Pilot Bob Gartshore's 42-year flying career spanned a period of rapid aviation development - from fabric-covered Piper Cubs with a little 65-hp engine to Boeing 747s with four engines developing some 240,000 pounds of thrust. He logged over 21,000 hours in the cockpit, flying to six continents - freight, charter and scheduled runs - for the RCAF, Canadian Pacific Airlines, Wardair, and Canadian Airlines. Bob was also an instructor, simulator specialist and glider pilot. As captain, he progressed from the Harvard T-6, to the Dakota DC-3, C-119 Flying Boxcar, Douglas DC-6 (over 6,000 hours), Boeing 727, 707, 747 (7,000+ hours), Airbus A310 and, finally as a relief pilot in war-torn Angola for Mission Aviation, a Beechcraft King Air 100."I enjoyed my chosen career through its many ups and downs, and have also been lucky enough to have survived some of its possible sudden endings! My logbooks have been a great help with this exercise, jostling vivid memories out of hidden recesses."And those memories are varied indeed: flying into a cloud-shrouded, Greenland airstrip with both radar and beacons inoperable; exercising penguins on the tarmac; his son as co-pilot on both the 747 and the A310; Mecca-bound pilgrims kindling fires in the aisle to cook their mid-day meal; CF-FUN and CF-SEX; grazing the tail on a hillside attempting a clouded high-Arctic landing; flying beside a UFO; balls of St. Elmo's Fire rolling down the aisles - all while raising a family of five kids with his dynamic wife, Joy.About the author:Robert 'Bob' Gartshore was born in Calgary in 1931, earned his pilot's licence in 1949 and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force the following year when the Korean Conflict broke out. Five years later he switched to civilian aviation, first as a private instructor, then as a pilot for Canadian Pacific, Wardair and Canadian Airlines. In retirement, he volunteered on humanitarian flights in Africa. Bob and his wife, Joy, are retired, living in Victoria, BC. They have five children.
