Page 12 Cassiar Courier November 1988 CASSIAR COUNTRY by don campbell NAS NINN TEEEEESSESSSESSESESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SS Cassiar Country this month is going to focus on one of the fellows over in the company powerhouse: Richard Johnson, a well built, powerful looking man with an outgoing personality. Conversation comes easy, making one feel comfortable to be around him. Richard was born in Kimberly, B.C. in 1940. He has two brothers and one sister. Talking to Richard one gets the very strong feeling that his father was his role model, not only when he was growing up, but also when he became an adult. As the saying goes, Richard is indeed his father’s son, same personality, same love of life, same strong belief in his own self worth. Immigrating from Denmark where he had worked in a circus, his father settled in Kimberly and worked in the mines. Richard has been interested in planes as long as he can remember. He started to build models as a kid. Wanting to be a pilot more than anything else, he took flying lessons while attending high school. He received his flying licence when he was 16. He recalls working for the C.P.R. as a call boy to pay for his flying lessons, and then later becoming a yard checker for the railway. Still wanting to be a pilot, Richard decided to join the navy. The U.S. Naval Air was his preferred choice. He compromised and joined the Canadian Navy, partly due to his father’s strong sense of loyalty to his adopted country. In true military fashion, “if you want to do something, they will.put you some place else”. Richard was assigned to the boiler room. He spent five years floating around on the Bonaventure, seeing a lot of diff. erent places and becoming an engineer. Still not flying, he decided he wasn’t doing what he wanted to do, so he left the navy. After this, Richard travelled around - England, Europe, Mexico - and worked in some different places - two years at Clinton Creek, and a year and a half at Faro. In 1978 he came to Cassiar. Still hung up on flying, Richard decided to build a “homebuilt” plane, which to be licensed as a “home- built” must be 62% home fabricated. Living in a bunk- house didn’t leave room for much else, but that’s where the plane started. Ordering parts as needed, the various assemblies began to take shape. Before the plane was finished, Richard decided to return south to help his father, who had developed silicosis. Of course, the plane went too. Fuselage and wings were loaded up and trucked south. There Richard worked as an engineer for a glass plant and continued building on his plane. When he decided to come back up north, he sold that plane to a friend at Vernon. Arriving back in Cassiar, he began work on his se- cond plane. This time, he made arrangements for working space, so as not to crowd him out of the bunkhouse. The second project he describes as a motorized glider. It is actually a single-seat flying wing, with a small motor and a pusher prop. Because it is built low to the ground, the gravel gives it a beating. This one is presently stored in the shed. Listening to Richard talk about building his planes that this is everything in his life. He does, however, have other interests, and I am sure he attacks them with the _ same intensity. He enjoys cross country skiing and volun- teered to take us along to get us started. He has done some sailing with his brother and wants to do some more. He loves animals, and at one time owned a dog. Richard’s third plane appears to have been his most frustrating project to date. Not the actual construc- tion as such, but situations over which he had no control. He sent the firewall out by mail to have it anodized. To this day, Canada Post officials have been unable to find it. “How can they lose a big wooden box?”’ he wonders. His next problem was more serious. Working on the plane with a portable generator, an explosion and fire hospi- talized him for two months with third degree burns to the arms and upper body. He feels strongly that his frame of mind and his physical condition helped him through the hospitalization. “I healed up fast and good,” he ex- plains. - The plane is finished now. It sits out at the air- port, like Richard always ready to go skyward. A beauti- ful little silver single seater, I am sure that to Richard it is worth all the hassles and all the frustration. I am also convinced that every time he takes it up, the knowledge that he put it together, bolt by bolt and piece by piece, is exhilarating indeed. His future plans are unsure at this time. He likes what he is doing. He wants to spend more time sailing with his brother. He wants to build more planes. AND he wants to fly them! To people in Cassiar, Richard may be “that guy over in the apartments who works for the Company”. To Richard, I am sure, Cassiar has been “that place to build planes’. GIGANTIC BINGO November 5 - 2:00 p.m. Cassiar Rec Centre Gym $10.00 Entry Fee | *7,000 Jackpot - Must Go! 50/50 Bonanza % Advance Notice November 20 Our Annual Toy Bingo PLEASE COME OUT AND SUPPORT ipl HOCKEY with the wildcats CARS AUTHORIZED ARCTCO® ARCTIC CAT® DEALER ©Arcico Inc. 1988. *~Trademarks of Arctco Inc. i oa I Fe ee a ne ea a ee ee rr a4 \ Cates rake wdiae we UK i 2 23 ei Re mY ad RSS Cw “~~ ew Cassiar Courier November 1988 Page 13 VOTE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE NOV. 21 RAY. 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