| description: | Silas Alward (Al) Cheesman, pilot and engineer, born at St. John, New Brunswick, on May 14, 1900, died April 2, 1958 in Fort William, Ontario, seen on the right at Hudson, Ontario, with a Fokker Universal G-CAFU. He left school at 14 years to work as a machinist and then went into business for himself. He was a Port Arthur Alderman, 1937-1938. His most memorable exploits in the air were a south polar trip to the Antarctic in the fall of 1929 with Australian Explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, and a flight in search for 6 Russian Airmen lost in an arctic flight from Russia to the USA in 1937. He was chief pilot in charge of Maintainance Work of name planes. He started flying with Aero Marine Airways in USA as a mechanic after the War. He flew on fisheries patrol in 1931, and was the pilot of Fokker Universal G CAIX when it crashed at Elk Lake, Ontario. Rather than wait he repaired the damaged plane with practically no facilities except those available in the bush and flew the plane out to Hudson, Ontario. In 1932, he took up residence in Port Arthur and bought explorers airways which operated in the Canadian North. He joined the RCAF in 1940 as an AC2, oficer in charge of all flying at No.8 bombing and gunnery school at Lethbridge, Alberta. |