THE WILLIAMS LAKE TRIBUNE Page 7 Dog Creek Airport beacon for aircraft Mention Dog Creek airport in Williams Lake |were made or almost three per and the likelihood is that most people know it exists, |day. We say normal landings they might know it does something about the | because, in fact, there were a -weather, but chances are they have little intimate |full total of 114 landings, the extra aircraft being engaged on the search for the plane which crashed last month on French knowledge that it is equipped with thousands of dollars worth of radio installations and is “‘on duty” 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A visit to Dog Creek by The Tribune last week convinced us it was | Mountain. quite a place. rs j Of those landing, about ous bleep, he knows he is on| Percent are tourists who drop one of the four fixed bearings in to refuel. A certain number trom Dog Creek. His compass |0f Americans stop by on their would tell him which one. |way to Alaska and about five or But what does he hear if he |Six helicopters pay a call each s not on one of the four bear-|month which are engaged on ings? Flying to one side of a/survey or related work. The airport was first estab- lished in 1943 by the RCAF from a military standpoint, along with a civilian radio range. The military side fin- ished with the cessation of hos tilities after the last war, al- particular bearing his radio set would give out a morse “a” signal continuously, sas capture an atmosphere of |» voter ai ” da... ditda...dit da. Fly-| camp "’ as they entered the |i. the other side of the bear-| hut-lined area. ine, ‘his et would teesive al - . , set wou : Today, the airport consists of |S ONS Set receive al we . ~~ |morse ‘“‘n” signal continuously two distinct sections. Firstly.|™ Hern da dit. | the civilian aviation department ; a ait \ : ; ; da dit. which maintains the airfield and . ; . : These radio range “transmit- keeps it operating for passing : ters are dotted all over Canada traific and, secondly, the radio a . | from Vancouver to Halifax nad range which connects vast network of similar services with a they are so arranged that one | across the Dominion and is of general use to aircraft whether though any man or woman in the forces could not fail to re- arm of the four transmitted sig-| nals from a station joins up| cis with one arm from the next they are visiting Dog Creek or ‘ | station, | not. Let us take off, therefore, THE RADIO RANGE . - : 4 ; + ; from Vancouver. We are, head- The radio range is essentially] ; . : : ing for Prince George. We tune beacon available to all]. 5 ae in to the Vancouver radio It transmits a signal . 1 range and start flying along the from the tal : in a {47M Pointing to the next station in a ‘aft. all directions nitting antennas, but at Hope. As long as we dre on manner. In four an ek . course, the radio will give a con- radiating from the . _ oltinuous bleep. If w the signal picked} (ji .ce in fog, cloud 7 n ; cours Ss, © . One of the four trans- an aireraft exactly on the | 9. 2+. merely blown off course mission towers which of one of these four dir 1 tne radio. will wmd ® help to keep aircraft on is a continuous bleep. | or wg or en ana con sea or “nm” and we can beam. The towers are if an aircraft tunes his turn our’ wae back on cou 5 5 ; jturn o back on cou located 5.8 miles from radio to the Dog Creek fre- until w nar atinuous no @ airport itself. . l we get the co us Rote the airport itself. quency and receives a coniinu-| again As we find ourselves half way trom Vancouver to Hope, a slight turn of our radio dial will bring in a new transmission guiding us to the airfield ai|Dog Creek airport. Y LIFE at the new airport but it did n Hope. Turning along the uorth- PERSONNEL There 10 families on the|make auy aii They r ern arm of the transmitte airport and they are a close-|tuse to wo Hope will guide ns] The two key men at Dog| «nit, contented community, A|til concrete ions tion at A k are Al Becker and C eation hall and games room|along saying jion—Dunlop. hb is.aitics ovides..accommodation. for Untih then, Dog.Crack charge of “the. radio- range with a film tinue its round-the-clock, all- ° en at Dog Creek week. A pin =| year-round service to aircraft to He is an expert radio|table and pool table are provi- | unobstrusive, unspectacular but Prince| technician and operator and has) ded in the games room and a infinitely valuable to all who George. as his staff four operators who|dance is held about once a-use the S. In addition to the . direction thus each of the re can wansmit speech so that ai craft can be informed of chans- ing weather conditions and given other ground to air com- munications that may be neces- sary. In thick fog, heavy cloud or total darkness, a flyer using h radio could come into Dog Creek without being see where he was to within 400 feet of the ground. By then he would be able to see the run- way at night which is constenuly lighted, or the runway directly by It is almost unknown to have the right to ground level. A further aid (o navi a rotating beacon at D which day. runway f can for night flyers seen under clear conditions from just south of Quesnel and just Asheroft by am airc 12,000 feet. north of flying at THE CIVIL ATRPORT If you eall at Dog C did and runw: port as we three empty form of a triangle and a wind- billowing in the breeze, you sock would soon ask, ‘* Does anybody ever actually land here?” The is, ‘Yes, most defin- itel Dog Creek radio expert Al Becker is seen here re- ; In July, 85 normal landings tuning one of the many transmitters used at the air- Al n charge of the radio range rmers, cottagers, property-owners ~ tts is your chain saw —packed with power, light in weight -And For Additional Value vthe new MAC D-30 brings you LUBRI- MAC, McCulloch's revolutionary new system that oils the chain directly from the standard fuel mixt. , automatically. 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It lights the runways, current for normal civ and operates water pressure pumps but its principle task to provide power for the cate system’ of radio ters and receivers. transmit- On this self-contained airport, water becomes a task in itself It has to be hauled in from four miles away and is pumped into a 200,000 gallon tank. A regular job of work is the fuelling of pa aud w ion on hand 1 the various octane fuels for service. A well equipped mechanics’ shop enables the staff to repair aircraft he Sibeen at “|has working for him two mech-| paratively isolated outpost. Jalso give conditions at Quesnel, |J0Ke among tue locals. One Ashcroft, Kamloops, Hope and Pright spark said, “1 i be Abbotsford: Observations made |iMS told to*get weady to move 10 ago and we have been and maintain their own cats, tractors and true To complete their indepen- dence, the *siaif maintain their own roadways in the vicinity of | Clayton Dunlop, who is airport maintenance fore- man at Dog Creek Airport, is seen above carrying out mechanical work, in the well-fitted workshop. work on shift to maintain a)month when local civilians pour constant watch. They are Clint/in from outlying districts. Everton, John Partington, Grant| Winter sees a fine outdoor skat- Hermiston and Mike Hrynyk. jing rink right on the premises. Clayton Dunlop is in charge the airport itself and has Dog Creek for nine His position is airport nce foreman and he of A GRUMBLE Did we find a grumble? Yes we did, but it was not quite |what we expected on this com- The years. mainte! anics, Gordon Bedford and Bill|/ community has a school and i0 Purdy, an equipment operator, | children of school age, but there Rudy Schnitzke, and a diesel/is no sign of a teacher. We power plant operator, Fred Hill.|could not promise to find one by mentioning the problem in METEOROLOGY bdiaohae ake ° . ; The Tribune, but we mention it The staf! make hourly anyway in passing | weather observations day and night and oftener than hourly) There was something of ay it required, Twice an hour 22 Berse-laugh when we mentioned minutes and 52 minutes after|that Dog Creek was closing} the hour, they broadcast weath- WB and moving into town. 1t appears that this isa er conditions at Dog Creek and at Dog Creek are teletyped dir- t to Vancouver every hour. moving regularly over since! ” | We told them of the progre: Store Clerk Lynne Bishop sayS— At Overwaitea we do not merely sell excellent food at fair prices, we also try to give good, courteous service. We hope you like it! Specials Effective Thursday, Friday and Saturday AUGUST 13-14-15 Meat Items ROUND STEAR .... RUMP ROAST .. 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