Page 98 - Donnie MacDermid of Margaree Valley: "It could have been worse!"

ISSUE : Issue 73

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1998/6/1

have, when you look at it that way. He said, "It should be on display in a mu? seum." So he wanted me to give him that red one. And I wished I had of. Then (the fel? low who bought it) probably would still be living--if he didn't get another one of some kind and break his neck in it.... (How many planes do you think you built?) I think there was fourteen, all told.... Now, I can build just about anything, but I'm very poor on finish working. I seem to run short of patience when it comes to finish. I seem to get too anxious to get it flying, than I do to see a nice finish job. So all my planes always look a little rough on the outside, but they fly! And they've all flown good. I haven't had one yet that flew bad, really. The worst one was, like I say, that yellow Ranger-- well, I built that off of plans. (So you like it better when you change the plans.) Yeah, when I changed the plans and squared the wing up, on that blue one. I put the wings square across it. I moved the butts ahead eighteen inches. When I did, of course, that also moved the tips ahead. Boy, that thing'd fly hands off then. That's a desirable thing to have in an airplane--that thing'd fly all day hands off. Unless you got a very severe updraft or something to upset it. But many a time I used to bury. Then I'd come down EVERY DAY $5.00 Lunch EVERY DAY Slice and Pop • $2-00 ALL TAXES INCLUDED! SYDNEY SHOPPING CENTRE PRINCE STREET • 564-9700 • go up to Hawkes- along the coast by Port Hood and down to Inver? ness. When I'd get over Inver? ness, I could see Margaree Valley from Inverness. So I'd just get her nose on Mar? garee Valley and I'd just let her go. Hands and feet off, and away she'd go for home straight, all by herself. Never have to touch it.... I But they're all For information on 48,000 Christian Book Titles, CALL US! 23 McKeen Street GLACE BAY, N. S. B1A5B9 849-6365 / pretty well-behaved airplanes. Well satis? fied with them that way. It's a thing that I always had a hankering for it (even) as a little kid. I remember when I used to be stood in a corner, when I went to school. See, this was wartime. So you'd have pictures of airplanes drawn up the side of your page in your book. And they'd have some up the other side, and they'd be shooting across the page--little dashes of pencil marks across the page where they're shooting at each other. This was wartime style, see. So then the teach? er 'd stand me in the corner for drawing on my books. So when I'd go to the corner I'd take my crayons with me and I'd colour them--made them a little more dressy. She didn't used to like that too well, either! (So you always cared about airplanes.) Yeah, it was kind of--well, like I say, when a fellow's born on the 10th of May, 1927, the day Lindbergh flew the Atlantic, what can you say? He didn't wait for me, so I had to learn to fly on my own. I don't know if it's a good excuse, but it's the best one I can think of. It makes a joke, anyway, if nothing else. Donnie MacDermid is pictured on page 93 with his granddaugh? ter, Lindsay MacDougall. City Lodge FIRST RATE ACCOMMODATIONS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES FAMILY RESTAURANT & PUB 100 Kings Road, Sydney IF 1-800-580-2489 • FAX (902) 562-2640 CENTRALLY LOCATED, 30 MINUTES FROM THE NEWFOUNDLAND FERRYJ

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