Alexander Forsyth “Sandy” A.F. MacDonald: The Founding Author of From The Ground Up

A pilot for thirty years, a veritable encyclopedia of Air Regulations and navigational data, and the author of millions of words on aviation, Alexander Forsyth MacDonald was a pioneer of what still stands today as the standard curriculum for flight school training throughout the world.

“Sandy” MacDonald never let his wide experience permit foregone conclusions or second-hand information cloud his writing. Any fact that he committed to paper was checked and double-checked by recognized authority. Because of this meticulous care, the book From The Ground Up has become the reference manual of choice for flying school and clubs in some 28 countries around the world.

Sandy learned to fly at the Curtiss-Wright Flying School, Newport News, Virginia, in 1916 and saw active service as a fighter pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service on the Western Front. In combat over Passchendaele in 1917 he was seriously wounded, but he returned to the fray as an R.A.F. Instructor with the rank of Captain.

He served in the R.C.A.F. between 1927 and 1932, during which time his flying duties embraced forestry patrols, air survey, freight and transportation missions, including the first official Air Mail flight from Chesterfield Inlet to Fort Churchill.

Following this period in the Service, Sandy spent several years as a civilian pilot on charter and demonstration work in the United States and Canada. Eventually, in 1937 he settled down as Vice-President of Aviation Service Corporation, aeronautical research thereby claiming his attention just prior to World War II.

In 1939, he became director of the Paterson & Hill Aircraft Company taking on the duties of Chief Ground Instructor. He quickly became responsible for the graduation, in ground school subjects, of more than 35 percent of the Elementary Flying Instructors engaged in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Later, he was appointed Chief Air Navigation Instructor of No. 20 Elementary Flying Training School in which capacity he originated the first practical Navigation Flight to be established in a Canadian flying school. It was during this period that From The Ground Up was really born, for the notes that he had made for these courses would later serve as the foundation upon which he developed the manual itself.

In the latter stages of the War, Sandy became a Trans-Atlantic Ferry Pilot with the Royal Air Force. At the age of 45, he was flying the ocean at a time when aids were relatively scarce and the trips were still a very perilous adventure.

Sandy joined de Havilland as a Sales Manager when the company was building the “Fox Moth” for the bush flying conditions that he knew so well. He later became Public Relations Manager until finally retiring to devote himself fully to the development of From The Ground Up.

The year of his retirement from de Havilland, Sandy received the prestigious Writing Award from the Aviation/Space Writers Association of America for his work on From The Ground Up. His work was described as “excellence in content and meritorious authorship of an aviation/space manual”.

Shortly before his death, he was honoured with the Sherman Fairchild International Flight Safety Award. Once more his authorship of From The Ground Up was recognized with a citation that referred to “his extraordinary thorough and well-written contribution to the art of flying safely”.

Generations of pilots owe their fundamental knowledge of flight theory and practice to the publication, From The Ground Up. Re-written and expanded by Aviation Publishers Co. Limited since the late 1960’s, this title stands as a fitting memorial to a dedicated ground school flight training practitioner.