Sepia Saturday 790 - 1000 Island Air

This week's prompt shows Gladys & Charlie (?) taking a rest during a (dusty?) motorcycle trip. Somehow, the picture reminds me of Bonny & Clyde. But that may be my unbridled imagination. Apart from the people, the other element in this picture is 'transport' (or 'transportation' if you like). As a former airline employee, transportation played a significant role in my life, particularly since my activities primarily involved the forwarding of cargo. However, during many (mostly service) trips, I acted as a passenger as well. I flew on many different aircraft types, the oldest being the Lockheed Electra II (KLM), the Caravelle (AF), and the Vickers Vanguard (AC). Altogether, I spent close to 500,000 miles in the air. Some of these aircraft trigger special memories. One of those is the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. What makes this aircraft special is that it is a float plane.

Two of our friends/colleagues were living in Belleville, ON, Canada. And in the fall of 2000, they invited us to visit them in Canada. So early October, my wife and I flew (on jump seats!) to Toronto and from there by car to Belleville, some 200 kilometres to the east. One of the (many) things they organised for us was a sightseeing flight over the St Lawrence and its many islands. It was going to be our first trip on a float plane, and I was looking forward to the experience! So we drove to Gananoque to meet with one Mr. Thomas Blackwell, President & CEO of 1000 Island Air. A little later, he also appeared to be the ticket clerk, the pilot, and the janitor of the airline.

Home base of 1000 Island Air

F.r.t.l. our friends the Haitsma's and we, before embarking
the DHC-2 Beaver with registration C-GBZH

Another 1000 Island Air Beaver (C-GEDL) is taking off

The 1000 Island Air Met-office
Weather conditions on Oct. 5, 2000

It was reassuring that our pilot added that the air was mostly smooth. And indeed, we hardly experienced any air pockets. The flight was very nice, and we had some beautiful views of the many islands, including splendid mansions built there. We also saw a couple of bridges. They served very well to identify afterwards where we had been.

The Canadian Thousand Islands Bridge - ON-137

The Thousand Islands Bridge on the US side - I-81

All in all, it was a very pleasant flight. In particular, taking off is quite an experience. I am used to take-offs from smooth, concrete surfaces, usually with speeds of close to 300 kilometres/hour. However, a float plane such as this one takes ages, it seems, before being airborne. And that is because the "ground speed" is far less than half that of conventional aircraft. Additionally, the surface is not as smooth as on a concrete runway.

After having made several other trips, a.o. to Algonquin Park, we returned to Amsterdam on October 8. The KLM B747-300 delivered us safe and sound at Schiphol Airport.

The end

Although I intended this post to end here, I was curious whether 1000 Island Air still existed. But the company seems to have disappeared, in thin air, so to speak. However, I did find something else, viz. the demise of my favorite aircraft. It appears that the de Havilland C-GBZH, the very same one we flew on, crashed in June last year.

The C-GBZH literally in Red Lake, ON, Canada, on June 16, 2024*

The crash report** reads:

"A float-equipped DHC-2 aircraft operated by Canadian Fly-in Fishing (Red Lake) Ltd. was departing the Chukuni River, ON, on a VFR flight to Thicketwood Lake, ON, with the pilot and four passengers.
The aircraft accelerated and lifted off as planned about halfway down the waterway (approximately 2500 feet downriver). As the aircraft gained airspeed to 80 mph, the pilot initiated a climb.
Once the climb was established at approximately 100 feet above water, the pilot reduced the engine power to 30 inches of manifold pressure at 2000 rpm. Along with this power change, the wing flaps were raised from the TAKEOFF position to the CLIMB position.
Shortly thereafter, the pilot noticed the aircraft descending, accompanied by a decrease in airspeed to 60 mph. The pilot pushed forward on the control wheel and simultaneously added full power in an attempt to regain airspeed.
The aircraft’s airspeed did not increase, and the pilot made a turn to the right, into the wind. At a height of approximately 80 feet above the water, the aircraft entered an aerodynamic stall, with a roll to the right. Aircraft control was lost and, at 0655, the aircraft collided with the shoreline in a nose-down, banked attitude. The aircraft came to rest on its left side, partially submerged in approximately 1.5 m of water, 5000 feet from the start of the take-off run."

At the time of the crash, there were five people on board, including the pilot. Unfortunately, one passenger did not survive the crash. 

The aircraft was built in 1963 and accumulated a total of 13,590.4 hours. Although the aircraft may seem old (61 years), it was properly maintained. Its age did not contribute to the cause of this crash. However, the maximum gross take-off weight was likely exceeded due to one passenger being significantly heavier than the average weight of the group to be carried that morning in June 2024. The group counted eight persons divided over two aircraft, with the overweight passenger being seated in the crashed aircraft. The loadsheet was calculated based on the average passenger weight...

Statisticians here say: the road to hell is paved with averages. And statisticians are always right, they say.

For more crashed memories, please visit my Sepia Saturday colleagues.

* Photo credit: NWOnewswatch.com

** Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Air Transportation Safety Investigation Report A24C0057 (released 05 June 2025). 

Sepia Saturday - Bridges

This week's picture shows a bridge across a river that won't see many tall ships, be it with or without sail. The bridge hardly allows the passage of a rowing boat. If the man at the oars is distracted by the photographer for another ten seconds, he will surely lose his hat if not more. What really intrigues me is the body language of the lady on the bridge. The way she holds her right arm indicates either that she is giving the man a piece of her mind or that she has got a back problem. For the well being of the man I would hope it is the second option. But you may justly find this a woman unfriendly thought. In any case, this picture offers many possibilities. Nevertheless, I'll go for the obvious: bridges.

I know the two starting bridges from own experience. That almost automatically means they are not very sepia. I am not that old, you know. 
The first one is a French bridge. It is situated near Millau in the south of France, part of the A75 and it has been there since 2004. 

My wife looking up at the Viaduc de Millau

The bridge crosses the river Tarn and is almost 2.5 kilometers/1.5 miles long. The highest bridge pillar is 343 meters/1125 ft, the longest span between two pillars 342 meters/1122 ft. My wife (1.64 m/5 ft 5 in) felt like a dwarf looking up! It is a very impressive construction! Here is a 3min 15sec YouTube video worth looking at. 
The next one is a Canadian bridge. I never set foot on it but we saw it from the air when visiting friends in nearby Belleville.

Thousand Island Bridge crossing the St Lawrence near Gananoque, ON

Our friends Tim & Diana knew of a seaplane operator in Gananoque. The carrier's name was 1000 Island Airways and we flew in a De Haviland B. So we made a very nice trip over the St Lawrence River.
Well, so much for colorful bridges, let's go back to the sepia era.

Bridge over the river Kyll near Kyllburg 50 km north of Trier, Germany

During my mother's high school period many school trips were spent in the western part of Germany. This photo dates from approx 1933. It is difficult to be sure where she is in this picture. She might also have taken it. The only known name is her teacher's name. He is the man on the very right, Mr. Van Ramshorst.

Dausenau a.d. Lahn 100 km northwest of Frankfurt, Germany

During one of those school trips the above picture was taken in the small city of Dausenau in Germany. Again I assume my mother is part of this group but that is not the reason for showing this picture. It is the banner over the street showing the logo of the Nazi-party that makes this photo special. Although WW2 started in 1939, the Germans knew Hitler and his ideas long before that. The banner says:

Adolf Hitler

schaft Arbeit und Brot

Wählt Liste 2

Translated this says: "Adolf Hitler creates labour and bread, Vote list 2."

Obviously social circumstances in Germany were very poor in those days. And Hitler made use of the bleak future staring in the face of many Germans. Promises for a better future and at same time blaming a.o. Jews for the situation they were in, made excellent elections.

Usually the largest party has the lowest sequence number. In January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and his Nazi-party the absolute number 1. In combination with my mother's age there, my conclusion is that this photo dates from 1932. Little did these boys and girls know how the banner over their heads would influence their lives in less than 10 years time...

For more ladies, rowing boats, bridges and anything else you would never have thought of, please see my fellow Sepia Saturday bloggers.

Update Apr. 7, 2014
Out of the blue I received the following email from Germany:

Good evening,

I've found this picture of Kyllburg in your blog by accident:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZ_oBkGiDJ79fHJx3XNTn0T15-5AS2EV6SZRmQGh5i6odK3pGrsmsLATcGpzo9WuMMBBnO8As-45rVhi_xVr_UKxKajvCIpE0AcZSIFL9Th-qEKpU88bm5Duc7QagdV6zNAooTx1REoQ/s1600/Brug+over+de+Kyll+bij+Kyllburg+50+km+N+van+Trier.jpg

I was born in Kyllburg in 1958, but away from home since I'm 15 year old. I am very interested in the history of my home town. (By the way: Kyllburg is, with a population of about 900 people, the smallest town in the federal state Rheinland-Pfalz. Until  World War II it was a famous spa in the Eifel, specialy for the Dutch.)

The bridge over the river Kyll with your mother on it is probably this:

https://www.google.de/maps/place/50%C2%B002'20.5%22N+6%C2%B035'06.0%22E/@50.039036,6.584998,1684m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

I have a very private request: Do you have any other pictures or other information from this trip of your mother's school form to Kyllburg in 1933 where this picture was taken? Needless to say that there are a lot of postcards from Kyllburg at the internet. But the private sight of such a trip is of course more exciting for me.

I would be very pleased to hear from you.

Best regards

Toni Nissen

Wiesbaden

Obviously I replied to Tony. Fortunately my mother's album is still in my possession and there are a few more pictures made in Kyllburg which I forwarded to Toni in the meantime. There was also this picture postcard. I was able to put a date to the bridge picture: July 23, 1932. So I was wrong by a year. 

Kyllburg pictured from up high

It is nice when the internet provides you with reactions such as the one above. Thanks, Toni!

Our aircraft (12)

While paying a visit to our friends and former colleagues Diana and Tim in Canada, we made our first trip in a seaplane. Circling over the Hudson River is a spectacular experience. Very appropriately the carrier's name was 1000 Island Airways. The Hudson near Belleville is dotted with smaller and larger islands. We had the honour of being flown by the carrier's CEO who also happened to be the only employee.

Oct. 5, 2000, De Haviland B, 1000 Island Airways, 
circular flight  Gananoque (Can), 41/451,749 miles

During my last years with KLM I was involved in the set up and implementation of cargo security procedures. To that end I was a member of the BLACKS group. BLACKS was (is?) the acronym for British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, Cargolux, KLM and Swissair. There we tried to agree to common security measures for the main European cargo carriers thus setting a standard for Western Europe. Later, this group was also suspected of fixing certain cargo pricing elements. I can safely deny this because there was no truth in that accusation. Anyway, the flights to Frankfurt and London had to do with this BLACKS group.

May 19, 2003, Airbus A321-100, LH, SPL/FRA, 228/465,775 miles
Photo ex Digitaltrends

July 9, 2003, Boeing 737-900, KL, SPL/LHR, 230/466,233 miles
Photo ex airline-pics

The flight to Catania, Sicily, was a holiday flight. I remember that there was a considerable delay on the way back. So we had ample time to test the airport facilities for passengers there (none) and the comfort of the chairs in the departure hall (none). But Taormina was nice!

Sept. 6, 2003, Boeing 757-300, HV, SPL/CTA, 1,140/468,871 miles
Photo ex zap16.com

With a pilot in the family I was able to add a Piper to my list of aircraft types. On the outbound trip we went to the island of Texel. We passed the Schiphol tower and flew overhead our house in Castricum. On the way back we flew via the city of Zwolle.

April 27, 2012, Piper Cadet PA28, Vliegclub Lelystad, Lelystad/Texel, 90/473,982
In the background good old PH-BUK at its final destination

CTA = Catania, Sicily
FRA = Frankfurt
HV = Transavia
KL = KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
LH = Lufthansa
LHR = London Heathrow
SPL = Schiphol Amsterdam airport

For the time being this is the last post in this series. I am 26,000 miles short of reaching the 500,000 miles mark. Whenever I reach it, I'll let you know. In the meantime I hope you have enjoyed the 12 posts on this subject. Thank you for reading them.