Gerald Lester MacInnis

Gerald Lester (Gerry) Maclnnis was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, on June 2, 1914. He was educated there, at Point Pleasant, Prince Edward Island, and Montreal, Quebec. The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) accepted him for air crew training in 1941. He graduated as a commissioned officer and air observer and was posted to No. 116 Squadron at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on anti-submarine patrols during the Battle of the Atlantic. The following year he transferred to 117 Squadron on aerial patrols over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, under Wing Commander Stan R. McMillan.

In 1943 he was selected for pilot training and at graduation, became one of the few members of the RCAF qualified to wear both observer and pilot wings. He returned to No. 117 Squadron until 1944 when a transfer placed him with No. 45 Group, Royal Air Force Transport Command, based at Dorval, Quebec, where he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He completed a number of long-range ferry flights.

Maclnnis was seconded to British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) as an Instrument Flight Instructor and Check Pilot on the North Atlantic Ocean route in 1945. At the end of World War II, BOAC offered him a permanent position and he subsequently qualified for both British and American Senior Pilot's Licences, Instrument Ratings and Navigator's Certificates. In 1948 he qualified as Captain on the Constellation. He resigned in 1950 to become a full-time farmer on Prince Edward Island.

In 1951 the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, a chain of radar stations, was under construction in the eastern Arctic as part of the Canada-United States northern defence line. Maritime Central Airways, operated by C.F. Burke, was the prime airlift contractor for the eastern sector of the DEW Line. Burke offered Maclnnis a position as a pilot, which would take him to a setting very different from the idyllic farm life of the Maritimes.

Maclnnis was given the responsibility of landing the advance parties at each of the sites in the Arctic region, set 50 miles (80 km) apart and extending over a total distance of 900 miles (1,450 km), from St. John's, Newfoundland, along the coast of Labrador, to Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories. He personally carried out the initial aircraft landings at all but one of these points, enabling camps to be set up preparatory to construction work. The task of locating the sites was a serious problem in itself. While the sites had been chosen by advance aerial surveyors and marked on maps, there were few, if any, geological features to facilitate their identification from the air. Moreover, for the initial flights, navigational aids were non-existent.

Maclnnis' aerial operation was considered one of the most difficult in the history of Canadian commercial aviation. Long distance flights in ski-equipped Douglas DC-3/C-47 aircraft through brutal winter storms to unmapped areas were a constant requirement. Due to the distances involved, aircraft had to leave the main base on almost every flight with full tanks of fuel, thus reducing the payload. After landing the advance party, it was necessary to complete a second and sometimes a third flight to each site to deliver supplies, and equipment for setting up navigational aids for further flights.

Drifting snow and reduced visibility were constant hazards, and made the problem of locating the advance party on the second and third flights of each DEW Line site almost as difficult as spotting the sites initially. Although the Arctic regions do not usually receive large volumes of snow, the incessant winds cause the snow to drive and the surface to become extremely rough and hard, adding to the problems of landing aircraft in that region during the darkness of winter.

During this 29-month period in the north, Maclnnis flew 2,455 hours, of which 540 hours were completed at night. He was awarded the Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy for 1955. His abilities as a pilot and navigator were cited as one of the greatest single factors in the success of the DEW Line venture.

In March of each year from 1952-1954, Maclnnis was assigned to lead seal surveys. Patrol flights were made over the Atlantic Ocean north of Newfoundland to chart the movement of the sea ice to help in predicting the locations of seal herds. During these periods he also completed a number of emergency missions in that region.

Work on the DEW Line was completed in 1957, and for the next two years, Maclnnis flew long-range charter flights. In 1959 he coined the Ministry of Transport (MOT) as an Air Carrier Inspector. He was transferred to Ottawa, Ontario, in 1965, and named Supervisory Pilot for the MOT fleet of fixed-wing aircraft. When he retired from MOT on June 1, 1979, he had flown 21 different aircraft types and spent over 21,000 hours in the Captain's seat, which is equivalent to almost 2.5 years off the ground. He died in Ottawa on March 6, 1991.

Gerald Lester (Gerry) Maclnnis was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.