The l listnry of Argyle Shore

Plane Landings

On February 19, 1941, during a heavy snowstorm, a Royal Canadian Air Force training plane was slightly damaged in a forced landing at Argyle Shore. Luckily, the student pilot, LAC. MS. Lee, the sole occupant, was not injured. Film plane came down inJim Ferguson’s field below the road (on property owned by lV’lorris and June MacDougall today). It nose~dived into the field and damaged the propeller.

That evening, several mechanics left Charlottetown by sleigh to investigate the damage. They stayed at a couple of homes in the community while repairs were made. It was said that Fred MacPhail went to Charlottetown by horse and sleigh to get a new propeller for the plane. It took two weeks to dig the plane out of the snow, make repairs and push it by hand down the field onto the ice. It flew out from there. Doug lVlacPhail remembers being in school that afternoon, hearing a noise and then seeing the plane go round and round. The teacher (possibly Katie lVlacKay) lost control of the class and the students started running out to see what was happening. John Donald MacPhail came along with a horse and cart, and as many students as could manage piled on and went to investigate the situation. It was quite a thing to see a plane fly over, let alone to have this happen!

In 1955 another plane landed in Argyle Shore in the field below where Gary and Diane MacPhail live today. A young Tanton lad from Charlottetown was dating Elsie MacDougall, a girl from the community, and he flew in to see her. lhis took place on the same day Laurie lVIacPhail came home from the hospital as a newborn. She was told that everyone took olfto see the plane, and there was nobody there to greet her!

Carl Burke from Charlottetown also landed a plane in the shore. He courted Florence MacLeod from Bonshaw, whom he later married. One time he flew over and dropped a note in her father’s field asking her to meet him in Bert MacPhail’s field in Argyle Shore. The lVlacLeods went in the horse and sleigh from Bonshaw to Argyle Shore and took him up to their house to visit.

80