Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-01

another silent man from the North. As hard
to pry loose of conversation as the proverbial
iceberg. But there are some deeds of his which
tell you why he's one of the elite OF Canadian
pilots
He was saved for northern pioneer flying the
first day he went into the air at the front
They sent him one of flight against
Richthofens circus. A thriller for any new
conner to the front. But his guns jammed. He
was 10000 feet up, and Richthofen had spotted
him as easy prey. Down they came, the new
conner and the veteran, till they were but
short distance from the ground, hedgehopping
over the German lines. Another Canadian saw
the battle, came to the rescue. That was Roy
Brown fight leader of Mays fight, his chum
at high school at Manitoba He brought down
the great Richthofen.
Today May and Brown both fly the North
land, May with the mail and freight along the
Mackenzie, Brown with his own company in
Northern Ontario and Quebec.
It was a run with antitoxin that brought
May TO the front after a transforming career
in the West There came q message relayed
by wire from q musher who had arrived at
Peace River, Alberta from Fort Vermilion, 600
miles north of Edmonton, to say that an epi-
demic of diphtheria was raging at the outpost.
The message arrived nearly two weeks after
dispatch on New Year day, 1929 Relief by rail
and dog team meant at least q two-week trip.
The authorities forgot about May and his plane.
He volunteered. The weather was cold north
of Edmonton 1t was an open plane with
wheels. Felt to keep his engine warm was the
only precaution taken. With his partner and
100000 units of antitoxin he set out into the
bleak whiteness of the North.
He came back two days later. He had ar
rived safely had delivered his antitoxin and
wired those facts from Peace River on the way
back, where it was 40 below zero. Ten thousand
people turned out to greet him safe home when
AL ~ HE
open ship.
AS you are reading this, "Wop" May is prob
ably steering the Arctic Air Mail along the
Mackenzie River trail He opened that route
last Winter, when with four scarlet planes and
nearly five tons of assorted mail he brought
the mail right to the Arctic Ocean, the most
northern air mail route in the world Without
having flown the route before, with no other
pilots to tell him what to expect for he was
the first to fly that far north in Winter.
RUT Oaks, Dickins and May are not the only
wartime flyers active in Canada. There
are many. far too many to list even here.
There is S. A. Cheeseman, whose flights in the
Northland were good enough for Sir Hubert
wilkins to hire him to ny in the Antarctic
while Admiral Byrd was in that region. Capt
w. r. Maxwell few during the war. Today he
operates the largest aerial fire-hghting force ID
the world, the Ontario Provincial Air Service
government owned
There are many more names which have held
their place on the front page. Duke Schillek
who has been lost and found many time in
the Barrens; Bill Spence, whose outfit operates
around the Circle all the time; George A.
Thompson and Hollis-Kenyon of the Western
mails and Arctic rescue hights-these are some
other names. There is F. r. Mccall, who has
number of citations after his name, who runs
an air service in the West today.
Many of Canada's wartime flyers who have
made names for themselves in the North have
cracked up. others have died transforming and
testing, yet the outstanding pilots in the
Dominion are still men who once few the
battlefeldS.