My Minstrel Adventures: My Early Days at Minstrel Island

I recently joined a FaceBook Group featuring "Minstrel Island and Surrounding Areas" . I made a post about a certain satellite dish that was in one of the pictures. It was built by Lois & Terry Scott and myself. It was located in front of the hotel and used to get better signal reception... which was dismal at best.

Following the post, I was contacted by Jessica Carder who lives in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and questioned about information on her grandparents Ed & Margit Carder. (Both had passed before she was born) I was in Tuscany at the time and have since returned home to Brentwood Bay, BC.

As I blog all my trips I thought this would be a good medium for me to pass on what I knew of her grandparents and father Scott.

My journey to Minstrel started back in 1981 when I was interviewed in June and hired by Ed to replace him for the month of August. Ed wanted to attend cancer treatments for Margit that were taking place in Victoria during that time.

Ed & Margit operated Minstrel Air from bases in Kelsey Bay, Alert Bay & Minstrel Island and had progressed to a fully licensed air operator complete with Transport Canada approval. Let's just say the earlier days were "less regulated" :-)

I was given a quick rundown on the operation in Kelsey Bay with the Kelly's float plane operation at the river. The aircraft was a Cessna 180 with the registration of C-FSZS and it was basically a truck with wings. It had lots of wear and tear but Ed maintained it with regular 50 hour checks in Vancouver. It was a workhorse.

Bare bones panel in ZSZ

One of the high wear items on the Cessna series of aircraft was the seat adjustment lever. This was made of a round tube of aluminum but it was not robust and would fail from time to time. Ed had decided that a more permanent fix was in order.. an 8 inch galvanized spike :-)

Spike fix

Ed flew me up to Minstrel Island and I was introduced to the family in Margit his wife, son's Scott and Grant. I was given a room upstairs in the house to stay in, some notes on the billing process and some tips on the customer base (mostly loggers, locals and indigenous people). Also how to run the generator & the fuel tank system for the plane etc. The dock area, at one time, had a general store but it had burned down at some point. Nothing remained of it.

This was the Carder's house attached to the Post Office.

The Carder's dog Speedy was always on guard. He actually had a very gentle demeanor.

Post Office on Minstrel

ZSZ at Minstrel Island

ZSZ up the river in Kincome Inlet. Only landed there a couple times before determining it was just to dangerous with stumps and debris in the river. Went to the Whonnock dock just down river after that.

I was basically left to my own devices but I had both Scott & Grant to show me the ropes. Scott had his private pilots license so he understood what I was doing and he kept himself busy with odd jobs around the place and on his boat. Grant was on break from school (If my memory serves me, he was enrolled at Brentwood Collage) and was enjoying a little bit of freedom with his parents gone. Both enjoyed the lifestyle and were very comfortable around all sorts of boats.

Scott works on one of his boats.

Scott with a skiff that was found adrift

I was also introduced to Terry and Lois Scott (and their son Glen) who lived in the hotel with Jean Sherdahl. I also met Bill & Marilyn Critchley who lived in one of the houses around the bay.

Terry Scott on the Eldi

I kept busy flying for August as much as possible as fog season arrived and shut flying down usually until 11am or so until it burned off. I had a great month of flying and then returned to Vancouver and my original job with Air BC.

In October of that year, Ed Carder had done a flight from Minstrel Island over to Kingcome Inlet to pick up some people but never arrived. There was a search organized and soon the Military arrived with planes & helicopters.

I was contacted at this time by Stan Kaardal and asked to get the second Minstrel Air aircraft up and running and keep the airline going. With the loss of Ed and ZSZ, I picked up another Cessna 180 C-GSOX in Vancouver and flew it up to Kelsey Bay and onward to Minstrel Island on November 3rd, 1981. This plane was the opposite of ZSZ and had a nice interior, good avionics & instruments and had very low time for it's age.

Much nicer instrument panel in SOX... and more avionics!

SOX at the river in Kelsey Bay

I was met by Margit and we got reacquainted with the operation and the setup at Minstrel Island. I was familiar with the operation but just needed to get it sorted out after the loss of Ed & the other plane.

SOX at Minstrel Island

SOX at the logging camp in Kincome Inlet

It wasn't always sunny... I would set an alarm and check snowfall levels.. then head down the dock to sweep the plane off.

Me in my younger days!

In an effort to find Ed, we used every resource possible but in the end, the search ended without finding any trace of him or the plane. We continued to operate the airline and life went on.

Margit was trying to beat the cancer and was using wheat grass as one of the possible cures. She grew it on site and I would crush up the grass and serve up this green "juice" to her. She was always a positive force and maintained a strong attitude towards her health, although she was clearly deteriorating. Her mother had come out and stayed with her for a while.


Hard at work in the accounting department.

Margit and her mother.

We continued to run the airline business as best we could and my log book shows a flight with Scott as he was still interested in flying at the time. We had gone down to Oakover Arm to look at a boat but it didn't work out. It also shows flights with Dr Avery, the Flints in Call Inlet, the Hadleys and Dr Sue Hopkins to name a few folks.

Tom Flint & Mrs Woods at Call Inlet (Feb 82)

The Hadley's work barge.

Scott working on his tug boat conversion. It was a former BC Ferry that was modified by cutting off the back portion and adding a deck & post.

The last time I saw Margit was when I dropped her off at Kelsey Bay on February 21st, 1982. I continued to fly for another 10 days and then took the plane down to Campbell River and parked it. The airline was sold & I was no longer needed.

I did get a call to return to Minstrel Island and fly with a new airline in September but this time around I stayed in the Hotel with Jean Sherdahl, Lois & Terry Scott and little Glen. I stayed on and flew until mid July of 1983 before finding work in Campbell River with Coval Air.

Grant was in school at the time, Scott had tried some fishing and I lost contact with all those other folks at Minstrel Island. I know the Scott's did move to Campbell River as I noticed a house with lots of logging equipment on display :-)

Jessica,

I hope this gives you a little glimpse of the life of your grandparents and a bit of Scott's youth.

PS We spent last August 2023 in Brisbane & Warwick ... loved the city so much we are going back!

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Epiloge: After I left Minstrel Island in 1983, I flew out of Campbell River Spit & airport for various logging companies and then settled with Coval Air. I married Kelly Navid in March of 1985 and we have two children, Kristopher and Lauren. I flew Cessna's, Beavers and Single Otters before moving on to larger equipment at the end of 1986 with Air BC. There I flew the Twin Otter and Dash 8 aircraft. I enjoyed the regional flying in Western Canada and the USA over the next 33 years as the company eventually evolved into Jazz Aviation LP. I finished up my career flying the Q400 at the end of 2019. I had spent 40 years in aviation and have fond memories of the people I had a chance to meet during that time, specially the early years!