Mallard J-34 was nearly 40 years old before it was called upon for major travel. It had enjoyed intercity work with Canadian Breweries; trips to cottage country and regular sojourns in Lyford Cay, Bahamas. When it moved to aircraft manufacturer Canadair, in Montreal, its circle of activity became even smaller, attending to the construction of the company fishing lodge at Lac Piraube, north of Montreal and depth-charting the lake. Later, during difficult times at Canadair, its title was taken over by Nordair for five years of bush flying in Northern Quebec. During the Nordair period J-34 received one of the early Frakes conversion to PT6-28 turbine engines then returned for two more years at Canadair with the registration CF-UOT.

The next owner was a born and bred Scotsman who loved to travel. Sandy A Mactaggart was a prominent Edmonton businessman, former chancellor of the University of Alberta and named to the Alberta Order of Excellence. Mactaggart had his first flight at the age of six and received his private pilot’s license at age 16 while attending school in the U.S.A. He joined the Alberta squadron VC924 of the Canadian Fleet Air Arm, which was eventually disbanded in 1957 after Canada’s last aircraft carrier, HMCS Magnificent, was scrapped. He had owned a number of aircraft, before the Mallard which he claims was “the best of all.” He also introduced the sport of hot air ballooning to Western Canada.

The Mactaggart family has an estate on the Isle of Islay, in the Hebrides, and an island in the Exuma Cays of the Bahamas. As Mactaggart had only a private pilot’s license, he hired westerner, Glen Wales, a licensed transport pilot and fully qualified maintenance engineer. After a year’s overhaul and engine change to PT6A-34s and a new interior, UOT was ready for world travel. Its equipment included an inflatable Zodiac boat with an outboard motor. Sandy joined former airline owner Max Ward, every summer with other Edmontonians in flights to the far north. Max led the expeditions with his Twin Otter on floats, camping each night in the most remote places imaginable.

The North Atlantic run to Scotland, via Greenland and Iceland, became a bi-annual family trip for UOT. Once in the British Isles with their Mallard, Sandy and Cecile Mactaggart made other excursions through Europe and beyond, with stopovers in France, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and India. Winter trips to the Mactaggart family’s private island in the Bahamas also became routine.

Apart from an expedition around South America in 1994, the most extensive trip for UOT was in 1995, when Wales flew the Mallard to Santa Barbara, California, in preparation for a flight to Honolulu. The interior furnishings were packed for shipment and a long range fuel bladder  installed. Then Wales and a tank specialist named Peter, took off with a 5,000 pound overload on a trip that took 13 ½ hours. Once in Honolulu they re-installed the interior furnishings and Peter returned to the U.S. with the ferry equipment. The Mactaggarts arrived by air for a cruise of the South Pacific Islands, a story book trip of new sights, new cultures and miles of Pacific ocean. Their stopovers were many: Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Norfolk and Christmas Island. 

For Mactaggart, who has also sailed around the world with his family in a 108 ft (33 m) sailboat,  his air circumnavigation brought a new set of experiences. He describes one particular landing with UOT in the highlands of New Guinea. “After wandering about over a lot of jungle, we finally found this remote airstrip and landed into another world where ritual tribal ways still exist. Young males at puberty spend two years in isolation learning to be warriors. Tribal wars between walled village compounds erupt continually, using spears and bows and arrows, but no guns; the object is to prove personal courage, not to kill. Occasionally a warrior does get killed and the war stops. The neutral police are called in to set compensation by transfer of the correct number of pigs, and the deceased hero’s decorated coffin is displayed on the compound wall for all to admire. A few wild men tried to hold us up on our takeoff, but our propellers were too much for them. The whole experience was like flying into a time warp.”

And so the journey continued, up through Kota, India, and eventually back to Scotland. By the time J-34 arrived back in Edmonton, the Mallard, which had seldom traveled far from home in its early days, had been completely around the world.    

A minor stroke caused Sandy Mactaggart to lose his pilot’s license so he reluctantly put his Mallard up for sale. It remained listed for a year and was purchased by Victor Kozeny, the owner of a neighboring island in the Bahamas. Glen Wales continued as pilot, however he was unhappy with Mr Kozeny’s refusal to continue the high level of maintenance required for salt water operations. Eventually, the travel mode afforded by this versatile Mallard attracted another couple with a love for travel. Clayton and Dragana Lewis purchased J-34 in 1998 and had it re-registered in the Cayman Islands as VP-CLK; under the company name Mallard Aviation Corporation (MAC).  For a couple of years, it remained in the Bahamas, making one familiarization flight, deep into the Amazon. Then MAC began preparing round-the-world plans, mixing business with pleasure.

With Glen Wales as captain and extensive travel in mind the first step was to undergo a general overhaul by Victoria Air Maintenance. The installation of two brand new PT6A-34A engines came first, followed by interior rework and an update of the latest navigation and communication equipment. A number of shakedown flights were conducted in the Vancouver area during April 2000.  May found them back in Nassau where plans for an extended world tour were put in motion. That tour began June 8, 2000, with a flight to Goose bay, Canada, with Narsarssuaq, Greenland, on the 9th and Reykjavik, Iceland, on the 10^th.  By the 11^th  they were in Scotland and the Cumbernauld territory Wales knew so well.  The first countries to be explored were Norway, Sweden and Finland, in turn, before making their way south to Spain and Portugal. The year 2000 ended with a quick tour of Italy and France, then back in Scotland for Christmas.

The odyssey resumed in January 2001, touching down in Greece and Pakistan on the way to Singapore.  Next it was Australia, beginning along the Western coastline and including the archipelago of the Abrolhos Islands.  After Southern Australia, they moved even further south for a couple of stops in Tasmania.  Their next target for exploration was New Zealand where they spent four months and made ten stops. The romantic south sea islands beckoned, and CLK was off for Tonga, Niue, all of French Polynesia, the Fiji group, Cook islands, and everyone’s dream island of Tahiti - an unforgettable journey.  After a week in New Caledonia, they ended their year back on the east coast of Australia.  J-34 was proving the most traveled Mallard of the entire flock.  It had performed flawlessly throughout.

While in Sydney during January, 2002, Glen Wales left the Mallard he had flown for so many miles and a new pilot, Peter McLeod, from the Paspaley flight group, joined J-34. He spent several months completing extensive maintenance on J-34.  Early in 2002, Clayton and Dragana Lewis were on their way again with a detailed look at beautiful Australia. They concentrated on the east coast this time, including the Great Barrier Reef.  Then it was north once more and they completed the year in Bangkok, Thailand.

As with all travel, there are always challenges. Clayton summed up the year 2002 as follows:

 “Our trip aboard the Mallard has taken numerous unplanned detours, each giving us an opportunity to reflect upon different people, cultures, and astounding natural beauty. The year was dominated by spirited adventure in seldom-traveled locations, interspersed with urban stops. There has been every variety of challenges along the way, all outweighed by the rewards of the journey.”

Traveling from country to country can provide unpleasant surprises for not all customs and airport routines are easy. Then there is always someone ready to take advantage of the unwary traveler as Peter McLeod recounts from one of his early trips.

“While completing formalities to depart Phnom Penh, and the flight plan filed, a gentleman from ATS introduced a shady looking character who needed me to sign a form. On looking at the form I noticed among many charge categories was one hand written for a “royalty” of $ 500.00 U.S. Both gentlemen stressed it was for all aircraft entering Siem Reap. They produced a local AIP as proof and, on reading it, I feigned a little surprise. I had to advise them that the regulation clearly applied to commercial airlines and that we were a private aircraft.”

The next leg of the journey was extensive travel through Borneo, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma and India followed by a dash across the Middle East through Bahrain and Cyprus to their destination in Yugoslavia. The Mallard ended 2003 with further travel through France, Germany and the North Atlantic route, back to Canada and the U.S.A. - virtually around the world and back again. This tour of duty for J-34 encompassed 40 months and even more countries than that.

While the technical details of this odyssey were dutifully recorded in the “ship’s log” Dragana Lewis kept her own record covering sights visited, people met and the personal inspirations that come from such a journey. Early in their flights of adventure, when they were on a tour of Venezuela, they set out to find the Angel Falls. This spectacular waterfall, rising 3230 feet (979 m) above the surrounding jungle, can only be seen properly from a plane and is still in its primitive state. On the day chosen for this adventure, puffy white clouds against a blue sky compounded the search among the sandstone hills. “Then all of a sudden,” records Dragana, “the unforgettable sight of this massive waterfall rising 16 times the height of Niagara, will stay in our minds forever.”

New Zealand provided a thousand memories including a close-up look at the Southern Alps. The glacier lakes and rivers were “breathtaking in their neon-green color.” They landed on Lake Wanaka in the midst of a group of kayakers and took time out for instruction in the sport.