Flying Was My Destiny: The True Flying Adventures of Hans Vandervlugt

By Marion Reamy

Hans Vandervlugt was a flying marvel from day one, when as a youth he began flying in Holland. Driven by his passion to fly, a learning ability beyond the norm took him through the Dutch Aeronautical College. He was then inducted into the Royal Dutch Military for pilot training, where he became an officer.

This biography gives us an understanding of this extraordinary pilot, Hans Vandervlugt, and what it means to seek something beyond
the ordinary.

Hans had grit, boundless energy, and the fortitude that enabled him to take a direct route to a flying career.

This amazing true-life story will fly you to faraway countries and exotic places with Hans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449767372

Marion Reamy

Marion Reamy lives on a ranch in S. Texas with her husband, Milo. He is a pilot and therefore she had the advantage of knowing first-hand the joy of flying.

Book preview

FLYING WAS MY DESTINY

THE TRUE FLYING ADVENTURES OF HANS VANDERVLUGT

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AS TOLD TO

MARION REAMY

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Copyright © 2012 Marion Reamy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6736-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6737-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012917051

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/12/2012

CONTENTS

I. The Jaw Breaker - 1960

II. Of Children and Soldiers

III. Cadet Military Training Moose Jaw, Canada

IV. Hauling Along after a U.S. Navy Commander

V. Survival Training in the Sticks of Canada

VI. The Wilds of Canada and a Ticket to Nowhere

VII. Joe Gambler, Jim Gambler and Louie Gambler

VIII. Aerobatics and the Old Inverted Hanky Trick

IX. Missionary Work in Canada – Living with the Indians

X. Hauling Fish for a Real Paycheck

XI. Lac La Biche – Alberta, Canada

XII. Sweetgrass Landing – Canada

XIII. Going Back Home Is Different and a Vacation in Spain

XIV. Flying in Africa 1964

XV. The Mirage

XVI. Getting Stoned in Somalia

XVII. Safari Tours Africa 1964

XVIII. Partying with the Elephants

XIX. Monkey Movie Making

XX. Crop Spraying in Kenya

XXI. Ferrying Planes Across the Atlantic and All Over the World

XXII. Flying the Grumman Widgeon

XXIII. Never Fly a Sudden Stop Engine

XXIV. Ferrying Planes Is What I Do

XXV. Persuading Ruth

XXVI. Ashes to Ashes

XXVII. Lenette, Alabama 1973

XXVIII. An Otter Minus a Tail Wheel

For Milo, my darling husband,

My computer ‘guy’ who

deserves all the credit for

getting this book ready

for publication

"I have learned that

it is not the mountains

that makes destiny,

but the grains of sand

and the little pebbles."

-B. Traven

PREFACE

On February 19th, 2012 there was an accident at the Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Colorado. A winter storm had shrouded the airport with deep snow. A twin engine Cessna 414A was approaching the airport and was preparing to land and then unexpectedly crashed about 95 yards from the runway. The experienced pilot, Hans Vandervlugt and a passenger were killed on impact. The four other passengers were severely injured and were hospitalized. The cause of the accident is unknown at this time and is under investigation by the NTSB and the FAA.

Hans and his wife Ruth were dear friends of mine and when I heard about the accident my thoughts went back to years ago when Hans had taped many stories for me about his flying adventures. The transcribed pages lay on a shelf waiting to be published. The stories covered a lifetime of flying and accomplishments. These flights were across barren and lonely deserts and oceans that had little or no communications. He flew to countries where it was dangerous to land and refuel. Hans logged more than 70,000 hours flying time during those years. He is really telling his own story as he lived it, because all of the words in the text were transcribed directly from the tapes.

Words cannot express how sorry we are for these families that have lost their loved ones and our thoughts and prayers go to all those who endured this terrible loss.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Hans with Smith Mini-Plane

2. Aeronca Champ, Hans in Canada

3. Cessna 180 sprayer while spraying in African highlands

4. Grumman Widgeon Hans is preparing to ferry to Florida to Africa

5. DeHavilland Beaver on floats in Canada

6. Britton Norman transport in Canada

7. Hans refueling M-Air spray plane prior to flight

8. Hans in spray plane, the last plane he ferried across the Atlantic to Salisbury, Africa

9. Sailplane – Hans ready to soar at Refugio County Airport

10. Early VANAIR Services sign, Refugio County Airport

11. Hans with Piper Pawnee crop duster at Refugio County Airport.

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THE JAW BREAKER - 1960

Your first impression of Hans is that you want to find out more about him because of his enthusiasm for flying and the sincere interest he has in his friends. Hans and his wife, Ruth run Vanair Services at Refugio (Rah-fear-e-o) which is out on the vast sun baked lands of South Central Texas. Hans’s life is all about flying both in the present and in the stories from his past. You are curious about the enormous scar that runs across the width of his forehead and along the hairline. He laughed when I inquired about it and his hand smoothed the thick dark hair away from his forehead as he lightly touched the scar. His speech changed then from his rapid-fire way of talking and he paused a minute and then began this breathtaking account of what happened to him when he was flying in Canada.

During the winter of 1960 I was living in Canada in a place called Athabasca in north Central Alberta, it was very remote and about one hundred miles north of Edmonton. I was flying for a construction company that was doing oil field construction work in the bush country and I was flying a Piper Super Cub for survey work and hauling parts for the different bulldozers, caterpillars, and trucks and also supporting the different drilling companies that we also were working for. One of the oil rigs had finished drilling in their location and was ready to move over to their next site and they had not been able to survey their next location because the weather had been terrible. They had been looking for an old survey line that had been cut through the bush many years ago. The drilling crew was worried and anxious with the cost of just sitting around idle waiting for the weather to clear.

Here Hans fairly bounced around the room with his eyes gleaming with excitement. He said, You know who volunteered to go look for that base line? Yes, of course it was me and I flew a short test hop right that day around the area and I decided even though the ceiling was only 200 feet that I would give it a try.

"I found the location and then found the survey base line and then the ceiling got right down to the ground. The Super Cub having no radio communications and not having any instruments for instrument flying put my buns in a perilous spot. I was flying in ice fog just at the tree tops and even then couldn’t see the trees and had the airplane slowed down and all I could see