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This short flight from Regina, Saskatchewan to the small community of Liberty further north was the precursor of the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service. Now known as LIFEGUARD, it is the oldest non-military air ambulance service in the world. Given the vast scale of this Canadian province and its low population density, it was – and is – a vital medical air service.

The flight to Liberty was made in a Noorduyn Norseman (there are some in the library for both FS2004 and FSX) ...

After a visit some years ago to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago I made a remark to a colleague that, for facility standing on the largest freshwater lake system on the planet, it had rather a lot of saltwater tropical fish on display. Which is a little unfair; the Chicago Aquarium has a global focus on aquatic life. He smiled and said, “It’s the bright colours; they bring in the visitors, and that brings in the money.”

It’s the same in aviation museums and, to some degree, ...

In February 1979, Wing Commander (Natty) Nadkarni of the Indian Air Force and three colleagues were assigned to conversion training on SEPECAT Jaguars in Britain, fighter aircraft newly-acquired for squadrons of the Indian Air Force. Nadkarni was part of the first ferry flight of these aircraft home to India. The Indian Air Force still uses this fighter type today.

More used to the heat extremes of India, the four Indian Air Force pilots went through a number of preparations on ...

I wonder why people are so reluctant to use file names?

I run into this quite frequently in my role as file librarian. Someone will ask for some change or other and tell me to do it to "their file" or some such vague description. Or they will tell me the FID number, which is not very useful; check our search pages and you'll see there is no way to search on FID. Or they'll give me the URL of a search result they did; again not useful since that search result only works for ...

The Air Transport Auxiliary used to deliver Westland Lysanders; after all, the ATA were delivering around 140 aircraft types and the Lysander was used in a variety of roles in World War II (such as reconnaissance and Search & Rescue). Its most well-known role was the delivery and collection of personnel behind enemy lines in France for the Special Operations Executive.

My book In a Moon’s Course is titled from an epitaph, but these SOE flights were literally about flying in ...