122 REPORT OF THE No. 7 



approximately forty per cent, of the quantity is lost, and the remainder is spread 

 over a larger area with subsequent loss of the desired effect. 



Until tree dusting has reached a high stage of development, it is considered 

 unwise to continue in the hazardous occupation of flying over any area except 

 small islands or shorelines. 



Instruction. 



The 1929 period saw considerable progress in the development of the Service 

 Training School, both from the high standard of pupils and the organization of 

 the school in general. 



A survey of various reports regarding the innumerable aeroplane accidents 

 in America reveals a greater proportion due to error of judgment or the human 

 factor. While this speaks well for aeronautical design and mechanical advances 

 made in aircraft construction, it puts the responsibility entirely on the shoulders 

 of the man at the controls. 



Instructors are better qualified to form a comprehensive judgment and to 

 help weed out undesirables than the Director, who must judge from recommen- 

 dations or through the prescribed evolutions, in approximately one hour's time. 

 The selection of a pilot on the brief showing of his test is not a guarantee that he 

 will be competent under all conditions. An instructor's experienced eye will 

 quickly detect harmless idiosyncrasies or dangerous tendencies. In our school 

 we look not so much for quick results as for permanent results. 



Speed alone is not the prime requisite in our Service, or for that matter in 

 commercial flying. Speed plus safety is the mark we have been shooting at. 



The practical mechanical course in our shops at Sault Ste. Marie requires 

 that our students have a thorough understanding of every part of plane and 

 engine, its functions and the reason why it functions correctly or wrongly. 

 Applicant pilots of our Service cannot have flying instruction until the Plant 

 Superintendent passes them on their practical course. 



In addition to this, when the school was organized arrangements were made 

 for the pupils to have instruction on a similar basis to that of a military school, 

 the pupils receiving ground instruction in navigation, meteorology, engines, 

 aircraft and a thorough understanding of the Air Board Act and all regulations 

 or orders of our Service. 



Three De Haviland Gipsy Moths were transferred from the operating 

 division to the school at Sioux Lookout where they remained until training was 

 completed . 



The policy adopted by this service of training its own pilots has been 

 criticized from time to time by persons unfamiliar with the work, who allege 

 that we train pilots to the exclusion of pilots already available and trained by 

 flying clubs. Club methods of training are fairly well standardized to meet 

 commercial requirements and many capable pupils are passed out who eventually 

 become excellent commercial pilots. 



The training, however, differs with respect to the requirements of this 

 Service, and, consequently, pilots graduated from flying clubs are of little or no 

 use to us because no matter how capable they were as club pupils they may 

 know nothing of the work of this Service, and therefore, would have to fly one or 

 two years under instruction before they could possibly be considered competent 

 to assume complete charge of a suppression or detection aircraft. This Service 

 has many capable engineers, junior and applicant pilots, with years of flying 

 experience behind them, who are considered more competent in many respects 

 than solo pupils of flying clubs, and therefore, it is only reasonable that our own 



