John Shultz.....50 Years

[cap]

Steve76 ------- that's all John and he's that way because that's the industry he grew up in. He ain't one to hang around if you are some sort of 'prima donna either and think pilots shouldn't have to do certain things.

 

John "chasing cows?" Nahhhh, I won't 'go there' on second thought.

[Bladestrike]

To Cap & Twitch & helidude

Unfortunately, jaques maheu took his own life in the early 80s in Sept-Iles PQ

Jacques was a good friend of mine, stayed at his place a few times....pretty impressive with his collection of artifacts from his Viking days in Africa. I was very sad to see him part. He never took anything too seriously and I loved flying with him, slinging out of Quebec in his cut-off shorts, muscle-shirt and flip-flops, cigar, and the headset on the seat beside him driving the controllers mad.

 

My first job in the industry was chasing around Steady Eddie's 205 with a pickup as he chased fires in Ontario with parts or buckets that got left behind, then when I'd catch up to him I'd be sent on the inevitable "beer run".

 

As for John, I only knew him as I flew opposite shifts in Toronto in the early nineties. Great guy....quite a few Captains were intimidated by flying with such a legend.

[Guest CHEVY II]

What's the name of Lauchie's AMO and where's his butt parked anyway?....

 

Cap...It's Currie Aero Enterprises, and, he's here @ YHZ.

[RDM]

Hey Chevy,

 

Whats on the G O.

 

Davy J says hi, he is busy puking after his last sim and can not get to the keyboard to type himself.

 

Heard today we may be hiring another four drivers in January, you going to come over to the dark side, or wa?

[Blackmac]

CAP, either your memory is screwed or mine is.

 

Mid-Canada line 1957, Spartan Air Services.

 

I had already been thier in 56, after a four month tour in the Arctic on board the HMCS Labrador with two 47G's on floats and a HUP-3.

 

Without going into any records the crew that I remember on the Mid-Canada line was as follows, out of the seventeen crew that was thier, thirteen was ex-Navy.

 

Larry Camphaug, Joe Sangamino, Jerry Fletcher, Jack Paquette, John Kowalski, Ray LePage, Mac Gordon, Shorty Ferguson, Nels Bentley, Doc Demerha, Bill "Red" Smith, John Linden, are the ones that I remember off the top of me head.

 

January the eight'th 1958, Doc, John Linden, myself as crew and one pax sitting in the mid section of the Vertol H21.

After overniting at the US base in Hopedale we set out on a beautiful CAVU, but cold day to land at the first site on the way back to Knob Lake. Ten minutes after take-off from that site (303) and at about 1000' ag the 21 went vertical or down on it's tail, then proceeded to go over on it's back, collective was dropped, cyclic was moved all over the cockpit to no avail. The helicopter was on it's side going down in an arc, proceeded to hit the top of a knoll, roll down hill for about forty feet, split in two, the pax was thrown out, the helicopter caught on fire, the cockpit and instrument panel was completely destroyed, Doc was thrown out seat and all and broke a bone, small one, in his right leg. I was still in the cocpit in my seat, but upside down. Doc got me down and stood me up in front of the burning machine in a snow bank and gave me a shove and told me to get away from the machine. He, "Doc", tried to get John Linden out thru the cockpit entrance but was unable. Thanks to our "Angels" the aircraft's emergency door could be opened and Doc pulled John out that way.

 

We lost or "SARAH" beacon, but we were on a flight plan and Shorty Ferguson flew right over the top of us that afternoon and never saw us, the aircraft was not painted, it had it's original aluminum finish.

 

We or should I say Doc found our verry pistol with one cartridge in the snow, two sleeping bags and a five gallon can of oil. The pax was in shock and was completely useless.

 

John Linden had punctured a main artery to his heart, Doc had a broken bone in his right leg, I had a severe concussion (smashed the right side of my helmet) on the upper fwd xmsn. They originally thought I had a broken right leg, but found out later that I had to puncture marks about six inch's in depth that had torn the ligaments. We found all this out later in the hospital in Goose.

 

The night we spent out it was -44 degrees F.

 

We all had heavy boots and clothes and during the night John kicked of his right boot. John lost his right leg just below the knee joint and half of the other foot.

 

All this was told to me later on as I have very little recollection.

 

The one cartridge and fire led them to us the next day.

 

I was flown by Lancaster to the Royal Vic in Montreal, for a spinal tap and ultra sound.

 

John always had a memory of the accident in his mind, we had celebrated his birthday the day before in the officers mess in Hopedale.

----------

 

Mac Gordon was flying a B47G4A from Northern Wings with I believe one or two Pax. He had landed in a tight spot and touched the tail rotor on something.

The pax did thier work, Mac had checked the T/R and shafting and deemed it safe for take-off. Mac either forgot or didn't know about the shear pin in the knuckle joint. I believe he was the only one killed.

 

--------------

 

Doc Demerha died at the controls of a Bell47G4A on floats, he had a heart attack and remained fixed on the controls and gently flew into the lake, his pax was to big and could not fasten a two person seat belt and was thrown clear.

 

 

The Mid-Canada line contract was taken over by Dom-Peg and I believe John Schultz added the Vertol H21 to his list of endorsements.

 

Memory Lane, Cheers Don

[Charles W.]

Don :

 

Are you a member of the Moravian Mission from your days in Hopedale? Or did you spend all your spare time up the hill at the radar site?

 

Chas. W.

[cap]

Blackmac -------I mis-spoke about Doc and I can only guess that the reason was that three were found that day in similar circumstances and I stumbled onto two of them......and I wasn't even looking or knew anything was happening(that was Lambair). You are correct and the Otter one I mentioned was an exact duplicate and also the exact same circumstances.....both with a survivor sitting on a float.....my "onset Alzeimers" I guess .

 

I knew "Stretch" real well, great engineer and worked the Arctic lots with him.......and his absolute hatred of bears. Larry I only knew from meeting him at the "watering hole" at Bell's Corners; Joe I met when he was the Bell rep for Eastern Canada; Mac I had flown with before and it was Nick Cote that told me that all that was left of Mac was pieces of vertebrae after the crash when we landed in the same spot...and yeah, he was the only one; Shorty Ferguson and Nels I knew also, although Nels I got to know a lot better years later. Doc was 'outta my league' on many different fronts, so we didn't associate that much until I made an "interesting" flight with him from Georgia across to Freeport one time . After doing 'Nam' I thought I'd been trained extremely well in the art of holding one's liquor well, but I wasn't even a 'contenda" compared to most of that crowd.....and in some other 'areas' as well. You, I haven't mentioned because I only met you once and still say you look funny with your hulking mass sitting in a 500. Sorry, I couldn't resist that.

 

I assume there was a flight control problem that caused that crash?

 

SARAH beacons and I didn't get along so here's a middle digit to them.

[Blackmac]

CAP: Methinks you are getting me confused with somebody else, back in those days I was just under six feet and weighed in at 165-170 lbs.

 

Schultz and I were about the same build, I gave him my nomex flight suit when he replaced me in Manitouage after I broke my back by dumping an L-1 in the lake on take-off, 1987.

 

The 1958 crash was caused by a broken cable to the rear head.

 

The same thing had happened to a military machine in the US, two weeks prior, the a/c was flying higher and when the machine came to the bottom of the arc just above water the pilot tried to get it near shore, but it went into the water, everybody survived. Transport was aware of it, but never notified us. We found out the hard way that the machine was very hard on cables. The military never had the problem because they never used the a/c to max gross on a daily basis.

 

Charles: The mission was in Northwest River. Pilots used to go in there with winter growth on and come out in the Fall with quite a bit of weigth loss, servicing some thirty nurses.

 

Cheers, Don

[cap]

Blackmac ----- my meeting you would have been circa '70 or something like that....with you waering a flight suit and vest. Everybody was tall to me after working with Nuttall.

 

-------I think John was better looking than you though. That was probably because he didn't own a tool box maybe.

 

-----ahhhh yes, the Nursing Stations.

[Biggles]

Cap; Nuttall is that as in Brian Nuttall. If it is, he's quite the chap as well. Saw him this summer at his place of work. Hasn't changed much in the past 20 +yrs. Picked up our conversation as if yesterday - laughs, leg pulling etc ....