Glidepath The quarterly newsletter of the Canadian Museum of Flight 47250 Issue #105 Summer, 2010 Museum Outreach – Tours for groups of all kinds by Terry Brunner One of the least known facets of the Canadian Museum of Flight is our educational and tours program. The Museum is fortunate in that we are over Holland and how the Dutch underground had rescued and hid him. The enemy was across the field so the Dutch dug a hole in the middle of the field and visited by the very young from Day Care facilities, and buried the pilot, but at about 3 am each morning children from kindergarten to Grade 12, seniors would remove him, feed and exercise him and then groups, challenged individuals from homes, BCIT and FCCU students, as well as flight attendant classes. The Museum has a number of very knowledgeable and interesting tour guides. Our tour guides mingle with people of another age group and listening to their rhetoric they are taken back to their youth or to situations that bring back memories of similar experiences that both guide and listener lived through. One such group was part of a squadron of former Canadian Typhoon pilots. One of the pilots recounted how he had been forced down return him to the hole. This routine continued for weeks until such time as this area was liberated. Then the stories started, each one displaying courage, humor, compassion and sadness, an education for all listeners. Matt Offer, CMF Tour Guide and Board Member, holds the rapt attention of a studying World War 1. group of young people touring our facility. Now, 180 degrees from this tour, we recently had a tour of a Grade 12 English class Over three quarters of the class had never been near an aircraft nor sat in a cockpit. They had read and studied WW1 but had no idea of the size and meager protection of WW1 aircraft nor the hardships endured by the pilots. The Upcoming Events… •August 13, 14 and 15: Abbotsford Air Show •September 18: “A Barnstormer’s Picnic” Members Day Please see Page 8 for details, and for news of other Museum activities. Page 1

The Canadian Museum of Flight Bringing British Columbia’s Aviation Past into the Future Honourary Patron The Honourable Steven L. Point, OBC, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Board of Directors Gord Wintrup President Colin McDonald Paul de Lange Vice President Treasurer Bruce Friesen Bruce Bakker Secretary Director Director Matt Offer Vic Bentley Director Daryl Carpenter Capt. Bill Thompson Director Lifetime Director CANADIAN MUSEUM OF Museum Staff Terry Brunner Douglas Tait FLIGHT Museum Coordinates Telephone 604-532-0035 604-532-0056 Fax e-mail Website tbrunner@telus.net www.canadianflight.org Hangar #3 Address 5333-216th Street. Langley, BC V2Y 2N3 Museum Hours: daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (summer hours to 5:00 p.m.) Membership Benefits! .New Partnerships! Members are now entitled to visit, free of charge: Flight Museum in Seattle West Coast Rail Museum in Squamish Mining Museum in Britannia Beach Discounts in the Gift Shop increased from 10% to 15% • Adrian’s Restaurant offers, with membership, 10% off your food bill Cover Photo Choo Choo’s Restaurant Contest This issue’s winner is Harry Pride, member #2927. He will be receiving a certificate for dinner for two at Choo Choo’s Restaurant in downtown Langley. Congratulations! The Canadian Museum of Flight is always looking for new volunteers. We are always in need of history and aviation enthusiasts of all kinds, for aircraft restoration, gift shop operations, facility maintenance, and many other tasks. No experience is necessary. We invite everyone, from young students to retirees, to join the team. If interested, please contact the Museum General Manager, Terry Brunner, at 604-532-0035. The Canadian Museum of Flight’s Fleet fleet 16B, C-GBJS 4725″, taxis out for its first fight with its (finally) rebuilt engine, after untold hours invested by Doug Mosn, Dave Beales, Bill Findlay Bob Fowles, Vic Bentley and others in restoring engine oil pressure to the required value. Bill Findlay is all smiles (at right), and rightly so as a crowd of Museum staff and volunteers cheered as he returned the distinctive sound of a Kinner radial to skies over Langley.

Tour program continued from Page 1… Museum erected our Sopwith Camel and displayed it next to the Harvard and the T-33. The students were amazed at the advancements displayed from WW1 to WW2 and then early Cold War airplanes. I am positive that these students left with complete respect for the men and women who served in these events. Being a tour guide is interesting and rewarding especially with the younger people. Students of this electronic age seen to sop up information of the “olden days” and are fascinated by the limited technology of former years. The younger generation seem to think that everyone in the 40s, 50s, and 60s had phones in their pockets. 99900090 Matt Offer has conducted many tours of the Canadian Museum of Flight, for all kinds of folks, heard all sorts of comments and tackled all sorts of questions. It is the younger visitors he enjoys the most. Here is a sampling of his favourite experiences. “Why do they paint targets on their planes? Isn’t that something they should not be doing?” (All military aircraft have national identifiers called a “roundel”, after the French introduced them in WWI to reduce “friendly fire”). A very hard one for both adults and children to identify is the Canadian Ensign (not a national flag) on the CF-100 Canuck jet fighter tail. I ask them to compare the “flag” on the CF-100 tail and the flag on the CF-104, which displays our national flag which we obtained on Feb 15, 1965. Very few customers, adult or child, can name the date Canada received our national flag. One day while I was giving a tour to preschoolers, we visited the DC-3, which is a “tail dragger” (versus a tricycle landing gear). The little boy asked me “Why do we have to climb up a hill when in the airplane? Another time. I had a bunch of active kids on the DC-3 and we were pretending we would fly off to somewhere. A boy sitting in the right side said “No, I don’t want to fly off… Mommy is not here!!” 00000 At our Museum, too, kids say the darndest things…. A future Emelia Erhardt smiles coyly from a window of the CMF Expeditor, dreaming of future flights perhaps? With our compliments and thanks to the CMF roster of exceptional tour guides: Not only do we take people on guided tours of our Museum, sometimes I will go to a retirement home and give a casual chat about CMF and our historical aircraft. One elderly but very alert lady asked the great question “Why do airplanes Пy?”, which lead into a good discussion of airfoils, etc. When I have a tour group of seniors, I always ask if any of them are ex-pilots, flight attendents, etc. Sometimes I hit the jackpot when one or more will start to reminisce about their early flying days. One time I had a lady who actually was a stewardess on the early TCA planes across Canada; she even flew on our ex-TCA Lockheed Lodestar. Sometimes I will try to stump the young customers but they outdo me. Such as asking them where are the wings on the S- 55 helicopter… they quickly point to the rotors. Some of the positive comments that Matt particularly savours: “Really neat to see a real Snowbird plane! I have always seen them at the airshow but never so close up.” “The DC-3 was really cool, especially when I got to sit in the cockpit.” “A highlight was seeing the Sopwith Camel WWI plane close up!!” “Really fun to get in the cockpit of the Starfighter; what button makes the machine gun shoot??” Harry Curtis Gerry Ekholm Al Harvey Sam Hobbs Bill Marr Bob Parkes Ken Smith Jim Visser Carol Chelsomo Page 3 Matt Offer “Walking through the main hangar was the greatest thing for me… a walk through history.” “I would have spent all day at the Museum but we had to go back to school.”

Marvellous Aircraft Models… by Bruce Friesen Look up, look waaaay up… Visitors to the Canadian Museum of Flight can browse a wide range exhibits, following any one of a number of themes and interests. Some are lucky enough to have their gaze drawn upwards to the numerous models of aircraft hanging from the ceilings of the main exhibit hall and reception area, and those who do are well rewarded. Closer and closer inspection leads to amazement at the quality and realism of the large scale models on display. The CMF has been very fortunate that several master model builders have selected us as the place to display their creations. Aircraft models play an important role as the CMF strives to “bring British Columbia’s aviation past into Right: The Spitfire is an iconic aircraft to most all aviation enthusiasts. The CMF is able to display the classic Spitfire form because model-builder Cliff Oswald was smitten by them while in England during WWII. The model was painted by Rick Hall as a Canadian-squadron Spitfire Mark IX, this particular aircraft having flown on D-Day although the model does not sport the familiar white and black “Invasion stripes” as those were only applied for a short period. Jim Ramsay contributed a detailed cockpit. the future”. Like many museums, the CMF is bursting at the seams with interesting aircraft and artifacts. Display space is limited, and the operational aircraft have first call on the available floor space. Models, hanging from the ceiling, allow double use of the space. Models also permit display of a broader range of aircraft than would otherwise be practical. This can include aircraft too large, too rare, or too valuable for acquisition and display by a regional museum, such as the DeHavilland Mosquito and the Supermarine Stranraer Models can illustrate aspects of the aviation past not otherwise represented in the Museum’s collection, such as the Albatross representing the illustrious RESCUE Left: Search and Rescue, as exemplified by this model of a Grumman Albatross, is an important aspect of aviation history and ongoing practice in British Columbia. Amphibian aircraft are perfectly suited to the demands of the wild and remote fiord country of the Pacific North West. Fittingly, Stan Walter has placed this image of the CMF model Albatross onto a background of ice and fog. The model Albatross was built by Cliff Oswald and painted by Rick Hall to represent an aircraft operated by 442 Squadron, Comox.

… Enhance our Museum for our visitors history of search and rescue up and down the rugged west coast, and the Stranraer, again, evoking the era of scheduled flying boat service providing connections between isolated communities. Models can also serve to round out our visitors’ understanding of an aspect of aviation within an era. For example immaculate models of the Stinson SR5 and Beechcraft D17S Staggerwing help explain the role and contribution of our historic Waco AQC-6 Cabin. Not just any model can do all that, of course! Smaller scale models, from plastic kits or crafted by hand, can be and are admired for the quality of workmanship achieved, and for the details of colour scheme or armament depicted. The CMF has its Right: This scale model De Havilland Mosquito Mark VI fighter bomber was built by Cliff Oswald with meticulous cockpit detail by Jim Ramsay. It was painted by Rick Hall as aircraft “TA-Z” operated by RCAF 418 City of Edmonton Squadron, flown by Squadron Leader Russ Bannock, DSO, DFC and Bar, notable for shooting down 4 V1s in less than an hour. Museum member Bill Marr’s name also appears in the log book for that aircraft. share of such models. The models that are the focus of this article, however, are large scale models – not the sorts of models sold in hobby shops that top out at 1/24 scale but indeed 1/6 or even 1/4 scale machines almost capturing the heft and substance of their full-scale progenitors, large enough to display specific details of design and construction, cockpit fittings and fixtures, and markings. Please enjoy the accompanying biographies of some of the largest and finest of the aircraft models displayed by the CMF. Please enjoy also the photos of those models as skillfully photoshopped by Museum volunteer Stan Walter to portray them at their finest, in their natural environment. Left: Using the magic of Photoshop, Stan Walter has placed this model of a 1935 vintage Stinson SR-5 on the ramp at Langley Airport, its door open and beckoning, tempting adventurers to climb abord with its detailed interior, leather seats, and even a dog-eared copy of a “Beautiful British Columbia” tourist guide to help them along on their journey. While parking planes at an airshow, model builder Max Taylor saw a similar Stinson taxi in and was struck by the romance of “cabin class” travel in the Golden Age of aviation. He created this model, which in real life hangs above the Museum reception desk, with such meticulous attention to details of fasteners, markings and placards that this montage is almost believable.

Personalities at Our Museum – Bob Fowles, Operations Manager Extraordinaire An Interview by Carla Deminchuk (being the first of a new series, profiling some of the key personalities that make our Museum tick) Glidepath: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, how your path led you to the museum? Bob: I started off in an electronic tech- nology course, communications specialist, graduated in 1980. There was a job with a cargo airline so I ap- plied for that and got the job. Swift Air Cargo out of Abbotsford, work- ing on DC-8 freighters. Glidepath: What do you remember best about working on the DC-8? Bob: They’re a tank. If you back a service truck into a DC-8, you fix the service truck. Glidepath: How long did you work for Swift Air? Bob: For two-and-a half years. Then they went into receivership . Glidepath: As I understand it, one of those DC-Bs came to a rather un- fortunate end? Bob: This was after I was finished there. The two DC-8s were sold off. One sat there for four years. Then the boys from Miami came up to scrap it. I saw them out there, dropping engines and pulling stuff out of the cockpit. One morning I was at home and heard an ex- plosion, then saw a big cloud of smoke over the hill. I knew exactly what happened. I turned on the television and saw the DC-8 burning in the middle of the airfield, and they’re picking the salvage guys off the ground. They cut in later! to the leading edge of the wing with their chop saws, not realizing there was 15,000 pounds of fuel still onboard. Bob: (laughing) I’ll never admit it! They got blown from the leading edge of the airplane to a landing on the ground behind the tail section. That’s a long way on a DC-8. They were lucky to get out of it with nothing but cuts and bruises. Glidepath: How did you get involved with the museum? Glidepath: Speaking of cuts and bruises, you are also our first-aid man. Has there been much blood-letting around the museum? Bob: (laughing) Only at the annual gen- eral meetings. Gildepath: Okay. After Swift Air. what did you do? Bob: I spent 15 years working with the Abbotsford Airshow and the Air Show Canada Tradeshow. Set-up and tearing down at the air show, and an ambassad- most and why? or of goodwill for the trade show. Glidepath: Which one of our future the Fleet Canuck. I was one of the three who went back to Pincher Creek and picked-up the Canuck. restoration projects excites you the Bob: The Cornell. It was the basic trainer that was used after the Fleet Finch. Then, if we could get a Chip- munk, we’d have the full set of early trainer aircraft. The Cornell, Chip- munk, Tiger Moth, Fleet Finch and Harvard. I would also like to see the Norseman completed as one of the airplanes that helped form B.C. Glidepath: What is your official po- sition with the museum now? Bob: (laughing) Oh god! Official position? Just a volunteer. I get called Director in Charge of Aircraft Operations, Director in Charge of Maintenance, Personnel Director- my titles seem to be everything around here. Basically, I take care of the maintenance work involved with the flying aircraft, making sure it is airworthy in the eyes of Transport Canada, that kind of thing. Glidepath: Anything else you’d like to say after being involved with the mu- Bob: There was an ad about getting in- volved in the rebuild of an Avro Arrow. I came down to the museum with Gogi seum for 13 years? (Goguillot) and we rebuilt the Arrow in Abbotsford. I started working with the guys at the museum and ended up com ing down here. Here I am-13 years Glidepath: You must like it? Glidepath: Do you remember your first job at the museum way back in 19977 Bob: Made a door handle for the Beech 18. Then was involved in the re- building of the Tiger Moth, then did some museum aircraft operations and completed the restoration on the Waco Cabin. Then there was a landing incid- ent with the Fleet Finch that kept us busy for awhile. I also spent a year re- covering the Waco INF. Then there’s FLIG Bob: The people. With my vision prob lem I can always ask someone for help. That would not be true in the general workforce. Also, as Jack Lingham used to say, they let me come and play with their airplanes and then I get to go home. Glidepath: Just one more thing. Where would you like to see the mu- seum in five years? Bob: Some would like a new building. I don’t know about a new building, but a bigger building or some sort of ar- rangement with more space would be nice. Some might not agree with me. but that’s my opinion. Glidepath: Thank-you, Bob. Page 6

Around the museum continued from Page 8 … benefits you will break even anyways. Suggestions on additional ways to attract and maintain members would be most welcome. Events: The CMF has had good success with fund-raising events in the past. The annual dinner and auction has yielded a very useful profit, particularly the 2010 event. The Board believes additional events, spread throughout the year, will be worth the effort required. Several specific ideas are already rolling, and will be promoted once firmed up. Additional ideas are, again, more than welcome. particularly ideas with folks attached willing to help make them happen. Fleet Canuck Details, details, and more details yet to tackle, but, wonderful to see, there is visible progress on restoration of the Fleet Canuck to airworthy status: the remanufactured spars and ribs of the right wing have been assembled and the two wing structures laid out together. The team working on this project, including Ray Fessenden. applied, the blue and white scheme used by the B.C. Aeroclub during the 1950s and 1960s heyday of the Fleet Canuck as the taildragger backbone of their training fleet. Lancaster Radio Room To further enhance the impact of this display, to draw the viewer more completely into the world of the young airmen who occupied and worked in that space, a sound track will be added. Mike Bouton is installing the audio equipment, and Stan Walter is searching the world for suitable sound effects and radio transmissions. Any suggestions for sources of period sound effects would be most welcome. Barn Inventory The Barn inventory and consolidation project has been making progress on two fronts. Material in “outside storage” has been sorted into valuable materials and scrap, the phrase “outside storage” being a euphemism for piles of twisted metal and tubing on a flatbed trailer and piled up on a small rise behind the barn itself. Fortunately, Museum volunteers respect our artifact collection sufficiently to have a good look at each item, and to identify and bring inside the building any unique or valuable items. Indeed, rummaging through the bushes turned up all sorts of interesting items. Andres Morales immersed in Fleet Canuck wing re- further afield Vic Bentley construction. Chris Ryan, Andres Morales, Hank Koehler, Wayne Baldwin and others, have been toiling away on individual items such as wing ribs, landing gear and tail feathers, with progress on fabric covering and painting. The next hurdle will be fabris covering of the major components, the fuselage and wings. However, the great news is that final assembly of all major components is now actually within sight. Other positive news is the selection of the colour scheme to be Page 7 The team has also tackled the loft area. an upper platform floor chock-a-block with items. Having cleared a small working area up on that level, they are proceeding with documenting and tagging all the materials stored there. That will complete the initial phase of this interesting and challenging project. Future work entails review of the thousands of photographs and descriptions of artifacts, to better describe them and to better understand what the Museum holdings include. Amongst the rusting remains in outside storage on a trailer, Gord Emberley, from the Western Canadian Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, identified many pieces for the Fairchild 82 they are restoring, including this collection of rusty metal- the locking pins for the Fairchild wing folding mechanism. Pure gold for the restorer who needs it, and an excellent example of the sort of discovery we expect will be made by experts browsing through the photo and text documentation of thousands of Barn artifacts. Hampden The damaged port wing was removed and dismantled by students from the University of the Fraser Valley, and repairs have commenced. A temporary shelter will soon be in place to allow a more consistent effort in the Rain Forest climate of this area. Do you have expertise in sheet metal work- not necessarily on aircraft? The Museum would love to hear from you. B. J. MacMillan and crew erecting the shelter over the Hampden port wing.

Around the Museum – News and Events Museum Calendar A look ahead to the events of 2010… Flying! They are in the air again! After a huge amount of diligent and meticulous maintenance and trouble-shooting work over the winter, it was good to see the fruits of that labour as the CMF fleet returned to the air for the 2010 season. For some of the highlights of the upcoming air show season, please note the events and dates in the box to the right. 50 With a swing of the prop from Dave Beales, our Fleet Finch comes alive for its first post-engine-rebuild flight. Bill Findlay is at the controls. Museum Board of Directors Membership Changes and Initiatives The Canadian Museum of Flight Annual General Meeting was held on April 24. Two Directors, George Miller and Carol Bellavance, completed their terms on the Museum Board. The Board, and all Museum members expressed their appreciation for the contributions those two individuals have made while serving on the Board, and look forward to ongoing association with them on a less formal basis. Two new members were voted on to the Board: Dary! Carpenter and Bruce Friesen. Subsequently the Board agreed to fill Officer positions as shown on Page 2: Colin McDonald will serve as Vice President, Bruce Friesen as Secretary. Gordon Wintrup continues as President and Paul de Lange continues as Treasurer. The Museum certainly faces challenges in the current economy. The Board understands this, is keen to tackle July 17 Princeton Air Show August 13,14,15 Abbotsford Air Show August 21 Chilliwack Air Show September 18 “A Barnstormer’s Picnic” (Members’ Day) Note: Event dates may change due to changes in circumstances such as time constraints and schedule conflicts. Please check the Museum website for the latest information or confirm dates with the Museum office closer to each event. them, and is taking some concrete steps, focusing on two activities to enhance the vigour and financial health of the Museum: Membership: The Board believes an engaged and growing group of Members is crucial to the continued success of our venture, and also believes membership dues can make a larger contribution to Museum finances. The challenge is to retain existing members, and to attract and sign up new ones. As a start, the Museum will actively recruit members at airshows, as these are venues rich in persons interested The CMF Sopwith Camel replica, looking lovely in the park at Fort Langley during the British Car Show, draws a crowd of admiring potential future Museum members. in aviation. Beyond that, the Board is looking to all active Members to approach aviation-minded friends and associates to make our pitch. To put it bluntly, we need to tell people we could sure use a small contribution, and by the way if you take advantage of all our membership … continued on Page 7 The Glidepath Newsletter is published quarterly by the Canadan Museum of Flight; Editor Bruce Friesen. Contributions in the form of articles, news items, letters and photos are always welcome, as are comments and suggestions, although no payments are made for manuscripts submitted for publication in the Newsletter. Please feel free to contact Terry Brunner at the Museum by calling 604-532-0035. Page 8