InlandAir.bc.ca
Title
Airplane Charter Service, Northern British Columbia, Prince Rupert, BC, Canada
Description
The early 1980s showed a growing demand for commercial fishing support in British Columbia. Inland Air was originally founded to answer this demand, and was operated by only 2 people, using 2 aircraft; a Cessna 185F and a DeHavilland Beaver. Trips included crew changes, medical evacuations, and Federal Department of Fisheries contracts including stream counting, law-enforcement, and surveillance. Flights were often back-to-back all day long, and were conducted on the coastal waters between Seattle WA and Juneau AK; the southern Alaskan panhandle and its islands, the far-flung Queen Charlotte Islands, the entire mainland coast, and the sizeable coastline of Vancouver Island - inlets, bays, harbors, coves - anyplace a seaplane could operate from. They were busy times.
In order to properly serve the fishing fleet and its requirements, the airplanes were fitted with marine VHF, autotel units, HF radio, scanners, scramblers, and low-band FM to ensure privacy in communication with Department of Fisheries. All this was in addition to the communication and navigation gear complimentary to an aircraft on the coast.
The fishery work eventually leveled off, and slower times were to be seen by everybody living on the west coast. As Inland Air adapted to meet the changing markets, some ways of its past were kept with - our aircraft remain some of the best-equipped commercial seaplanes in Canada.
