Reggie Morriset: Setting down some roots
Call it the world’s biggest training facility, but you’re not likely to meet a Harbour Air captain who hasn’t done his or her time in the vast Canadian North. It’s where floatplane pilots are made, out there in the bush, as Reggie Morriset will readily tell you. He spent four seasons flying supplies to-and-from a remote fishing resort near Flin Flon, Manitoba—although that was enough for the Montreal native.
“Working out in the bush is not a glorious job,” he tells Coastlines. “You do a lot of hard labour. We were building cabins, hauling a lot of stuff. I worked out on a lake in the middle of nowhere, so you have to fly everything in and out—bags, groceries, and equipment—and there was a lot of repair work and hands-on labour. Then I was flying to different outpost camps and making sure they were maintained and ready for the next people coming in.”
(Photo by Cindy Banton)The urbane Mr. Morriset is happy to admit that “it’s challenging for a city guy like myself.”
“It’s fairly transient, for the most part,” he says. “Some guys love it, but most are just gaining experience before moving on. It can be fairly lonely. One of the challenges I had to deal with was being removed from society, and trying to keep myself entertained in one form or another.”
Reggie’s former career as a high school teacher perhaps points to the gregarious 35-year-old’s preference for human company, and lots of it. Back then, flying was just one out of an eclectic group of interests that also included water polo (Reggie was on the national team). He scored his private pilot’s licence in his spare time.
“It just confirmed my passion for it,” he recalls. “So I just kept going, and got my commercial licence while I was teaching. Then I dropped everything to work out in the bush.”
Some four years later, Reggie dropped everything again after spying the comings and goings of a floatplane fleet during a camping holiday in Sechelt. “I pretty much followed them back to their base,” he recalls, chuckling. “And I talked to the chief pilot, and it just so happened they needed someone, so I signed up!”
Another six years down the line, and Reggie finds himself with Harbour Air. It’s a comfortable fit for him, offering work in a field that he loves with all the comforts of the city at his disposal. Reggie even does a little substitute teaching in Vancouver in the winter months, but otherwise keeps himself busy with hiking, biking, and Ultimate frisbee. It seems that his somewhat restless nature has been tamed at last.
“For now, I’m quite content,” he says. “I’ve spent so many years in the past decade being transient, and I’m finally in a comfortable spot where I’ve laid out some roots. So I’m just gonna let those roots grow and enjoy a little bit of stability for now, because I think that’s important.”
