Ollie Prest Story for Daily News

 

 (published 8-4-21)

 

By Dave Kiffer

For the Daily News

A century ago today, residents of the First City came within about 10 minutes of seeing the first airplane in the skies over Ketchikan.

Unfortunately, daredevil pilot Clarence "Ollie" Prest only made it as far as Revillagigedo Channel, about 5 miles south of town. What stopped him?

The rain.

In September of 1921, Prest was attempting to become the first to fly from Mexico to Siberia. He, and his co-pilot, had spent more than a week in Prince Rupert and was on his way to Wrangell, with a flyover of Ketchikan on the way. But the heavy rain forced him to turn back and return to Canada. While there a storm would wreck his plane and Ketchikanites would have to wait until the summer of 1922, when Roy Jones and the Northbird would bring air travel to Southeast Alaska.

The Prest flight was actually the second aviation near-miss Ketchikan had had in the early 1920s. In July of 1920, the US Army's Black Wolf Squadron passed through southern Southeast on its way from New York to Nome. The four DH-4 landplanes in the squadron were on a mission to establish that cross country flights were feasible. On August 13, 1920, the squadron flew from Prince George to Hazelton, BC and then on to Wrangell, where it landed on Sergief Island near the mouth of the Stikine River.

Although the squadron did fly over Prince Rupert, it missed Ketchikan by flying up the western side of Clarence Strait, according to records from the flight in the national archives.

A year later, Prest was also not planning to stop in Ketchikan - Wrangell clearly had a monopoly on the grassy landing spots, especially near the mouth of the Stikine - but had planned a flyover in Tongass Narrows.

Prest, 25, had been obsessed with flying since he was a teenager, according to an account of his flight in Robert Steven's 1989 book,"Alaska Aviation History, 1897 to 1928." He made a name for himself performing high flying demonstrations and parachute jumps in Venice and San Bernadino, California in the mid 1910s. In 1917, he briefly set a high-altitude balloon record of 18,100 feet, according to a 1988 story in the Los Angeles Times.

Then he turned his talents to airplane construction and also developed cameras for aerial photography. In 1919, he was a headliner at an air show in the then village of Las Vegas when he survived a crash of his experimental plane, which he had dubbed the "One Drop of Poison."

In 1921, he and fellow pilot and plane builder Mort Bach hatched the idea to fly from Mexico to Siberia a flight, they said would "open Alaska." They also experimented with skis for what they anticipated would be winter flying operations in the far north.

"Had their plans worked out, Alaskan aviation may well have taken a forward step since both men were experienced in the field and were possessed of inventive and engineering minds," Stevens wrote in 1989.

The plane they built for the journey was called the "Polar Bear" and had a wingspan of 35 feet and was powered by a 90-horsepower Curtiss engine. It had cruising speed of 80 mph. On July 15, 1921, they took off for Tijuana (the Mexico part) and then headed north from San Bernadino. The idea was to fly to Montana, Alberta, Northern BC and then onto Fairbanks, before heading to Nome and finally Siberia.

By August they were in Canada, but their plans to finance the trip ran into a snag. On the way, they had raised funds by stopping in communities and taking people for short "joy rides." Unfortunately, the Canadian authorities kiboshed any "gainful activities," meaning they would have to raise the money they needed surreptitiously. That led to a weeks-long cat and mouse game with the RCMP as the pair traveled through Canada.

A crash near Hazelton, B.C. also changed their plans. Unable to take off again, the put the plane on the railroad to Prince Rupert. In Prince Rupert the plane was made airworthy again and the pilots were a big hit in the local community conducting numerous air demonstrations and "joy rides."

The flat area for the takeoffs and landings on Acropolis HIll was a little too short and Prest and Bach came up with the first "arresting gear" used by airplanes, several seine nets strung at the end of the runway. On one landing, the plane came in a "little hot" and ended up in the seine nets breaking its propeller.

Unfortunately, the RCMP also caught up with the pilots in Prince Rupert and Prest was arrested on Alberta warrants for "gainful activity." Then Bach was also arrested. When they were released, the men decided it was time to head to Alaska,

On Sept. 23, Prest took off at 8:23 am, planning to fly over Ketchikan and land near Wrangell to refuel. Bach planned to take a steamship from Prince Rupert north and would meet Prest in Whitehorse. Unfortunately, Prest was back in Prince Rupert by 11:45 a.m.

"After leaving Prince Rupert, he had made good progress on a strong southeast wind and, within an hour, was five miles south of Ketchikan," Stevens wrote. "Here he encountered a heavy rainstorm and navigation became impossible. He circled for 45 minutes attempting, unsuccessfully, to outflank the weather. Finally, turning back, he flew south and landed, cold and disappointed, after two hours of bucking the strong wind on the return."

The weather worsened and, on Sept. 28, a full gale hit. At one point the plane broke its moorings and "flew" more than 200 feet before crashing. That was the end of the Mexico-Siberia Expedition. The next year, Prest tried again, with a new plane, the Polar Bear II. But this time, his journey - from New York to Siberia - involved shipping the plane by steamship from Seattle to Juneau because he not allowed to land in Canada because of the previous year's legal problems. He would eventually make it nearly to Eagle, south of Fairbanks, before another crash ended the trip. He would go on to 30 more years in aviation - including as one of the developers of the Orange County Airport. He also developed high speed pursuit planes that set speed records. Some of his innovations were used to develop fighters during World War II. He died in California in 1954,  never having made it back to Alaska after the second trip.

Bach also stayed in aviation and continued to design and built planes, primarily as a top executive with Lockheed Aviation. He died in 1978.

Meanwhile, Ketchikan's first brush with aviation would have to wait until Roy Jones arrived with the Northbird on July 18, 1922.