This website is dedicated to our friend Michael J. Ody - "Mike"

APRIL 1939 – OCTOBER 2011

Mike Ody was a total aviation person. Raised in SW London with constant overhead activity from Croydon, Biggin Hill, Hendon, Northolt, London and other Airports, Mike joined the Air Cadets when he was 14 years old. He was soon hanging out at Croydon Airport in the evenings after doing his school home-work. With other lads from Croydon, Mike cycled to airfields all over England and Scotland which also allowed him to enjoy his second passion of cycling. His pride was a Claude Butler custom built machine.

On leaving school Mike joined Hawker Aircraft at Kingston upon Thames on an engineering apprenticeship program. This did not seem to fit well with Mike and he later volunteered to join the RAF for three years as an Air Movements Clerk when he was 18 years old. Mike served most of his time stationed at RAF Wildenrath, Germany. His experiences there stood him well as he was hired by Air India in 1961 as a Load Planner for their newly delivered Boeing 707s. A subsequent transfer to their Cargo Department led to what was to become his life time career path, Cargo Sales.

The late Sixties were to lead to two most important life decisions for Mike as in 1967 he emigrated to Canada where he settled in Montreal after a short stop in Toronto. There, after initially working for KLM Cargo Sales, Mike joined Alitalia Cargo Sales; his employer for the rest of his career with stops at Calgary and finally, Toronto. Mike thoroughly enjoyed his stay in Montreal and it was there that his second major decision occurred; he met and married Marion in 1969 with whom he later had three sons who along with his grand-children, miss him very much.

Mike had a deep interest in all aircraft types and their production histories but his passion was de Havilland Canada post-war types and in particular the DHC-6 Twin-Otter. He amassed a huge collection of photographs, slides and articles about the type and this forms the basis of this web-site that has been created in his memory.

Mike was also very interested in the Canadian Civil Aircraft Register and spent many hours recording and building a history of such.

This research has been passed to his joint-collaborator Terry Judge who has set up the Historic CCAR website.

www.historicccar.ca

June 2012 - George Trussell, Toronto, Ontario.