Ray Weber stands where a canoe and kayak access point ­ named for former-city aviator Hank Koenen ­ will be built near the Wardair dock on Wiley Road. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city's heritage committee is peeling through phone books looking for Hank Koenens.

Mike Vaydik says the committee has decided it'll name the future Wiley Road park node after Hank Koenen ­ a former city-charter operator known for making more than 60 ocean crossings while he was serving with Ferry Command, flying bombers across the Atlantic ocean during the Second World War ­ so they're in the process of tracking down Koenen's family members believed to be living in the Edmonton area.

"He still has some family in Edmonton," said Vaydik, adding that the group noticed that years ago when Koenen passed away, his obituary named Albertan relatives.

"We'd like to get him to come up to dedicate the plaque," he said.

Vaydik said before bushplanes came along, prospecting was limited to along the shores of water bodies. Reliable bush planes, and charter services offered by people like Koenen, helped to build the city.

In an e-mail, historian Ryan Silke said Koenen operated "Koenen Air Service" from 1949 to 1975, when he moved to Edmonton. He said the park node is being built where Koenen used to have his float base.

He said the aviator wasn't one for the spotlight, so he wasn't able to find any old photographs of him.

"He wasn't big on publicity, and never really talked about himself openly, thus there is very little written about him," he wrote.

Koenen's obituary, published Jan. 15, 1986, stated he died at the age of 80 on Dec. 19, 1985.

Ray Weber, an aviator who knew Koenen when he ran his air service. He said Koenen was a private guy and a careful pilot.

"He wasn't a cowboy," said Weber.

However, Weber said, he heard a rumour once which contradicts his understanding of Koenen's propensity for safety. He said a pilot who used to fly for Koenen told him that one time, when Koenen's planes were serving a forestry operation away from the city, the pilots were showing off to each other by flying dangerously low under a nearby bridge. Weber said when Koenen heard about it, he hopped in a plane and flew out to the site. The pilots noticed Koenen's floatplane circling above them and concluded they'd been busted. But then, when they expected him to land and give them an earful, he proceeded to dive under the bridge himself, said Weber.

"He pulled up in a big loop over the bridge and flew under it again," said Weber. "He flew back to the floatbase and nothing was ever said about it."

Weber said another pilot who heard the story at the same time couldn't believe the safety-obsessed aviator would do such a thing.

Node will be launching spot

The city's director of planning and development, Jeff Humble, said the project ­ which first appeared on the budget about 2-years ago, according to Coun. Adrian Bell ­ was designed to provide launching space for canoes and kayaks and has commenced with some ground work.

"Right now, all we've done this year is the grading work ... which is a fair bit of engineering work," he said. "But it took us a while to get our permits ­ from (DFO) and ENR ­ to make sure we're not disturbing fish habitat. Now we're just kind of getting the rest of the design. We've always had a concept of what that would look like but just getting that nailed down with the public, and then hoping to get the balance of that tendered for construction next summer."

A survey ­ asking residents to choose between two options for the park node, which will be placed near the Wildcat Cafe ­ was posted to the city's website between July and August. The question put to residents was whether a float plane dock should be included in the final design. 187 people responded, and 38 per cent of those said they'd like a float dock and the other 62 per cent said no.

Bell said two other park nodes were pitched two years ago, but only the Wiley Road project was approved. He said the other sites already had some infrastructure on scene so they were deemed unsuitable, but Wiley Road was approved as a suitable spot to launch water craft.

Humble said they've spent around $100,000 so far, grading and putting in blast rock and gabion baskets ­ cages filled with rocks to prevent erosion.

"It was initially approved with a budget of about $300,000 so we're hoping to get the balance of work completed within the budget," he said.

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