Bluegrass Airlines

May 2005

Winnipeg, Manitoba 1944

Download a copy of this map to print (47 k)

In 1944, Winnipeg was served by three airlines. Canadian Pacific Air Lines service originated from Lac du Bonnet, and was connected to Winnipeg by a 2 hour bus ride.

Trans-Canada Airlines had three Eastbound departures a day to Kapuskasing, ON – Toronto-Ottawa and Montreal. They had 2 Westbound departures to Regina, SK – Lethbridge-Vancouver and Victoria BC

Northwest had one flight a day to Grand Forks-Fargo-Minneapolis/St Paul-Rochester-Madison-Milwaukee and Chicago.

In 1942 the Canadian Pacific Railroad bought 10 bush plane operators in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. Since most of the C.P service appears to be to areas with access to lakes, this service might have been provided by float planes. The Lac du Bonnet airport opened in 1924 and to this day provides services to land and float aircraft. I have found references to C.P. using Bellanca Air Cruisers, and one of them crashed in Ontario, so it is likely that one or two were used on these routes.

In 1944 the state of the art for commercial aircraft was the DC-3. Anything newer was being used as military transport for World War II. So it’s a safe bet that the T.C.A. flights and the Northwest flight used DC-3’s.

Bellanca Aircruiser leaving Lac du Bonnet, MB, turning toward Red Lake, ON

Mike Stone’s Bellanca Aircruiser from www.pmstone.com

On Final to Red Lake

Download panel from http://mitchspanelshop.com

It is impossible to re-create all of these flights with FS 9, but I was able to find the airports and navaids for the following flights:

From	To	Hdg	Distance	VOR	NDB
CYAX Lac du Bonnet	CYRL Red Lake	57	97 nm	114.0 YRL	218.0 RL
CYRL Red Lake	CYQK Kenora	193	80 nm		326.0 YQK
CYRL Red Lake	CYXL Sioux Lookout	127	91 nm	113.1 XL (dme)	346.0 YXL
CYXL Sioux Lookout	CYPL Pickle Lake	40	102 nm	113.7 PL (dme)	382.0 YPL
CYAX Lac du Bonnet	CZGR Little Grand Rapids	7	107 nm		280.0 4B
CZGR Little Grand Rapids	CYIV Island Lake	11	113 nm	116.0 IV (dme)	300.0 YIV
CYIV Island Lake	CYGO God’s Lake Narrows	4	42 nm		343.0 YGO
CYGO God’s Lake Narrows	CJB6 God’s Lake	61	30 nm

From	To	Hdg	Distance	VOR	NDB	ILS
CYWG Winnipeg	CYYU Kapuskasing	97	573 nm	109.3 YU (dme)	341.0 YYU
CYWG Winnepeg	CYQR Regina	286	266 nm	114.2 VLN 17nm		109.5 IQR 13