Learning to fly at Sudbury Aviation - 1967.
I learned to fly at Sudbury Aviation during the summer of 1967. At the time I was sixteen years of age. The air service had five Fleet 80s (Fleet Canucks) Some of the registrations that I remember are CF-DYX, CF-HOU, & Cf-ENQ. My father, Doug Calver, was a forestry pilot at the time (MNR) based at Parry Sound. We had just moved from Chapleau that spring. My log book says that I soloed with five hours and 40 minutes. It says that it was the Chief Pilot, Charlie Armstrong who was my instructor on that flight. It was also he who took me on my final fight test for the flight part of the license requirements. We were taking off out of Whitewater Lake and there was a thud, and the engine started to run roughly. I just put it back on the water and we coasted to a stop with the engine running at about 1700 RPM. We shut the engine off and Charlie got out onto the float and opened the cowling. He looked the engine over and commented that the crankcase was cracked. He spun the prop and the engine restarted. We headed back to the dock. We completed the balance of the flight test later in the day in another airplane. He was killed a few years later in a crash in a Cessna 180 (CF-MEO) during the winter time.
Since that time I have had the pleasure of flying with my father, and my brother who learned to fly in Parry Sound at Georgian Bay Airways in 1969. We have had the privilege of owning three different types of airplanes: 1961 Piper Comanche 180, 1975 Beech F33A (gorgeous!!!) and a 1976 Cessna Skyhawk 180. They are all gone now. Wasn't flying them enough because of secular commitments and now who can really afford it anyway! But I have many pleasant memories to recall. My father is now 84 years of age and still in good health. If I still had any one of these airplanes, I'd still give him the left seat.
Thanks for listening,
Dave Calver
Now in North Carolina
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