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Inductees
C. C. (Carl) Agar
Raymond Collishaw
W.W. Gibson
Sheldon Luck
Jim Spilsbury
DeHavilland Beaver
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 1909 - 1965 George William (Grant) McConachie
Even as a young man, owning only an old Fokker, he envisioned a polar route to Europe — a dream that 30 years later his Canadian Pacific DC-8s would fulfill.
George William ‘Grant ' McConachie was born in Hamilton, Ontario, on April 24, 1909. He grew up in Edmonton and read everything he could about aircraft. Grant frequented the Edmonton airfield, begging and sometimes getting rides with famous Canadian bush pilots like ‘Punch Dickins and ‘Wop May. The young enthusiast paid for his flying lessons by looking after their aircraft, finally soloing in a DH Moth after only seven hours instruction.
By 1931, at the age of 22 he had his commercial pilot s licence, and he set out for China to fly for Chinese National Airways. On his way, McConachie stopped off in Vancouver to visit his Uncle Harry This was the first of two fateful meetings in the bush pilot s life. Uncle Harry not wanting to lose his nephew to what was then a country at war with the Japanese, bought him a dilapidated, second-hand Fokker to start his own airline.
Excerpted from Peter Piggott's excellent book 'Flying Canucks - Famous Canadian Aviators'
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