Pioneer bush planes touch down in Winnipeg with new collection

Manitoba's museum dedicated to the history of planes isexploring the early days of Canadian bush pilots.

The Aviation Museum is showcasing the birth of Canada's bush pilot industry duringthe 1920s and 1930sin a collection titled "Cold! Genesis of a National Industry."Visitors can catch tours throughout January before the collection takes off at the end of the month.

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According to Davide Montebruno, manager of tours at the Aviation Museum, the tour explores what's known as the "golden age" of bush flying, when pioneer pilots were warming up wood-and-cloth planes with camp stoves, landing wherever they deemed safe and mapping the country by hand.

"There's a very old saying about bush pilots: there are old bush pilots and there are bold bush pilots, but there are no old, bold bush pilots," Montebruno said. "They measured their chances, and the ones that measured best became world-renowned."

Montebruno says the name of the collection invokes the "one universal barrier" facing Canadian bush pilots in the period.

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"Bush pilots ran into a few unique problems in that they're running gas powered engines, so unlike the trains, it was a huge effort on their part to get their planes into the sky, to get them warmed up to temperature on a cold January morning," he said.

"Cracking that code, getting those planes working on a day-to-day basis, was really the secret to creating a Canadian national industry out of air service."

Guided tours are availableTuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 2p.m. at the museum at958 Ferry Rd.The tours arefree with paid admission.