Busy boy!

Nain airstrip must be close to being the busiest in the province at the moment. In fine to reasonable weather there are almost non stop landings and take offs of fixed wing and rotary planes.

Back in the heady days of the post Voisey’s Bay discovery it was most certainly the busiest. It has not reached those volumes [yet] but things sure or constant.
Both commercial airlines are moving a lot of people and freight associated with mining exploration. As well a lot of people are coming and going associated with the Torngat National Park.

The helicopter traffic is mostly associated with the exploration, plus the usual traffic.

One thing of note [others have noted the same thing] is that the choppers are infringing closer and closer to the community, especially inward flights, and especially to the east along the water front.
During the frenzy period there were restrictions imposed keeping the flights a good distance from the community except in certain circumstances, these seem to be relaxed or being ignored now.

This one flew over homes and along the airstrip on approach to the northern point chopper pad on Friday; it is associated with the never ending search for El Dorado.

While waiting to depart Nain on or holiday a chopper with a heavy load slung under flew the same flight path except it came directly over us on the ground. People moved and made disapproving looks.

But we better not mention it to the authorities, some one might think we are ungrateful or something. No sire re, we will wait until there is a near or actual incident then berate the authorities for not being more diligent, yes sir re.

There were a number of near incidents during the frenzy, more than once did a chopper cross the approach path of a twin otter flight. Not to mention some really crazy thoughtless pilot behavior on the ground.