By Mike Davenport, EAA 89102; Vancouver, British Columbia
Canadians as a group tend to not “blow their own horn” but have a way of just making things happen.
One overachiever and the subject of this story is Jerry C. Janes.
Janes was in many ways a larger-than-life personality, who, while not born in Canada, was a Canadian by choice.
He was born in 1935 in the small town of Mooringsport, Louisiana, just a few miles from the Texas border. He grew into a six-foot-five, 240-pound adult destined for a career in CFL football, settling in southern British Columbia. His football career was primarily with the BC Lions but included brief stops in Hamilton, Montreal, and Calgary.
After his last season with the Lions, he went into business. Clearly, he did as well in business as he was at professional football, for along the way he acquired the wherewithal to purchase not one but many airplanes, demonstrating not only his love of flying in general but warbirds in particular, and he would share that love with one and all.
In the middle to late ‘70s I started hanging out at a little grass strip known as Delta Air Park in the lower mainland of British Columbia, then home to EAA Chapter 85. There was a great little coffee shop there, and it was well attended on weekends by pilots and wannabes of every description and by the Western Warbirds. They were the “elite,” so I contented myself by hanging around on the edge and just watching, and there was much to watch.
Jerry Janes was prominent in that group, having been instrumental in its formation. Jerry had a budget different than most and it included many warbirds and almost anything else with wings. Most weekends he and his wife Diana would show up for lunch driving one of his many airplanes; either a big blue Harvard called Honeysuckle or the Chipmunk appropriately named Mom’s, but over the years it could be a T-28 or a Beech 18 of some description or perhaps even one of his Grumman C-1A Traders.
Their options at different times over the years would include the Chipmunk, a Stearman, one or two Harvards, a pick from five Beech 18/AT-11 Expeditors and Kansans, two Antonov 2s (Colts), a B-25 Mitchell, an Albatross, a Sea Fury, two P-51s, two T-28 Trojans, three Grumman C-1A Traders, and an A-26B Invader. Most, if not all, were sporting RCAF colours and several carried “Cottonmouth” prominently displayed on the cowlings. And if that’s not enough, there were more than a half-dozen “civilian” airplanes as well. The sight of a 6-foot, 5-inch Jerry wearing his signature red ball cap climbing out of a tiny Ercoupe brought a smile to many.
Jerry took his last flight, this time “flying west,” on August 11, 2017, having lived the full life for 82 years.