RCAF Station Jericho Beach

The first Curtiss HS-2L aircraft, shipped from the Dartmouth Air Station by rail, was assembled and test flown on 24 September 1920.

Major Clarence MacLaurin, who had helped select the site and been superintendent of the station since its establishment, was killed in an HS-2L crash on 11 September 1922.

Changes to the organization of the air stations were deferred to the fall to avoid administrative issues during the flying season.

None of these changes, nor the official formation of the Royal Canadian Air Force on 1 April 1924, substantially altered the role of the station.

With the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, patrols were required to combat rum-running in addition to narcotics smuggling.

On behalf of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, an HS-2L was detached to Prince Rupert to spot vessels fishing illegally.

The station also began conducting experimental flights to capture samples of white pine blister rust to analyze airborne transmission patterns for the Department of Agriculture.

[2]: 106–131 [4]: 21–24 [5]: 133–135 In July 1925, retroactive to 1 April, all the RCAF's civil operations stations were re-designated as numbered squadrons, with Vancouver becoming No.

[3]: 41 [6]: 14  The majority of flying time that year was dedicated to fisheries patrol, with 3 HS-2Ls detached to Casey Cove near Prince Rupert for much of the summer and a single aircraft to Bamfield for the same purpose in the fall.

1 PD had been conducting photographic survey along the British Columbia coast using Fairchild FC-2 floatplanes each summer since its formation in 1928 and was disbanded at the end of 1931.

11 (MP) Detachment was formed at Bamfield to assist the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in combatting rum-running, and in 1933 No.

4 Squadron began training in Royal Air Force coastal reconnaissance tactics using the Vickers Vancouvers in addition to the civil duties inherited from its detachments.