Flying high with Sudbury Aviation

By NICK STEWART

As a bookkeeper in the late 1970s, Marg Watson could scarcely have predicted that her love of camping, fishing and motorcycles would one day translate to ownership of a thriving flight school and fly-in camp business.

These days, she oversees Sudbury Aviation, which does more than $500,000 in annual sales and employs five staff, all of whom are commercial pilots, Watson included.

"I've always enjoyed the bush and fishing, as I'm kind of an outdoors person," Watson says.

"I ride a motorcycle (and have forever), and when I first got up in a float plane, I thought, 'Wow, this is like having a motorcycle in the air.' A friend took me once when we went moose hunting and I've just never looked back."

Having worked with legendary northern Ontario bush pilot Rusty Blakey at Ramsey Airways in 1980, she found her interest in aviation truly piqued. She earned her commercial pilot's license in later years, having been inspired to seek deeper involvement in the industry.

That opportunity came in 1981, when she bought out the previous operating owner of Sudbury Aviation, which had been financially faltering. Watson has since helped to turn things around, having now been at the helm of the business for more than half of the company's 52 years.

In fact, with a history that spans more than five decades, the company has played a role in the formation of many of the city's pilots.

"The majority of people who own aircraft in Sudbury now were taught at Sudbury Aviation," she says.

This isn't the company's only claim to fame, as Watson believes the company to be the only school left in Canada which still teaches students solely on a sea plane, ski plane and wheel plane. As a result, graduates emerge with a Land and Sea Licence.

While traditional flight schools operate largely out of airports, Sudbury Aviation instead works from Whitewater Lake in Azilda, 15 minutes outside of the city.

Transport Canada has also approved the school to make use of a lighted ice strip on the lake's frozen surface, allowing the school to continue teaching year-round and at night.

Many of the 15 people who emerge from the school every year fit into one of two categories. Younger people looking to pursue a career in aviation are attracted to the school as more hours in a sea plane can often make pilots more employable in the province's remote northern regions, Watson says.

The school also appeals to individuals who have arrived at a point in their lives where they can afford a small plane to access better fishing locations or for their own recreational purposes. However, for those who may want to access remote fishing and hunting camps without having to earn a pilot's license, Sudbury Aviation also provides charter air service to a growing number of northern fly-in camps, which it also owns and operates.

From May through October, the company brings in guests from all over the world to its 14 "housekeeping"-style camps dotted across the Ontario landscape.

The business also works with loggers in the region to ensure remoteness, and has policies in place to make sure overfishing does not occur so that the lakes stay productive.

Watson was recently named the vice-president of the Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Association (NOTO). The association gave her the Bob Giles Award in recognition of her many years of contributions to the tourism industry. This follows on her win of NOTO's Rozelle Hughes Award in the previous year,  given to an outstanding woman in the field of tourism.

Despite the accolades, Watson says she works not for the recognition, but for her love of flight and of the outdoors.
www.sudburyaviation.on.ca