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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1943-02-04, Page 7THURSDAY, FBI3RUARY 4, 1946 THE SEAFORTH NEWS 'Canada's Bush Flyers Were Pioneers The thunder of giant air freight- ers, 'giant warplanes 'and sleek 'air- liners over Canada's Northland is sounding a valedictory to "bush fly- ingr" Like the boy who soddenly be- comes a man when he dons a uni- form and marches off to war, the adolescence of northern aerial pio- 'leering has been ended almost over- night. Flying in the last great hint- erland of the North American cont- inent has cone of age. Largely induced by the war, a great chain of modern airports has sprung up between Alberta and Al- aska, fitted with the best of modern equipment and served by the latest planes from the great plants of Can- ada and the United States. More air- ports are planned for other parts of the vast sub -Arctic and Arctic reg ions. Northland flying has become big business. Gone are the hazardous flights of yesterday into unknown territories, into air that never before had felt the deep throb of airplane motors. Gone are flights made doubly risky by the absence of accurate reports and weather forecasts. Gone is the uncertainty of setting a plane down on strange ice, not knowing whether the craft would slide to a safe land- ing or plunge into the icy deep. Canada's famous Northland bush fliers have traded their parkas for business suits or for the uniform of the Royal Canadian Air Force. To- day's passenger rides on cushions, attended by a 'trim stewardess, in- stead of perching uncomfortably on a bale of furs or some sacks of rad- ium -bearing pitchblende from Great Bear Lake. He will be flying on a clock -like schedule -on a radio beam with all up-to-the-minute aids for safe aerial navigation. In the whole story of pioneering on this new continent, no chapter is more thrilling, more adventurous and more heroic than thatwritten by the handful of bush fliers who open- ed up the great Northland. And their pioneering days have come and gone Alb so swiftly that they are almost leg- ends in their own time. Northland bush flying stemmed from Edmonton. It was from there in the winter of 1920 that the first flight into the Far North was at- tempted. At that time two Junker planes took off,headed for the oil wells at Fort Norman but they both came to grief near Fort Simpson. But even that comparatively recent date did not mark the beginning of AUCTIONEER F. W. AHRENS, Licensed Anetlnn disk eer for Perth and Huron Counties AIIP Farm Stock, chattels and zeal estate Sales Solicited. Terms on Application Property. R. R. No. 4, Mitchell Phone 634 r 6. Apply at this office, HAROLD JACKSON Licensed in Huron and Perth couns. ties. Prices reasonable; satisfactiba guaranteed. For information, write or phone Harold Jackson, phone 14 on 661; R.R. 4, 8eaforth. regular' flights into the North, that great unexplored region whose min- eral wealth, was beginning to excite the imagination of adventurous men. Virtually all the early northern bush fliers were Canadians who had fought over the skies of France dur- ing World War I. They ,fund them- selves at a loose end when peace cane, too restless to settle down to mundane civilian pursuits, O1ie of these was Captain W. 12. May who had turned to barnstorming, "Wop" May was the young n1an. who might have been Baron vo Richt hofen's 81st victim in aerial combat, The Red Knight of Germany was on the tail of Cantata May. But another Canadian was on the baron's tail at the same instant, so the German died and May lived to chalk up aer- ial victories in France and pioneer, bush flying in Canada, On August 20, 1928, newspaper headlines announced; "Hazardous Trip Via Aeroplant to Northland Is Accomplished." The account des- cribed May's flight in his ancient crate into the Peace River country, completing a 250 -mile flight in four hours. A month later C H "Punch" Di- ckins, now assistant to the vice pres- ident of the Canadian Pacific Rail- ways and in charge of all Canadian Pacific Airlines operations, made a 3,964 mile flight over the Barren Lands of the Far North. It was the most ambitious aerial adventure at- tempted in Canada to that date. Much of the land traversed by Cap- tain Dickins and his party of mining prospectors never before had been seen by man. Bush flying had started its meteo- ric career. The Great White Zone of Canada was soon to have its anc- ient stillness shattered by the drum- ming of airplane motors as aerial pioneers pushed their travels in ever widening and lengthening webs. It was on a bitetrly cold day that the first of the famous "mercy flights" was performed. A doctor at Little Red River telegraphed an SOS to Edmonton -there was a grave outbreak of diphtheria in the tiny settlement and . antitoxin was needed desperately. May volunteered to fly the life- saving tubes to the northern post in his little open -.cockpit machine. With a companion, Victor Horner, Captain May took off from the cow pasture that is now Edmonton's great air- port, They flew through a blizzard and forty below zero weather but escaped with nothing worse than se- vere frostbite. Today.;May is civilian manager of Canadian Airways Training Ltd., at Edmonton, a unit in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan that is sending thousands of war - birds to help smash the Axis. Among. Captain May's notable achievements was pioneering the mail route to the Arctic. For the first time trappers received mail and letters that were not at least, six months old. No discussion of bushflyers can be complete without referring to the, exploits of A. M. "Matt" Berry. Matt a veteran of the Royal Flying Corps didn't return to flying until 1928. He was pretty old for this young man's game even then but no bush I ' Dliplicate . NIt,'nthly WY t 'A' ments We can save you money on Bill ano Charge Forms, standard sizes to fit Ledgers, white or colors. It will pay you to see our samples. Also best quality Metal Hinged Sec. tional Post Binders and index ' he Seaforth News PHONE 84 Earns High Post G. E. CARTER, recently named assistant passenger traffic manager, Eastern Lines, Canadian Pacific Railway, in a promotion from the Eest of general passenger agent, astern Lines. Mr. Carter makes his headquarters in Montreal. flier's record is richer in brillian achievements and high adventure. Matt, that craggy,faced, calm ve eran, was best known as a "man wh can take care of himself" and h proved it countless times. There wa the experience in April, 1934, whe he was three weeks ,overdue on flight to pick up valuable cargoes o white fox furs. It turned out that, hundreds o miles from nowhere, Matt,smashe his landing gear on rough ice. Wit a key salvaged. from the steame Baychimo (a derelict prisoner in th Arctic ice near -by) and a battery an coil from the starter of his motor Matt built himself a radio set. Sig nals flashing his position were picke up by a searching sister ship an Matt was rescued. Another famous feat was the time the propeller of his plane wa smashed in a landing near For Simpson. It would take months• for a new one to be secured so this air engineer made himself one by lamin ating oak from an old sled -after. first shooting a moose to get the bones for glue. Of all his adventures, the one Matt Berry will never forget'was his night of terror on the frozen waters of Bornite Lake. Carrying passengers and a load of dynamite and percus- sion caps, Berry was forced to land in the teeth of a savage gale. There was no shelter and the plane bounc- ed around madly on its skis. At any moment the explosives might be touched off by the shock. If Berry and his passengers ran for safety, that certainly would happen and deprived of transportation, they would be doomed to certain death from exposure. In a wind that seared any exposed flesh from frostbite in a few minutes the men worked desperately to chop holes in the ice for auxiliary anchors fearing every minute might be their last. Then, in a hastily constructed shelter near the plane, they beat their sides for three days uhtil the weather cleared. It was Berry who, in the late sum- mer of 1936, found the missing RCAF fliers Coleman and Fortey, who had been missing for thirty days while on a photographic mis- sion. "Just a hunch," said Berry, but it was his amazing knowledge of the North, his precise idea of the com- pass deviation by which the missing fliers might have missed their course, that led him to the exact spot where they had been forced down. Three months later Berry was to make the farthest north flight in the annals of Canadian aviation to res- cue Bishop Peter Falaize and five companions who were threatened with starvation at the isolated Rom- an Catholic mission 1,475 miles north of 'Edmonton. Countless times these bush fliers braved indescribable weather to res- cue lost and marooned Northerners, o seek companions who had been forced down in the trackless wastes. They risked their lives to bring out sick and injured persons, to deliver he mail, to pick up fur cargoes and o assist in mining prospecting. Dickins, May, Berry and many A joined them -Gilbert, Farrell, rintnell, McConaehie, Becker, Me- NIullen, Spence, Cruikshank, Hayter, ythell, McMillan, Rollick -Kenyon, Kennedy, ICubicek, Wells, Forrester, Wardle, Reid, Thompson and the est -those were the men whose ev- ryday duties and love of adventure made history in Northland develop- nent, They were the pioneers who o brilliantly carried on the tradition f men with wings. In the space of fifteen years the liush fliers have enacted theist bril- iant roles as aviation pioneers of the Northland, Now they are actors n a new and greater story. They are. little breathless at the war -induced 1 ace of aerial development in the erritot'y over which they were the t B B r 5 O 1 a t first to fly -always keeping an eye peeled for such signals' as the word "HELP" marked in huge letters with evergreen boughs on the snow which meant that still another sick or in- jured Northerner was in urgent need of an aerial Good Samaritan. gottlyi-tirou The Secrets( J Good Looks by Pe0A17,h01.e-MI'Vl°C't NECKS, PLEASE There is a temptation to spend so much time on the face that -we are apt to neglect our necks, It is a great mistake, because our necks really do give us away ! The main rule to remember is that, whenever you are creaming or mass- aging your face, be sure to extend the treatment to your neck. This will pay good dividends. Use the following bleach now and then: Pour a tablespoonful of milk of magnesia into a saucer and stir in a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Apply thickly over neck and face, leave on for half an hour, then wash off with tepid water. Rinse with cold water. Wash your neck and face at least twice each day with warm water and gentle palmolive soap, because it really does help to youthify the skin. Rinse afterwards with cold water. It's a good idea, too, to stimulate the skin with a good astringent lo- tion. Apply on a pad of cottonwool, and. press lightly over the neck. Have you auy lines or discoloura- tions on your neck? Get some Three - Purpose cream and smooth it all over your neck: Take the thumb add index finger of both hands and, starting under the chin, pinch the flesh as hard as you can stand It. Continue this until you've covered every part of your neck. I'll be glad to write you confident- ially about your personal beauty prob- lems and send my booklet on Beauty Care, if you will send four one -cent stamps. Address: Mies Barbara Lynn, Box 75, Station R, Montreal, Que. Wartime Traffic Brings C.N.R. Promotions 1, P. PRINGLE Tvital part which the Canadian Nat- ional system is playing in Can- ada's war effort is graphically shown in a re- view of the branch of the railway's activi- ties which comes under the direct supervision o f Norman B. Wal- . ton, whose pro- motion to the position of executive vice-president wasrecentlyannounced by President R. C. 'Vaughan. Mr, Walton, yice-president of operation, maintenance and construction prior to this appointment, will continue to exercise jurisdiction over this depart- ment, and perform such other duties as the president may delegate to him. Under the direction of Mr. Walton are the forces concerned withthe op- eration of trains, the maintenance of track and structures, and the com- pany's motive power and car shops. He also has charge of the company's shipbuilding operations. During the year 1942, this force moved more than 72,000,000 tons of munitions of war and other products of industry, agriculture and natural resources. More than 2,500 locomo- tives and some 80,000 freight cars were in continuous service to handle this traffic. If all C.N.R. freight and passenger equipment, locomotives and work cars, could be set out on a single line of track, buffer to buffer, they would reach from Toronto to Minaki, almost 1,100 miles. Two other important staff appoint- ments resulting from the tremendous increase in wartime traffic were also announced, that of J. F. Pringle to be general manager of the Atlantic Region, and 3. P. Johnson to succeed NORMAN B. WALTOI4 1• P. JOHNSON him as chief of transportation for the System, The latter was form- erly. general su- perintendent of the Southern Ontario district. Mr. Pringle will relieve W. U. Ap- pleton, vice -pori - dent of the region a much of the direct work con- nected with the extensive traffic over the railway's eastern lines. Mr. Appleton formerly carried on the duties both of vice- president and general manager. Mr. Walton, a native of Palmer- ston, Ont., has had 42 years' experi-" encs in railroading. He advanced from his fust job as clerk and stenographer through the despatcher's office to many supervisory positions which provided him with a wide knowledge of operating and traffic conditions. He has held important posts at Winnipeg, Edmonton, Prince Rupert and other points in western Canada. Mr. Pringle began his service with the Canadian National Railways in 1919 as an assistant engineer at Mont- real. After filling important positions in that city and in Ontario he was appointed chief of transportation for the. System in 1941. et Mr. Johnson, commencing as a tele- grapher with the Grand Trunk in 1905, has had a railway career which gained him an intimate knowledge of the National System in Ontario and throughout the west where he occu- pied important supervisory positions for 17 years before his appointment to North Bay in 1936, and to To- ronto five years later. 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