Here’s a book in the form of a memoir, in which pilot Dominique Prinet shares his experiences in Canada’s Far North, at a time when navigation was far more uncertain than it is today...
Here’s a book in the form of a memoir, in which pilot Dominique Prinet shares his experiences in Canada’s Far North, at a time when navigation was far more uncertain than it is today…
At over 80 years old, Frenchman Dominique Prinet is enjoying a happy retirement in Vancouver, where he has written his memoirs. In them, he remembers his past – in the 1960s and 1970s – as a bush pilot in the remotest parts of Canada, at the controls of all kinds of aircraft.
In turn transporting fishermen, hunters, trappers, those searching for gold and/or oil or people who were injured or needed emergency evacuation, the pilot went through these experiences with rudimentary means of communication and measuring instruments often with interference due to the proximity of the North Pole, using the sun, the position of the stars and even his instincts to guide him.
His time in Yellowknife, capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, where he stayed for seven years – flying every day to transport prospectors, scientists, supplies and equipment – seems to have left the deepest impression on him. Needing to share his experience with as many of his colleagues as possible, he also began writing articles for other pilots.
And speaking of experiences, the pilot shares some great ones, like the time he and his wife were stranded for three days in the middle of nowhere before help arrived. Or the time he experienced his aircraft free-falling into a lake, escaping unscathed with his passengers and making it to a nearby geologists’ camp. It’s one thing to be guided by the stars, and quite another to have one watching over you…
Book. “Pilote du bout du monde – Souvenirs d’un pilote de brousse dans le Grand Nord.” Author: Dominique Prinet. Éditions JCL. ISBN: 2898042242.
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