An aerial perspective…
After a busy summer flying an air tanker on wild fires in the Yukon it was interesting to come south and do some flying on fires in the Okanagan and Boundary. Of particular interest was the Testalinda fire as I hiked those hills as a kid growing up not far away on an orchard south of town.
To follow up Jack on your enquiry as to how I found my way in aerial fire fighting it goes back a ways for sure… with an element of chance coming into it as I didn’t venture into an airplane until I was 19 years old.
My father, Arthur Garrish, came to Oliver during the depression in the early 1930’s and bought the piece of land south of Road 8 where he farmed and lived for 60 years. The war interrupted his farming for a few years but I guess that was all good as he brought my mother Nan back from England as a war bride in 1946.
Dad recounted that there had been a big fire on the ridge north from Mt. Kobau to the headwaters of Reed Creek in about 1934. The fire burned most of the summer but no one bothered fighting fires like that back then. The area was overdue for a good fire and it looks like it got it this year some 80 years after the last one.
You may wonder how one goes from thinning apples on an orchard in Oliver to flying air tankers? Well after graduating from SOSS in 1968 it was off to UBC in Vancouver as so many of us did then for lack of anything else to do…other than the sawmill.
After first year university and a summer job with a mining exploration company I had my first flight. There was lots of bush flying that summer as part of the job and a few unexpected surprises including being a passenger in and surviving a helicopter crash. That did not deter me and I completed my commercial pilots licence while at university. The solid background in math and physics, compliments of teacher Nick Jones at SOSS, came in very useful in understanding theory of flight etc.
One’s first flying job is always hard to come by but with perseverance that came to pass for me at Sioux Lookout, Ont. I was 22 at the time and 3 years after my first plane ride. Several years of flying in NW Ont was followed by many years of bush flying in the western NWT and high arctic including Yellowknife, Inuvik, and Fort Simpson.
Along the way I ventured into owning a bush flying business, Wolverine Air Ltd, with a partner in Fort Simpson in the Mackenzie Valley. My partner ran the operation during the summers and I ran the show during the winter for some 20+ years. He may have got the better half of the deal but at least there were no bugs in the winter at -40!
Summers since 1977 have been spent flying on forest fire suppression mainly with Conair. This is my 33rd year with Conair flying land based retardant and skimmer tankers. During this time I have had the opportunity to work in aerial fire suppression and training air tanker pilots not only in North America but also in such diverse locals as Spain, Portugal, Israel and Australia. A nomadic life for sure but that is one of the big attractions of specialty aviation as compared to thinning apples in June in the Okanagan. You do get to know hotels as few others do.
Up until just recently there was mandatory retirement at 65 but that has been done away with at Conair. There are a few of us that continue on and I guess as long as we can still hold a drivers licence to get to and from the airport hopefully we should be able to keep flying.
I still get back to Oliver on a regular basis where my brother Michael and his wife Beth still reside as does my niece Naomi who operates the local Shoppers’ Drug Store. When in Oliver I always enjoy a good cup of coffee at the Sunshine Café. Over the years the pace in Oliver has picked up somewhat going from no traffic lights to 3 now. Almost too many!
Thanks for the interest.
Tim Garrish