87-year-old pilot ends elite flying career with cross-country flight to N.B.
CBC
"Nobody's flown that low at this airport in 20 years."
That quip came from a Miramichi-Chatham Airport employee about 87-year-old George Miller's visit in his 1940s-era Ryan Navion.
Roaring by the eastern New Brunswick airport under a blazing sun, the Navion's unpainted silver fuselage reflected so much sunlight it stung the eyes.
The plane has a 1950s sci-fi movie spaceship vibe, from back when the future was made of chrome.
WATCH | George Miller's emotional final flight
Aircraft fanatics would recognize its fighter plane lineage. Designed by the same company that built the legendary Second World War P-51 Mustang, the Navion emits a throaty growl as it flies by.
They don't make planes like this anymore.
And on this spring afternoon, the Navion came out of the sky for the last time, touching down at the Miramichi-Chatham Airport.
It will never fly again.
Neither will its pilot.
"I just love that airplane," said George Miller. "And I know that it'll be hard to finally take the last look at it."
"It's a real gut-wrencher to give it up."
After spending 68 years in the air, George Miller is saying goodbye to flying and goodbye to his Navion, flying it across Canada to donate it to a New Brunswick museum.
Born on Fogo Island off Newfoundland's north shore in 1935, Miller recalls being enraptured by a float plane delivering supplies to the island when he was just six years old.
All public schools on P.E.I. are closed Friday and thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power as strong winds create hazardous travel conditions across the province.
Prince Rupert, B.C., residents are celebrating the holidays this year with coastal flair.
In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.
CBC is once again looking to make the holiday season kind in Windsor-Essex.
Acute Care Alberta has extended its contract for another year with a private surgical facility at the centre of probes into health procurement and contracting.
As food bank use continues to climb across the province, front-line workers in Thunder Bay, Ont., are working to improve both food security and education.
More ads could soon be coming to Toronto’s subway system.
The driver wanted in connection with a fatal hit and run on Highway 401 earlier this week has been identified, police say.
There are mixed feelings about the proposed Grays Bay road and port project, among people who live in nearby communities.
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and includes graphic content.
Provincial police in Lambton County have charged a 23-year-old man with second degree murder following a death investigation that began this past Saturday.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is forming a working group to tackle what it calls systemic issues in the justice system, but answers or solutions could still be months away.
A woman has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in a 2024 fatal hit and run in Truro, N.S., where the victim was dragged down the street, a case that went unsolved for more than six months.