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It's not easy to get back on the horse, if you will, after a near miss while piloting an airplane, but that's exactly what Arviat pilot Joe Savikataaq Jr. was forced to do after experiencing engine failure while flying over Lake Winnipeg.

Savikataaq, 45, said his engine experienced mechanical issues which forced he and his father to make a forced landing on the lake in 2011.

He said the engine was just idling and lost all power as they began to fall from the sky and head towards the lake.

鈥�When it first happened, there was just this different tone on the engine and then it was almost total silence,鈥� said Savikataaq. 鈥淲hen it first happened we were over land, but our airplane has floats on it, so you need to land normally on water.

鈥�It was very windy that day. The winds were gusting 70 km/h on Lake Winnipeg. I didn't realize it at the time, but, once we hit the water, I found out the waves were a lot bigger than they looked.

鈥�The landing was so rough that the floats bent and the door broke off.鈥�

Savikataaq said both he and his dad were able to shake the experience off and quickly put it behind them.

He said they didn't let the forced landing affect them at all and, after the plane was repaired, they climbed aboard and flew again.

鈥�Some people have trouble getting over an experience like that. I think it's just a natural instinct that you don't want to experience that again.

鈥�Everyone wants to have a good, long life. You don't want to have it cut short, which is probably why people don't like experiencing it more than once.鈥�

Savikataaq, who earned his pilot's licence in 2007, said that was the first time anything of that nature had happened to him while he was at the controls

But, he added, that's why you go to flight school to train and prepare for that kind of situation.

鈥�You have to be prepared at all times and aware of your surroundings. After experiencing something like that, you start to think more.

鈥�When you go through training to get your license, they give you different scenarios to get prepared on that could happen and, in this case, it actually happened to us.

鈥�So, you are now more aware. OK, our engine has stopped now, but I can make it to that lake or the next lake. You're constantly thinking now.鈥�

Savikataaq said he still has the same level of confidence in his plane that he had before the incident.

He said at the time, because they were just gliding down, it seemed like it was just going to be a routine landing.

鈥�But, lo and behold, when we hit the waves a gust of wind hit us. It bounced us back in the air, we hit the water again, went into the air again and then, the third and final time we hit, we stayed on the water.

鈥�The floats we had on had just been rebuilt and were brand new. We were hitting that hard that they just buckled-up. It takes a lot of force to bend the floats on an aircraft.

鈥�The plane is a 1978 model. It has to be certified and checked by an aircraft engineer every year and, once that incident happened, it was rebuilt and put back into service. If it's not air worthy, then you cannot get insurance for it, so, therefore, you cannot fly it.

鈥�It's an expensive hobby. Anything with the word aircraft is not cheap. But we're a family of pilots."