Cape Breton's Magazine

al. You didn't have any feeling for it, see. You had to develop that as you got some driving experience. Flying is no dif? ferent. Handling a bulldozer is no differ? ent, handling a sawmill is no different, or anything else that I done. It's all the same. Anything involving machinery or equipment, it's all the same. You have to develop that feel. That's got to become a kind of automatic reaction to you. When it does now, you're a pilot or a driver or whatever you're supposed to be, you're it once you develop that feel.... When I was taking my flying lessons in Sydney, there was an old fellow there by the name of George Johnston. Now he was an instructor and he was everything else, and he was fairly old now. He had been over? seas during the war and he flew. In fact, he trained pilots over in England. And he asked me, "How are you getting along, Don?" I said, "Well, I'll tell you, George," I says,."not too bad, but my landing is terrible." I said, "I'm making an awful botch of landing. I can't seem to judge just when to round out for landing." You see, you got to kind of flare out when you get just so far from the ground, and then you got to bring that wing to a stall point so the airplane will set down. And you don't want it to fly off again 'cause that's a bounce. That gets you back in the All Types of Collision Work! Specializing in Spot Repair SYDNEY'S COMPLETE COLLISION REPAIR CENTRE 539-2848 • 539-1033 61 BEECH • SYDNEY BIP 6R7 Located on Beautiful Sydney Harbour r DAYSIN N SYDNEY, NS CorapHmentary Continental Breakfast Free Local Calls Indoor Pool & Fitness Centre Arthur's Cafe 8c Lounge Small Meeting Specialist 480 Kings Road 539-6750 TOLLFREE 1-800-DAYS INN air again. That's not very desirable. Es? pecially when you want to land, you see. You want to stay on. So the idea is to flare this thing, and Jimmy Shanahan told me, "You want to learn how to land, boy, you watch the crows, how they do it, and you do it the same way." When you see a crow coming, he comes in and he's going to land on a limb or something, he comes right up to it and he flares, and his feet will automatically go right for that limb. Well, I seen one fellow one day, I don't know why, but he missed it. He damn near whacked his chin on a limb, or telephone cable it was. That's one day I was going out Sydney airport to get my training that day, and I saw that happen on the way out to Grand Lake Road there. And when I got out there he told me to watch the crows and I said, "I'd better not watch that fellow too long!" 'Cause he was doing worse than I was doing. (The airport here--is it called Margaree Airport?) Yeah. I don't think there's a sign on it. We used to keep a sign up, but kids kept tearing the signs down on us. Couldn't seem to keep one up, so we gave up on it. (Why is there an airport in Mar? garee?) On account of me, I suppose. I'm the only aviation nut in Margaree at that time, see. What's the good of having an airplane and a license and no airport? So I'm bulling to get an airport. And this piece of land up there--it was considered one time during the war for use as a strip. A training strip. So the guy used to run the Normaway out here, a Hart fella. So anyway, we decided to make a strip here. Course this is a big advantage to him 'cause this is a tourist resort, see. If they can get tourists com? ing in, that's just right up his alley. He was all game for it then. So he come and he helped me cut trees, and we cut trees and burnt brush out there for days and days on end. And then when we got it bulldozed, we hired a fellow formerly from New Brtmswick, and he was down here, he was living down STEPHENS Building Supplies K.,' Makita Power Tools Kohler Windows Donat Flamand Windows All Types of Cedar Sidings CGC Gypsum Board Iko Roofing Plywood Peach Tree Steel Door Systems 199 Townsend Street, Sydney 564-5554 Vinyl Replacement Windows Prefab Houses & Garages Pressure Treated Lumber Cedar Lumber SICO Paints & Stains Weldwood Vinyl Siding Fibreglass Pink Insulation