Tides and Tailwinds
The life story of Lorne Christensen begins with the history of his Danish immigrant great-grandfather Captain James Christensen, his grandfather Captain Andy Christensen, each noted mariners, and his dad, BC Provincial Police Constable Bill Christensen. Lorne recounts his childhood and his escapades vacationing with his grandmother at the remote logging community of Port Renfrew in the 1940s and 1950s.
Joining the Air Force at 17 he trained as an aircraft mechanic, and attracted to the lure of the skies, went on to obtain his private pilot's license in 1960. Unsure of where his future would lead him, and grounded in his family's seafaring history, he ventured into a maritime life by becoming a seaman on the naval auxiliary vessels at the Naval Dockyard in Esquimalt BC.
His interest in flying won out, and by 1963 his first opportunity came, as a dock boy with a float plane company in Campbell River. Becoming a commercial pilot he gained much valuable experience with local flying firms on British Columbia's rugged and weather-variable coast. Moving on, he found one of his most fascinating experiences as pilot for the Honourable Phil Gaglardi, BC's Minister of Highways.
From there, his flying career took him to the prairies, the Yukon and High Arctic, the east coast, Quebec and Ontario. He flew from the North Pole to the Caribbean, from Alaska to Greenland and all places in between. Aircraft flown included DC3, DC4, C46, FH227, L188 (Electras), Boeing 737s and numerous others. Holding a pilot's license for 50 years, Lorne's last flight on the B737 took place at the age of 73 in 2010.