Dru Narwani: High Flyer

AfterHours_Nov06.jpg

It’s early afternoon in downtown Vancouver, and Dru Narwani has just sat through a three-hour board meeting for Nova Pole, a Vancouver-based tubular steel-pole company. The 58-year-old retired banker still has to get back home to Victoria. It’s a trip that would have most people groaning in anticipation of ferry lineups, travel times and lumpy clam chowder.

But Narwani will be flying himself home in his pride and joy, a six-seater Cessna 210 he bought in 2001. Narwani isn’t your stereotypical stuffy banker. His resumé may list serious stints at various banking groups across the globe, but he’s most alive when his feet are off the ground. “I just had this urge since I was a kid,” he explains. “I looked at planes in the sky and they seemed like magic. I would think, ‘I want to be up there, I want to be flying.’” With a career spanning North America, Europe, India and Asia, Narwani has milked every opportunity to explore the globe with his wife, Ulrike, in tow and, at times, one or more of his three children, now aged 21, 25 and 32. “Every time the bank moved me to a new country, I just flew [my plane] there,” he says with a self-satisfied chuckle. “I went from New York to London across the Atlantic… When Standard Chartered moved me to India, I flew it across Europe, the Middle East and into India.” To date, Narwani says he has chalked up 1,650 hours of flying since 1978, when he got his license while working at CIBC in Toronto. After leaving his post as CEO of Standard Chartered’s operations in Thailand to settle on Vancouver Island (“I think something magical happens when men turn 50,” he muses), Narwani found himself with more time on his hands. So at the urging of his friends, he decided to turn his adventures in aviation into a book. The main text of the book has been finished, but it has yet to be published and is currently between titles. “Right now, the title is Bank by Day, Fly by Night,” says Narwani, who, in addition to being Nova Pole’s director, is currently working to establish a new international private bank in the Caribbean. “I like the double meaning.” {Spread Your wings} 1. Bird’s eye view Why should seagulls have all the fun? The observation deck of Vancouver’s Harbour Centre Tower is one thing, but if you really want to get a handle on the scope of Vancouver’s downtown core, you need to get a little higher, still. For $99, Harbour Air Seaplanes will take you on a 30-minute tour of the city and surrounding mountains, departing from Coal Harbour. harbour-air.com 2. Take off If you have a little more time on your hands, Harbour Air offers a lunchtime getaway. In an hour and a half, you can leave Vancouver harbour, float above the fjords and villages of the Sunshine Coast and have a quick smoked salmon and B.C. wine meal at the West Coast Wilderness Lodge. A couple of lunches like that and that European holiday might not seem so urgent. (Note: It will set you back $289.) 3. Flight of fancy If you spent your childhood playing with model planes and practising the line “this is your captain speaking,” there’s no need to act all grown-up now. Atleo Air in Tofino will let you be a “bush pilot for a day.” Just like one of the crew, you’ll tag along for a day of flying, interact with clients and, best of all, get to sit in the cockpit (like a real-live pilot). atleoair.com, harbour-air.com Visit more After Hours