CAHS Prince Edward Island Chapter Newsletter

CAHS Prince Edward Island "Carl F. Burke, MBE" Chapter

PRESIDENT’S REMARKS
II would like to thank the members for coming out to the March meeting. Once again, I would like to thank Greg Gallant for arranging to have our meeting at the Armouries and the other three guests; Al Trainor, Wayne Cameron and Dave Currie for joining us. The highlight, before and after the meeting, was the tour through the P.E.I. Regiment Museum. This is a great museum containing many artifacts of P.E.I. historical significance. Many people, even locals, do not know that the museum exists.

Elections for our P.E.I. Chapter will take place at our next meeting in June. We definitely need someone for the office of Treasurer. Please give the nominating committee your co-operation. I think the rest of the executive are willing to remain in their positions including myself unless of course there are nominations from the floor. I remind members that our Chapter’s annual dues ($20.00) are payable in June. National membership dues are $40.00 and I have application forms. I regret though that I will be retiring as President of the chapter after the next full year in office, in other words in June 2007. This is mainly because in the spring of 2007 I will be retiring from my job after 35 years of service and would not like to have commitments to any organization to tie me down. I will remain a regular member of course. Hope to see you all at our June 3rd meeting in the Corbett Lounge, Slemon Park.

I have written a letter below to Mr. Lodato, Public Relations Officer for Miss Veedol....Spirit of Wenatchee, on behalf of our CAHS, PEI Chapter to go along with our donation to their organization. The donation worked out to be $253.70 American dollars.

On behalf of the members and the executive of the Carl F. Burke, MBE, P.E.I. Chapter, Canadian Aviation Historical Society, I would like to offer the enclosed donation towards the Miss Veedol Commemorative Flight. However small donations might be I realize that every penny helps towards the cause.

It was a pleasure last September to assist in our small way in making it possible to bring Miss Veedol to P.E.I. to mark the 75th anniversary of our own Erroll Boyd Commemorative Flight. It was truly a nice sight to see the colourful Miss Veedol land and taxi up to the ramp in Charlottetown in the capable hands of pilots Arnie and Dave. Jack was present with us on the ground waiting for the arrival.

All of us here would like to wish your Chapter and all the Miss Veedol crew good luck on the Commemorative Flight and hope everything goes well and that the flight is a complete success.

THE HISTORICAL ERROLL BOYD BELLANCA FLIGHT AND THE PEI CONNECTION
(Part 2 of 2 - continued from the previous newsletter)

(Article by William (Andy) Anderson, member of the CAHS Carl F. Burke, MBE, P.E.I. Chapter)

Two days later, the Charlottetown Guardian reported that, "Due to the inexpediency of making a night landing in the unlighted airport at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Captain Errol Boyd and Lieutenant Harry Connor, Trans-Atlantic flyers, who left St. Hubert Airport, Montreal, at 8:39 Saturday morning, made a landing at Tea Hill, this Province, about five miles from the city at 5:30 Saturday evening in their Bellanca Monoplane Columbia.” It was reported that Boyd and Connor encountered severe easterly winds over Cape Breton Island, and faced with a night landing at Harbour Grace, they decided to return to the flat land of P.E.I. to find a safe landing strip. They landed in a field belonging to J. D. Mac Rae at the highest elevated land area on the Island. Unsuitable weather conditions kept them on the Island for ten days.
However, there was suspicion that the aircraft was being held due to continuing legal disputes in Montreal concerning monies being owed to Columbia’s owner. While on the Island, the aviators were hosted by Dr. Jack and Louise Jenkins at their Upton farm in East Royalty, near Charlottetown. They met the Lieutenant-Governor and were guests at the Charlottetown Rotary Club. An improvement in weather conditions enabled them to continue their flight on Sep. 23 and in the presence of a group of interested spectators they took off from the Mac Rae field and headed to Harbour Grace, where, once again, they incurred delays due to bad weather.

Even with full throttle the aircraft would not move. The weight of the fully laden machine had driven the tailskid into the ground, creating an effective anchor. Thus began the Trans-Atlantic attempt of J. Erroll Boyd, and his navigator, Harry Connors when on October 9, 1930, dressed not in flying kits but in business suits and with some spectators pushing their aircraft to release the embedded tailskid, Boyd and Connor commenced their westerly downwind take-off into their epic journey. Their westward departure was needed to avoid a rock wall, 50 feet in height, to the east which would demand a rate of climb inhibited by their heavy fuel load. Their food supply consisted of concentrated chocolate tablets, oranges, sandwiches, two containers of coffee and a gallon of water. It was expected that much of the flight would be conducted on instruments and dead reckoning navigation. They carried a Very Light and pistol, drift bombs and a chronometer. Their intent was to proceed true east until they intercepted the ocean shipping lane, then to follow the great circle route to the Croydon Airport near London, England, a distance of 2400 miles in 23 hours at a speed slightly better than 100 mph. Boyd was confident in Connor’s navigating abilities and Connor was known to say that Boyd could hold a course within a degree. Due to severe vibration during take-off, the earth induction compass became inactive so they had to rely on two magnetic compasses.

The Captain of the liner Lancastria reported to Marine Services in New York that he had seen the Columbia aircraft steering east at 5:40 p.m. (E. S. T.) about 400 miles east of Harbour Grace. A problem arose when the battery failed after a few hours of night flying. Based on dead reckoning navigation, they estimated reaching the great circle shipping route, so they changed course northerly and commenced a climb from their 5,000 foot altitude. Noticing the drop in temperature, Boyd used his flashlight to check the wing’s leading edge where he had painted a black stripe, something he had learned while flying in the mountains of Mexico. Seeing ice forming, he changed to a more southerly heading and descended to warmer air. He then commenced climbing on an east northeast heading. They broke out of cloud at about 12,000 feet into so bright moonlight as Connor was to exclaim later that, “Believe me that was the best moon I ever saw”. However, they encountered bumpy air conditions and high cloud around them. After a long twilight period, dawn finally broke and they were able to determine cloud layers through which they descended to 500 feet where they picked up a tail wind but due to rough air conditions they were obliged to climb again to 5,000 feet. Eventually, they found a suitable altitude at 1500 feet. Later in the morning, a
reliable sun line placed them approximately 113 miles south of the steamer track heading for the Bay of Biscay. Boyd changed to a more northerly course which pointed them to Land’s End and London.

A major problem arose when they determined that, due to a clogged fuel line, the 100 gallons of fuel in an auxiliary tank could not be transferred to the gravity wing tank from which it would feed the engine. They searched along the shipping lane with the hope of finding a ship near which they might safely ditch. Boyd adjusted the throttle to allow for fuel consumption to be reduced from 12 to 8 gallons per hour. Finally, some small islands began to appear which were identified as the Scilly Isles southwest of England. Connor’s assessment was that they could not safely land on the Scilly Isles so he plotted a course to Plymouth. However, Boyd felt confident that he could land safely, and not wanting to risk ditching at the last minute within the 23 mile distance from the mainland, decided to land immediately. After quickly dumping the unusable fuel, Boyd set the "Maple Leaf" down on the beach, stopping within inches of the high tide water after a landing run of only 200 feet. Connor later commented that he didn't think it was possible for anyone to land an aircraft on such a narrow strip of beach. With the help of the surprised local people, the "Maple Leaf" was pulled to a high dune and secured for the night. The next morning 50 gallons of fuel were brought in by a military flying boat, a makeshift runway was constructed, and at low tide, Boyd had the "Maple Leaf" in the air and in less than three hours, landed at Croydon Airport, London.

In speaking to reporters, Captain Boyd stated, “From St John’s we ran right into head winds, then came darkness, rain squalls and fog. We didn’t know whether to stay below the clouds of climb above but we stayed below as long as we could. When we first attempted to get out of the clouds we climbed up to 7000 feet. But up there the temperature registered 32 degrees and we were afraid of ice forming on the wings so we decided to come down again. We were flying blind at the time and Connor couldn’t take celestial observations during most of our flying and therefore we relied on dead reckoning navigation. When we dropped down we thought we would be able to sight some ship but we didn’t. Heavy northerly winds drove us about 400 miles south of our course during the night. We again climbed up to try to get out of a storm reaching an altitude of 12,000 feet which we kept for about five hours but we were still in rain squalls all the time. We flew along until dawn when we picked up our position again. It had been dead reckoning all night but the Sperry artificial horizon was one means of attaining our objective and getting across.”

Amongst the officials greeting this first Canadian crossing of the ocean was Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, who was in London for a Commonwealth Conference, and the Prince of Wales. Also in attendance at the airport was the Premier of Ontario, G. T. Ferguson, and Boyd’s aviation colleague and aircraft owner, Charles Levine. An interesting sideline is that Sherwin Cottingham, a wealthy Canadian residing in England, purchased the "Maple Leaf" from Levine for $15,000.00 and promptly donated it to Boyd. On October 31, Boyd and Connor flew on to Amsterdam, then the following day to Berlin, and finally to LeBourget, Paris, receiving great receptions at all locations. This then, was the first non stop crossing of the Atlantic by a Canadian and during the bad autumn weather conditions of the North Atlantic and shorter daylight hours.

Boyd and Connor returned to Canada via steamship to a tumultuous welcome in Montreal. The "Maple Leaf" aircraft was unloaded and sent to St. Hubert for repairs, having been damaged in Liverpool, England, while loading. With the repairs complete, the long range tanks removed, and the seats replaced, Boyd and Connor with the Boyd family, departed November 23 for Toronto. Another enormous welcome greeted them there. In late 1930, two more plans for long-distance flights failed to materialize. Boyd flew the Columbia to the U.S.A. in 1931. Flying passengers from Daytona Beach at a dollar a head, Boyd gave many their introduction to flight. Later in1931, Boyd planned a round-the-world tour on a yacht named the "Islander" with its owner, Carl Justice. This plan never materialized as one crew member could not stay away from his employment for the proposed two years tour. In 1932, the Columbia received a major modification in the Bellanca factory as Boyd planned a solo round-the-world flight a year prior to Wiley Post who achieved it in a Lockheed Vega named the “Winnie Mae” in July 1933. Beginning in 1932, Boyd organized President Airlines Incorporated with himself as President and Clyde Pangborn, of round-the-world fame, as Vice President. (This famous Pangborn flight is being commemorated by the Bellanca replica “Miss Veedol” flight this August) On June 10, 1933, Boyd and Robert Lyon, with newsman H. P. Davis, flew Columbia non-stop from New York to Haiti, a distance of 2,379 miles to Port-Au-Prince in 24 hours 8 minutes. Later, they returned to New York via Washington, DC, where they carried a special commemorative stamp issue. This was the faithful Bellanca Columbia’s last important flight. Her tragic end came in a hangar fire in Newcastle, Penn, in 1934, when she was almost completely destroyed by fire. Columbia’s original license number was 140 when she established the endurance record in 1928. Later, the number was changed to NX-237, and finally to NR-237. In 1934, Boyd became the Aviation Editor for the Miami Beach Tribune. During WWII, he recruited aircrew for the RAF/RCAF. Lindbergh expressed the view that this was a violation of USA’s neutrality. No records survive of Boyd’s recruiting efforts other than newspaper accounts.

The Bellanca Company continued to design and build bigger and better aircraft. A progression from the "Columbia" was the CH-300 used extensively in Canada as a bush plane, the "Pacemaker". It was also a derivation of this model that Clyde Pangborn flew around the world in 1931. Two of the largest single engine aircraft flown in Canada were of Bellanca design. Canadian Pacific Airlines, amongst other Canadian airlines, utilized both the Model P.200 Airbus and the 66-75 Air cruiser. The P.200 saw service in the USAAF as the C.27. Latest models of the Bellanca were the spectacular 1975 Skyrocket, and the Viking, both produced until 1980 as well as the Citabria of which there were three models; the Citabria, the Scout, and the Decathlon, also produced until 1980. Of note is the name Citabria which when spelt backwards spells Airbatic. The Bellanca Company lasted until February 26, 2003, when the assets were acquired by the Alexandria Aircraft Company.

Boyd returned to hotel management in 1947 when he leased and operated the Devon Hotel in Miami. In 1953, he organized the "Greybeards Flight" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1908 Wright flight. The proposal was for a modified war-surplus B17 aircraft to be flown by aircrew of early pioneering flights when aircraft were first used commercially. This was started by a discussion between Boyd and Lloyd Clevenger. The crew were to include such early aviators as Clyde Pangborn, George Halderman, "Ted" King, Clayton Knight, Jimmy Mattern, Brent Balchen, Roberto Fierro, Dick Merrill, Walter Hinton, Sir Hubert Wilkins and Frank Coffyn. Once again, his plans came to naught. In 1955, Boyd purchased his retirement home at Pompano Beach, Florida, where he lived with his wife until he died in 1960 and was interred near Pompano Beach.

The Charlottetown Guardian, Sep - Oct 1930, UPEI Archives;
The Provincial Archives of PEI;
Canada’s Flying Heritage by Frank H. Ellis
COPA Fight Magazine Aug. 2005; and,
Our Flying Heritage by Ross Smyth.