1927 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS 151 



Special Transportation — Semi Commercial Flying. 



Aviation can and is helping in the development of the great remote areas 

 north of the steel by providing means of communication, fast, reliable, and 

 relatively economical when compared with the existing primitive and standard 

 means of transportation, the canoe. During the operating season of 1926 

 194.50 hours (5.5 per cent, of the total flying time) were carried out for purposes 

 other than Forestry Branch requirements. 



Early in June instructions were received by wire from the Deputy Minister 

 of Forestry to send a machine to Haliburton to search for two prospectors who 

 were lost in that area. The machine was dispatched from Sault Ste Marie 

 and arrived at Parry Sound the same day, in spite of the fact that it rained 

 continually throughout the day. A series of flights was carried out in this 

 connection. 



In the latter half of June flights were carried out for the payment of Indian 

 Treaty in the distant areas of Patricia, Northern Ontario, adjacent to James 

 Bay, as in the seasons of 1924 and 1925. 



A further series of flights was made late in June to search for the bodies of 

 children who were drowned in a boating accident in St. Mary's River, Sault 

 Ste Marie. 



In July an urgent request from the Department requisitioned a machine 

 at the Sudbury base to proceed immediately to Balsam Lake and assist in any 

 way possible in locating the bodies of the boys who lost their lives in this most 

 unfortunate accident. The machine remained at Balsam Lake for a period of 

 a week, carrying out orders with regard to the searching parties. 



In August a machine from the Sudbury operating base conducted a search 

 for a party lost on the Manitoulin Island. * 



Toward the end of the operating season, October and November, a machine 

 was requisitioned to participate in flights for Patricia Airways, Limited, the 

 purpose to continue transportation to and communication with the Red Lake 

 mining areas, due to the fact that the only machine of Patricia Airways was 

 out of commission on account of engine overhaul. 



The number of requisitions for aircraft assistance that have been received 

 by the Department from the public bodies in cases of urgency as demonstrated 

 during the past year, very clearly indicate the increasing confidence of the 

 public at large in the utility of aircraft. 



Instruction: 



The Service has devoted considerable time, amounting to 117.50 hours 

 or Z.d> per cent, of the total hours flying, to flying instruction of junior personnel 

 in the last season. This also is designed to provide for the Service a flying staff 

 trained from the ground up in the particular requirements of forest protection 

 work. Moreover, the Province of Ontario and the Dominion of Canada are 

 served by the training of men for peace time commercial flying and national 

 defence in time of war. Not least of the benefits is the encouraging of the 

 mechanical personnel by this policy of recognizing valuable service and ability 

 by promotion to flying position. Following is given the report of the officer 

 in charge of flying instruction. 



Summary of Flying Instruction, 1926: 



Four new pilots were given flying instruction in the handling of an H.S. 2 L. 

 flying boat. They were passed in the Senior Category of pilots for 1926 opera- 

 tions. 



