1522 



Canadian Forestry Journal, February, 1918 



and does use a tractor and all that 

 sort of thing. He uses power right 

 through the whole working of the 

 place. It is just the same with aero- 

 plane operations,— the bigger the 

 field, the bigger the scale of operating, 

 the lower the cost. 



8000 Miles a Day I 



I have taken as a basis six months' 

 work, as I suppose you would not 

 need more than a six months' fire 

 protective service out of the year. I 

 have counted on three aeroplanes 

 because it is always safer to have an 

 extra one. You see you can count 

 then on having two of them always 

 ready for business, and the third one 

 can be overhauled and repaired if 

 necessary. Operating in a large way 

 the overhead cost comes down, so the 

 larger the scale the better. Say that 

 your machines will do five hours in 

 the air per day. They can do more 

 when necessary, but five hours up is a 

 pretty good day's work. Of course, 

 over at the front the machines are 

 sometimes up for as long as 72 hours 

 at a stretch, but that's pretty tough 

 going and you won't want your fel- 

 lows to do that here. Now, with two 

 machines working five hours a day 

 in the air you can examine closely 

 8,000'square miles easily. You could 

 go over a lot more than that, but 

 flying low to make a close examina- 

 tion you can count on 8,000 square 

 miles a day. You can see all over 

 the country as if you were in a high 

 tower, but you can move your tower 

 at will, as it were. When you are 

 flying pretty high you can see trem- 

 endous distances. 



'"Pusher,'" Best Type 



For your work you would want a 

 slow landing machine, say an aero- 

 plane with floats — a hydro aeroplane. 

 You would want what we call a 

 "pusher", that is one with the pro- 

 peller behind and the place for the 

 pilot up in front where he could have 

 an unobstructed view. With any 

 other type of machine you would find 

 rigging and supports and all sorts of 

 things in the way and your pilot 

 would be twisting and squirming in 



his efforts to see and he would have 

 to be somewhat of a contortionist or 

 an acrobat. Up there you are going 

 at such a clip that while you are busy 

 twisting your neck to see around a 

 piece of rigging you will miss about 

 twenty or thirty square miles of 

 country without knowing it. In your 

 work you will not be flying for speed, 

 so I would advise a slow flying, slow 

 landing type of machine. You cer- 

 tainly want a slow^ lander, for if you 

 land too fast you generally just keep 

 on going until you hit, and then even 

 though your machine stops you some- 

 times are forced to go a bit further 

 yourself before you make a landing. 

 (Laughter) . 



Fixing Machines in Flight 



Another thing which has to be 

 taken into consideration is the gliding 

 angle. A good machine will glide 

 a long way without losing elevation. 

 Say you have engine trouble; all you 

 have to do is adjust the angle and let 

 her glide while you fix your engine, 

 then when the trouble is fixed ofT you 

 go again. 



It is also very important to get a 

 standard type of machine, so that if 

 parts wear out or break you can send 

 to the factory and get them without 

 any delay: and you can get a stock of 

 spare parts too, and a spare part often 

 comes in mighty handy. This refers 

 to the aeroplane itself as well as to the 

 engine, of course, because you are apt 

 to need all sorts of little things in con- 

 nection with your aeroplane. 



First Investments 



Now, to get down to costs: let us 

 take three aeroplanes at $8,000 each. 

 You can get good ones for that, and 

 aeroplanes are like everything else, 

 the behaviour corresponds to the cost. 

 Well, three at $8,000, that's $24,000 

 for your machines. Then you will 

 want sheds. I don't know just what 

 typie you would use out here, but 

 $1,000 would cover the cost I am sure. 

 That is a capital investment of 

 $25,000. Ten per cent, interest on 

 your investment, distributed over the 

 six months, or the time in which you 

 will do your w^ork, will be, say $13.88 



