Barry Morris

At 15 years of age living with his family and working their farm in Southwestern Ontario, he knew farming was not for him. Not being a healthy child and his sicknesses did not allow for the muscular build required for heavy farm work. Barry travelled to British Columbia and worked a fur trap line near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains where he almost met his end by a grizzly bear. He became a CN Railway track labourer, telegraph operator and station manager. It was around this time he decided he would fulfill his childhood dream of flying inspired by watching maneuvers overhead of the air force flying missions out of NATO's Training Base, Centralia, Ontario. He acquired his pilot and instructors licences and started out as a bush pilot in Northern British Columbia doing extensive flying in the High Arctic and overseas. He built a successful airline business and pilot training school in Revelstoke, B. C. , which became the first "hub and spoke" feeder airline system. The airline flew passengers from the smaller communities into the larger communities where they could pick up international flights. It is now divided in among numerous small feeder airlines including an Air Canada subsidiary. During his career, he was involved with several international search and rescue flights to locate missing downed aircraft. One of them was the Electra crash of 1975 which made headlines for many years because of its nature in Canada's cold high arctic. Barry accepted a contract in Iran with the Abadan International Oil Company as head pilot and Federal Aviation Authority Pilot Inspector. Unfortunately, he and his family barely made his three-year contact commitment when the Iranian Revolution began and they had to flee with the Shah. As it turned out, and in retrospect, he said many times that he should have never left his family's departure as long as he did. They barely escaped and left him with a harrowing experience he never forgot. Barry spent eight years on de Havilland Aircraft's Accident Investigation Committee. He travelled the world advising local country accident investigators on de Havilland aircraft. He lived for months investigating a crash in the deep heart of Africa and training pilots on safe operation in Korea. He travelled to every country on the globe and was intimate with the world's landscape. He was the 'go-to' Captain when the Nepal armed force needed pilot training on how to land on their short and mountainous runways. Barry flew many prestigious passengers from Prince Charles to the Nepal Royal Family and entertained them with his charisma. Federal Cabinet Minister, Jean Crétien commissioned him to fly him out of the interior of British Columbia on a highly secretive mission to return to Ottawa when the war measures act was enacted by Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He also flew several missions for the U. S. Secret Service and F. B. I. He was one of the first de Havilland test pilots to fly the Dash 8 and instruct airline pilots around the world on de Havilland and Canadair aircraft types and airline indoctrination. Barry was a test and demonstration pilot for de Havilland Aircraft, Boeing Canada, and Bombardier/Canadair. He set up and operated mining, oil and gas exploration flight operations in developing countries, assisted established airlines integrate new aircraft types into their operations, trained flight and ground support groups and movement of aircraft worldwide. He retired from Boeing de Havilland as Manager of Flight Training having direct responsibility for training standards at Flight Safety International in Toronto. After Barry retired from Boeing de Havilland/Bombardier/Canadair, he founded Morris Aviation, a successful aviation business, providing consulting services, pilots and engineers to airlines around the world to assist in building their airlines. They held charter operation licenses for domestic and international flights, while ferrying and test flying aircraft for airlines on a contract-basis worldwide.

In 2011, he delivered a Dash 8 from San Marcos, Texas to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan under the code name "CARDSHARK". He handed over the aircraft at the same time and at the same airport the US Navy SEALs flew out to capture Osama bin Laden. Barry's aviation career spanned almost 60 accident-and-enforcement-free years and over 23,000 flying hours progressing from single-engine tail draggers, floats, and amphibians to such aircraft as the Challenger Jet 601, 601A and 601ER, the Waterbomber 215 and 215T, Dash 8, Dash 7, Transporter, Buffalo, Twin Otter, Otter, Beaver, Turbo-Beaver, and many various smaller single and twin-engine aircraft. Barry was presented with the Canadian Owners' & Pilots Association Award of Merit, the Transport Canada Aviation Safety Honourable Mention for his life-long promotion of safety in aviation and a Federal Government Award in recognition of outstanding support for aviation in Canada.