In 1970, FPL General Manager Barney Flieger wrote, in a letter to The Secretary of the Air Transport Committee, Canadian Transport Commission [Ottawa], dated 24 April 1970:
From the beginning of forest spraying in New Brunswick to the present [1970] not a single aircraft of U.S. registry has been employed except after all suitable aircraft of Canadian registry and all duly licensed Canadian operators were first placed under contract. In all cases where U.S. aircraft participated it was because of a need which could not be filled at the time by licensed Canadian operators.
The Companies
Up to the late 1960s, most of the work had been done by Canadian operators based in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. Companies from British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick operated in the 1970s. American companies operated TBM’s in New Brunswick in three periods: 1964 to 1966 (Johnson), 1969 to 1972 (nine companies) and 1981 to 1982 (Stewart).
Canada – West
Skyway Air Services, Langley, British Columbia
Conair Aviation, Abbotsford, British Columbia
Airspray Ltd., Wetaskiwin, Alberta
Canada – Central
Hicks and Lawrence Limited, Saint Thomas and Tillsonburg, Ontario
Norfolk Air Services / Norfolk Aerial Spraying Ltd., Simcoe, Ontario
Wheeler Airlines, St. Jovite, Quebec
Wheeler-Northland Airlines, St. Jean, Quebec
Richel Air, St. Jean, Quebec
Evergreen Air Services, Roxboro and Pierrefonds, Quebec
Canada – East
J.D. Irving (Forest Patrol Ltd.), Saint John, New Brunswick
Maritime Air Service, Moncton, New Brunswick
Miramichi Air Service, Douglastown, New Brunswick
U.S.A – Northwest: The Mountain States
Airway Inc., Yakima, Washington
Richardson Aviation, Yakima, Washington
Stewart Aviation, Moses Lake, Washington
Hillcrest Aircraft, Lewiston, Idaho
Reeder Flying Service, Twin Falls, Idaho
Johnson Flying Service, Missoula, Montana
Air Tankers Inc., Newcastle, Wyoming
U.S.A. – California
Sis-Q Flying Service, Santa Rosa, California
Hemet Valley Flying Service, Hemet, California
U.S.A. – South-Central
Aircraft Specialties, Mesa, Arizona
Interactive Google Map
This is an interactive Google map that provides locations of all companies in North America that provided Avengers to Forest Protection Limited.
Below are three tables that summarize the deployment of Canadian Avengers (in two time periods) and U.S. Avengers. A summary of FPL Avengers can be found HERE.
| Company | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 |
| Skyway | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Wheeler | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Wheeler- Northland |
✓ | ||||||||||
| Airspray | ✓ | ||||||||||
| JD Irving | ✓ | ||||||||||
| Richel Air | ✓ |
| Company | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 |
| Conair | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| Hicks & Lawrence | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Norfolk | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Wheeler-Northland | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Evergreen | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||
| JD Irving | ? | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Maritime | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
| Miramichi | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Company | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973-1980 | 1981 | 1982 |
| Hillcrest | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ||||||||
| Reeder | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | |||||||
| Hemet Valley | ✓ | ✓ | — | |||||||||
| SisQ | ✓ | ✓ | — | |||||||||
| Aircraft Specialties | ✓ | — | ||||||||||
| Johnson | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ||||
| Airway | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ||||||||
| Richardson | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | |||||||
| Air Tankers | ✓ | — | ||||||||||
| Stewart | — | ✓ | ✓ |
See that 66 Dodge in the background (Juniper 1970 pic) That belonged to Buck Innis !!!!!!!
Hi there.
I wonder if you can help. I am building a 1/24th scale flying model of ‘Norfolks’ B18 in its earlier pale yellow and white scheme. I have some lovely sharp pics of this aircraft from the port side, but could do with some other views. I have scoured your website and found a couple more pics, but again from just the port side (there is a great stb side pic on your site, but its a later scheme with black and yellow) Just wondering if you have any other pics that you have not published? many thanks, Richard Crossley.
PS, if you are interested, you can see one of my models flying on youtube, its a Brewster Bermuda, search for Brewster Bermuda if you want to see the vid.