Page 4 - July 18

Then followed a charter in January to Oxford Lake,
Certain flights are outstanding in the history of aviation.
Certain people and machines by some fortuitous chain of
circumstances would appear to be predestined to
participate in and experience more than their due share
of the extraordinary things of this life. Such a machine is
G-CASK, the Super Fokker powered with a 425 hp Pratt
and Whitney “Wasp” and owned by Western Canada
Airways.
G-CASK is a sister ship to G-CASL. They left the factory
together; their destinations were the same; yet today ask unknown. The portion of this trip from Baker Lake,
anybody where SL is or what she has done and a vague
look results. Make the same enquiry about SK and you
start a long story.
For more than eleven months of the twenty-six that have
passed since these machines left the factory, SK was
sitting on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. That fact alone
is outstanding, as no machine has ever before faced the
exposure of a winter in this latitude. That the machine
was ready to fly away in two and a half hours after such a
long period of disuse was a noteworthy testimony to the
standards attained today in the manufacture of wings,
fuselage, and unit covers, not to speak of the motor and
it accessories. After a study of SK’s flight reports on is
compelled to admit that as a “pioneer” or “trail-blazer”,
SK’s record must stand alone in the history of Canadian
aviation.
“For more than eleven months, SK was sitting on the
shores of the Arctic Ocean. That fact alone is outstanding,
as no machine has ever before faced the exposure of a
winter in this latitude.”
In October, 1928, SK was on hand to be taken out on the
preliminary survey of the Prairie Mail Routes. When this
was completed and the experimental flights had been
made, on December, 10, 1928, SK had the honour of
inaugurating the first Prairie Mail service.
some 150 miles from the nearest settlement. The
weather was -30 degrees F, which had something to
do with the battery running down. The absence of a
hand-starting crank, did not facilitate matters, but
at a miner’s primitive forge some two miles distant
(how lucky, only two miles!) the oil screen wrench
underwent a metamorphosis at the hands of a
desperate pilot and the engine was started. More
months of flying around the Cold Lake/Cranberry
area, then came another flight up the Hudson Bay
to Eskimo Point.
In August, 1929, SK started off on a 9,000-mile flight
which extended to the shores of the Arctic by way
of the Mackenzie River, then through the passes, as
yet unknown to aviation, of the Bell, Porcupine and
Yukon Rivers. The return trip was made from
Aklavik via Dawson City, Carcross, Prince Rupert,
Prince George and Edmonton to Winnipeg. After
this remarkable flight, four days at Winnipeg was
sufficient to prepare SK for her flight in the
via Beverley Lake and across the Height of Land to
Bathurst, had not been undertaken before. On the
day appointed for the trip to Bathurst Inlet, the
morning broke fine and clear. Later in the day
snowstorms were encountered, while the wind
increased. Proximity to the magnetic pole
compelled use of the sun compass until the
condition of the weather precluded even this, so
with only the scantiest detail on their maps to guide
them over what was in the main part uncharted
country, SK and the other ship engaged on the
charter, were eventually brought to a landing at
Dease Point
“In August, 1929, SK started off on a 9,000-mile flight
which extended to the shores of the Arctic by way of the
Mackenzie River, then through the passes, as yet
unknown to aviation, of the Bell, Porcupine and Yukon
Rivers. The return trip was made from Aklavik via
Dawson City, Carcross, Prince Rupert, Prince George and
Edmonton to Winnipeg.”
It was decided that the machine should be beached
and tied down for the winter, so in the absence of
any facility the machines were skidded on their
floats up the rocky foreshore under their own
power, a similar method of launching before
adopted later on.