any pilots fly the snip mine/Bronson/Johnny Mountain?

[machinegun kelly]

I'm putting together some stories, not necessary about flying, (anything actually) about Bronson or the Snip mine or even Inel?

PM if you wish. Anonymous stories are fine too.

cheers

[WhatThe?]

Most of the senior Capt's at Hawkair used to fly out of Bronson etc.

Try them.

[machinegun kelly]

Yeah, I thought that most of the senior guys from the Bristol era would have some stories.

[HS-748 2A]

Neil Blackwell would be a great guy to hear from on that stuff.

He's got some classics in his repetoir.

Have you seen this vid?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4a11U97fkI

[ottawa,kan]

What's the 4 engine prop job in that video that has a sort of 747 esque bulge over the cockpit area? I don't think I've ever seen even a picture of one of those. Good plane?

[HS-748 2A]

That's a Carvair. It's a conversion done in England to DC-4s to be able to haul cars accross the Channel.

The nose has clam-shell doors and with the cockpit out of the way, they could drive them right in there.

The DC-4 is a good handling, manouverable airplane for its size but the Carvair handled like it had an elephant tied to its back, so I'm told.

Did a good job there though. That airplane is in Alaska now.

[TenForTwelve]

That old girl was sold to Brooks Fuels in Alaska, and met her unfortunate end when she crashed into a mine strip up there somewhere. I'm not sure any of the details, but I've seen pictures of the crash site on line. There's a guy who posts on here sometimes and has a aviation photo website, maybe there's some info on his site.

[HS-748 2A]

That's too bad. I did not realize that had happend. Here's the link.

http://www.oldwings.nl/content/n898at/n898at.htm

[machinegun kelly]

thanks guys for the info on the Carvair. That was a little bit of history that I didn't even know! (21 or so built!)

This is off to a great start.

thanks!

[bigsky]

viewforum.php?f=51

Check out Tales from an old Aviator
Les Maike and crew flew out of there for a while.
Some excellent "stories"

Air North lost a DC-4 at Bronson. Unfortunatley with a loss of life.

[Geoqwest]

I appreciate that this is tad late but...

I'm not a pilot but an exploration geologist who worked for Cominco in the 1980s during the exploration stages of the Snip mine in 1982-86

I was there when the Alaska based Noresman crashed on our dead end runway that we had built to service the camp. It flipped nose first with a tank of diesel on board. I heard it its the same plane that is in the museum of flight...or whatever the equivalent is in BC...in Victoria(?).

That was followed by a Central Mountain Beech 18 with a load of plywood that had it's landing gear collapse after about 200 landings on the rocky strip. CM had only a couple of Beech 18s with lots of soare parts. They needed to replace the lost plane immediately and found one in California. I remember it's maiden trip into Snip. We opened the door and saw the cabin lined in purple velvet. Apparantly, it was a plane used in one of the James Bond movies and they didn't waste time stripping it to haul camp gear. The Snip mine is what gave Central Mountain Air their start.

The original Snip airstrip ended uphill with 3 giant cottonwood trees. We often wondered when a plane would hit them. The river end of the strip pitched down the bank. The trick was to ignore the first 20 metres of gravel as it was way steeper than the rest of the strip. That may have contributed to the fatigue in the Beech 18 landing gear.

I was there when the Bristol Freighter had it's left side landing gear collapse while carrying a bladder of diesel. No injuries. The bladder broke in the force of the crash and diesel was running down the side of the airstrip toward a burning slashpile. Fortunately, a Cat was pushing slash and diverted the fuel away from the pile. My crew of young, energetic geology students staying at the camp, grabbed some souvenirs from the plane, like the pilot seat and instruments (the flight crew took the avionics). Transport Canada showed up about a week later and read the riot act. The boyz of course, emerged from their bunks with all the souvenirs.

We also had a Bell 206 that crashed takingthe lives of the pilot, a geologist and a student while flying for Johnny Mtn. It was circling to the left above the Snip mine portal and clipped a treetop snag.

A DC3 had an engine fire on takeoff and returned safely to the strip. A second DC3 crashed into the Iskut River. All survived except 1 person who drowned trying the get to shore.

During the construction phase of the mine, the Snip Strip (on Bronson Creek but not to be confused as the "Bronson Strip") was the busiest (fixed wing) strip north of Prince George, even though a lot of the mine equipment was move in from Bob Quin strip on the Stewart Cassiar highway with a S64 Sikorsky Skycrane.

All good fun. Hope this helps even as late as it is posted.

[Eveffest]

Yeah, I figured that most of the senior guys from the Bristol era would have some stories.

[BeaverDreamer]

I appreciate that this is tad late but...

I'm not a pilot but an exploration geologist who worked for Cominco in the 1980s during the exploration stages of the Snip mine in 1982-86

I was there when the Alaska based Noresman crashed on our dead end runway that we had built to service the camp. It flipped nose first with a tank of diesel on board. I heard it its the same plane that is in the museum of flight...or whatever the equivalent is in BC...in Victoria(?).

That was followed by a Central Mountain Beech 18 with a load of plywood that had it's landing gear collapse after about 200 landings on the rocky strip. CM had only a couple of Beech 18s with lots of soare parts. They needed to replace the lost plane immediately and found one in California. I remember it's maiden trip into Snip. We opened the door and saw the cabin lined in purple velvet. Apparantly, it was a plane used in one of the James Bond movies and they didn't waste time stripping it to haul camp gear. The Snip mine is what gave Central Mountain Air their start.

The original Snip airstrip ended uphill with 3 giant cottonwood trees. We often wondered when a plane would hit them. The river end of the strip pitched down the bank. The trick was to ignore the first 20 metres of gravel as it was way steeper than the rest of the strip. That may have contributed to the fatigue in the Beech 18 landing gear.

I was there when the Bristol Freighter had it's left side landing gear collapse while carrying a bladder of diesel. No injuries. The bladder broke in the force of the crash and diesel was running down the side of the airstrip toward a burning slashpile. Fortunately, a Cat was pushing slash and diverted the fuel away from the pile. My crew of young, energetic geology students staying at the camp, grabbed some souvenirs from the plane, like the pilot seat and instruments (the flight crew took the avionics). Transport Canada showed up about a week later and read the riot act. The boyz of course, emerged from their bunks with all the souvenirs.

We also had a Bell 206 that crashed takingthe lives of the pilot, a geologist and a student while flying for Johnny Mtn. It was circling to the left above the Snip mine portal and clipped a treetop snag.

A DC3 had an engine fire on takeoff and returned safely to the strip. A second DC3 crashed into the Iskut River. All survived except 1 person who drowned trying the get to shore.

During the construction phase of the mine, the Snip Strip (on Bronson Creek but not to be confused as the "Bronson Strip") was the busiest (fixed wing) strip north of Prince George, even though a lot of the mine equipment was move in from Bob Quin strip on the Stewart Cassiar highway with a S64 Sikorsky Skycrane.

All good fun. Hope this helps even as late as it is posted.

Great stories, thanks for sharing.

It’s been a few years but the Bronson strip is still semi-active. Johnny mountain has short stretches that are usable. I have spent a good few years flying in the area but am not familiar with the Snip strip. As far as I know Bronson is being used to service the Snip minesite. Does anyone have more info on Snip?