If you’ve ever piloted an airplane, you may know that the controls and systems differ from one plane to another far more than, say, the controls of modern automobiles. Particularly decades ago, the pre-flight inspection, takeoff procedure, and landing process for every type of aircraft is unique to that airframe. So a single pilot flying over 47 different types of airplanes, all in a limited amount of time and under a great deal of stress, is remarkable.
But Violet Milstead did it. She was born October 17, 1919, in Toronto, Canada. When she left school at 15 to help out in her mother’s shop (they sold wool), she wanted to become a surgeon. But within a year she’d changed her plans, saved up her money, and enrolled in a class to learn to be a pilot. She was a quick study, and earned private and commercial piloting licenses within just six months. That was in 1939.
By 1941 she was certified as a flight instructor, and began giving flying lessons. But Canada entered World War II shortly after that, and wartime rationing meant there was no fuel available for learning to fly. Milstead found out that the Air Transport Auxiliary, in England, needed pilots, so she travelled there and volunteered. The ATA was established during the war to carry people and goods where they were needed, as well as to ferry airplanes to new bases. Milstead was one of just four Canadian women in the ATA, and ended up flying 47 different types of planes (possibly more).
Navigation was an issue, since ATA pilots weren’t allowed to use radios. And weather was an issue; the ATA flew in conditions that grounded most other pilots. Milstead would make up to eight flights per day, and because she was only five feet tall, sometimes had to sit on top of at least one parachute pack just to see out. In spite of that, she became the longest serving Canadian pilot with the ATA.
After the war she returned to Canada and became a “bush pilot,” flying hunters, miners, and lumbermen into the northern wilderness. She was the first female bush pilot in Canada. Some of her male passengers tried to misbehave, but she apparently had no trouble dealing with them — she threw one of them right out the door of her airplane.
She was inducted to the Bush Pilots Hall of Fame in 1995, and in 1996 was the subject of a documentary film, A Time for Courage. She appeared on a Canadian postage stamp in 2009, was awarded the Order of Canada in 2004, and received a long list of other awards. She entered the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame in 2010, and lived to be 94. She kept flying her own small plane almost until the end of her life.
