 Page One Page Two Page Three Page Four Page Five Page Six History Main Page  "The event
that
caused me
to broaden
the scope
of my
activities
was an
infestation
of aphids
in the
pea crop
in Ladner,
in 1947" |
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Story by Jack Meadows Published with kind permission from West Coast Aviator Magazine ...continued from page one Business was good. The company grew. On August 6 1947 it changed its name to Skyway Air Services. Its third employee was an ex-sailor, Percy Lotzer, who worked in the office and was later to learn to fly with the company and become General Manager. Another important acquisition was Ed Batchelor, later of B.C. Aviation Council fame, ex-RAF pilot with instructor's rating as well as engineers license.  By now Skyway, as a general aviation company, was doing a bit of everything: pilot training (there was quite an international clientele), charter, banner towing, rental as well as buying and selling aircraft. There was a wide and changing variety of airplanes in use : Tigers, Fleet Canucks, Luscombes, Aeroncas, Piper Super Cruisers. So to have more time to develop other activities, Seller delegated to Batchelor the flying training responsibility. Here, Batchelor managed to formalize things. He set his heart on a standardized fleet for flying training and gradually achieved this with Piper aircraft. Later, there was also a parallel Cessna fleet."The event that caused me to broaden the scope of my activities was an infestation of aphids in the pea crop in Ladner, in 1947, " recalled Seller for Pioneering Aviation in the West. He saw some visiting American crop dusters walk away with more money than he made in a year and decided to convert a Tiger Moth for the job. At this time, he was joined by John Anderson as spray pilot, also an engineer. For a time there was a happy double utilization of some aircraft; crop dusting early and late when the wind was light, pilot training in between. But the Tigers were inadequate for the dusting job and a number of Stearmans were added. This was the start of a development that soon equaled in importance the training activities. |
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A major opportunity arose from the Fraser River floods of 1948. The resulting mosquito problem needed drastic action. As Lotzer says, Skyway was there and ready. Seller and Anderson flew Stearmans from dawn to dusk spreading DDT everywhere in a way that today would never be allowed. Then, Alcan had a problem with mosquitoes at its Kemano dam project. A Skyway Tiger on floats was flown all the way up the coast to Kitimat - a feat in itself - to deal with the problem. These activities, much more profitable than the long hours of flying instruction, helped to solidify the financial situation. |
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