VETERAN WEST PILOT
WILL RETURN TO FLYING SCHOOL
After 5000 hours of flying, something like 750,000 miles, in 20 years,
Donald R. MacLaren, assistant to the vice-president, Trans-Canada Airlines, is going back to school. He left Montreal by yesterday morning's plane for Winnipeg, where, as a student pilot, he will begin all over again.
Putting himself in the hands of the instructors, he will start with the Link trainer, "flying" without leaving the ground. He will go through the six stages of training required of all pilots until he finds himself on the right side of the plane as a first officer. Then he will study station procedure, despatching, weather and maintenance and overhaul. The idea is that as an operating officer he may be thoroughly familiar with every aspect of T.C.A. operating methods. He will be in the west two or three months.
Learned Hard Way
MacLaren learned flying "the hard way," as a bush pilot and in the war. He first went aloft in 1917 with the Royal Flying Corps at Long Branch, Ont. He was in France, where he made a distinguished record, until October, 1918. Then he represented the Canadian government on the air ministry until 1921. He had a permanent commission as squadron leader in the Royal Air Force but resigned it and came home to Canada instead of going to India.
Entering the commercial aviation field, he organized Pacific Airways and operated the fisheries patrol along the British Columbia coast, made aerial photographs, transported freight by air into the Yukon and northern B.C. and flew the night mail between Regina, Moose Jaw and Calgary. Later, when the company was merged with Canadian Airways, he became assistant general manager, Pacific lines. This position he relinquished in 1937 to become the first employee of the Trans-Canada Airlines.
The Lethbridge Herald (Lethbridge, Alberta) - Wednesday, February 1, 1939
Linear Mode
