Dunno - never flew it on skis. I flew GRTI (the one mentioned above,) for two seasons on floats out on the coast. It's what you would call a 'gentleman's' float plane...much more forgiving than an 185, but not as good a performer, either. Can't speak to its performance hot/high, as I was at sea lev...

The video that Blakey posted earlier with the Barkley Grow on floats being identified by the narrator, is actually a beech 18. The Barkley Grow rudders have a fin sticking out of them horizontally and the beech has no fin sticking out of the rudder. Also the shape of the nose is different along with...

Is this the one that crashed landing at a HBC post on Kaganagamani Lake north of Lake Nipigon?

Many years ago when I was putting in hours towards my commercial in Fort William at the Superior Airways Flying school I was in a group of fellow students visiting the tower when a Beech 18 on wheels flown by O J Wieben (owner of Superior Airways) was landing. He had ferried the surplus A/C from Sas...

Oops, sorry about that. I was mixing John Parsons up with John Peacock.

John Parsons is still around although he is fighting a battle with cancer. He spends his summers at his home in Ontario and his winters in the Caribbean. I had an email from him recently.

I have a few from my Superior days but none specifically dealing with Pickle Lake or the fish packing plant. From your question I'm not sure what photos you need.

I flew for Superior from 1968-1972 with most of that time being based in Nakina 100 miles east of Armstrong. Superior did have a summer (floats) base on Makenzie Lake during that time period. The winter operation (skis) was moved to the airport on the east side of Armstrong. I always went to the air...

I left Superior in March 1972 and had been in Nakina since 1969. CF-IVA never operated there during that time period, as the Beaver assigned there was CF-FHO. I do note that the photo was taken by the fire wall that separated the two halves of the hangar in Fort William Where IVA is sitting is in th...

Liquid Charlie-You are right on in your comparison of the old days to now. Back in the 60s-70s, when I was flying in NWO we would not have ever left on a trip without making sure we had the correct survival gear on board. And map reading all the time we would have known exactly where we were when we...

Nakina was 82 when I was based there.

Perterdillon: I love the photo of the Norseman with the boat tied on the side, but you state that you fly them with the stern forward yet the photo shows the boat bow forward. Am I confused or? I have seen this done many times and flown other types of float planes with external loads and always flew...

Baron, Boy would I ever like to attend however cannot do so because of the timing and distances involved. I flew for Superior from 1968 till 1972 out of Pays Platt , Port Arthur/Fort William, Nakina and a little out of Pickle Lake and Wiebenville. 180's, Beavers and Beech 18's. If there is anything ...

Kurt, As per usual you explained the procedure exactly. I never tied a safety rope to the float fitting as my fear was that if the boat rack system failed I wanted the boat to depart the aircraft not be swinging around and bashing into the belly or floats. I have seen some strange things flown on th...

I remember her well. When I first started with Superior Airways in 1968 OJ sent me to Pickle Lake to be the swamper on the Otter that he had. The otter was there to replace the Beech 18 while it had both engines changed. The huge Hooker Bellanca was unreal to a neophyte like me. I can still remember...

When I got my private pilot license in 1964 I paid $14.00 dual and $10.00 solo. At that time the government gave you $350.00 when you got your license. Those were the good old days.

Back in the 1960's and 1970's Beech 18s were used extensively on ski's during the winter months by several bush operators in NW Ontario. I flew for Superior Airways and put a lot of hours on CF-VCE which was never overated on floats. It went from wheels in the summer to ski's in the winter. Do a sea...

Kurt, Your wealth of information and the size of your photo collection continue to amaze me. I wish now (almost 40 years later) that I had carried a camera with me and recorded some of the aircraft, people and places I saw when I flew for Superior. Keep up the good work. You are the historian for th...

beech18
Thanks for being so diligent in recording the history of Superior Airways and Severn Enterprises. It brings back a lot of memories of my time at Superior. Keep up the good work Kurt.
Bob

Beech 18 I can add a few more details about GBX. In the late 60's probably 69 GBX which was being flown by Mr Wieben's son-in-law Pete Taylor, trying to land on the lake at Armstrong was stalled about 15 feet above the ice and crashed down driving the left gear leg through the fuselage and almost th...