Seriously Moving Images

This unusual sequence is an edited excerpt from an 8-millimetre silent amateur film, shot in 1933 by Arthur S. Sutcliffe. Entitled A Flying Visit to Garibaldi: A Story of Modern Mountaineering, the source film shows members of the BC Mountaineering Club flying from Vancouver to Garibaldi Lake, where they climb Mount Garibaldi, rest at the summit, and descend back to the lake.

In the sequence excerpted above, the aircraft takes off from the lake and flies the club members back to RCAF Station Jericho Beach, which then served as Vancouver’s seaplane base.

The climbers’ day trip to Garibaldi was made possible by the Sikorsky S-38, an amphibious flying boat. This particular S-38, registered as “CF-ASO”, was operated on the west coast by Canadian Airways from 1932 to 1934.

For an archival description of A Flying Visit to Garibaldi, see http://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/flying-visit-to-garibaldi-story-of-modern-mountaineering

CF-ASO, the Sikorsky S-38 amphibian featured in the above clip, is shown here parked on its retractable landing gear, 1932.  (BC Archives G-00308, detail.)