Ice Pilots NWT Episode Rating Graph

The Buffalo boys gather in Red Deer for Mikey’s D-Day tribute jump. Joe and Sam scout out the designated military drop zone over Abraham Lake in the Rockies only to discover the canyon is too narrow for the DC-3. So Joe cancels the whole thing—it’s too dangerous. Mikey uses Joe’s own philosophy against him: at Buffalo, there’s always a backup plan. Joe flies out to scout a new location for the drop on the lake but hits bad weather. As Joe is about to scrap the trip, twenty paratroopers from the Canadian and American armies arrive for the big jump and are ready to go. They board WZS and Joe takes off to a site he hasn’t scouted, in weather that just keeps getting worse. As they near the drop point, he finally calls it—no jump tonight. They turn back, with all the troops still on board. Mikey’s only hope is a narrow window first thing the next morning—but only if Joe gives the final okay.

As spring arrives and Ray's retirement day approaches, Sean surprises everyone by leaving Buffalo for a job with the competition. So Buffalo brings in Electra pilot Brian Harrison to finish the contract. But as ice strip conditions deteriorate, each flight is riskier than the last. When Buffalo gets the news of former chief pilot Arnie Schreder's passing, Justin flies a DC3 to pick up Arnie's family in Kelowna and brings them back to Yellowknife for a special memorial remembering the aviation legend.

Joe performs stunt landings for a film crew; new employee Ryan tries to prove his worth in Hay River; a dental hygienist gets thrown into the hot seat.

When Buffalo’s newest Electra, ZFE, lands in Yellowknife with only three functioning engines, mechanic Chuck Adams comes to the rescue to replace a brand-new $29,000 regulator on engine number three. It’s been slow for the airline and delivering a load of building supplies to the RCMP up in Ulukhaktok, NWT, might help keep Buffalo in the air. Spurred by a recent crash landing and two engine fires, an audit team from Transport Canada descends on Buffalo Airways. With their long and tumultuous history with Joe, they demand that Buffalo appoint a new “Accountable Executive” within 72 hours, or risk being shut down. But Joe isn’t about to hand over the keys to the kingdom—not even to Rod, his oldest son. Mikey worries that if they don’t meet the deadline, Buffalo Airways could become Buffalo Spare Parts. Transport Canada isn’t the only thing on Joe’s mind; it’s becoming apparent that Joe’s 16-year-old rescue dog, Sophie, is on her last legs. One morning Joe finds Sophie lying under a plane, unable to stand up. Joe realizes that her time has come—he calls the vet.

After her husband's acrimonious departure from Buffalo, Kelly has a confrontation that decides whether she, too, will quit. Jeremy makes a mistake that could end his Buffalo career. An aviation gas shortage brings a sobering dose of reality to the McBryans. And after a visit from his mom, fate throws Scott an unexpected curve ball. When the dust settles, someone will be leaving Buffalo Airways.

Just months from retiring, Electra captain Ray Weber leads his crew on a multi trip mission that requires landing on a rough ice strip on a remote lake. The ice strip landing goes fine, but when the plane takes off from the strip, the right landing gear gets stuck in the wheel well. Ray and his crew try to get the wheel down but to no avail, and are forced to perform an emergency landing that they'll never forget.

A week before Christmas, Buffalo agrees to lend a hand to an RCMP initiative to fly toys to isolated communities in the north. But a series of problems with the Electra leave the company in a jam. An excess of holiday freight overwhelms cargo manager Kelly, and despite a visit from her buddy Arnie Schreder, recovering from his cancer treatment, her stress peaks after a clash with Joe.

When South Korean buyers come to Buffalo to look at a water bomber, the pressure is on mechanic Cory to get the plane ready. But a landing gear emergency puts him and chief pilot Justin in serious danger. Rod and Mikey salivate over a fleet of P3 Orion water bombers up for auction at a California fire fighting conference.

Mikey talks to a 15-year-old aviation buff in England via Skype, who has discovered that Buffalo’s DC3–WZS–flew on D-Day. This inspires Mikey to do something special for the 70th anniversary. He invites Cory to do a tandem parachute jump and finds out that Cory’s grandfather was a paratrooper at the invasion of Normandy. Meanwhile, Mikey takes mercy on Prefkar, working the ramp in Hay River, and offers him a chance for some pilot training on the morning DC-3 freighter. But when the time comes, Prefkar learns that he’s been bumped for pilot David Alexandre. It gets worse for Prefkar when he’s given another chance and this time the fog rolls in. Prefkar might not stick it out at Buffalo. Mikey’s D-Day plans get even bigger when he contacts the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry, who were part of the Allied airborne forces that dropped behind German lines in 1944. He pitches his plan—a reenactment jump from WZS, an actual D-Day plane. But there’s a hitch: the plane needs to pass inspection, and Mikey needs to lose weight to make the cut for tandem jumping. Mikey tries everything he can think of—from juicing, working out with Dan at the gym and even sweating it out in spin class. Cory and Mikey go over what they need to refit DC-3 WZS for a static line jump. Cory is sent on a scavenger hunt for parts in Red Deer and finds a brand-new bracket from the 1940s—but they still need to find the missing rear bracket, and nobody even knows what it looks like.

Mikey and Joe visit the Hamilton air show where Mikey has planned a major surprise for Father's Day. Joe is going to ride along in a CT-114 Tutor Jet with the famous Snowbirds. While Joe prepares for the big event, Mikey decides to conquer his fear of heights. He travels down the highway to Toronto and tries out the CN Tower "Edgewalk." But he's determined to go even higher. After all the bonding he and Joe have done in Hamilton, Mikey takes his first pilot lesson with Joe as the teacher. It turns out there are some heights Mikey still fears. As spring warms up Yellowknife, a longtime member of the Buffalo family announces a surprise departure.

Rookie waterbomber pilot Scott gets his first taste of action when Buffalo responds to an emergency callout to fight fires in Alberta. Mikey and Rod think they hit the jackpot when they buy a million dollar firefighting plane on eBay at a bargain price. Joe marks his 50 years of flying by returning to the place he grew up in his historic Norseman. And Arnie shows up in Yellowknife to cheer on daughter Caitlin in a cancer fundraiser.

Newly minted copilot Jeff Tapper is excited for his first revenue DC-3, but his inexperience shows when he botches the approach and bounces the landing three times, nearly running off the runway. Meanwhile, for new rampie Prefkar Mony to realize his dream of becoming a DC-3 pilot, he needs to first pass the written IATRA test. He’s been studying for months, but on his first attempt, he fails. With the help of pilot/mechanic Chris Staples, Prefkar retakes the test and passes, but his victory celebration is short-lived when he’s blamed for leaving an expensive shipment of medicine marked “Do Not Freeze” in a courier van during a minus 30 weekend. Later, Mikey and Katie decide to find Joe a new dog and choose Muffy, a three-year-old dog from the SPCA who is ready to leave her pups. They bring her back to the hangar for a test drive. Joe brings DC-3 CUE out of retirement to test fly the plane for Buffalo’s summer sked duty and he brings along Jeff—and Muffy—to see if they’re Buffalo material.

Buffalo has to get a CL-215 water bomber to buyers in Korea. So Justin and Cory fly the plane to Vancouver Harbour, where it will be hoisted onto a cargo ship sailing across the Pacific Ocean to its destination – a method of delivery no one has ever tried. Flight attendant David is fast-tracked to a seat next to Joe on the DC3 sked. But Joe's been on the warpath, and is known for being hard on rookie copilots.

In South Korea, Cory and Justin meet the ship delivering Buffalo's water bomber plane to new buyers there. But the boys are frustrated by the buyers' poor planning. Tempers flare when they try to get the plane off the ship and delivered to its final destination. After taking part in a military paratrooper jump, Mikey brings in fashion model Kate Eaton to join his team for the Frostbite 45 snowshoe marathon.

Joe's stress over the state of his water bombers, currently being stored in Wales, sparks an angry blow up with Cory, pushing Cory and Rod to head to the UK for urgent repairs. A day of culture in London leaves the hosers cold until they hook up with their British host, Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson. But at Bruce's Welsh facility they run into snags that threaten the work. David flies with Devan in the C-46, hoping to show how much he's learned. But when David badly botches a takeoff, Devan threatens violence. Instead of flying, hotshot Aussie Will gets stuck working on the ramp in Hay River, pushing him to a harsh ultimatum.

Christmas is just around the corner, but Buffalo's crucial food and mail runs come to a halt. An engine seizure strands Scott, AJ and the C-46 plane, creating a chaotic chain reaction. Crusty mechanic Chuck must attempt a bare-handed engine swap in minus 30, and pressure from customers and co-workers pushes cargo manager Kelly to the breaking point.

Mikey gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he's invited to host a classroom discussion with Commander Chris Hadfield, calling in from the International Space Station. But reality soon hits, when the first blast of a record-cold winter grounds the DC-4, causing a major backup and grief for new cargo manager Chris Staples. When Mikey dispatches the C-46 to save the mission, it suffers a landing gear collapse on the runway, forcing the entire staff to scramble – with no word on the state of the flight crew.

Buffalo Airways is still reeling from the recent accident – especially mechanic Chuck. Mikey tries to lift spirits by setting up a hockey shootout against a squad of NHL players that the airline is transporting around the north. He drafts a team and Buffalo's best players – including Chuck – test their shots against Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson. Young DC-3 co-pilot David flies farther north than he's ever been, facing a mysterious landing gear problem on approach to a remote Arctic airstrip. When his captain gets flustered, the rookie has to keep his cool.

Chief Pilot AJ Decoste is flying up the Mackenzie Valley with Buffalo’s newest Electra, XFC, for the first time. Mechanic Cory Dodd is along for the ride to do some training as a Flight Engineer. They try to make their deliveries before a storm rolls in but when they land in Norman Wells, they are faced with gale force winds. When their takeoff is delayed by two incoming planes, AJ is forced to shut down and wait out the storm in Norman Wells. Later, on their approach to Tulita, they face even stronger winds gusting over 40 knots. Over in Hay River, things go from bad to worse when a warm weather system brings the threat of a rare ice storm. Two daily skeds arrive from Yellowknife and the rampies have to batten down the DC-3s in preparation for a long, rough night—the worst storm in fifty years. And the newest rampie, CJ Asaf, just can’t seem to fit in. Rampie Prefkar is tasked with training CJ on the Hay River delivery route, but Prefkar can’t handle CJ or his attitude.

Joe and Mikey hire a helicopter for a salvage mission to retrieve the rare tailpiece from a Lockheed 10A that crashed in the Yellowknife woods forty years ago. It's a personal quest for Joe; he flew that plane at the beginning of his career. Justin and Cory battle severe icing that threatens to send them plummeting into the frigid North Atlantic on the longest ocean leg of their CL-215 water bomber journey to Turkey.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits Buffalo Airways; Joe clashes with inspectors; the Electra crew flies to Sachs Harbour for a meaty assignment.

Cargo manager (and unofficial Buffalo den mother) Kelly has problems enough when Jynelle's holiday leaves her shorthanded. But when her engineer husband Juan quits on the spot after a blowout with Joe, Kelly is left in a terrible position. Will Kelly stay - or will she go? Scott also gets bad news: he must stand down from flying so a rival co-pilot can be fast-tracked to captain. Scott pulls out all the stops to secure a new contract flying practically to the North Pole, which will get him back in the pilot's seat. But his rival is also interested in this new dream job - flying the C-46 to Eureka, a tiny research station at the top of the world. And after nine months of brutal work and tough luck, Jeremy sees light at the end of the tunnel. Buffalo needs a new DC-3 co-pilot, and contrary to expectation, he's getting a crack at it. But first, he's got to pass the test of flying with Joe.

A string of bad luck turns chief pilot Arnie's 66th birthday run into the flight from hell – and threatens to spoil his naughty birthday surprise. Ramp hand Jeremy is desperate to move up the ranks, but a female newbie could throw a wrench in his plans. And after the crew works all night to turn the DC-4 into a flying gas tanker, new co-pilot Alex flies a tricky fuel haul.

Crusty mechanic Chuck scrambles to ready the Electra for a mission to the High Arctic, and former rampie Audrey returns to Buffalo and reignites the battle of the sexes.

Joe gets a lucrative late-season contract to fly mining equipment to an airstrip on a frozen lake, sending C-46 and DC-4 crews on a race against the spring melt. But conflict erupts between Devan and a senior pilot. And when the client reports an on-site incident, Joe goes on the warpath. Though Jeremy has missed a number of flight attendant classes, he's confident he can catch up to fellow rampies Audrey and Wilf. But too much confidence just may be a dangerous thing. And over the North Atlantic, Arnie, Justin and Cory press on to Turkey, even though they have only half of the spare parts in their plane. But there are some serious volcanoes and busy Mediterranean air traffic ahead.

Chief pilot Arnie lands the DC-3 on a homemade sand strip at a remote lodge. Electra expert Chuck faces off with a stubborn power unit, and Rod's wife Sasha goes into labour.

When thunderstorms and a shaky engine threaten a charter to Whitehorse, Joe pulls out all the stops to get the passengers to their destination, while baby Emma Rae McBryan visits the hangar for the first time.

The Electra flies to Alert, the northernmost settlement on Earth, forcing Adam and new senior manager Duane to work things out. Hay River rampie Tyler is on the fast track to a co-pilot seat, but first has to prove his flying ability to Buffalo's new chief pilot, Justin.

Across the world in spectacular Izmir, after thousands of hours of painstaking preparation and life-risking flying, a terrible accident devastates the Turkey crew - and everyone at Buffalo Airways. In Yellowknife, the spring melt is well underway, and northerners are finding ways to celebrate, from checking out the melting waterfalls to racing jet boats onto the remaining river ice. It's also Wilf's first run as flight attendant on the DC-3 - for which he insists on wearing a shirt and tie to the consternation of the entire company. It's the final push Jeremy needs to move to HQ in Yellowknife. Kelly and Jynelle dig up a house-warming surprise that practically brings tears to the gruff rampie's eyes.

Buffalo flies the Stanley Cup on a tour of the North, and a licence suspension has Joe looking for a captain to replace him on the passenger run he’s flown for almost 30 years.

Mikey goes on a Venezuelan treasure hunt for a rare CL-215 waterbomber, and new pilots Andrew and Graeme face their toughest test yet - flying with irascible boss Joe McBryan.

When a deadly fire destroys a northern outpost a week before Christmas, Kelly puts aside her personal dilemmas to rally Buffalo to the rescue. Scott and AJ face an onboard alarm.

The Electra has become Buffalo's winter workhorse – the one plane they need to keep flying. During a High Arctic delivery mission, a 5,000-pound power unit tips off the forklift and crashes to the ground, smashing the fuselage – and sending Mikey into crisis management mode. With no backup Electras, Joe races to Atlantic Airways in Coventry, England on an urgent mission to scoop one up from other potential buyers while back at Buffalo, Mikey tries to prove he's really management material.

Young pilots AJ and Andrew get the chance of a lifetime to fly the DC-3 mounted on snow skis, and tension mounts across the company as Buffalo’s Mackenzie Valley food mail delivery contract is up for renewal.

Rookie co-pilot Scott faces his worst nightmare when a faltering Curtiss C-46 Commando engine and low fog force a scary landing. Ambitious young flyer Alex must prove himself when Buffalo's chief pilot gives him control of the 20-ton Douglas DC-4 for the very first time. And boss' son Mikey gets in hot water when "Buffalo" Joe needs the backup Douglas DC-3 – and it's nowhere near ready.

A furious Joe fights against a federal suspension that will prevent him from carrying passengers for the first time in 20 years. It's also a setback for Jeremy and the other rampies, which takes a turn for the worse with an unexpected injury. For the Turkey waterbomber team it's finally a go. Arnie, Justin and the crew set off on the first leg of their journey, a risky trip across Canada in the dead of winter, with no de-icing equipment.

Joe fights the feds while Justin and his crew are stranded in the High Arctic.

Joe hires outsider Duane Hicks to help Buffalo navigate the future and coach Mikey. Gord and Sean's DC-3 delivery mission to the High Arctic goes awry when blizzard conditions and a broken oil cooler force an emergency landing.

Trying to make his mark at Buffalo, Duane lands two more Electra contracts. But his over-zealous efforts result in a clash with the crew and with Joe, and a down-to-the-wire midnight departure to meet a deadline. Rookie DC-3 co-pilot Tyler discovers that landing the big plane takes practice.

Engine troubles on the C-46 during the valley run force Devan to shut down an engine. High winds wreak havoc for Devan and his crew on another C-46 mission to help clean up an oil spill in the Northwest Territories. Scott trains on a CL-215 waterbomber and visits his mentor Arnie, then joins the waterbombing crews when Buffalo is called in to fight a massive fire in Alberta.

The Turkey crew makes the critical jump over the North Atlantic. But en route to Portugal, one crew is forced to turn back. With no power on one engine and no way to maintain altitude, they must get back into Santa Maria, where the airport is on full emergency alert. And Mikey and Scott search for a new rampie, while Jeremy's hopes plummet even further.

Buffalo launches an all-out campaign to airlift 100,000lbs of essential goods to cut-off northern communities, Justin helps a Mountie move and expectant parents Rod and Sasha show off their 3D ultrasound.

When a ferry breakdown causes a gasoline shortage in Yellowknife, new manager Duane begs Chuck to return and prepare the Electra for a fuel haul. Cory leads a clandestine rescue mission to retrieve an abandoned C-46 and Mikey escapes to Ottawa for a birthday joyride in a fighter jet.

Co-pilot Graeme Ferguson gets the biggest opportunity of his short career when Buffalo needs to train a second Electra crew. But none of Buffalo's piston-pounders have prepared him for a plane this big and this fast. When Graeme fumbles a landing, he has to prove he's ready for his big chance after all. Meanwhile, Chris Staples gets to take the test he's been dreaming about – to qualify as a co-pilot in the C-46. But he'll have to take it with one of the toughest captains on the crew. When the C-46 breaks down in Deline, Adam Smith rushes to the rescue and Chris might finally get his chance to shine.