PLANE TALK
Will Chabun from Regina has added some more historical background to this article. It is interesting the aviation inspectors arrived by train in 1921, as there was no such thing as scheduled fl ights to Regina at that time.
MCCOMBIE’S EARLY YEARS –
BY WILL CHABUN The story of Robert McCombie, the fi rst person formally recognized an “air engineer” in Canada is linked with another man, pilot Roland John Groome. Groome was keen on things mechanical and used this to enlist in the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, which at that time was recruiting mechanics for its rapidly growing “Imperial Royal Flying Corps” pilot training establishment in the Toronto area. Groome soon remustered as a pilot. When the war ended, he returned to his hometown of Regina and began setting up a fl ying business with two young men he’d met while fl ying for the IRFC, renamed the Imperial Royal Air Force in April 1918. These men were Edward Clarke, a pilot, and McCombie, a mechanic. They set up a rough- and-ready airfi eld on what was the southwest edge of Regina. Now, they needed an airplane.
That was ordered through Stan McClelland’s fl ying service in Saskatoon, which had arranged to receive and assemble crated examples of the Canadian-built Curtiss JN- 4(Can) Canuck trainers on which the trio had worked. To save money from having an aircraft crated a second time and shipped to Regina, Groome and McCombie took a train to Saskatoon in May 1919, accepted delivery of a Canuck and set out for Regina early on the morning of May 19, 1919. Their only cargo was a pair of letters from the mayor of Saskatoon and the head of the city’s exhibition association to their counterparts in Regina.
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DOMmagazine.com | aug 2019 They made it safely to the town
of Davidson, Saskatchewan, for refueling. But on take off , their Canuck damaged what’s described (in historical accounts) as its tail strut or skid. Worse, fuel began leaking. They landed at the hamlet of Disley, where they made repairs. In early afternoon, seven hours after leaving Saskatoon, they arrived at Regina, where several thousand people awaited them. They had completed the fi rst cross-country fl ight in Saskatchewan history. Now, how to make a living
from aviation? With Clarke acting as manager, Groome as pilot and McCombie as mechanic, they tried all manner of ventures like delivering newspapers to towns near Regina, carrying a businessman 75 miles to the town of Duff (for $150) and giving airplane rides (for $10 a person) at small-town fairs and sports days. It might have been while heading to or from one of these events that Clarke recalled McCombie stepping onto the Canuck’s wing (at 4,000 feet) and working his way forward to fi x an oil leak -- “all this without a parachute”. Flying shut down for the winter of 1919-20. But the Canadian federal government’s Air Board was busy, making plans to regulate aviation and aviators. Accordingly, several teams of experienced military aviators were dispatched across the country (via train — aircraft were no match for long distances and poor weather). Sent to Regina were Col. Scott and Major Breadner. They arrived in late April 1920, tested Groome and McCombie, and examined their aircraft and airfi eld. Within a few months, formal licences arrived: Groome received Canadian commercial pilot’s licence No. 1, while McCombie got aero engineer’s licence No. 1. (Groome was also given aero engineer’s licence No. 2.)
One of their two Canucks
was licensed as G-CAAA (the “G” indicating it was licensed in the empire of Great Britain, “C” specifying Canada and “AAA” speaking for itself). Finally, their little airfi eld was designated as Canada’s fi rst licensed “Air Harbour.”
WHAT CAME NEXT? Aviation was in its infancy and the postwar Canadian economy had its ups and downs. Groome left aviation around 1923 and took a job with a dairy in Moose Jaw. At some point, McCombie turned his mechanical skills to cars and moved to Edmonton. Groome returned to aviation in 1927 with his own company and as the chief fl ying instructor for the new Regina Flying Club. After 125 students, demonstrating how to use a parachute and fl ying in bitter cold in northern Saskatchewan, Groome died in a 1935 crash. McCombie served in the wartime
RCAF and retired from the automotive industry in 1970. In 1979, he was in Regina for a re-enactment of the 1919 fl ight, after which he handed a letter to the mayor of Regina from his counterpart in Saskatoon. What had taken McCombie and Groome seven hours in 1919 took a Norcanair F-27 about 35 minutes. Robert Ayloun McCombie died in 1981 at 82 years of age. Twenty-fi ve years later, his name was added to the aviation hall of fame maintained by the Saskatchewan Aviation Council.
HOW WE CAN HONOUR HIM Perhaps we can take some action nationally though the AME associations or some other interested national group. It would be nice if we could get Transport Canada to have a day to honour him once a year. Sadly, he is not in Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. Perhaps a concerted eff ort
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