Archie Vanhee

Achille (Archie) Vanhee was born in Jabbeke, Belgium, on September 15, 1909. He immigrated to Canada in 1925 and continued his education at College St. Laurent near Montreal, Quebec. In 1928 Vanhee began flying training with the Montreal Flying Club and was later hired as a helper/mechanic. In 1929 he joined Continental Aero Corporation as an engineer and continued flying training. He obtained his Air Engineer's Certificate and Commercial Pilot's Licence in 1930, then joined the Société d'Aviation du Québec as pilot-engineer and flying instructor.

Central Airways at Amos, Quebec, hired Vanhee as pilot-engineer in 1935. Early in 1937 he joined Mackenzie Air Service where he flew the first official airmail between Yellowknife and Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories. During the same year, he flew with Stan McMillan on the Snyder Nahanni Survey Expedition.

While on one of his northern mail runs, Vanhee rescued Louis Bisson and his passengers who had been missing for several days after engine problems with the Waco biplane. Bisson himself was on a mercy flight to the Fort Smith Mission Hospital with several Inuit children and a trapper who were suffering from serious frostbite.

In 1939 Vanhee obtained his Public Transport Licence and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He was commissioned as a Flying Officer, and attended the Flying Instructor's School at Camp Borden, Ontario. After graduation he was posted to seaplane training at the RCAF station at Jericho Beach, British Columbia. In 1940 Vanhee moved to No. 13 Operational Training Unit (OTU) and instructed on several seaplane types.

In mid-1941 Vanhee was appointed to command 'C' Flight for instrument flying training. In 1942 he was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to take command of the Lockheed Hudson Training Unit, specializing in instrument flying training.

A year later Vanhee was appointed Commanding Officer of No. 160 Squadron at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. In 1944 he joined No. 45 Atlantic Transport Group to ferry flying boats from North America to the United Kingdom. After returning to Halifax, he became Director of Instrument Flying Training and in October 1945, he was demobilized with the rank of Squadron Leader.

That same year he joined Canadian Pacific Airlines (CPA), which had taken over Mackenzie Air Service. He now flew as Captain on the Lockheed Lodestar and Douglas DC-3. CPA, while still operating bush lines in northern areas, now ran scheduled air services. Vanhee flew CPA's Mackenzie District on schedules which included Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Yellowknife, Norman Wells, Fort Smith, and Fort Resolution.

In January 1949, he moved to Vancouver to fly for CPA Overseas Lines where he became one of the captains on several 'firsts for Canadian-registered aircraft': first flight to Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong, using Canadair C-4M's (North Stars); familiarization flight to Honolulu, Fiji, Sydney and Auckland; and the inaugural flight by CPA to Honolulu, Fiji and Australia carrying the first paying passengers and air mail to the South Pacific. Later that same year he was captain of the first direct Vancouver-Honolulu flight by a Canadian aircraft.

During the period from 1952 to 1960, Vanhee completed a ground school course on the new British de Havilland Comet jet passenger aircraft, qualified as captain on the DC-6B, and captained CPA's inaugural flight between Lima, Peru and Mexico. He qualified as captain on the Vancouver-Amsterdam route, and on special invitation from Boeing Aircraft in Seattle, piloted the four-jet-engine 707 prototype. In April of 1958 he became captain on the Bristol Britannia turboprop.

In 1960 Vanhee left CPA, and for the next twelve years, returned to flight instruction in British Columbia and Ontario. During this period, he also worked for several airways in Ontario. In 1967 he was awarded the Back and Bevington Air Safety Trophy by the British Columbia Aviation Council.

From 1973 to 1983 Vanhee flew for White River Air Services owned and operated by Stanley Deluce. He was allowed regular leaves of absence to work for the Canadian International Development Agency's Civil Aviation Project in several countries in Africa, where he was involved with pilot training on the DHC-6 Twin Otter. When Vanhee retired in 1983, at the age of 74, he had 56 years of unbroken active service in aviation and 25,000 flying hours in more than 90 types of aircraft from the small bi-plane Curtiss JN4 to the prototype Boeing 707.

Archie Vanhee was named as a member of the ‘Quebec Air and Space Hall of Fame’ in 2001. He died May 3, 2009, in Hamilton, Ontario - just short of his 100th birthday.

Achille (Archie) Vanhee was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1987 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.