a doubt, the big camp highlight was the arrival of the weekly food flight (Photo 1).

Often, we all took the day off to wait and greet the food plane. I am sure the pilots were humoured to see the full field crew waving, cheering, and celebrating their arrival of the plane. With military precision, the food boxes were removed from the plane, and hustled to the food tent, where the food was sorted and stored. Conversations were had with the pilot.

Four items received special attention: mail, cookies, pop, and rarely beer. We always gave the pilot their choice of a pop (never beer) and cookies to take on their next flight leg. A happy pilot is an attentive pilot. The last ritual of the food flight was waiting on the dock to watch the plane take off from the camp (Photo 2). Perhaps we saw this as closure until the next food flight. Perhaps we wanted to make sure the plane took off safely.

Regardless of the reason, from the first sound of the incoming plane to the take off after delivery, that food flight was the highlight of the day.

In the context of world events, the arrival of the plane was a small - no, a trivial - event. But, in the context of a bush camp, the arrival of the food plane was a big celebration and always triggered lots of excitement.

Andy Fyon, Sept 25, 2020 (Facebook, June 19, 2020).

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