Those who attended the January monthly meeting of the Vernon Flying Club were regaled with a bit of history by one of our club members, Rob McDicken. Rob, who is a pilot with Vernon’s Kal Tire, took us back twenty plus years to the fall of 1996 when he was a first officer and captain trainee for Sky Freighters flying Douglas Super DC-3s. They had been hired to assist in airlifting a backlog of gold ore concentrate from a gold mine at Bronson Creek in northern British Columbia and Rob jumped at the opportunity.

The remote mine on the banks of the Iskut River, a tributary of the Stikine River, had no road access, only a 5000 ft gravel airstrip. The gold ore concentrate, contained in 2800-3500 lb bags, had to be flown from the mine to the airport in Wrangell Alaska. It is a 65 mile trip as the river flows, which was their normal routing at 1500 to 2500 feet ASL. A busy day could require clearing customs up to seven times.

Hawk Air, who Rob later flew for, were already on site. They were the mine’s main contractor for the transport of the gold ore concentrate. They were using an Aviation Traders Carvair and a Bristol Freighter. When all the planes fired up in the morning, it was a sound for sore ears. Eight big radials all rumbling together.

It was not the most forgiving environment in which to fly. By 1999 when the mine was closed and the workers gone, left behind were the remains of crumpled aircraft along the river banks and buried in the bush.
Rob’s thoroughly entertaining presentation was over before anyone realized it had been close to an hour and a half. A little bit of aviation history brought back to life as vividly as yesterday. Thanks Rob.