The Pinetree Line

Victoria Beach was established in 1921 as a flying boat detachment of Canadian Air Force Station Winnipeg to conduct aerial surveys and fire patrols between Lake Winnipeg and the Ontario border, and along the northern ends of the larger Manitoba lakes. “Royal” was added to the title in 1924 (RCAF). Forestry duty became the RCAF’s priority tasking until the responsibility was shed to the provinces in late-1930. The Victoria Beach det initially flew H2SL “flying boats” for fire spotting, upgrading to the Vickers Viking in 1923 and the Vickers Vedette in 1925. Arrival of the Vickers Varuna in 1926 enabled active fire suppression (mooring the aircraft and pumping lakewater onto the fire), even though aircraft performance was often wanting, especially with waterlogged floats (pilots kept to large lakes). Arrival of the Vickers Vancouver in late 1929 corrected many of the deficiencies but, a specialized aircraft, it essentially had no job when the RCAF exited forest fire fighting a year later. Radio communications remained difficult – pilots flew with two pigeons, one to relay in-flight report of fires spotted and the 2nd to send signal the plane was crashed, stuck or broken down at a remote Manitoba lake. Considered a poor harbour, RCAF operations moved from Victoria Beach to Lac du Bonnet in 1926/7, retaining only a limited logistic support capability (e.g. refueling)