Flight of Delays

I woke up nice and early on the morning of January 27th, doing last minute checks on my luggage before having a quick breakfast. Freezing rain was beginning to fall all across town making me wonder if my flight would be delayed or cancelled. When the taxi arrived to take me to the airport, I locked up the house and made sure that everything was in the cab. Even though I had checked in online, I still proceeded to the First Air check in desk because I had to drop off my luggage. Because I had two suitcases and a box full of books, I was over the limit and would have to pay for the box as excess baggage. I told the check in clerk that I had no problem paying the $52 fee but she instead chose to waiver it. Once through security, I walked to my gate, sat down and waited.

To pass the time, I watched a line of snowplows clearing the long runway and a few planes taking off. Contrary to popular belief, the First Air plane was a jet aircraft not a turboprop. Even though it was in a nearby hangar, the plane wasn't brought to the gate until a few minutes after the scheduled departure time. When the plane was ready, boarding announcements were made in English, French, & Inuktitut. The passengers on this flight were a mix of Inuit, Canadians, and Europeans. Once onboard, I was surprised to see how many spare seats there were. I and several other would have an entire row to ourselves.

While the flight crew performed the safety demonstrations, I stared out the window wondering why it hadn't hit me? 'It' being the realization that I was really moving up north to teach high school music. Then the delays started. First was getting clearance from the tower to taxi out of the gate. During this, the plane's backup generator, which was running the heaters and other systems, decided to unexpectedly shutdown. The plane was suddenly filled with deafening silence as the pilots contacted the ground crew to fix the problem. The repairs took some time and already some of the Inuit passengers were getting concerned.

Finally, after twenty more minutes, the plane was moved away from the gate by a pushback tug. From there, we turned to the left and proceeded slowly across the wet tarmac to a long line of aircraft waiting to be deiced before takeoff. Many airplanes required deicing because they were parked at the gates overnight and their entire bodies were covered with frozen rain. The captain informed everyone that we would have to wait for up to 3 hours before our turn. Upon hearing this, I got out my laptop and tried to access the airport's free wi-fi network in order to send an email to the people in Iqaluit and tell them that I would be delayed. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect and having left my cell phone at home, I could not send any message. I could have borrowed someone's cell phone but instead, I spread myself across the row of three seats and passed the time reading, listening to music, and eavesdropping on a few Inuit passengers who were informing a steward that they would be writing letters of complaint to First Air.

There was a moment when my mind replayed the answers to several questions I asked during and after the phone interview. Iqaluit does not have '6 months of day & 6 months of night'; the town has many modern facilities despite its isolated location; and the students are very friendly. The fact that really stuck out was that I was going to be the only music teacher at Inuksuk High School. No way, I thought to myself, they were just pulling my leg. On the other hand, if they really were telling the truth, then I was really being thrown into the driver's seat.

Finally, after 3 hours, it was our turn. Unfortunately, the flight crew did not serve any drinks or snacks during the long wait. I'm glad I had some apples in my backpack. The deicing took about 10 minutes and then the pilots taxied the plane to the runway. We took off at 12:45pm, three hours behind schedule.

The flight to Iqaluit lasted another 3 hours. I couldn't snap any photos of the ground below until the last hour because low hovering clouds blocked my view. For the breakfast meal, I chose the muffin, yogurt, and fruit salad combination. It was good but not great. The sun began to set when the plane descended towards Iqaluit. At first, all I could see was white snow & ice covering the ground & lakes, and tall mountains & ridges in the distance. A few minutes before landing, the ground below gave way to snow covered roads and many brightly lit houses, warehouses, and office buildings. So this is what Iqaluit looks like from the air, I thought to myself.

The plane touched down with ease and slowly taxied to the large yellow coloured terminal. The captain welcomed us to Iqaluit and informed us that the temperature was -26. When the plane halted and powered down, I put on all my winter clothing, face mask included, and collected my carry-on luggage. I proceeded with the other passengers to the exit at the back of the plane. I was greeted by a gust of cold air as I slowly climbed down the step ladder. I paused on the last step, took a deep breath, and then placed my right foot on the tarmac. Then my left. I was now on Nunavut soil for the first time.