Elida Peers | Contributed
I met Bruce Payne around 1980 when he was a helicopter pilot at Vancouver Island Helicopters. Bruce’s history extends beyond helicopters to his family’s connection to the Sooke Lake water supply system that has historically supplied Victoria with water.
Bruce and his wife Joan, a granddaughter of Maj. George Nicholson, contact the Sooke Region Museum frequently, and they are always available to assist, whether with historical information or developing the Charters River salmon hatchery.
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Bruce is now retired to the Sidney area.
Bruce’s dad Jack Payne set off the Sooke connection with his job in the woods at Butler Brothers, his son Duncan in the office, and his sons Tom and Bruce, mostly rigging slingers. Bruce Butler, son of woods boss Wally Butler, tells us of his dad’s high regard for the hardworking Payne family members.
When the museum rebuilt the Phillips Brothers steam donkey, Olof Frederickson hewed the Douglas-fir sleighs. At the same time, Maywell Wickheim undertook to find and assemble the machinery parts to replace the original components, long gone.
The museum got permission from the federal government’s parks system to access parts from a derelict steam donkey on the West Coast Trail, and Bruce Payne, who had begun his flying career with VI Helicopters, came to the rescue. He picked up the heavy parts and transported them to Jordan River, where they were trucked into the Sooke museum.
Another component of Bruce Payne’s flying career was the 17 years he flew for the “Forest Industry Flying Tankers;” this term meant a group of forest industry leaders who banded together to establish a fleet of Martin Mars water bombers and helicopters to help protect B.C. Forests. Bruce’s duties focused on flying the four helicopters in the fleet.
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Elida Peers is the historian of the Sooke Region Museum. Email historian@sookeregionmuseum.com.
editor@sookenewsmirror.com
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