Vi Warren's birthday will be a celebration

When Cramahe resident, Vi Warren celebrates her 90th birthday on October 17 there willl many who join the celebration. To commemorate her long and storied aviation career a commemorative stamp will issued. Marilyn Dickson tells her story below.


Ninety-Nines Create Stamp to Honour Vi Milstead

By Marilyn Dickson


In 2008 the East Canada Section of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, launched a plan to honour noteworthy Canadian women pilots.

Through Canada Post’s Picture Postage program the Ninety-Nines have designed stamps which can be used as regular letter postage within Canada. The 2008 stamp celebrated Eileen Vollick’s accomplishment as Canada’s first female licensed pilot.

Our 2009 stamp will honour Vi Milstead Warren who lives just east of Colborne in a log home featuring a wind generator and solar panels. Vi and her husband Arnold moved to Colborne soon after their retirement. At first they spent summers in the Magdallen Islands and winters in Colborne, often flying back and forth in their Piper Cub or Mooney airplane. Then they bought and renovated their North Street home which Arnold’s family had owned several years earlier.

For many years Vi and Arnold were active within the community in a variety of ways, particularly through the Rotary and Inner Wheel clubs. Vi also volunteered at Second Helpings, the Colborne Elementary School and delivering Meals on Wheels.

As a young teenager during the depression of the thirties, Vi worked long hours for four years, saving her money until she had enough to pay for flying lessons – quite a commitment for a teenaged girl at a time when very few females were interested in becoming pilots.

On September 4, 1939 Vi had her first flying lesson, just as war was declared in Europe. By December 14, she passed the flight test for her Private Pilot License. During this time Vi’s instructor Pat Patterson produced a film Learning To Fly which chronicled Vi’s flight training. Mr. Patterson planned to use the film to stimulate interest in flying among the general public, hoping to gain more students at his Barker Field flight school. No doubt he chose a female student in order to show that even women could pilot airplanes.

By the end of March, 1940, a little over three months after earning her Private License, Vi completed the requirements for the Limited Commercial Pilot License.
Vi soon became one of the first Canadian women to find employment as a pilot. The onset of the war had stimulated considerable interest in flying among young men.

With the rapid increase of men joining the air force, Pat Patterson found it increasingly difficult to find and keep instructors, so he offered to finance Vi’s Instructor Rating if she would then work for his school.

This sounded like a good offer to Vi. She completed her Instructor Rating in July 1941 and then instructed at Patterson and Hill at Barker Field. During this time she taught many students to fly, including a few women. Several of her male students joined the RCAF and went on to distinguish themselves during the war and afterwards with aviation careers. She continued to instruct until wartime fuel rationing brought a halt to all civilian flying, in late November 1942.

The loss of her instructing job led Vi to seek employment further afield when one of her students, Jack Ball told her about the Air Transport Auxiliary in Britain. Hired early in 1943, Vi flew with the ATA, delivering military aircraft from factories to maintenance units and to RAF bases. Achieving the rank of First Officer, Vi was the longest serving Canadian woman with the ATA. She flew more hours on more types of aircraft than any other Canadian woman, logging 47 different types of aircraft (74 different marks) including Spitfire, Mosquito, Hudson, Beaufort, Boston, Wellington and Welkin.

In 1947 Vi became Canada’s first woman bush pilot when she worked with Nickel Belt Airways in Sudbury. This work included flying surveyors to inspect mining sites or trappers returning home with supplies. She also flew men who had been recruited in beer parlours to fight local forest fires, and had to encourage the odd one to leave the comfort of the airplane and get on with fire-fighting.

The Ninety-Nines invite all Canadians interested in aviation to celebrate Vi Milstead’s remarkable career by buying and using this stamp created in her honour. What a great way to let your friends know about Vi Milstead!

Designed by Ninety-Nines member Suzanne Wiltshire, the Vi Milstead stamp features a portrait of Vi in her Air Transport Auxiliary uniform. In the background we see a twin engine Mosquito, one of the many types of aircraft she flew during the war.

The stamp will be available in three forms. Domestic Postage sheets of 40 can be used as regular letter postage, even after the rate increases - $38.

The Keepsake sheet features 20 regular sized stamps plus one large picture of the stamp - $28.

A limited number of First Day Covers are available for $5 each. They will be of particular interest to the stamp collectors among your friends and family.

Sheets of 40 stamps, Keepsake sheets and First Day Covers may be ordered by mail from Bev Fraser, Box 56060, Fiesta Outlet, Stoney Creek, ON, L8G 5C9. An additional $3 cost will be required for mail orders.

The stamp will be released on October 17, 2009, Vi’s 90th birthday. Stamp orders must be received by Friday, September 18, 2009. Stamps and First Day Covers will be mailed in time for you to use them on Christmas cards, or to give to the stamp collectors on your shopping list.

Please note that Vi Milstead stamps are not available at postal outlets.

Hit the link to read excerpts of the story of her Order of Canada award in 2004.

Vi Warren receives Order of Canada

You can place an order using the form below. Click on the form to enlarge it, then print it and fill it out.