Sudbury Aviation - Whitewater Lake @ Sudbury Airport

I grew up maybe a mile from Sudbury Aviation. As a kid in the early sixties I hung around there a lot. My cousin Ray (Romain) Labine was an instructor at Sudbury Aviation. Unfortunately when Charlie went in he brought 3 other guys with him. He took off in snow showers lost VFR and flew into the ice at Scotia Lake. My first ride ever in a plane was with my uncle Ray Labine in one of those Fleet Canucks that was probably around 1960. I obtained my licence in 1974 at Muskoka airport, I went on to get my multi-IFR and commercial and flew for Shell as the aviation sales manager out of Montreal.

When you were flying out of Whitewater the business was owned by John and Pearl McMahon. Both are now passed away. John of Alzheimer's and Pearl of a stroke. My parents new them well.

I dropped by Sudbury Aviation last week to say hello. I now live in BC and fly a Cessna 182. Sudbury Aviation now uses two DHC-2's (Beaver) and one Cessna-185 for charters and a Cessna 172 for instruction. The business has been owned by Margaret Watson-Hyland for probably the last 25 years.

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