Flying the Frontiers, Vol. 2: More Hours of Aviation Adventure!

Geoff Cragg teaches in the Faculty of General Studies at the University
of Calgary.

In this second volume of Flying the Frontiers, Shirlee Smith Matheson
continues the work of chronicling Canada’s aviation history. There are
stories of pleasure pilots and commercial pilots, an Oblate missionary,
an aircraft engineer, a firefighter, a wilderness guide, and a
tail-gunner, among others. The recorded exploits include flying solo
from Lloydminster to Vermont at the age of 80, safely landing a plane
with only one ski on the edge of a frozen lake, transporting 7.5 million
baby chicks from Toronto to Havana, and flying a dilapidated
Barkley-Grow from Riviиre du Prairie to Calgary. As oral history,
Flying the Frontiers goes well beyond the mere transcription of
interviews. Matheson creates an impressive sense of coherence by
emphasizing the connections that unite the book’s diverse stories. The
result is a fascinating micro-view of history as a tapestry woven from
individual lives.