FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0274.PDF
I 23 January 1959 129 third Beaver and an Otter on the DEW-line; one Norseman atGoose Bay and one at Great Whale River, Hudson Bay. Hunting and fishing trips, fire patrols, miscellaneous survey andexploration work, sightseeing flights, fish-planting in small lakes, and general charter work form the major part of the day-to-daybush operations at St. Joyite. Much of this work is seasonal, but emergency ambulance flights are made as required throughoutthe year. Hunting trips usually mean flights of 15-100 miles each way, while fishing parties might fly as far as 600 miles fromSt. Jovite. A glance at a half-million map of the area to the north provided startling confirmation of the incredible numberand pattern of the lakes over which the aircraft flew. The aircraft types used each had their advantages for particulartypes of flying. In general, the Beavers and Otters were con- sidered to have the performance required for hot-weather opera-tion from small lakes, while the Norseman was a particularly rugged machine well able to carry on working with little attentionthroughout the northern winters. The Beaver was liked for its manoeuvrability, and the Otter and Norseman were liked becauseeach of their cabins was large enough to accommodate a moose. A reminder of the spraying side of Wheeler operations was thepresence on the St. Jovite airfield of a number of yellow Stear- mans and—more surprisingly—TBM Avengers. Without doubtthe company's outstanding achievement in this field has been its participation, each year since 1953, in Operation Budworm, themassive effort to protect by aerial spraying the forests of New Brunswick and Quebec against severe damage by insects. The peak year for the budworm project was 1957, whenWheeler Airlines, as prime contractor for the spraying, brought together a total of 190 Wasp-powered Stearmans for the job. Noless than 6.1 million acres of forest was sprayed. For 1958, a total of 76 Stearman and 12 Avenger aircraft wereto spray some 3i million acres on this project. The seven Wheeler Avengers which I saw at St. Jovite had been converted as 700-galsprayers by Fairey Aviation of Canada. Projects other than Operation Budworm have included mosquito and blackfly control,brush control, orchard and crop^spraying and experimental fire- fighting. Chief pilot, spray division, is George Lovatt. One evening during my stay at Lac Ouimet three U.S. business-men on vacation were due to fly from there to one of the nearest camps for one week's fishing. In spite of the small mountain offood, drink, fishing gear and other supplies which they were taking along, space remained for an extra fellow-traveller in theOtter cabin and so I was able to sample a mild form of bush flying. The Otter was moored to the jetty in front of the club, fromwhere we taxied out into the lake and took off. A first impression, when we had settled down to cruising level with the hilltops atan indicated altitude of 3,500ft, was to realize the obvious—the reason for floatplanes. To fly over the lake-studded, forest-covered Laurentians in a single-engined, wheeled aircraft would simply give the pilot a few more grey hairs. We were, however,within gliding distance of at least one lake at all times, and it seemed a Good Thing that we happened to have floats. The out-and-return flight was routine—though I could notimagine how the pilot could navigate over the hundreds of seemingly identical lakes. The Otter behaved as a hard-workingpiece of simple flying machinery should, with no fuss, and within half an hour we had delivered the fishbound trio into the experthands of their French-Canadian guide (and Louise the cook) at their new home, had unloaded their stores, and had enjoyed a calmlate-evening return flight, letting down over Lake Tremblant and making a straight-in approach past Gray Rocks and then taxyingback to the club jetty. As well as being a stepping-off point for flights to the fishing Left, Beechcrait D-18 and DC-4 in the V/heeler hangar at Montreal. Above, a fishing party arrives by Otter at a Laurentian lake camp "Flight" photographs camps and on hunting expeditions, Lac Ouimet is a comfortablevacation spot in its own right and many visitors fly or drive there from cities such as Montreal. The local attractions include fish-ing, swimming, golf, riding and, in winter, ski-ing—and the inspired cooking of Lac Ouimet Club's talented chef. The onlyfly in the summertime ointment are the blackflies, who seem to smell the blood of an Englishman from afar and who certainlypack a powerful bite. Wheeler Airlines were operating the following aircraft during1958: three DC-4s, two C-46s, four DC-3s, two PBY Cansos, one Beechcraft D-18, three Otters, three Beavers, three Norsemen,one Cessna 180, seven Avengers, six Stearmans, and two S.55 and three S.51 helicopters. Of these 40 aircraft, 26 were owned by thecompany and the remainder were on lease. While the variety of types poses a severe spaus problem, this variety is to a largeextent inevitable in Wheeler's diversified type of operation—and indeed the DEW-line contracts alone have specifically called forthe use of DC-4s, DC-3s, C-46s, Beavers and Otters. As a DC-3 replacement for medium-range operations, twoFairchild-built F-27 Friendships were ordered by the airline in May 1957. While the company continues to be extremely activein northern flying at the present time, it now considers that these aircraft would be unsuitable for use on Wheeler's present northernroute patterns, and is therefore offering them for sale and not putting them into service. The two main directions in which Wheeler Airlines haveexpanded during the post-war period have been in the develop- ment of northern flying—both by its transport and bush aircraft—and in entering the field of transatlantic charter flights with DC-4s. The European manager for Wheeler Airlines is BeverleySnook of London, a diminutive but unmistakable figure well- known in British aviation circles. Mr. Snook's activities onbehalf of the airline, apart from his conventional managerial duties, have incidentally included rescuing Tom Wheeler'sdaughter after the ceiling of her room in London collapsed. But that is another story. KENNETH OWEN. The Wheeler seaplane dock at Lac Ouimet caters for company and visiting floatplanes. A company Otter is seen here "Flight" photcgroph
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
