AERIAL PATROL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 243, 14 October 1931, Page 7

AERIAL PATROL

FOREST FIRE FIGHTERS. PILOTS OF CLASS. VANCOUVER, Sept. 20. An area of 300,U0U square miles uf commercially valuable virgin timber m Ontario is constantly under surveillance during the summer months by a largo force of aeroplanes of the Provincial Air Service, the largest fire-fighting force of its kind in North America. In its operating season, from spring to autumn last year, it showed 14,220 hours in the air, and 875,000 miles flown by 33 machines, all over bush country. When the fire hazard was at its height, a pilot flew for 16 hours, back and forth, landing fire-fighting crews, with food and equipment as near the blaze as possible, constituting a record in the annals of Canadian aviation. Of the 20 senior pilots in the service, 11 flew over 500 hours, the highest being 884 hours for the flying season. There arc 14 bases of the service, spread over Northern Ontario. At each is a wireless station. There arc two types of flight, detection patrol and suppression patrol. The largest of the latter type of machine can carry 14 persons. Detection patrols, on seeing a fire, fly to the nearest base and flash the details to the nearest equipment, outfit by air. Each outpost observer, perched on high land, with a view of the surrounding country, has a radio set. Weather reports arc broadcast throe times a day from Toronto and auxiliary emeteorological stations. Spares and Repairs. As each base is far beyond the railway, and can only be reached by air, spare engines and equipment are kept there. At the same time each ’plane carries essential spare parts in case of engine failure, or being forced down on some remote lake or waterway. All machines are completely overhauled and stored for the winter at Sault Ste. Marie, the Provincial Air Service headquarters. Since its initiation, seven years ago, the service has been a training ground for Canadian pilots, especially those who take up work in the Arctic. Each pilot has two years’ training as an airway engineer, so that he can do his own repairs in the bush. The work calls for the highest form of initiative and enterprise, as there are no airports, towns, railway, or radio beacons, such as help the airmen on the regular airways. When a pilot is lost, he is under strict orders to stay by his machine at allotted times during the day, in order that he may signal to search craft. For the rest, each ’plane carries emergency rations, fishing tackle, and a gun. Northern lakes teem with fish, and the bush carries plenty of game. The accident rate is much lower than on the regular airwavs.