"Charlie [Lindbergh] was working on his plane when I arrived," writes Andrew Cruickshank as he awaits completion of his own duplicate of the Spirit of St. Louis . With this plane, Cruickshank starts the first airline in the Yukon. It was 1927, long before the legendary Grant McConachie's time. Andrew Cruickshank, a dashing and brave young RCMP officer, decides to, leave the force for the skies. Cruickshank exploits include not only bush piloting in the Yukon but stunt-flying in Hollywood, as well as piloting seaplanes out of Vancouver. While a pilot with Western Canada Airways in Winnipeg, he was part of one of the most extensive air searches of all time, the McAlpine Rescue. Killed by a plane crash early in his career, Cruickshank had been almost forgotten by Canadian aviation history until his youngest daughter, June Cruickshank Lunny, found a treasure trove of his letters while on a family visit to England. From these letters, Lunny has reconstructed her father's adventures as a Mountie and as a bush pilot. "He was one of the top bush pilots of his day," says Peter Corley-Smith, author of Barnstorming to Bush Flying .