The Stuart Graham Papers

The word "bush", like most popular terms, is used loosely by Canadian flyers and public alike. Fundamentally it refers to the areas of Canada covered with boreal forests, particularly the untamed areas of the Canadian Shield extending in a horseshoe around Hudson Bay, bounded on the west by the prairies and the Rocky Mountains, on the south by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system, on the east by the Atlantic, and on the north by the Barren Lands. But the word is also used to include all the more rugged features of all the Canadian provinces from Newfoundland to British Columbia, and even the barrens of the Northwest Territories.

According to experienced bushpilot C.H. "Punch" Dickins, in a speech given in 1962, the typical bushplane crew

is a pilot and mechanic, who are ready and willing to take any kind of a load to any destination, on or off the map, within the limits of their aircraft, and the financial resources of the customer.

The original commercial "Bush" services were started in 1927 ... and required a lot of planning and ingenuity as there was no network of landing strips, practically no radio communications, and the pilot had to make up his own mind about the weather from what he could see. Beside keeping the aircraft serviceable, the crew had to dig up business, make up tickets and bills, collect money, keep the books, and after loading, fly and navigate the aircraft to a destination probably neither they nor the customer had ever seen before.

The bush aircraft provided both communication and transportation, so that the people living and working in northern regions were no longer isolated. Through the services of these aircraft, exploration became practical in areas previously inaccessible and opened up the north's wealth of resources.

Table of Contents

• Introduction Page

  Stories of Bush Flying

• The First Bush Flight
• The Last Flight of La Vigilance
• The MacAlpine Expedition
• The MacAlpine Rescuers
  • Rescuer Diaries
• The H-Boat Trick

  Challenges of Bush Flying

• Cargo and Supplies
• The Red River Epidemic
• Weather Hardships
• Early Communication

  Aircraft and Equipment

• Ingenious Engineers
  • William Hill: An Ingenious Engineer
  • Overcoming the Cold: Oil Dilution

  History of Bushflying

• Barnstorming to Bushflying
• The History of Aerial Fire Fighting
• Ontario Provincial Air Service
• The History of Laurentide Air Service
• Summary of Commercial Air Flying Activities in Canada (1919 - 1930)