The snow plane
The sound of an airplane motor shattered the silence of a country winter day. It growled, revved up and coughed and then gradually smoothed out to a steady, satisfactory roar.
While airplanes were rare in rural Saskatchewan in the 1930s, airplane motors were relatively common. Nearly every community of any size had a snow plane, home-constructed by a local mechanic.
A snow plane had a cabin like the airplanes of the day, a large propeller on the rear and it slid along over the snow on three skis.
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When the airplane motor was started everyone for five miles around knew about it.
These light motorized sleds moved readily over snow and so they were ideal in an era when snowplows were few. On a good track snow planes could hit speeds well over 50 miles per hour.
In our village, service station operator Mac Houston built a snow plane and it came in handy when a snow-bound farm family was in need of a doctor.
Only old-timers will remember that long before Nipawin, Sask., became famous for car bonspiels, that community used to stage snow plane races.
Dinty Moore of Foam Lake competed at Nipawin one year and found when you were on a track that required turning, you needed ballast to keep your light craft from skidding sideways and losing valuable time.
He found a few rocks and this proved a great performance booster.
There were also snowmobiles in that era but they were just trucks that had been fitted with track treads.
So when you sit smugly on your shiny snowmobile bouncing over hills and valleys, think kindly of those mechanics of 60 and 70 years ago who developed the technology that made your winter sport possible.
