Gareth Morgan

Gareth Morgan readily admits it; like a lot of guys of his generation, he spent his early adult life at something of a loose end. “Yeah, I drifted,” chuckles the 35-year-old Harbour Air pilot, as he takes a break between flights. “And I was absolutely aware that I was drifting. I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living.”

The Aussie-born, North Vancouverite (his family immigrated when Gareth was three) was an ardent soccer player in his youth, (Photo by Harbour Air Seaplanes)making the national junior team when he was 19. But Gareth was also pragmatic enough to realize a footballing career was anything but “realistic”, as he puts it. A handful of college courses in business also left him cold, meanwhile, making for a decidedly uncertain future for the young man. A brief flight in a friend’s private plane changed all that.

“He got me hooked,” Gareth says. “I was fortunate to stumble upon flying when I was twenty-four, and I’ve never looked back since then.”

That’s for sure. In the eleven short years between then and now, Gareth spent four summers as the in-house pilot for a fishing lodge at Nimpo Lake in Chilcotin, BC, and then a year in the Arctic. “Then I came to my senses and I decided the Maldives would be a little warmer,” Gareth adds, wryly. “I flew in Burma and the Maldives for about a year.”

The young pilot had only just settled into his new life in the Maldives capital of Malé, in late 2004, when the region was pounded by a tsunami. “They weren’t hit as bad as some places like Sri Lanka, but they were hit,” Gareth recalls, his voice softening. “So we turned into a relief operation for a few weeks…”

He continues, “It certainly made me appreciate how good we have it back home, and it made it pretty challenging over there. At the same time, it was nice to know you were helping out. You had real purpose for being there, but I was certainly glad to get back to Canada after that.”

This dovetailed rather nicely with Gareth’s governing ambition throughout his brief if action-packed education; it turns out that the homeboy really just wanted to get back to the Pacific Northwest.

“I was just trying to build my experience so I could get a job on the West Coast,” he says. “That was always my goal. And Harbour Air requires a fair amount of experience. At the same time, I wanted to see a bit of the world, before I started growing some roots here in Vancouver again.”

He concludes, “It’s probably the most beautiful place I’ve flown in, believe it or not. And it’s home for me. I wanted to be back with my friends and family. Being on the road, it’s fun for a while but it kinda grows old after a while, too.”

No more drifting for Gareth, then?

“No,” he laughs. “No more drifting.”