150 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



ment, camp equipment and food. Of this 6,420 pounds, 3,700 pounds were 

 carried out again. Twenty-seven men were employed in the fighting of this fire. 

 All of these men were flown out and again placed at their respective positions by 

 August 11th. The fire, which was inaccessible by canoe, was handled entirely 

 by aircraft. No man approached- it or left it by ground. 



Sketching: 



Machines of the Service were again used in the operating season of 1926 

 in a programme of timber type sketching, for forest inventory purposes; although 

 fewer hours were flown, 142.56 hours (4 per cent, of total flying time) were 

 used for sketching this year as compared with 244.42 hours (8.9 per cent, of 

 total time) used last year. A part of this decrease may be explained by the 

 location of the operating bases and the organization of this work, which was so 

 arranged that bases were closer to the areas to be surveyed. During the season 

 3,300 square miles in the vicinity of Sioux Lookout and Oba Lake were sketched. 



Photography: 



The success of oblique photography in providing reliable maps of unsurveyed 

 areas has brought about the expansion of the photographic survey programme of 

 the Ontario Forestry Branch. During 1926 the machines of the Service were 

 employed on photographic work for 99.25 hours, or 2.8 per cent, of the total 

 time flown by the Service. This is almost double the time flown for this purpose 

 last year — 53.15 hours or 1.9 per cent, of the season's flying time. Approxi- 

 mately 3,500 square miles in the vicinity of Temagami, Sudbury, and Oba Lake 

 were surveyed by oblique axis photography, while about 50 square miles were 

 photographed vertically. This latter work was in connection with publicity 

 pictures for the Department. 



Sketching and Photographic Areas, 1926: 



Square miles sketched from the air 3,300 



Square miles photographed from the air — (1) vertical 50 



Square miles photographed from the air — (2) oblique 3,500 



3,550 



Forest fires detected from the air 972 



Forced Landings: 



1. Service Flying.— A reduction in the flying time spent in forced landings 

 is shown for 1926, 29.25 hours (.8 per cent, of the total time) having been flown 

 this year as compared with 36.04 hours (1.3 per cent, of the total time) in 1925. 

 When a patrol cannot be completed within the required time due to the forced 

 landing of a machine, the time spent in returning to the operating base after 

 repairs is not properly chargeable to detection or suppression, but rather to 

 service flying. Since it is desirable to decrease the proportion of service flying 

 to requisitioned flying, the reduction of time spent in forced landing speaks 

 well for the efficiency of the personnel and machines. 



2. Ferrying. — 234.36 hours (6.6 per cent, of the total time for 1926) as 

 against 330.41 hours (12.0 per cent, of the total time for 1925) were flown in 

 transporting machines to and from their operating bases. Of course this flying 

 is quite essential to any operations and would be paid for by the Forestry Branch 

 if flying were purchased from a commercial company. Therefore any reduction 

 of non-requisitioned flying is desirable and indicates increased efficiency in the 

 Service. 



