Page 32 - INSIGHT MAGAZINE_Oct2025

MEMBER PROFILE

As a boy, Dwayne Henderson
was given the chance to explore
the sky when a friend of his
grandparents took him for a ride
in a small two-seater airplane.
Little did Dwayne realize that short trip
would be the catalyst that helped him
chart a successful course in aviation
years later.
“I actually bought that aircraft when I was
in my 30s,” says the owner of Great Lakes
Helicopter, while reminiscing about that
first airplane ride. “Unbeknownst to me,
when it came up for sale, I didn’t even
realize it was the very first airplane I’d
ever flown in, and I ended up owning it
years later just by circumstance.”
Although he obtained his pilot’s licence
in 1994, Dwayne spent much of his adult
life underwater and hanging from ropes
rather than flying thanks to his career
as a professional diver in the oil and
gas industry, and later in welding and
inspections for a company called Remote
Access Technology, before starting his
own successful rope access business.
“I’ve always been intrigued by
helicopters,” he says, describing how his
interest grew from a ‘grass is greener’
scenario when, during a helicopter trip
to a job site in the COPAN (Cohasset-
Panuke) oil field off the East Coast, a
fellow passenger told him he had the
‘coolest’ job. “And I’m looking at the pilot
flying the helicopter thinking he’s got the
coolest job.”
Dwayne obtained his helicopter
licence about 15 years ago after
selling his company, purchasing a
helicopter to ‘scratch the aviation itch’
with flights to a cottage and around
Southwestern Ontario. Around that
time, his acquaintance with Great Lakes
Helicopter’s founding owners, Bill
and JoAnne Leyburne, led to a unique
‘Gather the smart opportunity, eventually paving the way
for him to purchase the business in 2020.
people around you’ Located next to the Region of Waterloo
International Airport on Fountain Street
North, Great Lakes Helicopter was an
extension of the Leyburnes’ successful
- Great Lakes Helicopter helicopter maintenance company, Rotor
Services, which has operated at the
airport since 1988. They founded Great
Lakes in 2003, initially focused on flight
training and ride events.
PHOTOS BY BRIAN RODNICK & GREAT LAKES HELICOPTER

32 Fall 2025 www.cambridgechamber.com