Transportation - Planes

TCA EXPRESS SERVICE COMMENCES. – Passenger Service Begins Later; City Airport Has Visitors.

            When the TCA plane flew over a little before ten o’clock on Monday evening it marked the inaugural flight of TCA’s express service between Vancouver and Winnipeg.  The plane left Vancouver at 7 p.m. coast time, made a fifteen minute stop at Regina and was scheduled to arrive at Winnipeg at 4:33 C.S.T.  In charge of the flight was Senior Pilot Morris McGregor with Co-Pilot F. Brady.

            The same night the first west-bound express plane left Winnipeg at 11:30 with C.L. Rood in charge and R. Digsure as co-pilot, which arrived in Vancouver early Tuesday morning.

            The west-bound flight was completed in 7 hours and 19 minutes.  The east bound flight began at Vancouver at 7 p.m. and was completed at Winnipeg at 1:30 a.m.  According to Canadian Press inauguration of passenger service on the Winnipeg-Vancouver section will await completion of four new radio range stations in the Rocky Mountain area.  This statement came from Phillip G. Johnson, TCA vice-president and operating manager.

            Announcement has come from J.A. Wilson, controller of civil aviation at Ottawa, that a new radio range station will be built at Crestova fifteen miles west of Nelson supplementing the sound beam chain between Cranbrook and Grand Forks.

            The sound beam station at Carmi is on the way toward completion.  When the Crestova station is finished the sound beam station points across the province will be Vancouver, Princeton, Carmi, Grand Forks, Nelson and Cranbrook.  Construction of the new stations is under the supervision of C.W. Thomas.

            A marker beacon will be installed at Stave lake where the planes cross the Cascade range into the Fraser valley.

            Mr. Wilson, accompanied by Carter Guest, district inspector of civil aviation at Vancouver were here in connection with airport business on Saturday.

            On Sunday a Mr. Booth from the eastern U.S. dropped in to the city airport for a few minutes in a bright red 1938 Stinson, on his way through to Creston for the hunting season.

            On Tuesday evening a Royal Air Force plane, a yellow Northman, came in around six o’clock and remained over night.  The three officers travelling with it were en route from Ottawa to Vancouver to begin a survey expedition taking photographs.  At Vancouver their landing gear was to be equipped with floats and their survey work will be up the B.C. coast in the area around the Skeena River.