I am currently the Chairman of the Operations Committee but how do I relate to the Hall of Fame. Well for starters, I have always been interested in aviation. My father got his private pilot's license shortly after I was born, and I heard stories of him taking me up in a Fleet Canuck strapped to the seat until we were airborne and then free to stand on the seat and look down at the little vehicles below when I was one year old. Step forward 16 years and at 17 I earned my private license at the Edmonton Flying Club in Fleet Canucks. I have now had the license for 54 years, over 600 hours, owner of three airplanes and currently grounded due to medical issues.

About a dozen years ago I served as a member of the Alberta Government Advisory Board to the Reynolds Alberta Museum, and I met Blain Fowler who represented the Hall of Fame on that Board. As a representative of that Board, I attended the Induction Dinner for Member Stan Reynolds at the Museum and became a Friend of the Hall. In a copy of The Flyer, Blain who was the Chairman of the Operation Committee, mentioned that they were looking for volunteers and I called him. I had nothing to offer but warm blood and an interest in flying. I was welcomed aboard. I have since replaced Blain in this position.

But I also relate to the Hall in other ways. When I learned to fly, Member Maury Fallow was the Manager of the Edmonton Flying Club and Member Vera Dowling was my instructor. I have fond memories of my time in the air with Vera.

A story I tell about Vera is, early in my training, she sat in the right seat and handled the radio communication. The radios of the time had a receive function that had to be dialled in like a commercial AM radio and transmitted on only a few select frequencies. The microphone was somewhat smaller in diameter than a hockey puck although much thicker and attached to the dash with a very heavy coiled cable. Vera used to leave it laying over her knee. One time I did something wrong again and the heavy puck on the end of the coiled cord came flying across the cockpit and hit me on the arm with a retort on my mistake following. Never to be repeated.

During my training I noticed a small bright yellow airplane in the hangar with many religious quotes on its fuselage (a Mooney Mite). I later learned that it belonged to Vera. On her vacations she would load a 16 mm movie projector and screen into it and travel north giving religious lectures. That is until it was lost in the Flying Club hangar fire with all the Club’s aircraft. Right after the fire Maury immediately found other Fleet Canucks and Cessna 150s to replace the fleet and the Club was back in business working out of a trailer almost immediately. At the time, Member Stan McMillan was in charge of Northward Air’s operation in the other half of the hangar. They lost quite a few aircraft as well but not a Grumman Widgeon that they had on contract from my father as it had been moved outside for emergency repairs to a company plane. When Stan retired from Northward, he first worked for my dad for a few months bringing the Brittain Norman Islander to Canada.

Thus, every time I entered the Hangar in Wetaskiwin, I used to go to the Member panels recognizing Stan because I knew him personally, Vera because she was an excellent instructor and Maury because his panel included a picture of Fleet Canuck CF-EAZ, the plane I learned to fly on that was destroyed in the fire.