Memories from former pilot Cam McNeil

The first time I met the gentle, pastoral Pastor Les, I wondered how he was going to fare in the rough trade of bush flying - until I flew with him in the C310 and realized that he was as good and professional as any of the pilots I had flown with in the RCAF.

I remember vividly flying the first VBS team north to Ontario in my newly acquired Mooney and having to land in North Bay on the way back. The engine began to run so rough that I needed a radar (PAR) talk down in un-forecast local weather so bad that Air Canada missed their approach. I was truly in the hands of God. After that I realized even more how important good maintenance was and a current Instrument Rating when flying in the North. Most people do not know that there are more aircraft missing in northern Ontario than in the infamous Bermuda Triangle.

I was often in Yellowknife on business and met and flew with Gary Sartain and Lee Barry, and met their wonderful families. Lee looked like a Pastor from the front and an NFL linebacker (which he was) from the back.

The joy of teaching VBS is still with me. I led the first team to Fort Hope; then took my son and eventually my daughter to Fort Severn, the northernmost village in Ontario - with polar bears and ice off shore in July. The trips were Confirmation presents for the kids. Their first jobs as adults in the church was to freeze on the edge of Hudson's Bay in a village older than Toronto.

Another joy for my wife, Uldine and me was to be an eastern home-away-from-home for LAMP’ers. We went to Government House with the Thompson family to see Rev. Neale Thompson receive the Medal of Bravery from the Governor General. I believe Neale is the only Missionary/Pilot to receive it. We had Les and Judy, Ivor and Gary and families, Steve, Don, Ron, and Gordon (who taught us the table prayer – God bless the cook). Ivor and I flew the Mooney to a tiny strip in northern Quebec to visit the LBT (Lutheran Bible Translators) Stime family. The next week, Tim told a bush pilot that his friends had flown in a Mooney. The pilot said that it was impossible - it could get in but not out again. Ivor gave me a LAMP cap, which I wore almost 20 years later, flying the Commanche out of Red Lake. Ivor, a Fulbright Scholar, who looks like a Viking or a Pirate, met me as I taxied in and complimented me on my cap. He had forgotten it was his.

God bless you and keep you,

Cam McNeil