The Nome nugget., 1921-09-17
(From Dawson News)

hours and forty minutes is the ac- tual flying time between Peace River and Norman, distance of approxi- l emately 1.400 miles by river and lake. This is the time logged off by the Imperial Oil Company's mono plane on it's recent flight into the oil fields. True. the machine crashed on making the landing at Fort Norman, and one of it's pontoons and wingiI shattered. but this does not render the long-distance flight of the crew any less spectacular The factors of travel by air over practically uneXplored country. the dangers involved in making landings on rivers. and unknown currents and the fascination of watching miles upon miles of untenanted sub-Arctic lands unroll before them like map were described today by Geologist T. A. Link of the company and Surveyor w. H Waddell. who made the trip in by plane. E. c. Fuller ton. well known pilot was driving and Mechanician w. J. Hill. of the flying crew. was the fourth member of the party.
 One notable feat of the journey was the making Of forced landing between the Far North forts of Simpson and Wrieley, on the sur face of the Mackenzie river, without assistance from anyone on shore. In fact. no one was around to help. but when the pilot and crew departed from this point they were helped by an Indian who had been attracted by the descent of the great bird
 One wonders at the kind of thought in the aborigines head when the big airship went hurtling down the river and aloft into the air asain from that lonesome and desolate neigh borhood.
 Residents of the post at Fort Nor man gave graphic description of
 
 monoplane on June ? \ crowd was on the bank when the machine was sighted in the sky. A few minutes after , D. m. as the monoplane came gliding down it seemed that the machine would alight safely go ing down stream. but when a few feet above the water the ship seemed to drop suddenly to the surface
 Instantly ii bounded up again and leaped forward some sixty feet. but in that momentary touch of the irver surface the right pontoon was shear ed off completely. The moment the machine struck again it listed to the side on which the pontoon had struck off, the wing tipped into the water and began to fill As it filled it sank. the machine being gradually dragged down the river, all the time tilting more and more.
 Get boat. get boat" shouted the men in the machine. and boats and canoes hurrieGly put to their rescue, but they would have been too late had it not been for the fact that the down-tilted wing, some twenty feet in length, finally touched bottom in shallow part of the river and dragged along. preventing the machine from turning completely over in the water
 MT Link said the accident was due to the extremely smooth andl Smirror-like surface of the water when they landed. making it impos- sible to calculate accurately the height of the machine above the river. But the crew had achieved their purpose of getting Mir. Link and MT Waddell into the field first this year Those two gentlemen at once proceeded into the bush with party of men and worked thirty-two hours on end. stalking claims.
 During the flight the plane made two portages. that is. crossed ovet land for considerable distances. which means taking a chance as. in case of forced landing, the ma chine being equipped for landing only on water. would have been decededly "out of luck" They cut off from the Peace River below Peace point, over to the Slave river, a dis tance Of about twenty miles. and they also cut off from the Slave river to Slave lake, another twenty miles overland, coming out On Great Slave lake at the Little Buffalo river.
 In crossing Great Slave lake the pilot came down and flew above the surface of the water at a height of