Bush flying

[5] In early 1919, after Wilson discovered that the U.S. Navy was giving Canada several war-surplus Curtiss HS-2L flying boats, he asked to borrow two.

[6] 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] 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.

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.

[10] Alaska's first bush pilot was Carl Ben Eielson, a North Dakota farm boy of Scandinavian descent who flew during World War I.

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,[4] before his contract was terminated after the third accident.

This flight demonstrated that the trip in support of mining operations could be made in under an hour, when the dog sled trail would take several days in winter.

A typical bush plane will usually have high mounted wings on top of its fuselage to ensure adequate ground clearance from obstacles.