Originally, floatplane operator Pacific Coastal Airlines, based in Port Hardy, on northern Vancouver Island, was one of several BC airlines amalgamated in 1979 to create Air BC. As Air BC grew, becoming a regional feeder for Air Canada, the company wanted to unload the Port Hardy division. And that is how a former logger named Daryl L Smith took over the operation, reviving the Pacific Coastal name. Smith was no stranger to the aviation business, having operated Powell Air in Powell River for a decade or so. Smith grew up in Bella Coola, a small town on BC's central coast. His family operated a logging business, but he grew restless and didn't want to be a logger all his life, so in the Sixties he sold his logging truck and went to an unlikely place-a small airport in Langley, a suburb of Vancouver. He lived in a small trailer next to the airfield, and within a few months obtained a pilot's license with commercial and floatplane endorsements.
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