BCAA

The Bird���s-Eye View Kootena he ys t Dream Flight START HERE As this magazine went to press, Neil Davidson grounded his Tiger Moth for refurbishing. Flights and events will resume in September 2013: ciel_sol@hotmail.com 20 W estw o r ld p18-27_The List.indd 20 >> CRANBROOK, THE KOOTENAYS ���Pull in here, we need gas.��� Neil Davidson motions with a finger toward a regular gas station. We���re en route to the airport to take his completely rebuilt, original 1939 open-cockpit Tiger Moth for a spin in the mountains near Cranbrook. Still, my raised eyebrow prompts a patient response from the grey-moustached, spectacled Davidson (pictured above). ���Aviation fuel is way too clean for my old plane. I stick to plain old gas.��� Gulp. We���re heading far from the modern flying world of hi-tech fuels, jet engines, GPS and hydraulics ��� more than 70 years back, closer to the era of the Wright Brothers, to when World War II pilots earned their stripes in these legendary machines. Even so, Davidson���s Spring 2013 two-seater yellow Tiger Moth remains a fixture in the skies over the east Kootenays and is still known for its rugged reliability. It is not, however, known for its smooth handling. As Davidson puts it, the Tiger Moth is ���easy to fly, just not well.��� He adds a veiled caution about airsickness. At the Cranbrook airport, wheeling the surprisingly light craft from its hangar into blinding sun, it feels as if we���re stealing a priceless museum piece for an illicit joyride ��� and, in a way, we are. There are only four original Tiger Moths still flying in Canada today. And after outfitting me in authentic period gear ��� leather airman���s cap, scarf and goggles ��� Davidson guides me into the seat in the front cockpit of one of them. ���Don���t touch anything,��� he warns and strides to the front of the plane, grasping the wooden propeller and pulling with all his might. The ancient engine coughs, splutters and dies. Neil pulls again, and again, until the beast under the cowling roars to life behind the blur of the prop. Inserting himself behind me, he then steers onto the grass beside the asphalt runway ���� ��� and suddenly we���re airborne. Grass and trees drop away. I glance over my shoulder ��� to see a Canadian Forces Hercules aircraft, one of the largest on the planet, lumbering in for a landing. We���re a mosquito in the path of a giant, grey, soaring eagle. Davidson hauls on the stick and we bank steeply to the east, away from the Rocky Mountain Trench, skimming the treetops up the Wildhorse Valley into what little remains of B.C.���s endangered mountain caribou habitat. The biplane���s canvasand-balsa-wood frame, tethered with a gossamer web of thin cable, shimmies and shakes like a bird���s wing as the wind blasts my grinning face. ��� ���Dave Quinn (Tiger Moth) Brian Clarkson, (West Coast Trail & insets) Robin Esrock 13-01-28 10:30 AM

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