SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Pioneer Profiles project : Alma Gaudreau RECORDED: [location unknown], 1985-04-27 SUMMARY: Alma Gaudreau was born in Quebec in approximately 1895. Wife of Frank Gilbert. Bought plane in 1931 and (with husband) started flying school, Gilbert's Flying Service at Vancouver Airport. TRACK 1: De;scribes buying Aeronca aircraft in 1931 and learning to fly. Started renting aircraft out and eventually built up to a flying service at Vancouver. Discusses prejudice against women fliers. TRACK 2: ;Discusses early flying at Vancouver.;

News item. Footage of a glider lifting into the air with Cathy, an Air Cadet, at the controls. This is her solo flight. Good aerial shots of the glider and the ground as seen from it [at CFB Comox?]. There were 250 applicants for glider training in 1975 but only 75 were chosen. Cathy is the first woman cadet at this base to pass the rigorous training and solo flight. Interviews with her and with base officer.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Pioneer Profiles project : Gretchen Matheson RECORDED: Surrey (B.C.), 1985-04-04 SUMMARY: Gretchen Matheson (nee Mathers) was a commercial pilot from 1953-56. Continued instructing 1956-79 on part time basis. Full time instructor 1979 - present (1985). Qualified flight test examiner. Former director of Abbotsford Air Show. Director of B.C. Aviation Council. TRACK 1: Learns to fly with Chilliwack Flying Club, 1951[?]. Training Air Cadets at Chilliwack, 1952. Full time commercial flying Wetaskiwin, 1953-56. Return to full time instructing in 1979. Comparisons of students, flying equipment and training of the 1950s and 1980s. The influence of sexual discrimination in flying. TRACK 2: Blank.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Pioneer Profiles project : Helen Bristol RECORDED: Point Roberts (Wash.), 1985-04-26 SUMMARY: Helen Bristol (nee Harrison) learned to fly in England. Instructed in South Africa, 1936-38. Instructed in England, 1939, and Canada, 1940-42. Ferried aircraft with Air Training Auxiliary 1942-45. Instructed in B.C., 1946-69. TRACK 1: Learning to fly in England in 1934. Obtaining seaplane rating in Singapore in 1935. Flying commercially in South Africa, 1936-38, England, 1939. Returns to North America and gains commercial pilots license in U.S.A. and Canada before outbreak of war. Refused entry into RCAF and BCATC. Finally accepted into Air Training Auxiliary and spends most of war ferrying aircraft in England. Description of aircraft and flying procedures. TRACK 2: Flies trans-Atlantic on return home from leave. No flying jobs for women post war, so drives cab until hired on to demonstrate Percival aircraft across Canada. Settles in B.C. and continues flying career as an instructor. Discusses students, training methods and sexual discrimination.

RECORDED: Okanagan Falls (B.C.), 1982-06-17 SUMMARY: Isobel was born in New Zealand, and saw much of Australia, the British Isles and North America. She taught art, was a musician, and married a fruit farmer. She started a hairdressing business at Okanagan Falls, as well as a dressmaking shop. At the age of fifty, she bought an airplane and learned to fly.

CALL NUMBER: T3214:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Joe Bertalino discusses: background; how he got interested and involved in aviation; Lulu Island experience; doing both flying and mechanical work at this time; started a flying school in Kamloops; barnstorming; training procedure when he was learning to fly; out at the new airport in Vancouver in the '30s; United Air [Transport?] job, 1934-39; switched to Air Canada (i.e., Trans-Canada Airlines) at outbreak of war; joined Air Force -- organized flying schools; time in the Army; Abbotsford airport, job as inspector in 1947 until retirement, 28 years later. Discusses his work with flying schools, especially the training students received during the war. Flying up the coast before WW I. Procedures in case of an accident. Accidents. Dobbin brothers -- Dominion Airways. TRACK 2: Joe Bertalino: the Dobbin brothers (cont'd); the Travelaire; Dominion Airways -- what happened to staff when it folded; gliding; social life in the airline business; difficulties in the Depression -- hard to convince government to spend money on aviation, but no active opposition; Hal Wilson and his flying of the tri-motor (based in Victoria); his first flight; why he got involved in aviation -- the excitement; adventures in flying in the bush; anecdote about getting lost; pilot-mechanic partnership on flights; wooden props -- took awhile to ship; no radios in planes until 1934 in Canada. CALL NUMBER: T3214:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Joe Bertalino discusses: beginning to use radios in airplanes; advent of night flying; large aircraft first came in early to mid 1930s; icing problems when he was flying -- worst was with the Beechcraft traveling up the coast; first jets in B.C. -- the De Havilland Comet, Douglas DC-8; relationship between TCA and CPA in the early days; the 'Flying Seven' -- a group of seven women who got their aviation licenses. [TRACK 2: blank.] CALL NUMBER: T3214:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1978?] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: A continuation of Paul Stoddart's interview with BC aviation pioneer Joe Bertalino. Mr. Bertalino recalls his experiences barnstorming in the B.C. interior in a Fleet biplane with Humphrey Madden in the 1930s; the beginning of his involvement in aviation; navigating by following roads and powerlines; taking people up for short airplane rides; visit to Douglas Lake Ranch; Grant McConachie's early freight service into the north; etc. [TRACK 2: blank.]

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Early aviation in B.C. : Margaret Rutledge RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Margaret Rutledge discusses: background- born in Edmonton, early interest in flying; obtained private pilot's license in 1933 and joined the Edmonton and Northern Alberta Club; Grant McConnachie very helpful, but conceited; getting her commercial license in 1935; training required for a private license in the early 1930s; trained on a English biplane; requirements for a commercial license- 50 hours; went down to Los Angeles in 1935 to meet other female pilots, including Amelia Earhart; getting together with other Vancouver female pilots and calling themselves the 'Flying Seven'; work in the war with planes- but women could not be pilots in the Air Force at this time; describes different members of the 'Flying Seven'; cost of renting planes at this time; became a radio operator at Zeballos for Ginger Coote Airways- first woman radio operator in the world; anecdotes about Ginger Coot; description of Zeballos in the 1930s; radio operations in B.C. in 1937-38; at Zeballos, she only flew as a co-pilot; more on Ginger Coote and his airline. (End of interview)

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Pioneer Profiles project : Margaret Rutledge RECORDED: [location unknown], 1985-07-26 SUMMARY: Margaret Rutledge was born Margaret Fane. Learned to fly in 1930s with Aero Club of B.C. Founding member of The Flying Seven. Worked for Ginger Coote Airways at Zeballos, B.C. as dispatcher. [No conte;nt summaries available for these tapes.];

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Pioneer Profiles project : Rollie Pierce RECORDED: Port Coquitlam (B.C.), 1985-04-10 SUMMARY: Rollie Pierce (nee Moore) was a stunt pilot in the 1930s for the Aero Club of British Columbia. TRACK 1: Becoming interested in aviation, hanging around the airport and learning to fly with Columbia School of Aviation. Flight test requirements. Comparison of flying in England to flying in Canada. Forming the "Flying Seven" and the activities of the group. Activities at the Vancouver airport in the; late 1930s. Returning to flying after the war. Comments on Hal Wilson. Instructing post war. Stunt flying for Aero Club, 1937-49. Comments about her flying instructors "all special people". TRACK 2: Blank.