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North Country Aviation Tales: Search & Rescue, Jets, Bush Flying And The Airlines

by Captain Greville H. Fox

143 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); Second Edition; catalogue #02-0311; ISBN 1-55369-498-8; US$16.50, C$22.95, EUR15.00, £10.40

The adventures of an airline, bush and jet pilot in both the Canadian Arctic and west coast areas of British Columbia, Canada. Author Greville H. Fox's experiences as a Canadian Air Force search and rescue Pilot and later as an airline pilot are vividly recalled

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about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book The adventures of an airline, bush, and jet pilot in both the Canadian Arctic and west coast areas of British Columbia, Canada are vividly described in North Country Aviation Tales. The book includes a vivid description of a forced landing at night (during a blizzard) in Canada's Far North in a twin-engine, 1928 Barkley Grow, and of Fox's subsequent survival without food. It includes the story of an engine change on an Otter Bush Plane at 65 below zero at a remote Arctic weather station. Retold are the author's adventures during four years as a search and rescue pilot where he used the DC3, the Otter Bush Plane, and a jet fighter trainer. Other adventures include flying a passenger version of the Canso Flying Boat on the West Coast of British Columbia and during the summer months on Canada's Arctic DEW line, and Fox's first-ever successful interception by a jet of a DC3 with a full passenger load, going down and calling a "Mayday" between Churchill and The Pas, Manitoba.

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About the Author Greville Fox was a former airline captain and check pilot in Canada's third-largest airline. He was born in 1918 and joined the Canadian Army's "Princess Pats" in 1939 and later transfered to the Royal Canadian Air Force where he served a period overseas as a mechanic, an air gunner, flight engineer and pilot in World War II. He rejoined the RCAF during the Korean War and flew as a pilot for four years in a search and rescue squadron, before being offered a position as a canso captain for Pacific Western Airlines. He was later promoted to a check pilot position and checked pilots for instrument proficiency up to and including four engined transports. He was an inventor with several inventions still used today and became a friend and later a factory representative for the inventor of the Link Trainer, Ed Link. He was the sole representative for the Link Simulation Company for all Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Madagascar and Africa. Greville has served in many trades and has been president of an electrical design engineering company that employed one of the top electrical engineers in Canada, who was formerly "Engineer in Charge" of Canada's space satellite, Alouette. Greville also: holds a University of Saskatchewan scuba diving certificate holds a State of Washington heavy truck and trailer license held a Province of Ontario motor mechanics license and taught this trade at a major Toronto high school was an instructor on the Boeing 737 flight simulator owned two aircraft, a Twin Beech 18 and a Cessna 180, at the same time, and owned the Twin Beech for 12 years He is a former: district manager for a large Oklahoma oil and gas company manager for a Winnipeg display advertising company president of three companies: Victoria Audio Visual Services Ltd., National Flight Simulators Ltd., and Flight Systems Inc. in the United States. was employed as an upholsterer for marine craft was employed as a heavy truck and trailer driver, and at one time drove logging trucks in Washington State worked as a serviceman on marine communications equipment serviced and repaired computers in flight simulators and carried spares and circuit diagrams along with test equipment in his Beech 18 Twin aircraft (one of two aircraft he owned at that time) Additional comments: made his first solo parachute jump at the age of 71 a former junior and senior warden at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Sequim, Washington re-organized and was president for four years of Sequim Community Aid was past president of two service clubs in Canada and the United States held a Washington State building contractors licence (bonded)

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Sample Excerpts or Table of Contents

    On the third day, the Ski equipped DC3 arrived from Winnipeg on schedule. We immediately got busy unloading the replacement engine for the Otter, along with the supplies for the crew of three mechanics who were going to install this engine. They had also brought with them a large Herman Nelsonⁱ heater to heat the tarp enclosed working area, plus three double tiered beds, drums of fuel and oil, along with plenty of rations.

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    The bottom of the loop will find the leader and his wingmen, about 3000 feet above ground and approximately ten miles out from the buttonⁱⁱ of the active runway.
    The leader would call flaps and gear down and upon breaking out of cloud would announce "VISUAL". For the first time the wingman or wingmen would look ahead and loosen their formation to a slightly trailing position and all three would touch down at about 125 Knotsⁱⁱⁱ.

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    With the added drag of full flap, I needed to increase the throttle settings to near climbing power and adjusted the throttles to give about a 50-foot per minute sink rate. With heavyy snow now falling and it being half dark, I now had no forward visibility whatsoever. Therefore, I went entirely on instruments, where I felt more at home.
    I felt a drag, must have been the wheels touching. I chopped the throttles. Crash! BQM came to a complete stop within seconds, the tail reared up - then fell back. I figured my ground speed was a little more than 25 mph when I hit. That strong westerly wind had certainly saved me. The soft snow had acted as an arrestor. I didn't think the propellers hit the ice. BQM would be salvageable and could be taken off by a salvage crew, after shoveling a semblance of a runway.

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    Nudging the red line^iv on our mach^v meter, we began our decent, and then called Ron to have his radio officer transmit on 405kc frequency and to lock his key down. Ron replied with a 'Wilco'^vi, on "C" channel. My navigator, from his back seat, dialed in 405kc on our radio compass. Very shortly, the radio compass indicator swung to straight ahead. We passed through 20,000 feet homing in on the DC3's constant signal. Just after passing through 6,000 feet, we spotted the tiny speck of 568 straight ahead, apparently very near to the ground.
    Minute's later, with dive brakes out, gear and flaps down, to slow to match the DC3's speed, we formed up on the DC3's port wing.

Notes
i. Herman Nelson: a large portable gasoline powered engine heater with a self-contained blower, not requiring any external electric power source. This unit could also supply the electrical power for lighting and other uses.
ii. Button: the touch down point of an active runway.
iii. Knots: used extensively for sea and air navigation. One knot equals one minute of latitude, or 1.15 miles.
iv. Red line: The never exceed speed shown as a red line on the mach meter and a high percentage of the speed of sound.
v. Mach meter: A meter that measures the jets speed as a percentage of the speed of sound. 100%= the speed of sound.
vi. Wilco: Short for, Will Comply.

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Catalogue Information

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