Yukon Wings
by Robert Cameron

Review By Terry Higgins
368 pp, Frontenac House, 2012,
Hardcover, ISBN 978-1-897181-62-1
9″ x 12″, illustrated throughout

This hefty volume, by Yukoner Robert B. Cameron, chronicles Yukon aviation in an easy-reading narrative history style, accompanied by a wealth of photographs (over 700!) and several maps.
Front cover illustration by Cher Pruys
After a foreword by northern aviation pioneer Rex Terpening that presents the author's well-earned credentials as a history-minded Yukoner and aviator with a lifetime of practice as pilot and engineer, a two-page long Introduction follows. This sets the stage, providing useful background material on early (prior to aviation) powered travel in Yukon. This flows easily into a first chapter that starts with an account of the first airmail flight that transited through Yukon on its way to Alaska from New York in the summer of 1920. Its thirty or so pages includes ten pages carrying narrative text columns, with the balance liberally populated by nicely reproduced photographs (originals permitting of course) complete with informative captions of varying length.
 
The subsequent fifteen chapters are similarly rich with photographs interspersed with segments of the ongoing story. The bulk of the narrative features pioneer entrepreneurs and daring aviators drawn to the developing need for flying services to complement the natural resource exploration / exploitation activity in the Yukon Territory. Their varied experiences in the face of both mother nature and mature competitors (initially, the transportation enterprises already established in the Territory with older-technology rail and riverboat operations) is presented as a string of nicely interwoven stories about individual aviators and individual aircraft. This is the tone carried throughout the book and, although this description may give the impression of monotony, the opposite is true. The whole is refreshingly readable.
 
By chapter twelve, “1942 – Boom Times”, military activity is mushrooming as the United States enters the Second World War and Yukon aviation, collectively by then a seasoned veteran of the north, struggles to keep up. The demand induced by the war-inspired Northwest Staging Route and Alaska Highway construction projects having overshadowed the usual natural resources activity of the previous decade. US Army aircraft were also becoming an increasingly more common sight in Yukon skies, and the author samples their activities on an individual basis as well.
 
Chapter thirteen begins in 1943, noting the  advent of Canadian Pacific Airlines, and seeing military traffic continue unabated as the war wears on. Still, even with such larger entities dominating the limelight, Cameron keeps the narrative humming along nicely on stories of individual persons and planes.
The first two of the remaining three chapters depart somewhat from what has been, up to now, a chronological approach. Chapter fourteen resets to 1941 to begin the story of Northern Airways, while chapter fifteen jumps ahead to 1947 and the Whitehorse Flying Services story, ending with the tragic event that precipitated its 1955 sale to Pacific Western Airlines of Vancouver. This segues smoothly into a final chapter which covers the introduction of helicopters to local bush flying, and trails off into a short description of what Yukon bush flying has since become.
 
In a fitting Postscript, Cameron gives an account of his involvement with the restoration, and flying of Fokker Super Universal CF-AAM, while summarizes a few other restoration projects of the Yukon Wings kind.
 
When I first picked up this book, the first impression was “photo essay”. While it would be easy to wax effusive on the merits of the photo collection reproduced in this book, to do so would not give the author his full due. Cameron's writing style is candid, fluid, and at times pleasantly humourous (one particular faits divers that made me chuckle concerned airplane rides for money in a BC mining town on a ferry flight north). This reader was pulled in from the very beginning, bouncing from one story to the next along a well-crafted blend of anecdote and historical fact. Each tale, be it triumph or tragedy, is told with a storyteller’s reverence for the people, machines, and environment, and with a quiet confidence born of subject familiarity.
 
Despite the book’s gargantuan size, I was able to finish reading the main text within slightly less than a week of armchair evenings, happily distracted by the photos and their captions along the way. I’m very happy to have it in my library. Highly recommended without reservation.
 
Originally published in CAHS Journal Volume 51 No.3 (Fall 2013)
We are offering this book at a discount in our e-shop here.

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