248 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



Aerial Forest Survey. — The survey covered by the following report 

 was undertaken by the Ontario Forestry Branch in co-operation with the Can- 

 adian Air Board for the purpose of determining the possibility of using air 

 craft in connection with forest field work, and was carried on from Sioux Look- 

 out, a western divisional point on the north line of the C.N.R. (G.T.P.), from 

 March to October of the current year. During this time approximately 10,000 

 square miles was worked over, comprising in general the territory lying be- 

 tween the G.T.P. railway and the Lake St. Joseph - Lac Seul - English River 

 waterway, from the Manitoba boundary east to the foot of Lake St. Joseph. 



1. Personnel. — One station superintendent and pilot, two pilots, one chief 

 mechanic, one storesman, one photographer, two engine fitters, one rigger, 

 one boat builder, one clerk-stenographer, one cook and one cookie, furnished 

 by the Air Board. The Forestry Branch observers were one forester and one 

 student assistant. 



2. Equipment. — One F.3. Flying Boat, two H.S.2.L. Flying Boats, one small 

 motor boat, one row boat, four box cars (used for photographic dark room and 

 store room, sleeping quarters, office, cookhouse and storage), technical stores 

 and photographic equipment including two wind motors, two vertical aerial 

 cameras (Kodak Company Type K.L), one oblique camera, and one ground 

 camera.; compasses, chains, calipers, etc., and general office equipment. 



3. Characteristics of Machines. — Some details of the more important char- 

 acteristics of the types of air craft used, is perhaps necessary at this point for 

 a correct comprehension of operating conditions. 



The F.3. Flying Boat is a very large British machine, measuring over 

 one hundred feet along the leading edge of the top plane; is capable of carrying 

 up to a dozen men, and can fly for over six hours without refueling. Air speed 

 is from seventy to eighty knots (80 to 90 miles per hour) and time to reach 

 five thousand feet about thirty minutes. Although the splendid visibility 

 from the observer's cockpit and the machine's ability to remain in the 

 air for such a long time, were both points in favor of its use for the sum- 

 mer's work, such advantages in the air were more than offset by the difficulty 

 of manoeuvring on the comparatively small lakes of the district. The machine 

 was, therefore, the opportunity arising, exchanged for a third H.S.2.L. with 

 the Victoria Beach (Lake Winnipeg) Air Station. 



The H.S.2.L. is a Flying Boat of American design, considerably smaller 

 than the F.3., seventy feet across the leading edge of the top plane; is capable 

 of carrying up to five men, and of flying for about three and one-half hours 

 without refueling. Air speed is between fifty-five and sixty-five knots (60 to 

 70 miles per hour), with time to climb three thousand feet about forty-five 

 minutes. It will thus be seen that the H.S.2.L. has not as good a performance 

 as that of the larger F.3. It has, however, advantages. Visibility from the 

 observer's cockpit is better, and as it has only one engine and the F.3. requires 

 two for sustained flight, the chances of trouble from this source are practically 

 halved. But it is on the water, and not in flight, that the H.S.2.L.'s peculiar 

 advantages become apparent. Here the machine is comparatively easy to 

 manoeuvre, and because of its sturdy construction — which is, no doubt, largely 

 responsible for its poor performance — can venture landings on unknown beaches 

 and, in general, withstand, much better than a more finely built machine, the 

 accidental ill-treatment which inevitably occurs under field conditions. 



4. Working Conditions. — Weather, the lack of local arrangements in con- 

 nection with the establishment of an Air Station and finally the erecting, 



