Getting enough flying hours has taken on a whole new meaning for local pilot Gord Melville after his recent purchase of the amphibious turbo Beaver aircraft from Abitibi-Consolidated here.
Melville, who spent the last 15 years as chief pilot and engineer of the aircraft under the mill’s Woodlands Division, now will operate the aircraft privately under the business name “MelAir.”
“It was a corporate decision to get rid of the airplane and I’d told them that if they ever decided to do that, that I’d like the first opportunity to purchase it,” Melville said Saturday afternoon.
“They gave me that opportunity [and] now it’s open to use by everybody,” he added.
Melville would not specify how much he paid for the plane, which went for about $120,000 when the mill bought it in 1968. Unlike cars, planes increase in value with age.
Insurance alone will cost Melville upwards of $30,000 a year.
The mill had used the turbo Beaver primarily for aerial reconnaissance of forest stands and to transport woodlands workers, mill manager Jim Gartshore said Tuesday.
Increased road access to bush properties, coupled with changing economic times, spurred the company’s decision to sell off the aircraft, he said.
“The paper industry is not doing as well as it used to do and the company could no longer justify the expense of [keeping the plane],” Gartshore noted.
To make a go of it, Melville will need at least 500 hours of business a year. He hopes to glean a good portion of that business from the mill, which will still need use of the aircraft for forest work.
Contracts with the MNR and Bell Canada also are possibilities, he said.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
