that's me in the front lef t

Everything between April 1964 and August 1967 was a blur. Things at TCA flight Operations were happening fast. i found myself going from DC-8 Second Officer to Vanguard First officer to Viscount First officer to Viscount Captain in a little over two and a half years plus a base change. My conversion in the spring of 1965 to F/O on the Vickers Vanguard went swiftly and smoothly. My time on that airplane was way too short. it had the largest cockpit of any plane i have ever flown. i had four powerful engines and big fuel tanks that ensured plenty of gas even fully loaded for long alternates... perfect for the Maritimes, the only area in which i flew the thing. it was so short a time that i never had time for any Vanguard adventures. in the fall of 1966 a chance for promotion to Captain on the Vickers Viscount came up. it would mean a move to the Winnipeg base. Wintery Winnipeg was the least popular flight Operations base of the four company bases of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Because of my insatiable ambition to be first a captain then fly the biggest, fastest airplane the company had—even if it meant being the junior pilot on the equipment—i bid it. Such was my inflated ego. On the other hand, Winnipeg was our hometown and after seven years we would be back with all our relatives. Now, with an additional daughter, there were six of us and like many other Anglos made uncomfortable by Quebec politics we headed west by car...again. i turned up in Winnipeg January 1, 1967, a very cliquey base with a strange flight operations management team that treated its pilots with a weird filial nepotistic bent. i soon found out that outsiders, who might upset the apple cart, were not welcome. The line pilots on the other hand, while timidly accepting this treatment, were a great bunch of guys. Everything was suddenly new to me. All my flying had been in the east now it would go from coast to coast.

Then there was the holiday problem:

Because the bids had come up and happened so quickly, i was awarded holidays in March, which was not in line with my entitled seniority. To add insult to injury my original reserve squadron 402, had disallowed my transfer from Westmount’s 401. They didn’t want airline pilots in their parochial bivouac or maybe they had learned about me feathering both engines at once on one of the squadron's C-45’s during a test flight.

With little money left from the move to Winnipeg a temporary vacation foray to sunny southern climes was out of the question. i needed to find a means for some quick cash.

My brother told me about a local operator who was looking for a Beech-18 pilot but did add... get the money up front first.My mission: take a Beech-18, CF-RVR, to the hydro dam construction site on the Nelson River at Gillam MB. Once established there set up charters to bring sex starved construction workers to Winnipeg on weekends or any other time they felt the need. But first fly a tractor train tow bar up to Raminski’s fishing camp at God’s Lake Narrows on God’s lake northern Manitoba, then back to Winnipeg. i would have a Transair co-pilot for this trip only. He was supposed to know where he was going. in the days before ice Road Truckers, supplies were brought to northern communities on tractor trains consisting of a caterpillar tractor towing several heavily laden sleighs. in our skiing but not for a wheel equipped Beech. A Mountie came out to meet us on a ski-doo to tell us we were at the wrong place.

Griffith was no stranger to the Beech 18. He had experienced his early flying days with the RCAF on this aircraft type. The undercarriage had always been an item of consideration and in this case skis would have been the landing gear of choice.

He pushed back the hood of his parka and asked. “How the hell did you land that thing in all this snow without skis?” i answered, “i’m more concerned case, the tow bar weighed about two hundred pounds and fit neatly in the aisle of the Beech. We landed at two wrong airports on God’s Lake on one of which we nearly nosed over. The ice strip on that lake was marked with the customary small pine trees but hadn’t been rolled. We landed in two feet of powder snow...perfect for ski about how we are going to take off again.”

We did, though it was dicey.

Finally, we got to Raminski’s. On start up at our previous wrong destination, the right engine was hard to start. it was hovering around minus 30C so i suspected a weak battery. Taking no chances, i set the brakes, shutting down only the left engine, and leaving the right one at idle. That done, we sat down for a much-needed hot lunch in Raminski’s dining room with ten or so of his workers. it was a weird scene. kind of do-si-do to get aboard. Luckily, it was pirouetting slowly enough for me to run up just between the left wing and the tail as it swung by...grab the door handle...open it and get inside. We didn’t even say thanks for the i ran outside knowing i was going to have to square dance the thing... a lunch to Raminski or adios... we just taxied out and took off for Winnipeg.

The Vickers Vanguard was a British short/mediumrange turboprop airliner introduced in 1959 by VickersArmstrongs, a successor of their successful Viscount design with considerably more internal room. The Vanguard was introduced just before the first of the large jet-powered airliners, and was largely ignored by the market. Only 44 were built, ordered by TransCanada Air Lines (TCA) and British European Airways (BEA).

After only about 10 years service TCA experimentally converted one of theirs to a freighter configuration, calling it the Cargoliner.-a very successful conversion copied by other airlines.

No one spoke. They just munched on their moose stew. Suddenly they all got up and ran to the window.

“WOW...look at that”, one of them said.

Even before i looked out i knew what had happened. in the cold the left brake had had let go. The plane was doing a good imitation of a merrygo-round.

For the next two weeks, at least that was the plan, i’d be solo, staying at the Gillam Hotel owned by the Hudson Bay Railroad. Gillam was a railway section head on the railway line. Most of the few inhabitants were either railway workers or indigenous people. The Manitoba Hydro construction workers stayed in barracks at the construction site beside the dam.

The hydro operation was run with military precision...that is to say...very authoritarian with little or no regard for common sense. They had tightfisted control on the airport. So i had to keep my nose clean so to speak. i did manage to trade a short check out on the Beech with a helicopter pilot for a trip in his Bell 47. i was going to simulate an engine failure on takeoff. i didn’t have to. He opened the throttles a little too fast and in the cold air one of the Pratts on the Beech burped and i only just managed to keep the thing from going into the weeds with full rudder.

There wasn’t much to do at the hotel so the young manager allowed me free room and board if i did odd jobs and served beer. i learned a lot... a 24 of beer does not freeze at 20 below but even a slight jar and you’ve got 24 beersicles. The only other hotel guests in the old wooden firetrap were the ladies from the catering company, Crawley McCracken, up at the dam site. it was inevitable that they were called, the 'crawly dollies.' My charter business was a total failure. The first week i had nobody. in the second week the administrative manager for the hydro project came in for a beer and offered that he would have six guys ready for Winnipeg the next weekend. He would collect the money from the workers and write me a cheque for whole amount on departure. i had befriended the local law, an RCMP Sergeant... free beer on the house never hurts. He said the guy could be trusted. What could go wrong? True to his word, hydro guy handed me a cheque as he and six other happy campers boarded my flight. i spent the weekend at home. Departure time came at the airport for Gillam and...surprise... surprise, hydro guy never showed up, stiffing my boss out of the entire charter money...i had been paid in advance...lucky me to have such good brotherly advice. Later, my brother-in-law, a deputy warden at Stonewall Penitentiary, told me hydro guy was an alumnus from that institution. His crime, fraud and embezzlement. So much for my bush flying days.

About this time i put aside my angst against the Canadian Airline Pilot's Association (CALPA) and our local chairman, Bill Gibson, said one day, “Look Jim, why don’t you quit whining about CALPA and do something constructive. i’m tired of having our local executive meetings in my basement...we need a proper business office. Why don’t you prepare a cost analysis to set it up, make a presentation to the CALPA president and get us approval for funding?” i did ...it was approved and CALPA council 7 Winnipeg finally had a brick and mortar office. it turns out the reason for the extra left seat time had more to do with the company’s insurance underwriters than anything else or so i was told. To be a captain mandated a certain minimum number of hours as pilot in command by the insurers and i was short by a few hours. The insurers lowered the time required. The reduction in time required didn’t hurt others with low time in my wake including the base manger’s son, Denis...Hmmm?.

The Viscount part of the conversion course went smoothly...maybe too smoothly. The captain training was a check-out to fly in the left seat under the direction and at the option of the captain. it started well, but then two long-time, well-liked, Winnipeg based pilots senior to me failed their Captain’s check. in any case, during the final de-briefing by my instructor, who was by the way, Vancouver based, told me i had passed the ride with flying colours. But the Winnipeg powersthat-be wanted me to do another six months of left seat flying with a check pilot. i told him to go tell the base manager Air Canada wasn’t the only airline in the world and i would quit before doing any more left-seat time. God, what was i thinking?

Off he went returning in a matter of minutes. My heart stopped beating...my mouth went dry...i gulped as he said, “This is Friday... you do a line check tomorrow, Saturday, all stops Vancouver and back with a Winnipeg check pilot. Sunday morning you do the same flight as captain. Good job and good luck”.

That was that...i had to think, "Whew... another miraculous escape. Thank you Gods of Flight wherever you may be for watching over me and my big mouth— AGAiN."

The first North American airline to use turboprop aircraft was Trans-Canada Air Lines who were cautious of the Viscount due to the turboprop engine being a new technology. There had been a preference for acquiring the piston-engine Convair CV240 but praise of the Viscount from pilots and a promise from Vickers to make any design changes desired by TCA persuaded the airline to procure the Viscount instead. On December 6, 1954 the first Viscount was delivered to Canada heralding a large media event which included an improvised aerial display. TCA became a prolific operator of the type, placing multiple follow-up orders for additional Viscounts. By 1958 TCA had an operational fleet of 51 Viscounts. Jim Griffith gained his captain's rank on this aircraft.