No. 5 (Flying Boat) Squadron was formed at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia by the 16 April 1934 consolidation of Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 Detachments in The Maritimes, which had been formed at Ottawa in 1932. Equipped with the Fairchild 71, the squadron flew anti-smuggling and -illegal immigration patrols in support of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[3]
Kostenuk, Samuel; Griffin, John (1977). RCAF: Squadron Histories and Aircraft, 1924–1968. Canadian War Museum Historical Publication No. 14. Sarasota/Toronto: Samuel Stevens/Hakkert & Company. ISBN0-88866-577-6.
2 Non-standard code as unit using OW added L. Letters normally denoted parent Command, aircraft type (L Liberator transport, D Dakota etc), unit, and individual aircraft.
3 VCXXA where VC was the civil code used by the RCAF replacing CF-, XX was the unit code and A was the aircraft ID letter
4 XXnnn where XX was the unit code and nnn was the last 3 digits of the serial number. Unit code was replaced with "RCAF" in 1958