Ice Pilots: For Real?

Avatar for Graham ChandlerBy Graham Chandler | March 14, 2013

Estimated reading time 10 minutes, 46 seconds.

When Mikey McBryan stands in front of the camera in his ball cap and hoodie to talk about the Buffalo Airways crisis du jour, it’s the real Mikey, general manager. But do the emergencies and tension-packed moments presented weekly on Ice Pilots NWT portray the real day-to-day life of northern Canadian aviation operations?

I would say it accurately portrays flight operations as they were about 30 years ago, said Trevor Wever, VP of operations at Yellowknife-based Air Tindi. I’m familiar with Buffalo’s operations, and I know every day isn’t an emergency situation. But certainly, any of the other operators, such as ourselves or First Air, they would have to shoot a lot of footage to catch those kind of tense moments, because we just can’t operate that way in our business and under the regulatory eye that the larger carriers are under.
Wever agreed that the show has tweaked a lot of interest; but he said that unfortunately, people who know nothing about aviation might think it depicts a typical day in the life of a northern operator. And anybody who does know aviation will realize all that stuff has been compressed to fit a 60-minute time slot.
Mike Olson, director of sales (Western region) at northern operator First Air, has two trains of thought on the show.
On the tourism side, it gives great exposure as it’s a successful TV program, he said. They are doing a heck of a job as far as promoting the Northwest Territories and getting that word out there. From the aviation side, he feels what they are portraying is a little less glamorous. As a highly regulated airline, we have to jump through hoops and fly by all the rules and that’s important – safety is our number one thing. It does not quite portray that image, that’s for sure. It’s not quite as dramatic as it is portrayed. 
Olson said it’s the same thing with the show Ice Road Truckers.  The roads to the diamond mines are as safe as safe can be; but with the dramatization of it, it’s not portrayed that way. Is that good for the diamond mines? No. Is it good for a TV program? Yes. People like the suspense. It’s reality versus dramatization. That’s what it is.
He continued: I don’t think it portrays a good realization of what happens up here. We have pilots that are just as experienced if not more experienced – and they are flying in some of the worst conditions in the world. The show almost flaunts that cowboy renegade type of an environment, which we don’t have at all.
Adlair Aviation is a smaller operation, but one with a long history of northern flying. It was launched in 1983 by legendary bush pilot and Canadian Aviation Hall of Famer Willy Laserich, who started flying up north in 1956 and amassed over 44,000 hours. With three generations of northern flying behind him, Bryan Laserich, general manager and grandson of the founder, reckons most of what Ice Pilots NWT shows is real. 
It sure shows the reality of working and living in this harsh environment, that’s all I can say, he said. The environment is real, the workload is real and the battles with Transport Canada are real. A lot of cold weather and a lot of issues; it’s all real.
Perhaps an indication that the show may have been over-dramatizing, Wever of Air Tindi has noticed tamer story lines of late. You can see that they are sort of running out of sensational moments, because now they are showing the guys cross-country skiing, spending time with their kids, and stuff. He says that part of the show is real. It’s more on the human side of things versus every moment of the show when there’s an engine on fire or a landing gear that won’t come down or whatever. 
MIKEY’S TAKE ON THE SHOW
Mikey McBryan is decidedly the face of Ice Pilots NWT. Often shown clowning around or swearing, he also has a serious side as general manager. He knows the camera crews are there to make good TV. 
Ultimately, you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt, he told Canadian Skies. If we believed everything we saw on TV as it is, how horribly wrong it can be sometimes. He said the producers like the sensationalized image. 
When a trip goes well it never makes television, so 99 per cent of trips they don’t show. They want to see emergencies, things going bad. The worst day possible at Buffalo is the best day for TV, said McBryan. A lot of footage is needed. It’s 13 episodes, so round it up to say 13 hours. Well, our average workday is 13 hours. So theoretically, we can do 360 episodes a year of the most absolutely boring TV. You take a fraction of that, take out all the crap and make a show. It’s a formula for any television.
On the other hand, he said the series is a documentary, and not presented by corporate spin doctors who read from a script that says what to talk to reporters about. So what the public sees with Buffalo is real. With some other operators, people who interview usually talk right out of the book. You don’t get the seedy underbelly of it.
But, McBryan said Buffalo’s main concerns are still clients and safety. We take any ˜cowboy’ description quite personally, he said, although he sees where the image comes from. We were always the whipping boys of the aviation industry even before the TV show. The crazy guys with the World War II airplanes; everybody looked down on us. But, we all love these airplanes and that’s why we’re here.
As author Michael Vlessides quoted Mikey McBryan in his book: We’re no longer an airline; we’re a brand.
Graham Chandler is a Calgary-based freelance writer with specialties in energy and aviation. His work appears regularly in several oil and gas publications as well as international magazines such as Saudi Aramco World and Air & Space/Smithsonian. Along with degrees in physics, business and archaeology, he is an engineering graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School.

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