Stanley Ransom McMillan

Stanley Ransom (Stan) McMillan was born in Dryden, Ontario, on October 3, 1904, and moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where he learned to fly with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Reserve in 1925. He left a university engineering course to join the RCAF in 1927 and flew on northern Canadian operations for two years, until he was granted leave from the service to join Dominion Explorers Limited (Domex) as a pilot, exploring the unmapped Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.

In March and April of 1929 he shared with another pilot, Charles Sutton, the distinction of being the first airmen to penetrate the vastness of the Barren Lands, in a 4,000 mile (6,400 km) trip from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to north of the Arctic Circle in winter. Col. MacAlpine, Domex President and mining engineer, contracted the trip, the purpose of which was to check on supplies and fuel caches at Domex bases. They stopped at Tavani, about 250 miles (400 km) north of Fort Churchill, and beyond Baker Lake, but any hoped-for explorations were curtailed by winter storms, and the group returned to Winnipeg.

Following this significant accomplishment, Col MacAlpine planned an autumn expedition to .inspect company activities. McMillan, flying Fairchild CF-AAO, and Tommy Thompson, flying a Fokker Super Universal, G-CASK, on charter from Western Canada Airways, piloted this two-plane expedition carrying their air engineers and a four-man geological team. The party left Winnipeg on August 24, 1929, with plans to investigate mineral deposits across the Barren Lands and along the Arctic coast. They were beset by mechanical difficulties and unusually bad weather from the beginning. They were last seen at Baker Lake on September 8th, when they headed towards the Arctic coast. Bad weather and low fuel supplies forced a decision to land when they saw the first signs of habitation. The three Eskimos (Inuit) could not speak English, but with the arrival of other Inuit, the party knew that they could survive until they reached the nearest outpost, Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island, about 80 miles (130 km) across the Dease Strait. Without fuel, the aircraft were abandoned. With no means of communication, the party was lost to civilization for six weeks. They lived on the tundra, sheltered and fed by the Inuit, and waited until the ocean waters froze sufficiently to carry their weight.

When conditions were right, they followed their Inuit friends as they began the trek across the channel to Cambridge Bay and reached the safety of that isolated outpost two days later, on November 3rd, fifty-six days after they had last been seen. It took another month for rescuers to be able to bring them out to Winnipeg. Their desperate plight had captured the headlines of the international press for three months, and triggered the largest aerial search in Canadian history.

In 1931 McMillan was employed by Commercial Airways, a company formed by W.R. 'Wop' May, which was soon absorbed by Canadian Airways Limited. His assignment took him throughout northern Alberta and British Columbia, as well as the Yukon and Northwest Territories, flying mail, passengers and freight. One outstanding three week aerial operation resulted in the salvage of the crashed aircraft used by the ill-fated Burke expedition into the mountains of northern British Columbia. The following year he was based at Carcross, Yukon, and flew the first airmail from there to Atlin, British Columbia.

Leigh Brintnell hired McMillan in 1932 to fly for his company, Mackenzie Air Service, at Edmonton, Alberta. For the next seven years McMillan completed a number of exceptionally difficult flights. In 1933 he delivered eight prospectors and their summer supplies, in relay flights, 1,000 miles (1,600 km) north of Edmonton to the headwaters of the upper Liard River, over unmapped territory, and during winter storms. As Chief Pilot in 1935 he made the first commercial link with Alaskan Airlines by flying over the mountains to Whitehorse, Yukon. During his flying career, he had flown on numerous searches for lost companions and completed a number of mercy flights. In 1936 he piloted a relief flight to Letty Harbour on the Arctic Ocean in mid-winter, without radio or navigational aids, to rescue three seaman who had been marooned for eight months. In the fall of 1936 he devoted six weeks to flying the Barren Lands with other bush pilots on a search for two missing RCAF aircrew, F/L Coleman and L/A Fortey, who were eventually found by Matt Berry.

McMillan's leave from the RCAF ended in September 1939, when he was recalled for service as a Flight Lieutenant. He was able to use his exceptional long range navigational skills as an operational pilot and commander on anti-submarine patrols out of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and ferrying flying boats from Bermuda to the United Kingdom. He also served on operational duties in Ceylon and Northern Ireland, leading three squadrons from 1943 until war's end, with the rank of Wing Commander. For exceptional services he was honoured with a Mention in Dispatches.

For two years after the war he flew aerial photographic surveys for Arctic Airlines, then formed Air Surveys Limited with a partner and continued survey flights for the Government of Canada until 1952. Four years later he joined Pacific Western Airlines (PWA) as Chief Pilot, Operations Manager, and then was named Co-Divisional Manager. His years of experience in cold weather aircraft operations were considered essential to PWA's safe flying procedures during the construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line radar bases along the rim of the Arctic Ocean in the mid-1950's.

When PWA sold their bush flying operations to Northward Aviation in 1966, he was named General Manager of the new company. In 1970 he formed Wraymac Sales at Edmonton, becoming an aircraft broker and parts supplier to the industry.

McMillan served as President of the International Northwest Aviation Council in 1963. He was named to their Aviation Roll of Honour in 1976. On November 13, 1981 a Wardair DC-10 with the call letters C-GFHX and the name S.R. “Stan” McMillan left Toronto on it’s inaugural flight to Quebec City with Stan and many of the early pilots and/or their families on board. He died in Edmonton on March 4, 1991.

Stan McMillan regarded the Inuit's skills and ability to survive in Arctic conditions with awe. His memories of their totally unselfish and happy nature throughout the difficult day of encampment on the Arctic coast are mixed with the knowledge that without them, the MacAlpine party would surely have perished.

Stanley Ransom (Stan) McMillan was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.