Check Ride? What’S That? Bush Pilots Often Learned by Doing

Tales from the Lakeview Bush Flying With Robert S. Grant Check Ride? What’s That? Bush Pilots Often Learned by Doing

ager left him on his own. Nichols stayed for 13 years and became hardened to slush, frozen skis, and cold engines. Some trips meant removing doors in sub-zero days to drop skydivers. Another assignment, involving closing an outpost camp, turned into an overnight stay in a log shack. Next morning, ice cov- ered the lake, and Nichols worked until dusk flooding the surface by carrying gal- tkt kt kt tk tkt kt kt tk lon pails of water to thicken the ice enough tk tkt kt kt ktkt kt kt tk tkt kt to hold his Cessna 180. The aircraft stag- tk tk tkt kt tk tk gered airborne without float damage. Nichols had few hours in anything larger than a 90-hp Fleet 80 Canuck. Neverthe- a larger body of water closer to Geraldton. plane hours, few major airlines accepted tkt kt kt tk tkt kt kt tk less, Orillia Air Services expected him to A solid, well-built freighter slightly faster pilots who wore glasses. In his case, long tk tkt kt kt ktkt kt kt tk tkt kt tk tk tkt kt tk tk shift into a gigantic 450-hp Stinson SR-10F. than a Beaver or SR-10F, the less glam- autopilot flights and lack of contact with 1/3 A massive airplane, CF-HVP’s 41‘11” wing ourous, go-anywhere Beaver was Nich- passengers held no appeal anyway. He span awed passengers and pilots wher- ols’s ride of choice. Operations continued never acquired an instrument rating but he computer finally flashed of the community. Nichols became ac- ever it went. A major step in bush flying, year-round; at least the nearest competitor admits he “sometimes staggered around Calgary a pass, and the last of eleven quainted with a de Havilland Beaver pilot the SR-10F became Nichols`s first radial agreed to limit activities to -40°C. in the fog.” T exams ended — all of them and, at the age of 26, found himself unof- engine type in an era when commercial Some wilderness duties involved haul- After eleven pilot log books and 18,000 Pilot to fly a Wichita-built, tricycle- ficially invited for his first airplane ride. operators expected employees to survive ing external loads. Roped-on boats or ca- hours, Nichols’s last revenue flight oc- geared shopping cart. A few weeks later, A career change brought Nichols to with little training. Time-consuming pa- noes became routine, and, occasionally, 16’ curred in a Cessna 180 on September a high-time bush pilot reminisced about Malton, near Toronto, where he accepted perwork rarely entered the picture. In this lumber lengths made up the cargo. Nich- 24, 1991, and he selected North Bay as a Supply days when airplane checkouts consisted of employment with Orenda Engines, which case, the chief pilot flew two landings with ols once carried a steel fireplace that “held permanent home. Although reticent by a hop or two around a lake. Whether ac- manufactured powerplants for Canadair Nichols and left him alone with the gigan- me down to a reasonable slow air speed nature, Nichols willingly shares his ex- cident rates have dropped in recent years Sabres and Avro CF100 jets. Off-duty, he tic Stinson Reliant. but wanted to yaw.” periences with local pilots and stresses he wasn’t certain, but we agreed that af- enrolled for flying lessons at Toronto Is- A short time later, Orillia Air Services Although whiteouts and glassy water strongly that anyone interested in lifelong fluent test producers saunter regularly to land’s Central Airways and soloed Fleet assigned DHC-2 Beaver CF-RZL to the occurred frequently, Nichols experienced bush piloting seek flight schools specializ- sun-soaked beaches or sail away on salt Canuck CF-EOH on August 20, 1953. North Bay fleet. With lighter handling only one mishap. At Geraldton’s airport, ing in skis and floats. water cruises. Slowly logging time on various airplanes, characteristics than the imposing SR-10F, a his wheel-ski Beaver slipped out of control Newcomers require patience, he adds. Born August 2, 1926, Stan Nichols saw Nichols eventually acquired a commercial more thorough checkout should have been during a 35-mph, right-angled crosswind, Skills in today’s bush piloting profession his first airplane ten years later when a col- pilot licence in a Taylorcraft BC-12D. expected, but Nichols’s employer believed smashed over a snow bank, and caved in cannot be learned in a few hours aloft. lection of fabric and wood slipped onto a “The Brampton Flying Club asked me in a simplified approach. the belly. In spite of dawn-to-dark loading Even perfecting the deceptively simple patch of ice near his northeastern Ontario to instruct, but I didn’t have an instructor “My checkout this time was the boat and flying and unloading awkward items act of seaplane docking takes time, Nich- home town of Hearst. The shivering pilot rating, so did a 12-hour course and began ride to the aircraft floating at a buoy, and such as fuel drums and plywood sheets at ols pointed out. Most importantly, novices ignored his pleas for a ride. Several years flying for a living in 1958,” he said. “After then it was, ‘Goodbye; get to work,’” said remote sites, he maintained an excellent must think for themselves and, when nec- later, a flock of Fairchild Cornells settled a float endorsement, I happened to be at Nichols. safety record. One contract demanded 250 essary, stand up to paying customers who into a nearby emergency field built for Orillia Air Services’ North Bay base and When an ownership change occurred hours in a Beaver and kept him from home demand landings on short lakes when saf- passing airliners. met the owner, Harry Stirk.” in 1975, managers ordered pilots to work for nearly three consecutive months. er ones may be a few minutes’ walk away. “We all rushed out from school, but Nichols must have impressed Stirk, who summers only and survive winters on He remembered an airborne fire in a Critical decisions are not made in air-con- none of those guys would give us a ride,” offered him a flying job for the approach- government handouts. Coincidentally, air Cessna 180. “I looked back, saw flames ditioned offices far from airplane cockpits. Nichols recalled. “So, ‘someday,’ I thought, ing open water season. However, Stirk’s strip construction reduced bush flying, and smoke, pulled power back, and thun- Nichols made time in his colourful ca- ‘I’ll learn to fly.’” North Bay pilot unexpectedly quit. Con- so Nichols decided to switch to Albany ked down on a lake. Turns out, a Swede reer to get married in 1957. He and his wife Nichols placed his goal on hold to serve sequently, Nichols received a letter asking River Air Service at Jellicoe, 24 nm miles saw had shifted and shorted an uncovered Jean raised two children and eventually in the Royal Canadian Navy and, after the if he could come immediately. With little west of Geraldton. The company flew battery. Getting out of that pothole was a become great-grandparents of five. Sharp, war, returned to Hearst to open a chain- exposure to ski airplanes, Nichols agreed Cessna 185s, Beavers, and Otters from the problem, since I didn’t have time to look even in hearing, although headsets rarely saw business. In 1952, the Ontario Depart- to fly the company`s ski-equipped Cessna village`s short Roland Lake and, in winter, over the rocks before the landing.” pressed his ears, he is satisfied to have ment of Lands and Forests established a 172 and Champion 7EC from North Bay’s reduced to three aircraft. For one season, During the time Nichols spent in boreal missed the impractical exams foisted upon seaplane base at Carey Lake, 17 miles west Trout Lake. Ten days later, the base man- Nichols flew a Noorduyn Norseman from (2X) nichols stan photos bush country, which included 10,000 sea- the current aviation industry.

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