Carl Millard, 93, believed to be the first person ever to "dead-stick" a commercial jet to a safe landing
Hoodini
Pioneering pilot legendary for `dead-sticking' jet, reports Bill Taylor
Nov. 30, 2006
BILL TAYLOR
FEATURE WRITER
http://www.thestar.com/
http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/061128_millard_300.jpg
MICHAEL STUPARYK/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
Carl Millard, Canadian aviation industry pioneer who founded Millardair.
My way or the skyway...
It wasn't that Carl Millard was a curmudgeon "but he realized you
couldn't be a wimp and run an airline," says aviation author and
publisher Larry Milberry. "He had his own way of doing things. Not
everybody loved him but they were the ones who couldn't meet his
standards.
"The smart guys worshipped him. A lot of senior Air Canada pilots
regard him as an icon. He gave them their start."
Millard died last Tuesday, age 93, at Credit Valley Hospital. He had
been a widower since the death of wife Dell in 1984. The stories about
him will go on flying for years to come.
The pilots of the famous "Gimli Glider," who in July 1983 landed their
Air Canada Boeing 767 at Gimli, Man., after it ran out of fuel, were
simply following Millard's example. He's believed to be the first
person ever to "dead-stick" a commercial jet to a safe landing.
"And that was in the dark, in a snowstorm, in cloud," his son Wayne
told the Star yesterday.
Millard was flying a twin-engine Hansa jet, a 10-seater with a full
load, from St. John's to Toronto on a December night in 1973. As the
plane flew over Moncton, contaminated fuel caused both engines to fail.
With only a few instruments working, the plane entered cloud at 30,000
feet. Millard had to calculate his gliding speed and angle of descent
to stay on track for Moncton airport. When the Hansa broke out of the
dense, low-lying cloud, it was only 200 feet above ground with the
runway right ahead.
Millard was born at his father's farm near Ingersoll, Ont., Nov. 28,
1913, only 10 years after the Wright brothers first flew. At 15, he
was inspired to fly when a bright-red plane flew over the field he was
ploughing. Terence Tully and James Medcalfe were trying to make the
first flight from London, Ont., to London, England. They disappeared
in mid-Atlantic but they'd sown a seed in Millard's mind.
He bought and rebuilt a dilapidated plane and was taught to fly by a
former World War I fighter pilot.
Millard was 85, with some 35,000 flying hours under his belt, when he
made his last flight, a "check ride" to renew his instrument rating.
"He passed easily," said Wayne, a former pilot with Air Canada and
Canada 3000.
His flying lessons began when he was 5. "That would be 1946. I
remember sitting on Dad's lap."
At 17, Wayne was piloting cargo planes. In 1999, his own son Dellen
flew into the record books on his 14th birthday as the youngest person
ever to fly a first solo in both a fixed-wing plane and a helicopter
on the same day.
Millard was the 46th pilot hired by Trans-Canada Airlines, the
forerunner of Air Canada. He formed his own company, Millardair, in
1963, with a fleet of 20 aircraft. He also built a reputation for
butting heads with Transport Canada over the aging DC3 and DC4
propeller-driven cargo planes he insisted on flying right into the jet
age.
"His love was `piston-pounding' planes," said Milberry. "Flying was in
his bones. It wasn't just a job. These old planes were as safe as
anything else but Transport Canada was always on his case. It was an
ongoing dogfight but Carl beat them."
Wayne recalled two Royal Canadian Air Force DC3s being sold in
Scotland in the 1960s. "Dad figured they were worth $75,000 each. But
he said, `I'll bid $25,000 each and hope everyone else is scared to
fly the Atlantic in them.' It worked. The two of us brought them back,
refuelling in Iceland and Greenland. They became the backbone of the
business."
The young pilots and mechanics hired by Millard didn't earn much money
at first. If they couldn't afford lodgings, they'd bunk down in the
hangar.
The airline still exists in name but hasn't flown in about 10 years,
Wayne said.
"We own the hangars and Dad decided there was more money in being in
the hangarage business. Up to a few months ago, he was coming in every
day for a couple of hours, just to make sure everything was running right.
"Two weeks ago, he was still eating Kentucky Fried Chicken, which he
used to love. Then he just began to fail, as if he was just shutting
down. There are worse ways to go.
"And there's a chance we'll be flying again. Dellen is 21 and he's
thinking of getting things going with helicopters this time. Dad would
like that."
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Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish