Cessna 195 captured by Z 8 / Z100-400
The Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service first hit the skies in 1946. The polio outbreak was really bad, farm accidents on farms far from help numerous. Tommy Douglas wanted those is his care in the territory to have as fast a medical service as possible in the day. So started the Air Ambulance, the only one airworthy today you see above. In its day it landed on river bottoms and farmlands, in blizzards with only Model Ts headlight showing the runway. With a pilot and nurse aboard, it would swoop in, pick up the patient and if possible would fly them to the hospital in Regina. Flying to the Mayo Clinic in the States might be required the next light. Outfitted with a Cessna designed stretcher and later with a “portable” iron lung, they got their patients to the care they required. This little place saved thousands of lives!