Bush flying is aircraft operations carried out in remote, inhospitable regions of the world. Bush flying involves operations in rough terrain where there are often no prepared landing strips or runways, frequently necessitating that bush planes be equipped with abnormally large tires, floats or skis.
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The term bush flying most likely came from a term to describe the land in Southern Africa, bush.[1] This term came to describe any remote wilderness areas beyond clearings and settlements,[2] where bush pilots operated.[1]
Bush flying is the primary method of access across the Canadian[3] and Alaskan tundra[4] and the Australian Outback.[3]
In Canada, the first real use of bush flying was for exploration and development,[5] while in Alaska, transportation was the main purpose.[5] Later, bush flying became important during rescue operations.
After the Armistice with Germany, Ellwood Wilson, a Canadian forester employed by the Laurentide Company in Quebec, realized that airplanes could be used to spot forest fires and to map forested areas.[6] Early next year, when Wilson discovered that the U.S. Navy was giving Canada several war-surplus Curtiss HS-2L flying boats, he asked to loan two.[6] He then hired Captain Stuart Graham to fly the planes.[6] Graham and his engineer, Walter Kahre, then started to fly the first HS-2L to Lac-à-la-Tortue on 4 June 1919, arriving on 8 June 1919.[7] The flight had covered 645 miles, the longest cross-country flight executed in Canada at the time.[7] He then delivered the other HS-2L to Lac-à-la-Tortue.[7]
Equipped with the aircraft, the first bush flights occurred when fire patrol and aerial photography began in the summer of 1919 in the St. Maurice River valley.[7] Graham and Kahre continued this service for two more seasons,[7] but it became so expensive that the Laurentide Company underwrote the operation.[7] In response, it was split into a separate company called Laurentide Air Services Ltd. with Wilson as president as president and former Royal Naval Air Service instructor and barnstormer William Roy Maxwell as vice president.[7] These were the first bush flights in Eastern Canada.
In Western Canada, after Wilfred May was discharged from the Royal Naval Air Service and moved to Edmonton, a Montreal businessman offered the city of Edmonton a Curtiss JN-4 after he found success in the city's real estate.[8] Mayor Joe Clark and city council accepted the gift, prompting May to ask to rent the plane.[8] City council and May agreed to a price of CA$25.[8] May and his brother Court May completed the necessary paperwork and raised the required capital to form May Airplanes Ltd. George Gorman, a pilot, and Peter Derbyshire, a mechanic, joined the first commercial bush operations in Canada.[8]
Wop then asked the publisher of the Edmonton Journal to fly copies of the paper to Wetaskiwin,[9] 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of Edmonton. He accepted and the next day, Gorman and Derbyshire flew the newspapers along with 2 sacks of advertising circulars, following the rail line to the city, announcing the service to communities along the way.[9]
Bush flying in Canada is commemorated by a public museum, the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.
Alaska's first bush pilot was Carl Ben Eielson, a North Dakota farm boy of Scandinavian descent who flew during World War I.[5] After the war, he moved to Alaska as a mathematics and science teacher in Fairbanks.[5] However, he soon persuaded several citizens to help him acquire a Curtiss JN-4, flying passengers to nearby settlements.[5] He then asked the postal operator for an airmail contract. The post office accepted the proposal and in 1924, Eielson received a de Havilland 4 that would be used to make eight mail runs to McGrath, 280 miles (450 km) away.[5]
Bush flying involves operations in rough terrain, necessitating bush planes to be equipped with tundra tires, floats, or skis.[3] A bush plane should have good short take-off and landing capabilities. A typical bush plane will have wings on top of its fuselage to ensure that they do not make contact with any overgrowth in the landing area.[10] They will normally have conventional "tail-dragger" landing gear as it has a greater aeronautic ability than tricycle landing gear, and is more suited to rough surfaces.[10] The increased upward angle of the taildragger configuration gives the propeller more clearance from the ground allowing it to avoid striking large rocks, logs and other debris that might cause damage. However tricycle gear ("Nose wheel") bushplanes are capable of landing almost anywhere a tail dragger can, provided it is equipped with suitable oversize high flotation tires and is correctly loaded.