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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1364.PDF
I2& FLIGHT AUGUST 4TH, Main bass of the Manitoba Government Air Service. A strip has been cleared beside the lake for lanjplams. BUSH FLYING IN MANITOBA The Duties of a Representative Air Service By Robert Russell A LT HOUGH the Manitoba Government Air Service has /\ only been established for the last few years, it has •*- •*- certainly become one of the most important bush- flying organizations throughout the length and breadth of Canada. Carrying on a tradition which was originated after the first world war, the Province of Manitoba, together with those of Ontario and Saskatchewan, has moved ahead of the rest of the country in operating its own vital air- lines. Alberta and British Columbia, provinces which have also gone ahead with their flying services, have not yet taken the work entirely into their own hands but still engage private operators to assume a share of it. From the very beginning bush flying has filled a most important economic need in Canada and operators have been able to pay their way without Government support. The swiftly expanding traffic on bush lines was mainly responsible for opening up the northern sections of the country and greatly helped the development of such major industries as mining and trapping. It is important to realize that there has been a direct line of development and that bush flying owes its position to-day to the footing gained as early as 1920. All freighting operations carried out over Canada are closely related to bush flying. The greater part of the total area of Canada is uncultivated, some parts are barren, and much is forest or snow-covered. It is fair to say in general that the large commercial operators and the privately owned transport companies do much the same work, but on a different scale. To give some idea of the advances which have been made in transport operations a few significant figures may be quoted. Air freight, which had its inception along Canada's northern air routes, had continued to increase in volume until at the beginning of the late war this Dominion's aircraft were carrying the world's greatest ton- nage of commercial air cargo. In T920 only 6,740 lb of freight were taken by air, but in the year 1937 this figure increased to 24,000,000 lb. In 1939 the total figure dropped a little to 19,500,000 1b, but this load was still double that carried in the whole of the United States during the same period. By 1946 the total rose again to the immense figure of 23,500,000 lb. This clearly shows the great volume of air transport operations carried out in the Dominion and makes it much easier to understand the importance of the part played by the various independent air transport organizations in the economy of the country. The work of the bush flier is an integral part of the entire set up, and the companies provide the very life blood of small and isolated communi- ties scattered over the most remote areas of the provinces. Among the many different jobs undertaken by the pilots of the Manitoba Government Air Service are included such items as forest patrols, flying-in of supplies, mercy flights, transport of Government game- and resources-per- sonnel to out-of-the-way places, restocking lakes with fish and the taking of a regular game census in certain areas. The history of the development of this Service is similar to that of many other bush operators over the same period, so it is perhaps permissible to consider it as representative and give a brief outline of work from the year 1932. In that year the R.C.A.F. had been forced to cut down on expenses and numbers of aircraft. The Manitoba Govern- ment, which up to that time had always chartered its air- craft from commercial organizations, came to an agreement with the Government and purchased five surplus Vickers Vedette flying boats, two spare engines and a good supply of parts. These became the equipment nucleus of the Manitoba Government Air Service. Early operations took the form of flying patrols for the Department of Forestry and flying fire-fighters to their work. They were so successful and reduced the time of transport so much that other departments called for similar services and so an expansion was required. In 1933 a complete reorganization took place to improve the efficiency of the service, and it became obvious that new and faster aircraft were required. However, it was not until 193S c 8
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