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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0994.PDF
Vancouver Island operations: below right, the approach to Tahsis, a typical lumber town. The smoke is rising from the stack of the lumber mill. Below left, a Norseman arrives at the old gold-mining town of Zeballos. Above right, the doily Mallard from Vancouver comes ashore at Tahsis, and (left) the pilot, Capt. J. Dunbar, has a word with the local agent, Peter Furmento "Flight" photographs A relatively rare bird these days is this Barkley-Grow T8P-I, one of two operated by Pacific Western. This type was built in the late 1930s by Barkley-Grow Aircraft Corporation, of Detroit, Michigan sufficient to obscure the magnificent and dignified scenery of the island in general, made up of a pattern of fir-covered mountains hiding countless lakes and winding inlets. Tahsis is one hundred per cent a lumber town, and the smoke rising from the lumber mill marked its position as we approached at a few hundred feet along Tahsis Inlet, alighted on the water, and taxied up the ramp on to dry land. We were met on arrival by Peter Furmento, the resident P.W.A. agent, whose other activities included operating the local restaurant and bowling alley (he was particularly pleased to greet his new Chinese chef who had arrived with us in the Mallard to take up his duties). At the time he was meeting us, his 14-year-old daughter Tana was manning (so to speak) the ground-radio station at the P.W.A. desk. At Tahsis we transferred to Norseman CF-GUE piloted by Daryl Brown, and were able to see something of the connecting network to the smaller points served by P.W.A. A similar west- coast network is covered from Port Alberni. One of our most interesting stops was at Zeballos, an old gold-mining centre some 20 miles away, which now seemed quite dead and silent. After flying along the inlets back to Tahsis, where we were surprised to hear a Nottingham accent—belonging to Fred Gee, ground engineer—we returned later the same day to Vancouver by Mallard. Pacific Western is planning a steady expansion for the future, aimed particularly at increasing its north-south feeder services from its twin main bases at Vancouver and Edmonton. Only one thing has marred its recent development—the death last year of its young and vigorous founder-president, Russell Baker, who worked hard to achieve P.W.A.'s present status. KENNETH OWEN. m
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