Page 93 - Donnie MacDermid of Margaree Valley: "It could have been worse!"

ISSUE : Issue 73

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1998/6/1

satellite dish business then, by that time. I had a good heavy-duty aluminum ladder for that, so I climbed up the aluminum ladder, but there was no step just in the right spot that I needed to be at for to put the mark on this track where I had to cut it. So there's a little wooden ladder that we used to use for fueling airplanes that would reach up to the wing tanks, so I stepped over on that ladder. And this alu? minum ladder had steps down both sides of it, so very often if I was working on some? thing up over my head on it and I'd go to get down, I'd just back down the other side. Course I forgot for the moment what I was on and I went to back down the other side of the wooden ladder, you know, but there was no steps down the backside then. So the first thing I got was the cement floor flat on my back. But then again, it could always be worse, because right beside me there was a piece of two-by-six, about as long as from there to there, with about four or five spikes sticking up from it, and I missed it by about six inches. So there again, it could always be worse. That's why I said there's always an ele? ment of stupidity. Now that was the case with (this fellow that died). I told him the day that he bought it from me. I said, "When you get this thing home and you get the wings on it and all ready to go, you let me know, and I'll go up and test fly it, make sure it's flying right and every? thing for you, before you get near it yourself." And he said, "Okay. I'll call you." So he did. He called me one week, or weekend, or getting near the weekend. So I told him, "All right, boy, I'll go up Sun? day." So I went up in this God-awful place that he wanted me to fly out of, but I wouldn't touch it there. And that's where he flew it out of. He wouldn't have got back in there anyway. Couldn't. It's im? possible to do. I'd been flying thirty- some years, but there's no way I could possibly get back. I've been thinking about it since. I know how I could have got back in, yeah, but I wouldn't 'cause I ' WAL-MART "' Watch out for falling prices! ' 8 AM to 10 PM • MONDAY through SATURDAY ' Sydney MiCtzuorlj'Limited- ?? CUSTOM KITCHENS ?? WE PAINT & STAIN ?? yj'ZT.Tnp. • FREE ESTIMATES • ?? COUNTERTOPS . ?? CUSTOM WOOD WORK QD'-OOI** ?? CUSTOM FRAMING 50 BROOKLAND ST. ''"Bring Jour Ideas to Lif el" didn't figure it was safe. Not a safe place. Still, that's where he wanted to fly from, and that's where he took off from that day he got killed. (You) have to know the feel i of your airplane. 'Cause there's not much you could do by looking. You had to do by feel. I don't know if you ever used ma? chinery much, did you? (No, I'm afraid I haven't.) Well, using any machinery is ninety-five percent feeling and reflex, and the other five percent is visual. That's about the way it goes, and that's everything from driving your car. (Well, that's about all the machinery that I've got a feel for.) That's about the way it works, isn't it? If you had to do it all visually. Like when you started to drive first, you remember how you found it so difficult to stay on the road even. That's because you're trying to do it fully visu- COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL G. Landry's Vacuum Service Ltd. I SEPTIC SYSTEMS CLEANED INSTALLED & REPAIRED I BACKHOE BULLDOZER RENTAL I PORTABLE TOILET RENTAL & SERVICE Front Lake Rd. Sydney 564-8413 ?? / SERVING ALL OF CAPE BRETON "jj'-' TAKE CHARGE Of Your Future Small business is now the number one source of job creation in Canada. We can help you become the next success story! We can offer loans to new or existing busi? nesses at competitive terms and interest rates. We can invest in your business by way of preferred or common shares. Technical Assistance We can lielp in many other ways, such as Incorporated business plan development, identification , ' I of additional sources of financing and day 338 Charlotte Street, '' 'ay problem solving. Sydney, N.S. COASTAL BUSINESS Opportunities 539-4332 Other Services We administer various self-employment as? sistance programs. For information on these programs, contact our office.

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