Proposed New Airport for Pangnirtung

[Changes in Latitudes]

Look up, waaay up. That's where the new airport will go if they can get $200 million for funding.
Some of the best education of my flying career came from that wee strip that they have now

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/pan ... -1.3209831

[dhc#]

Would be cheaper to pack up the whole town right down to the cemetery at the end of the runway, and just move it all to Iqaluit.

[AirMail]

Would be detrimental really. How many times I or others have gotten in there by going vfr under the cloud layer that one will certainly not get into the proposed one. Perhaps a 50 million dollar study can be done on this, because F the recession.

[Diadem]

"...the new runway will offer a number of benefits for the hamlet, including allowing some small, jet aircraft like a Hercules and larger turboprop planes to take off and land." Apparently Hercs are jets.

[Mr. North]

Would be detrimental really. How many times I or others have gotten in there by going vfr under the cloud layer that one will certainly not get into the proposed one. Perhaps a 50 million dollar study can be done on this, because F the recession.

I agree, moving the airstrip onto a mountaintop and into the clouds will hardly improve their level of service and could conceivably make it worse. What they need, along with every other Arctic community, is better instrument approaches. How much does it cost to certify an LPV approach? I bet it's a fraction of the annual cost of all those missed flights or cancellations. And if every community in Nunavut invested in precision approaches (thereby expanding the list of suitable alternates) the general level of service everywhere would improve markedly.

But of course non of this will result in $200M of free money or "jobs" so why bother.

[tired of the ground]

As I was getting a ride to the terminal in Pang one day, I saw a big new building going up. I asked the driver what it was. He said "It's the new health center". I asked "what is wrong with the old health center?". His reply, "It's not expensive enough".

A $200,000,000 airport is $140,000 per person. Airfare will not get cheaper because nicer airports don't cause airfare's to drop. The town will not see an increase in population because an airport does not create industry. Job creation on a public works project is just bureaucratic masturbation if they just replace things that are already perfectly serviceable.

Pang is one of the most beautiful places in the Arctic. It needs many, many things. A quarter of a billion dollar airport is not one of them.

[thirdtimecharm]

The same people who figured that $400 million + for a new airport in Iqaluit because they were slightly uncomfortable once they were through security will look at $200 million for a mountain top airport in Pang as a bargain.