ODDS’N’SODS — DC-3 airplane served its northern owner well

The DC-3 airplane emerged from the Second World War as a fitting work-horse and as a useful machine for the years of civilian development that followed. Time would see this marvelous craft straddling the globe, crossing deserts, oceans, forests and vast stretches of ice and snow.

We were fortunate at Canada Tungsten (Cantung), isolated in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories, to learn of a Pacific Western Airlines DC-3 which had settled through the ice on a lake in the Territories. We then encouraged a purchase bid with the insurance company and two enterprising pilots, who successfully salvaged the craft and delivered it to Calgary for a refit and certification.

We emerged from the deal with a marvelous unit that was to serve us for many years and which was sold consequently to a developing regional airline, as our need for the plane ended.

This airplane served to counteract our total isolation, located as we were 200 miles north of Watson Lake, Y.T., and deep in the mountains. To secure a reliable utilization of the DC-3 aircraft, we searched for an experienced crew. We were fortunate to interest Gordon Bartsch, an ex-captain of the commercial airlines. Gordon readily organized a solid team for a controlled campaign with the recommissioned plane when it arrived from Calgary to Watson Lake, which was to be its base of operations. With an excellent skipper at the controls, an experienced bush-pilot in training as a co-pilot and a most able young mechanic servicing the craft, we launched our campaign at Cantung to develop an outstanding tungsten orebody. The DC-3 accomplished routine (and a few not-so-routine) flights into the dirt strip at the Cantung project. Tens of thousands of pounds of construction supplies and hundreds of personnel were transported from Watson Lake to the site. Oftentimes an emergency trip had to be made to Edmonton, Calgary or Whitehorse to bring special materials or people into the burgeoning plant development.

The reliability of this wartime veteran was beyond belief. On one occasion, as the plane became due for an engine change, we suffered a grievous accident at the mine, where a member of the construction crew incurred a severe head injury. The local doctor recommended immediate transfer to the hospital in Edmonton — a return journey of some 1,200 miles over rugged mountain terrain. A radio call to Gordon in Watson Lake alerted the crew, and the dedicated pilot informed us that as soon as the weather cleared, the plane would be in to transport the patient to Edmonton, and with a doctor on board. The trip was accomplished, and the worker survived.

As time went by, an access road was completed into the mine, and consequently, the service days of our DC-3 were numbered. We were all truly despondent as the final trip to the site was organized. It was a quick and easy journey using the aircraft, as opposed to the dusty, rattling trip over the 200 miles of dirt road. This was progress, we were told, and the faithful craft would have to be released.

Sadly, we closed our shop in Watson Lake, proffered an emotional farewell to our fine air crew, and watched as our wonderful, green-and-silver-colored craft rose into the air to proceed to a new theatre to serve other needy settlements.

The DC-3 has held a special place in all our memories, not least for its reliable performance, but also for the special bond that grew between an isolated crew and an unusual viking of the air that circumvented mountains, lakes, forests and rivers to reunite us with our families and friends on the outside.

— S. J. Hunter, a retired mining engineer and regular contributor, resides in Vancouver, B.C.