Quasar Helicopters

[DGP]

I was walking out of kentings hangar in 1974 as I watch them loading passengers on the plane going to rae point...the nexy day I heard that it had crashed...have a picture of the plane...it shared the hangar with us in calgary

[Gary Watson]

Gary Watson, my dad worked as a radio opperator for Panarctic out of Rae Point for most of my life. Must have been the late 60's early 70's until about 83. He missed the crew change when PAZ went down on final, he still talks about that till this day. I think the name of the site superintendant was Ed Bougiac. I remember my dad talking about him... a real piece of work that guy. I worked for Panarctic in 84 doing rig cleanups at Cisco and Skate, my first helicoper trip was on Oki PZK a 206 on contract with Panarctic... Please let there be another oil boom, I promise I won't piss this one away!

 

Thanks for the pictures brought back some good memories...

 

Actually the a/c was CF-PAB. PanArctic also manged to screw up their other Electra (PAK) a couple years later when one gear leg broke on a flight from Calgary to Edmonton just after it was installed. Luckily no one was killed in that one.

 

I can remember being in the radio room/tower one day (-40ish) with one of the Twin Otter AMEs Jack C. At the time, the radio operators were PO'd about their wages. I can't remember what the day rate was that they were getting but assume $75 pd. We are standing there watching the Twotter being refueled by one of the locals and Jack casually comments, "I wouldn't do that job even for the $150 per day they are payng them." Just before the radio guys went ballistic we got out of there. FWIW Jack had no idea what the refueller was getting but if you know him he was a real S**t disturber

I think I have an Oki picture from Rae but will have to do some searching.

[DGP]

I have only 1 picture of a kenting 206 up in sherrard bay...we had an old shirley 206 that had been rented from eagle..it was not worth taking a picture of....on low gear...I put it on floats for the trip south...the low gear went straight in the garbage....had no wear pads and the bottom skid tubes were ripped open from the front right to the rear

[transquebecniece]

Interesting thread. Here is a pic of GVXC heli-skiing in the Monashees. Winter of 1983, I would have been 14 in this pic. Kind of wish I was skiing with a 214 now instead of the 212. Although I do enjoy the 212.

 

Awesome, ironic photo! I should give you that shirt back!

 

[old dog]

The 212 0n floats looks like C-GHVH aka "Heli-Voyageur's Helicopter". Purchased from Shirley Helicopters when it was N8555V. Which was acquired from Northrop Industries. Should have seen the ship then! A nose on it only Jimmy Durante could love.

 

I seem to recall that Associated Helicopters FAHZ or GIRZ was the first Sperry equipped 212 in Canada and it was done at Associated Air Center in Dallas. I think that Bow's FBHX was the first one that was modified in the field by Associated Air Center. Of course, I could be wrong as it was 30 or so years ago

 

HVH wound at Okie and I flew it in India. It had previously spent some time at the National Research Council in YOW and without doubt was the most "non standard" 212 I have ever seen.

 

AHD came first then AHX for Associated (both had the full Sperry with Flight Director), IRZ (Heli 1 & 2, but no Flight Director) came later - after Sandy wrecked it as a straight VFR ship at Cold Lake. Okie got all of them when they bought Associated.

 

BHX (first one at Bow) was a full Sperry, which we got when the Big Orange bought Bow. Fred and Jimmy wrecked it (burnt) just out of Tuk. We also got BHF (full Sperry), BHJ (Heli 1&2 only), and BHL (wrecked by Bow just after the deal was done), plus all the other Bow stuff including BVR, a 61.

 

 

[old dog]

Gary Watson, my dad worked as a radio opperator for Panarctic out of Rae Point for most of my life. Must have been the late 60's early 70's until about 83. He missed the crew change when PAZ went down on final, he still talks about that till this day. I think the name of the site superintendant was Ed Bougiac. I remember my dad talking about him... a real piece of work that guy. I worked for Panarctic in 84 doing rig cleanups at Cisco and Skate, my first helicoper trip was on Oki PZK a 206 on contract with Panarctic... Please let there be another oil boom, I promise I won't piss this one away!

 

Thanks for the pictures brought back some good memories...

 

I flew the Nov/Dec Pan Arctic gig for five years with both the 212 and 61 at Cisco, Noice Pennisula, Pat Bay, etc.

 

And wow, that brings back some fond memories of, "You mean to tell me" Eddie Bougiak!!!

 

And yes, big Eddie was a piece of work all right. One of his favorite tricks was marking a weight on a trailer and then throwing a whole bunch of cable and propane tanks inside hoping we wouldn't notice; or marking a weight on a fuel tank (empty) then putting a bunch of fuel in it. He and Egan used to have some real screaming matchs. Thank goodness for Egan!

 

 

[old dog]

Yeah I know the GNS 500 pretty good, also the 200 and the first one built that I installed in an Electra back in 1970 to see if it would work in the Arctic- best signals in the world up there. VLF/Omega was the answer prior to GPS for anyone flying up north-just had some precip static problems in dry snow (don't know where you find any of that in the Arctic )

 

Biggest a/c I put one in was a 737-smallest an Aztec. Worked really good in the Electras- the farthest north I went with them was Ammund Ringes Island so still a few klicks from the other side of the world but could see it in the distance (probably 700 miles SW from where you were) Worked good in them but htey didn't shake as much as a RW.

 

We used something called the Ontrac 3 - another VLF based system. It worked reasonably well off the east coast, but it didn't work worth a rat's patoot (we called it the NoTrac 3) in the Arctic! It just hated dry precip static and it especially hated slinging. It was lots of fun watching the East Coast Princesses busily punching in stuff, then watching it go into DR (and I mean REALLY DR), and then get lost because they still believed it!

 

So, ... as compasses don't work real well up there (high Arctic), most us used a combination of dead reackoning, the DG and the "about yeah" method of navigation. It worked through many thousands hours of VFR night, (not IFR, that would have been illegal ) slinging.

 

We did have one GNS 500 in a new (#xxx13) 214ST that I took on a Bell demo tour through South America. It actually worked pretty well down there.

[NG Limited]

Awesome, ironic photo! I should give you that shirt back!

 

That was when I picked up that shirt. It is yours now. Besides, it doesn't fit me anymore.

[deuce bigalow]

I flew the Nov/Dec Pan Arctic gig for five years with both the 212 and 61 at Cisco, Noice Pennisula, Pat Bay, etc.

 

And wow, that brings back some fond memories of, "You mean to tell me" Eddie Bougiak!!!

 

And yes, big Eddie was a piece of work all right. One of his favorite tricks was marking a weight on a trailer and then throwing a whole bunch of cable and propane tanks inside hoping we wouldn't notice; or marking a weight on a fuel tank (empty) then putting a bunch of fuel in it. He and Egan used to have some real screaming matchs. Thank goodness for Egan!

 

OLDDOG check your PM;s

 

[Gary Watson]

We used something called the Ontrac 3 - another VLF based system. It worked reasonably well off the east coast, but it didn't work worth a rat's patoot (we called it the NoTrac 3) in the Arctic! It just hated dry precip static and it especially hated slinging. It was lots of fun watching the East Coast Princesses busily punching in stuff, then watching it go into DR (and I mean REALLY DR), and then get lost because they still believed it!

 

So, ... as compasses don't work real well up there (high Arctic), most us used a combination of dead reackoning, the DG and the "about yeah" method of navigation. It worked through many thousands hours of VFR night, (not IFR, that would have been illegal ) slinging.

 

We did have one GNS 500 in a new (#xxx13) 214ST that I took on a Bell demo tour through South America. It actually worked pretty well down there.

 

 

I think the Ontrac was a LORAN/Omega combination with LORAN as the primary source. The GNS was a VLF/Omega combination and the Litton LTN 211 was a Omega/VLF combination. The GNS 500 was the best of the bunch.

 

Loran chains are still around but were never in the North. Omega and VLF have gone the way of the Marker, Range, most NDBs and many grain elevators as means of navigation.