Lindsay Rood

Lindsay (Lindy) Rood was born on March 17, 1911, in Berwick, Nova Scotia, and was educated there and at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He enrolled in an extension course with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and began his long and eventful career in aviation. After earning his wings and a commission as a Pilot Officer in the RCAF Reserves, he entered commercial aviation as a flying instructor and barnstormer throughout Nova Scotia and obtained an Engineer's Licence as well.

In 1933 Rood became a flight instructor with the Cape Breton Flying Club at Sydney, Nova Scotia, and two years later went to England to join British Airways as a pilot. From 1935 to 1937, he flew routes which included London, Copenhagen and Stockholm. At this time, he earned his British Navigator's Licence.

In 1937 he returned to Canada as one of the first pilots to be hired by the newly formed Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA), pioneering the Rocky Mountain route between Lethbridge, Alberta, and Vancouver, British Columbia. He became one of the founding members of the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association (CALPA) when a group of TCA pilots met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in December 1937, to form an association.

At the outbreak of World War II, Rood was declared essential to the public service and prohibited from joining the military. The Hon. C.D. Howe, who was head of the Canadian Department of Munitions and Supply, seconded him in 1942 to the Return Ferry Service, Royal Air Force Transport Command, flying the north Atlantic Ocean between Montreal, Quebec, and Prestwick, Scotland. Pilots engaged in this war-time effort flew Liberator aircraft, converted to carry people rather than bombs, and brought ferry crews back to Canada after they had made their delivery of aircraft to the U.K. In 1943 he was assigned to No. 10 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron at Gander, Newfoundland, and instructed on Liberator B-24 bombers.

Rood was asked to help in the formation of the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service (CGTAS), designed to deliver high ranking Allied officers, government officials, special cargo and mail between Canada and the U.K. with the greatest possible speed. He was named Chief Pilot of this service and remained in that post until war's end when the service was taken over by TCA.

During the years of expansion of TCA, Rood was highly regarded for his abilities in every area of flight operation. He was put in charge of all flying personnel selection and training and played a major role in determining aircraft types used by the airline. He was named a senior member of many world aviation councils, representing TCA.

In 1944 Rood went on to become Chief Pilot of TCA's Atlantic Operation, and in 1947 he was named Superintendent of Flight Operations for TCA's trans-Atlantic service. One of his major contributions was his leadership in aircraft cockpit design and layout, which, with advanced electronics, resulted in two pilots being capable of flying even the largest aircraft safely and efficiently.

From 1950 to 1968, he was Director of Flight Operations for TCA, which was re-named Air Canada in 1965. He served as Vice-President of Flight Operations for Air Canada until his retirement in 1971, with nearly 20,000 hours as pilot-in-command. He died in Calgary, Alberta on April 29, 2004.

Throughout Lindy Rood's years as head of the Flight Operations Branch, he was an advocate for the development and use a "Motion" system to make aircraft simulators fly more realistically. He introduced the first of such systems in an early Air Canada simulator, a concept that has since been accepted throughout the aviation industry.

Lindsay (Lindy) Rood was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held at Edmonton, Alberta.