86-year-old floatplane, last of its kind known to still be flying, takes to the skies in Vanderhoof, B.C.
Bush pilots in Northern Canada people, cargo and even horses in the days of a plane of origin, BC. Flying once again in the Center
1938 Bellanca Aircruiser, made of various materials, including wood and fabric, spends its summer in Vanderhoof, about 100 kilometers west of Prince George, BC.
He is borrowed from the Erickson Aircraft Collection in Oregon, led by Glenn Pearce, a retired Air Canada pilot with more than 55 years of experience.
On a journey of more than 1,000 kilometers, Pearce flew from the Erickson Museum in the Oregon community to Vanderhoof. It was a very daily journey, and just as Bush pilots did before the emergence of GPS systems, he used only a map and compass to guide him.
“It was quite an experience,” he said. “A lot of hands and feet, you must always fly that thing …. but it is flying very well.”
A rare aircraft spent the writing at the airport in Vanderhoof, and the BC arrival takes us back to a time when Bush pilots fly people, cargo and even horses from North Canada. Catherine Hansen from CBC takes us to Bellanca Aircruiser.
Although it was initially designed to carry multiple passengers, US federal arrangements banned single -engine aircraft such as Bellanca Aircruisers in 1934.
This first led to a new market to support mining and reconnaissance operations in Canada in the late 1970s.
BC Aviation Museum President Stephen Dale, “actually the north -opened airplanes,” he said. “Before these aircraft, it was a long distance to get something to the northern communities … You can put this in an area almost unreachable through any other transportation.”
According to the Erickson collection, the plane flew the Pearce aircraft Specially built to support a gold mining operation in the Philippines Before entering service in Canada and the last of its species can still fly.
Pearce said among the flying pilots Wilfred Leigh BrintnellAccording to Canada’s Aviation Honor List, Great Bear Lake was the first person to take the apartment by air. This The discovery of uranium deposits in the region is the development of the first atomic bombs used in the Manhattan project.
Pearce takes the plane on short trips around the area and is dealing with native questions. On the weekend of 2 and 3, Fort St. John plans to bring it to Air Show and to hold a public event in Vanderhoof in September.
“I’m very privileged because I can fly something like this,” he said. “This is an invaluable equipment.”
Daybreak North6:33Vanderhoof still hosts one of the oldest floating planes flying
Catherine Hansen gets asphalt to control Aircruiser
