After working with a humanitarian air service in Afghanistan and Tajikistan for 11 years, David Chapin has opened his own charter company at the Williams Lake Regional Airport.
No stranger to the Cariboo Chilcotin, Chapin previously worked as a pilot and mechanical engineer in the lakecity for Sharp Wings, owned by pilot Gideon Schuetze.
Later Chapin formed his own company - Daviation - and flew out of Williams Lake for about seven years.
In 2014, he and his wife Jessie sold off parts of the company, their farm animals and farm equipment, and moved to Afghanistan with their four children - Naija, Hrothgar, Aven and Aliona.
While living there, they were part of PACTEC International, an organization that provides expertise in aviation, communications and learning technologies.
During their time in the Middle East they moved 17 times, he said.
When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, they were living in Tajikistan.
There was a request for someone to offer humanitarian flight services to go into Afghanistan and rescue people who had been working there in various capacities.
“It became quite apparent there was an humanitarian flight program needed in Tajikistan,” Chapin said.
“There was no aviation, it was all mountainous and the roads were really bad so we got permission to start a program there.”
The Chapins formed Dairy Air Rescue Inc., but just before they were supposed to do their first flight, all political supports evaporated and turned into opposition across the board, he said.
After that, they decided to return to Canada.
“We had an opportunity to go back with Free Burma Rangers, but with our children in college and our parents aging, we felt we needed to spend more time in Canada," he said.
They arrived in Williams Lake 20 months ago and started the application process to gain approval from Transport Canada to assist with transporting people during evacuations, such as wildfires.
In addition, they hope to do aerial work and serve the needs of rural residents, especially post surgery.
"You can medevac someone out for surgery, but how are they supposed to get back home? I am looking at possibly doing that here. It’s all in the exploration phase now - we just got our papers.”
He also plans to continue helping PACTEC and some other groups remotely.
Dairy Air Rescue owns one light twin-engine 337 Cessna O-2A, the military version, which was purchased in the U.S.
"It is the military version and has an engine in the front and the back," Chapin said.
