“La Vigilance”: Ontario’s first bush aircraft

It is a story in regards to the seek for enemy submarines, forest fires that despatched smoke rising on the horizon, and a aircraft crash within the early days of aviation in Ontario. 

Soar in, and we’ll go for a flight!

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René Brunelle Provincial Park and the La Vigilance Path

René Brunelle Provincial Park sits on the jap shores of Remi Lake in northeastern Ontario close to the city of Moonbeam.

Remi Lake is large. Over 8 km lengthy and greater than 5 km large.

It’s often the main focus of campers and day customers once they go to the park. Boating and fishing on the lake are well-liked, as is visiting the park’s seashores, like Phipps Level.

It isn’t till guests hike one of many trails that they study that Remi Lake was a nationally important hotspot for forest firefighting and bush aircraft exercise greater than 100 years in the past.

Should you hike the La Vigilance Path at Phipps Level, you’ll discover a good scenic path and study a bit about Remi Lake’s function in Ontario’s forest firefighting historical past. Interpretive indicators alongside the path inform the story of floatplanes and the way they had been used within the early days of forest fireplace prevention.

Airplane Island, which you’ll be able to see from the path, sits in the midst of Remi Lake and was a floatplane base throughout the Twenties.

The primary floatplane stationed on Remi Lake was a Curtiss HS-2L referred to as La Vigilance, and its job was to maintain watch, recognizing smoke and potential forest fires within the huge inexperienced panorama.

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U-boat hunters

Curtiss HS-2Ls had been “flying boat” aircrafts developed throughout World Struggle I as submarine hunters.

The plane flew alongside the coast, on the lookout for German U-boats beneath the floor and dropping bombs on them.

A dozen of those sea planes had been finally based mostly in Nova Scotia in direction of the tip of the battle. Their job was to guard the important port of Halifax and the convoys of ships that gathered there for the harmful Atlantic crossing.

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Firsts for Canada

These planes set many firsts within the nation, together with the primary airmail service and the primary commonly scheduled passenger service. 

Additionally they grew to become the nation’s first bush planes.

In 1919, the Laurentide Paper Firm, later renamed the Laurentide Air Service in 1921, acquired two flying boats for forestry missions in northern Quebec.

These plane performed the primary aerial timber surveys and monitored forest fires, the primary of which was noticed in 1919, proving themselves to be worthwhile to Canada’s logging trade.

Earlier that very same yr, one of many plane, designated G-CAAC, flew from Nova Scotia to Quebec in what was then the longest flight in Canadian historical past. It was piloted by Stuart Graham, accompanied by his spouse, Madge, who grew to become the primary lady in Canada to finish a long-distance flight.

This plane was nicknamed La Vigilance.

La Vigilance and different HS-2Ls had been essential for creating Canada’s north. Even after the First World Struggle, northern areas had been sparsely populated and had little infrastructure.

There have been no runways, however loads of lakes, and a lot of these plane had been constructed to land and take off on the water. This required particular abilities and a robust will to cope with a harsh northern local weather.

Fortunately, Canadians returned from WWI with the talents wanted for such duties. This allowed them and their bush planes to penetrate the place roads and rails hadn’t, turning into important for northern communication, trade, transportation, aerial pictures, map-making, and forest firefighting.

Out of the blue, individuals may entry the bush like by no means earlier than due to these planes.

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A fateful flight

La Vigilance was stationed at Remi Lake on Airplane Island within the Twenties. Throughout a routine mission on September 2, 1922, the plane bumped into unhealthy climate and needed to land on a small lake.

Understanding that takeoff from such a small lake could be tough, pilot Don Foss and engineer Jack Caldwell unloaded as a lot cargo as attainable. On takeoff, the pilot adjusted course, however one wing caught the lake’s floor, cartwheeling the aircraft and crashing it.

The 2 males survived and walked 20 km via the bush, finally discovering assist.

A salvage mission that winter recovered the aircraft’s engine, however the remainder of the plane was too badly broken and remained within the lake. There it stayed — for greater than forty years.

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Rescue and restoration

Robert Bradford, curator of the Nationwide Aviation Museum in Ottawa, realized of La Vigilance and its significance to Canada’s aviation historical past. Decided, he got down to get well the plane.

In 1967 and 1968, the aircraft was retrieved from the lake — now referred to as Foss Lake, named for Don Foss, the pilot of La Vigilance. It was painstakingly transported, piece by piece, to the Museum for preservation and restoration.

Utilizing elements from different Curtiss HS-2L’s, La Vigilance was slowly remade all through the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties. The unique hull was too broken for use within the restoration, so it has been preserved individually and now sits beside what is taken into account the world’s solely full Curtiss HS-2L: La Vigilance.

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A spot in Canadian historical past

As the primary bush aircraft to fly within the nation, and one in every of many in a protracted line of serious plane, it deserves its place in Canadian historical past.

La Vigilance is on show, together with its devices, unique pilot’s software equipment, and different artefacts, on the Nationwide Aviation Museum in Ottawa.

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René Brunelle Provincial Park is a northern gem that lies simply north of Freeway 11 close to Moonbeam and Kapuskasing.

The park is a part of the Ontario Parks Boreal Driving Route, connecting quite a few northern parks collectively for the final word northern highway journey. 

Canada’s first bush aircraft, La Vigilance, is one in every of over 130 plane and artefacts on the Canadian Aviation and House Museum situated in Ottawa, Ontario.