Read Flying On Instinct for Free Online Page B

grizzly bear and lost a lot of blood. Infection had set in, and he urgently needed to be flown out for treatment to save his life. Gilbert, under contract with the mine’s owner, Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, got the call. An experienced pilot was needed to pick up the patient and deliver him to a critical-care hospital as quickly as possible. Gilbert took on the mission. He flew 280 miles (450 kilometres) from Stewart to Burns Lake to pick up Hughes in a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes. The next morning, he ferried the wounded man and an attendant 520 miles (835 kilometres) to Vancouver via Quesnel and Bridge River. Hughes survived thanks to Gilbert’s flying skill and stamina.
    Bush pilot Walter Gilbert was made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in recognition of his contribution to mapping the Arctic. He is shown here at The Pas, Manitoba, in 1929. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA PA-102345
    This was only the beginning of Gilbert’s phenomenal bush-flying career. He was transferred by WCA to Fort McMurray, Alberta, accompanied by his wife Jeanne, who flew with him so often that she logged more miles than any other woman in Canada prior to the Second World War.They first stayed at the Franklin Hotel, then bought a tiny “wooden shack” just behind it. First World War flying ace, bush pilot and explorer Punch Dickins, also flying with WCA, was already stationed there.
    In July 1930, Gilbert, his engineer Stan Knight, pilot Buck Buchanan and Major Lauchie (L.T.) Burwash of the federal Department of the Interior left on a government-sponsored aerial exploratory trip with three objectives: find the remains of members of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, who had departed England in 1845 and perished after abandoning their ships while searching for the Northwest Passage; take aerial photos of northern coastlines; and record magnetic properties near King William Island in an attempt to verify the location of the north magnetic pole. Gilbert flew up the Boothia Peninsula, his plane outfitted with an aerial camera and a portable radio, a new device that allowed him to communicate with headquarters back in the Mackenzie River District. Arriving in the settlement at Coppermine, Northwest Territories, he proceeded to methodically map a large part of the Arctic coastline and the area of the North Pole.
    The other pilot on the expedition, Buck Buchanan, had come along to retrieve the WCA (now CA for Canadian Airways) plane left behind by the MacAlpine party the year before. Designated “SK,” she had been sitting outside at Queen Maud Bay, entrusted to a group of Inuit camped nearby. With time to spare before the supply shiparrived with their gear for the Franklin search, Gilbert and Buchanan retraced the MacAlpine flight path; looking down, they saw the plane moored right where she had been left. They touched down and checked her out. Other than a few rusty cables, SK appeared airworthy. Pushing their luck some more, they topped up her oil and poured in some gas. The engine caught first time. It was getting dark, so they set up camp for the night. After tossing back food rations, Gilbert noticed some Inuit approaching the campfire. He invited them to join him and Buchanan, but they declined. One man held out a closed fist. When he opened it, Gilbert saw the key to the plane’s cabin in his palm. MacAlpine had left it with him for safekeeping, and he was now returning it to the plane’s rescuers. Gilbert was touched by the Inuits’ honesty. When he and Buchanan had pried open the cabin door earlier, everything inside was as it had been left. Returning to Coppermine the next morning in separate planes, Buchanan refuelled and waved as he flew off in Fokker Universal G-CASK, leaving Gilbert, Knight and Burwash to start their hunt for Franklin.
    The many 19th- and 20th-century searches for clues to Franklin’s fate had expanded knowledge of the islands and waterways of the Arctic