An Unexpected and Unusual Delay

Last month, I talked about high-flying ski jumpers in Kingsgate. Well, at about the same time those boys were flying off the end of the most unique ski jump in the world, there was an airplane in Creston that wasn’t flying at all.
In January 1932, W.H. Cross set out to fly from Montreal to Victoria in a Fairchild FC-2 plane piloted by a young Swede, Jarl Grubbstrom. I don’t know why they did this, but I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. The flight appears to have been uneventful, until the duo reached the Creston Valley.

On Friday, January 29, Cross and Grubbstrom left Lethbridge on what was probably the last leg of their journey – a flight of about 480 miles to Victoria. Given the plane’s maximum speed of 122 miles per hour, it should have taken them four or five hours. Instead, it took them nearly four weeks.
First, Pilot Grubbstrom was forced to land in Creston “due to adverse flying conditions”. A major snowstorm hit the Creston Valley that weekend. As the Creston Review reported, “The blizzard that prevailed on Saturday and Sunday and the attendant snow conditions made an attempted take off out of the question, as the plane is equipped with wheels.” Indeed, snow in places was drifted six feet high, a caterpillar snowplough couldn’t even break through them.

On Tuesday, February 2, the weather allowed an attempt at a take off. The plane was towed out onto the ice west of the Lower Wynndel Road, just north of Highway 3 (some local long-timers might remember it as Hood’s slough). “The ice, however,” reported the Review, “was unable to sustain the weight of the plane, which broke through damaging the propeller so seriously that it had to be shipped to Trail that afternoon for repairs.”

The prop wasn’t expected back until the end of that week, at least. In the meantime, Cross and Gruppstrom stayed at the King George Hotel. A team of horses hauled the airplane to the hangar at the Archibald flying school, and some Alice Siding residents earned a few unexpected dollars by digging a makeshift runway out of the snowdrifts. (The long-timers will likely remember Archibald’s flying school, but for those of you who don’t, here’s the details: William Archibald, manager of Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co, Cominco, established a training program for pilots to support the company’s mining exploration activities in northern Canada. In 1929, two flying schools were established, one in Creston, and the other at Kaslo. Here, the pilots learned to land and takeoff on grass or snow and ice, while the Kaslo school taught them water landings. They thus gained experience in all the conditions they would encounter in the North).

Friday, February 5. The repaired propeller arrived right on schedule, was mounted to the plane and Pilot Grubbstrom made a few short flights to make sure everything was adjusted properly. Then he “had the worst luck of all in making a landing on the banked up snow on the runway. This time it so badly wrecked the prop that it has to be shipped back to the plane factory in eastern Canada for repairs.” Mr. Cross helped pass the time by visiting Rossland for the weekend.

On Wednesday, February 17, the new propeller arrived by express. By the following Friday, the Review was able to report that it was being fitted onto the airplane, and “if no further bad luck overtakes them the flyers will get away today, probably.”

Or maybe not. The newspaper was a little shy on details, but something happened to delay the plane’s departure yet again. It was not until the following Wednesday, February 24, that Cross and Grubbstrom actually managed to leave the Creston Valley.

There was no word on when, or if, they actually reached their destination. Or if they took the train back.

Creston & District Museum & Archives
Phone: 250-428-9262
Email: mail@creston.museum.bc.ca
Website: www.creston.museum.bc.ca

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