Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 2007 editon

When Victoria had a Chinese flying school

Sunday, January 13, 2002
By Jim Brown

WHEN LlEUT. HARRY BROWN came home to Victoria after the First World War as a decorated Royal Flying Corps pilot, little did he know he would become better known as the instructor of Victoria's Chinese Aviation School than as one of the first pilots to dive-bomb enemy targets.

Brown was no sooner home than he became the moving force behind the Victoria branch of the Aerial League of Canada, composed of war-trained pilots who had no jobs to go to. With war surplus Curtiss Jennys, they barnstormed the southern part of Vancouver Island out of the Willows Fair Grounds in Oak Bay. This was a living for not only Brown but other pilots, including Gordon Cameron, Bob Rideout, James Gray, Louis Grant and Jack Clemence.

While a member of the Aerial League, Brown put on flying displays at the Puyallup Fair near Tacoma and Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, and flew over Seattle to drop Victoria Board of Trade leaflets inviting its citizens to attend the 24th of May celebrations in Victoria.

Then in May 1922, the Chinese National League, which had earlier started the Keng Wah Aviation School in Saskatoon in conjunction with the Nationalist Government of China, decided to move the school to Victoria and approached Brown to be the flying school instructor.

Brown and his partner Norman Goddard formed a company to operate the flying school and then purchased a 'Jenny "Canuck" JN-4 registered as G-CACJ from Ericson Aeroplane Co. in Toronto. To land and take off on water, they had Hoffar Shipyards in Vancouver build and install a large pontoon under the fuselage and two smaller pontoons near the bottom wing tips for balance.

Two local members of the local Chinese business community, Chan Dun and Lee Qwong Yee, organized the Victoria Chinese Aviation School. Chan Dun was the father of Steven and Philip Chan. The training plane was located at a floating hangar on Inskip Island in Plumper Bay, Esquimalt Harbour. The school opened with eight students and later expanded to 10.

The main objective of the school was to turn out commercial pilots for China -although some reports indicated organizers planned that the pilots would be taken into the National Chinese Air Force. Harry Brown was to give each student six hours instruction in the air before the fledgling pilot could solo. The school's first year of operation was a huge success, with more than 16,000 miles and 750 flights flown without any accident.

Toward the end of 1922 the pontoons, were replaced with wheels and Brown proceeded to teach land takeoffs and landings. The farm of George Jones on Wilkinson Road became a landing field.

The first student to solo was Lee Joe "with a perfect 15-minute flight. In 1923, the pontoons were put back on and everything went well until Feb. 24,1923, when the most promising student, Hip Quong, crashed the Jenny at the entrance to Esquimalt Harbour. The aircraft was demolished and the pilot was fortunate to escape with minor injuries. A nearby fisherman sped to the wreck and pulled Quong to safety. What remained of the Jenny was picked up by a navy ship and that was the end of Victoria's first flying school.

Harry Brown moved with his family to California in 1923, where he opened flying schools including one at Stanford University at Palo Alto. During the Second World War, he instructed U.S. Army cadets including his oldest son, Ron. When his flying days were over, he went, into real estate, finally settling in Tacoma where he died in 1969. One thing Brown never did solve - what become of the 10 pilots he trained in Victoria so long before.

All three of the Browns sons served in the Second World War. Ron, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corp., received the Distinguished Flying Cross, flying Spitfires in North Africa and Italy with an American squadron. Ironically, he was born and died in Victoria - born in Victoria, B.C., and died last year in Victoria, Texas. Syd was also a pilot in the air force. Earl served in the U.S. Coast Guard. Daughter Barbara Jackson lives in Tacoma.