Before we continue Rex Terpening’s flight in his aeronautical career, just a reminder of where we cut our previous narrative. As we saw, and will see, Rex had many transfers related to his career. The 1940 was for a launch of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), no. 2 AOS (Air Observer School), Edmonton. A year later, he became maintenance superintendent of the newly opened AOS No. 7, Portage La Prairie, and “soon developed his department to an award-winning level of efficiency.”
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Another year passed and Rex was recalled to “flying activities” with Canadian Airways, Edmonton. It was 1942 and “several small companies, including Canadian Airways, came together to form Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CPA) with maintenance under the direction of Albert Hutt.”
The CANOL project of the early 1940s, of which we have heard, required Rex Terpening, not as an engineer, but as a photographer, an aerial surveyor, to take photographs from a twin-engine Douglas C-47 of the United States Air Force united This “proved to be an arduous task, as Terpening’s camera position was unheated, there was little shelter from the draft, and air temperatures were in the -20°F range.”
Over time, so do their tasks. For four years, he was stationed in Regina, as a chief district mechanic to maintain CPA’s Lockheed Lodestar and Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Later, he left for Vancouver, in charge of maintenance in BC and Yukon on Conviar 240, DC-4, DC-6B and Boeing 737.
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The late 1960s brought dramatic change for Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CPA), along with the name change to CP Air, there was rapid expansion: new routes, field stations, hiring and training of personnel to operate the change. Rex became Line Maintenance Manager. “Early management: largely forest flying pioneers, including President Grant McConachie, Superintendent ‘Punch’ Dickins and ‘Wop’ May”. Twelve years later, in 1978, was Rex’s retirement, at that time responsible for all CP Air international bases in Europe, Central and South America, the Pacific and the Orient. He and his wife, Trudie, lived in Surrey, BC
It was during retirement and living in the Lower Mainland that Bent Props and Blow Pots, published by Harbor Publishing, BC, emerged in 2003: “an effort [in text and photographs] to preserve the history of early aviation in the North during the shopping flying days of the 1930s.” A critic, David W. Norton, writes: “This absorbing chronicle evokes, not only people, but textures and smells of materials before essentials that have now largely disappeared in aviation: leather, fabric (aircraft) drug – plasticized lacquer – tightens and hardens the fabric. stretched over aircraft cells, making them airtight and waterproof, increasing their durability and useful life; heated crankcase oil; white gasoline (naphtha); manila rope; timbers sawn and trimmed to cut a twisted joinery; and wood smoke”.
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In 1997, Harold (Rex) Terpening, 84, was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Calgary. After many years in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Rex passed away on July 15, 2018, “eight days shy of his 105th birthday”.
“By the time Terpening entered Canadian aviation, the front-mounted single-engine monoplanes designed in the United States or Europe had replaced the rear-engine seaplanes and other biplane heirs of World War I aviation, like Curtiss JN. -4 ‘Jennies’ and ‘Canucks’.
Although the Bush pilots received well-deserved accolades, the flight engineers kept the plane in flight condition and assisted with all parts of the flight preparation. “Engineers warmed up the engine and engine oil for cold weather starting [until Terpening and cohorts discovered oil dilution system for piston engines]; he rested the plane; load loaded; and served as an indispensable second pair of eyes for scouting the terrain below as pilots navigated largely by contact over a trackless desert in low-visibility conditions; when mishaps occurred, air engineers often made repairs on the spot.”
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Terpening confided that he wasn’t sure what he considered worse: working in the bitter cold of winter or in the mud surrounded by mosquitoes during the summer.
As we continue with Rex Terpening and his importance to aircraft and the Canadian North, we venture into the life of pilot George Campbellford Dalziel. Before we do, it’s worth pausing for a relative poem: Ballad of a Bush Pilot by Olden Bawld, aka Charles R. Robinson, which he composed in a Boeing 247D CF-BVT, while descending the Mackenzie River , in September 21, 1942. The poem was found in Flying the Frontiers by Shirlee Smith Matheson. This should help to better understand the life of a bush pilot.
In days gone by I used to fly
a Fairchild 82;
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And it was fair air or stormy
We always would.
For hours I sat on the piece
kapok padded seat,
My knees tucked under my chin
in comfort hard to beat.
The instruments, the hood dents
grease stains on the glass;
I still remember them all,
as through the years I pass.
“Strange things happen under the midnight sun,”
It was said days ago.
This is still true in ’42
For malamutes now fly!
The northern lights still see strange sights –
I’ve flown down Dawson’s Trail
(Where teams of dogs ran and strong men died)
A Condor full of mail.
I have brought boats and smelly goats
At Junkers 34.
I froze my toes off at Barkley-Grows
On the rocky shores of Great Bear.
In the summer the heat and the winter
I have flown them old and new;
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With radio beams and endless currents
I’m still doing it.
Eric Colmer, in his Record-Gazette column of March 9, 1983, Down…memory lane, writes: George Campbellford Dalziel was one of the many famous pilots who came out of the Pau River during the 1930s. He was also known as the flying hunter. His aircraft was well known for the actual repairs he carried out. “If the hay wire hadn’t been invented, Dal simply wouldn’t have survived.”
We’re ready for more George Dalziel, but we have to wait for the next reflections.
sources: Peace River Remembers; Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada; Canadian Encyclopedia; Bush Pilot With a Briefcase book review by John S. Goulet; May 1941 issue of Canadian Aviation; Peace River Museum, Mackenzie Center Archives and Files; Vancouver History: Grant McConachie by Rebecca Bollwitt; Famous Canadians, should be famous and infamous; Punch Dickins Flies the Barrens; Punch Dickins – Snow Eagle; Bush Pilots and Barnstormers – Punch Dickins; Bush Pilots, Canada’s Wilderness Daredevils, Peter Boer; Globe and Mail: How a flying entrepreneur helped forge Canada’s aviation industry; Max Ward; Quality above all; Hugh Quigley’s Max Ward and his Maverick Airline; Notable Albertans – Order of Excellence Legacy Collection of Alberta; Amazing Flights and Flyers, Shirlee Smith Matheson; Wings Magazine; Alberta Teachers’ Association – David Kirkham; Balloons and Mail; Register-Gazette; Flying Canucks
Beth Wilkins is a researcher at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.
