Ernest Hoy and his Vancouver to Calgary flight August 1919 - a forgotten moment in BC History

Photo in Cranbrook with Ernest Hoy and Mayor WF Cameron August 7th 1919

On August 7th 1919 Ernest Hoy made the first flight from Vancouver to Calgary leaving from Minoru Park in Richmond at 4:14 am.   This may not sound like anything too exciting, but it is remarkable given the mountains of BC that had to be flown over.  This was a flight that in most ways was a much harder task than Lindbergh's solo over the Atlantic eight years later or the first transatlantic flight by Brown and Alcock in May 1919.  By all rights he should be better known in Canada at least than Charles Lindbergh.

He flew a Curtis JN-4 Jenny (or Canuck as ones built in Canada were called).  This plane had a speed of about 115 kmh and a maximum altitude of between 2000 and 2150 meters.  The Jenny was barely able to manage the altitude needed and landscape of BC is not forgiving for planes that need to land.

This is the first real crossing of a major mountain range by airplane in the world.  There was a short hop of 80 kilometers through Mullan Pass in Montana in 1911 but nothing on the scale of this flight.    There were also some over the mountains in the US Southwest before 1919 but the scope and scale of those mountains is not on the scale of the Cascades or the Rockies.   This was really a global aviation first.

Ernest Hoy was born in Dauphin Manitoba May 6th 1895.  He moved west to Vancouver before the war.  He enlisted on March 3rd 1915 shortly before his 20 birthday for active service overseas as part of the 102 Regiment.  The 102nd was sent to Britain June 18th 1916 and arrived in France on August 12th 1916.  He ended up as a private in the 3rd Pioneer Battalion of the Canadian Engineers.  It seems possible he would have been at the battle of Vimy Ridge.

He came down with trench fever in 1917 before May 9th.  While recovering in England joined the Royal Flying Corps.    He was assigned to the 29 Squadron in January 1918 but hospitalized in the spring only returning to active flying in August of 1918.

In only six weeks from the start of August he shot down 11 German airplanes and two balloons, that is more than two a week, a remarkable tally.  Few pilots managed so many kills so quickly.   He was shot down on September 28th 1918 and taken POW.  In December 1918 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Lieut. (A./Capt.) Ernest Charles Hoy. (FRANCE)
 A bold and skilful airman who has accounted for four enemy machines and shot down a balloon in flames, displaying at all times a fine fighting spirit, disregarding adverse odds.
Supplement to the London Gazette, 3 December 1918 (31046/14322

It was less than year after his first aerial victory in Europe, he made his historic flight through the mountains of BC.    The reason he made the flight was because of a prize of offer for the first person to fly from Vancouver to Calgary in under 18 hours.   The prize was offered by three papers - the Vancouver Daily World, the Calgary Herald, and the Lethbridge Daily Herald.

The Little Red Devil - the Curtis Jenny Hoy flew

With such a low maximum altitude, he could not fly a direct route from Vancouver to Calgary but had to follow the valleys and fly through mountain passes.  His route went via Vernon, Grand Forks, Cranbrook and Lethbridge.   The whole route was about 1,400 kilometers long, the direct air route is about 700 kilometers.  It is also worth remembering that none of the communities along the way had airfields.   He was relying on locals to choose a flat field that would suit his needs.

He crossed the following major mountain passes:
Coquihalla - 1244 meters
Bonanza - 1,535 meters
Rose (Crawford) - 1,200 meters
Crowsnest - 1,358 meters

He made the trip in 16 hours and 42 minutes, an hour and 18 minutes faster than the limit for the prize.  He was actually in the air for 12 hours and 34 minutes meaning he averaged 112 kmh in the Jenny, pretty damn close to all out for the plane while in the air.  A train trip from Calgary to Vancouver at the time took 25 hours.
 

His flight:

• 4:14 AM Minoru Park Richmond  - He flew up the Fraser to Hope, then over the Coquihalla Pass, then to Merritt and then via Douglas Lake to Vernon
• 7:18 AM landed at Vernon  - He flew south from Vernon to Kelowna where he followed the Kettle Valley
• 10:34 AM landed at Grand Forks - He flew to Castlegar Nelson them up Kootenay Lake to Balfour then east over Rose (Crawford) Pass.  He was within 150 feet of the ground over the pass.
• 2:05 PM landed at Joseph's Prarie in Cranbrook to a crowd of 3,000 people, 1,000 more people than lived in Cranbook at the time.
• 3:35 PM departed Cranbrook
• 6:22 PM landed at Lethbridge - the third plane to ever land in Lethbridge.  5,000 people came out to see his arrival which is remarkable as the total population was only 10,000 people.
• 7:18 PM departed Lethbridge
• 8:55 PM landed in Calgary at Bowness Park.  The landing site was lined with cars with their headlights on so he could see where he was going.

At the same time as Hoy was trying to win the prize, Ernie Hall was also trying to fly from Vancouver to Calgary.  Hall planned on taking his time and left days before Hoy.  Hoy caught up with him at Midway.  Hall chose to fly via Creston and landed there.   His plane was mobbed by the public and damaged which ended his trip.  I can not find out anything else about Ernie Hall.

He planed to fly back to Vancouver several days after getting Calgary.  This time be planed a more direct route via the route of the CPR and was only expecting to stop in Golden and then either Kamloops or Vernon before getting back to Vancouver.  He thought the return trip could be done in 10 hours total.  His flight to Golden I believe was the first flight through Kicking Horse Pass.

He left Calgary on the morning of August 11th 1919 but only made it as far as Golden.  In Golden two boys ran on the field he was taking off from and he had to bank causing the plane to damaged.   The plane could not be repaired there and had to be shipped by train back to Vancouver.

After August 1919 Ernest Hoy sold insurance for Sun Life Canada.  He eventually moved to Clarkesville Tennese where he raised Angus cattle, it is not clear when he did this.  By 1960 he is living in retirement on a farm in Georgia.

He died April 22nd 1982 in Toccoa Georgia

Hoy either in Vernon or Grand Forks

Some good links related to this story
Adventurous pilot flew into aviation history
Story from the Kamloops News relating to recognition of Hoy and the flight in Cranbrook in 2011
Ernest Hoy's RFC record
His Wikipedia page
Taming the Skies: A Celebration of Canadian Flight - mainly about the plane Hoy used
SE5/5a Aces of World War I

Calgary Herald Story about the flight from August 8th 1919

Just some video scenes from Monday's trip to Saturna

Travelling the Gulf Islands on one of the small ferries is actually a very relaxing day out. On Monday I went to Saturna with Ben so he could check out the Saturna Island Ecological Education Centre.


 The Wild Thyme Coffee House on Saturna is very cool.  They have repurposed a 50 year old British Leyland double decker bus.


 I am used to transferring for transit, but a similar thing happens on weekday afternoons on Mayne Island at the Village Bay ferry terminal
 

11 Cool Places to Visit in BC

I am playing around a lot with video and such.   In that process I created this video of cool places to visit in BC.

I have been to all of them other than Eve Cone and Hunlen Falls.

 

The places in the video are:

• Chilko Lake
• Leon Creek village site near Lillooet
• Black Tusk near Whistler
• Cathedral Provincial Park south of Keremeos
• Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Provincial Park
• Hot Springs Cove in Clayoquot Sound - The pictures do not convey the amazing experience of being in this unaltered natural hotspring that runs through a crack in the rocks into the ocean
• Hunlen Falls in Tweedsmuir Park - The 3rd highest waterfall in Canada with a 401 meter drop, that is almost eight times as high as Niagara Falls
• San Josef Bay in Cape Scott Park - Beautiful big sandy beach surrounded by old growth forest.  You are unlikely to ever see more than a handful of people at this beach
• Eve Cone in Edziza Park - I have not been here but ever since I first saw pictures of this cinder cone volcano I have wanted to see it in person
• Farwell Canyon of the Chilcotin River
• Joffre Lakes Park

I love Leon Creek, it is unknown to almost everyone.   It is not all that remote but feels like you returned to the late 19th century.

Bromley Rock

I love Bromley Rock on the Similkameen River, it is a great little swimming hole.  I first went there with my parents in the early 1970s, on Friday I stopped there for a short swim with my four sons and Sheila

One Night Looking onto the Lion's Gate Bridge

Pavilion Lake Fire

The cross hatching is the area of the fire, the lake is Pavilion Lake
the upper right north side of the lake is where I lived

There is a fire burning not far from where I lived on Pavilion Lake, less than 4 kilometres down the road.

Living in the Lillooet area I got used to forest fires somewhere in the area every year.  It was part of life in the dry and hot climate of the region.   

My friends at Ts'kw'aylaxw are all under evacuation alert, though the fire is apparently now 85% contained. I think the risk is over for them.   I am 99% certain there was no chance of a risk to people living at Pavilion IR #1, it is the Marble Canyon Reserve that is less than 1.4 kilometres from the fire, though fires do not tend to burn downhill.

I know the forest that has been burned.   It is largely in the Marble Canyon Park and was/is old growth forest.   I often drove the road behind the park to get up on the cliffs above Pavilion Lake, this road goes through the location of the fire.   It is a beautiful view and a peaceful place.    That fact that a bunch of it has burned is very personal to me.

It looks like the area right above the well know ice climb Icy BC has been burned.  I have no idea if this will have any impact on the climb next winter.

Parts of some early maps for the area near Lillooet

Map from 1859 - Lillooet still called Kayoosch and HBC Fort Berens is on the map

Map drawn by Matthew Begbie in 1860

1860 Map of Lytton

1861 showing the area from Lillooet to Lytton

1862 sketch map of roads in the Lillooet and Lytton areas

How very, very cool

I have just been listening to John Lutz of UVic about the new digital archive containing the original correspondence between the British Colonial Office and the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. I thrilled to see this because I have always wanted better access to these records.

My work with First Nations has always had a need to review the historical record of what happened early on, I have been to Ottawa to read some of these files.   Having this available online is wonderful.  I also like it because I just enjoy the history of this place.

Also very interesting, and something I am going make my boys look at, is the Governor's Letters.   This is a website of four lesson plans for students using the orginal materials to learn about the early European history of BC.

Kudos to John Lutz, the 21st century keeper of the flame of BC history!

Images of the docks in Steveston in about 1953

These are some of the pictures my mother Lita von Schulmann took one day in Steveston in about 1953.

Stranger Wycott's Place

This is a new book in the Transmontanus series published by New Star Books. The series editted by west coast author Terry Glavin and is now at 17 books.

I went to a reading by John Schreiber at Bolen Books last night and I was captivated. His book speaks to my heart and the landscape that is within me.

I finished the book this afternoon - it is not a long one. I could not put it down because each and every page spoke about the lands and people I knew, of the stories I have heard and the ones I learn in my research.

John Schreiber has written the book I have in my head about the land just a little bit to the south of the Cariboo Chilcotin.

Kudos to Terry Glavin for another great installment in Transmountanus.

Road Trip to the Interior

Thursday morning we all will be heading towards the interior. We are heading up to Vernon/Oyama for Emily and Jimmys' wedding. Emily is my oldest niece and first one to be getting married. Emily had Jimmy have been living in Taiwan for the last year or so and plan on returning after the wedding.

We will be staying in Salmon Arm - yet a different Okanagan/Shuswap community has entered my life - I can not get away from the valley.

I hope we can do a side tour over to the Kootenaies - Sheila's cousin Elise lives in Golden and we want to pass through Keremeos on the way back. I have not been over that way much in my life and never into the heart of the East Kootenaies.

After we get back, I have a few days to prepare and then head out to the Sayward Forest Canoe route with the scouts.

I will post pics and comments about both the trips when I get back.