Glidepath The quarterly newsletter of the Canadian Museum of Flight Issue #106 Fall 2010

Canadian Museum of Flight Collections
– Interesting Things Arrive All The Time

by Terry Brunner

Over the past year a new TV show called “Pawn Stars” has been shown. The star of the show makes the statement. “Every day is different as someone brings in something that I have never seen before”. The Canadian Museum of Flight is similar in that every day something new and different comes through the door either as a gift or donation. These generous donations of memorabilia allow the CMF to update displays and save pieces of history from oblivion. Two weeks ago, John Richings came in with his two daughters, carrying an old blue suitcase. That suitcase contained his flying suit and two pictures, circa WW2. The pictures were taken after the completion of his aircrew’s 30th mission (138 Squadron RCAF Tuddenham, Suffolk) in April 1945, with the crew standing in front of their Lancaster “AC-W”. He proceeded to tell me that when the picture was taken he had just turned 19. Can you remember what you were doing when you were 19? Those times were most certainly different from today. Another great find was a letter found in a group of books that were dropped off at the Museum. This letter, dated Sep 27, 1846, was written by Janie Pattersen to her brother, James (please see the sidebar on Page 3 for a portion of that letter). The Museum also received, via Australia, a log book and a DFC awarded in 1944 to a Canadian airman, P/O

The CMF was delighted to receive WWII era artifacts from John Richings, pictured above third from the right.

John P Hind, from Vancouver. According to his friend, John trained as a pilot. However, he developed problems when he was rounding out and continually put the aircraft down from a height of 20 to 30 feet. He graduated as a pilot but was told that he should train for another position and he became a navigator. John Hind did 28 sorties with 619 Squadron, the last entry in his log book being March 1 to Stuttgart. At that time in his career he had logged 209:15 hours operational hours and 164:25 hours non operational. From there he was posted to Number 12 O.T.U. Chipping Warden and finished his career 3 August 1945. Unfortunately, he never related to his friend of how or why he was awarded the DFC.

Time carried for 16:52.52.05 Hour DAY Night (Tocluding rundte of bbing, gunnery, estreias, etc.) 5-1-44 LANCASTER FONIKARSTAFFE 14~-44 3:15 1:00 OPS STETTIN 8:45 FROM CONINGSBy 品 HLB BERLIN EARLY RETURN (:50 MAGDE BURC 7:10 8:30 BERLIN HL.B BERLIN 1:20 7:05 SUMMARY BERLIN FOR JAN 2:50 16:15 15 18.44 ok A FLigh 2:50 44:50 SUMMARY FOR TAN 2:00 1.15 SAPTAIN FEB.LL 41273 446 H 12 15 224 7:05 24 MONICA SEA HLB BERLIN LEIPZIG SCHWEINFURT AUGSBURG SUMMARY FOR FEB. (税込) 7:10 725 25 3:15 32:00 182 55 324 55

Log book and DFC of Mr John Hind, Lancaster Navigator.

At left is a portion of the letter found tucked into a book donated to the Museum. The first page of the letter reads as follows:

My Dear Brother,

Your welcome epistle was handed to me this morning by Mr. Calkin. I beg leave to join with you in ascribing praise unto our God for his marvellous, loving kindness to you and to this Province generally in regard to the production of the ground. But my ear Brother, we cannot turn our eyes to our Parent Land without a feeling of sympathy with those who have not been as highly favored as ourselves. According to newspaper accounts the Potatoe crop in the United Kingdom is a complete failure, and famine with its ghastly grim threatens to stalk over the length and breadth of the Green Isle.

If you wish to view the rest of the letter please let us know and we will send you a copy

Please see Page 8 for a list of Museum events for 2010 and 2011. Please visit our website at www.canadianflight.org for much more information on Museum activities, events and collections. Page 1

The Canadian Museum of Flight Bringing British Columbia’s Aviation Past into the Future

Museum of Flight Airshow Participation 2010… Colour, Action, Sound, People HELP PRESERVE B.C. AVIATION HISTOR JOIN NOW Canadian Museum of Flight 25 47250 New this Fall: Aircraft Fabric Covering WHERE UFV C the Abbeesferd Apert WHENT HOW MUCH! 1399 www.ufv.ca/aerospace During this 3-day even course you will cover the theory of fate covering the laroom, and then cover stage, hugh plying the fabric, se be with a discuss a safety, your pective unt Tegister call 1-888-821-874 qu 80262 TRD AV4AA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM FLIGHT C. Phone: (604) 532-0035 MITH

Members’ Day, September 18, 2010: as skies clear … Members Fly, Smile and Feast

Personalities at Our Museum –
Bob Smith, Volunteer (Engine Parts)

An Interview by Carla Deminchuk

(being the second of an ongoing series, profiling some of the personalities that make our Museum tick)

I’m pleased to meet you, Bob, and am looking forward to our interview because there are so many interesting stories behind the faces here at the museum.

Glidepath

Thank-you.

Bob Smith

In the questionaire I sent you earlier, you signed- off with the Royal Canadian Air Force motto, Per Ardua Ad Astra, “Through Adversity to the Stars.” Can you tell us how you got interested in aviation and ultimately found yourself in the RCAF?

Glidepath

After high school i was a jeweller’s apprentice in Victoria and I was very heavy into racing cars. My best buddy joined the RCAF at 18 and came back with stories of many wild parties, fast aircraft and hot women (or was it fast women and hot aircraft?). “A nude farm girl behind every tree!” he said. What he neglected to mention, in Moose Jaw where I trained, there were no trees. So my inspiration for getting into aviation was wine, women and speed. As for Harvards, after 1 completed my training as a jet fighter pilot, the RCAF in its wisdom felt I could serve the Queen better by being an instructor, and the Harvard was the aircraft of choice. I have over 2,500 hours on the beast actually 2,501, but over 2,500 sounds better.

Bob Smith

What rivets your interest in the Harvard today?

Glidepath

I would be more strongly riveted if the museum had a Spitfire to fly or even a Mustang or a Hurricane. So you see, it is not the Harvard per se, but single-engined piston, high-performance old machines that attract me. The sound, smell, and vibration are hard to describe. There is the Finch and the Tiger Moth as well. All great machines in their day.

Bob Smith

Do you fly the museum’s aircraft?

Glidepath

No, I don’t. When I quit flying after 35 years and some 20,000 hours not retired as that is for old people- I let my medical lapse to let the next generation take over.

Bob Smith

Flying the Harvard has been described by others as a “grey or white” experience; they either love it or are somewhat hesitant. Can you add anything to this?

Glidepath

If you can master a Harvard, you can probably fly anything. I haven’t heard the “grey/white” expression used on the Harvard, but I would state without hesitation that any pilot who had enough hours to feel comfortable in the machine would love it and be solid white. Any greys would be the new breed of pilot who are not accustomed to tail draggers, massive torque, noise, smoke and vibration and don’t really care to learn much about it.

Bob Smith

How is this parlayed at the Museum – how would you describe your title?

Glidepath

I have never thought about a title. I don’t think the rank and file volunteer like myself has a title and I don’t think one is required. Just call me Bob. If this won’t do “Mechanical Helper” is as close as I can get. With my hobby of building vintage race car engines I have been assigned to cleaning up old engine parts and attempting to organize the tool crib. Perhaps someday I will get to assist on working on the aircraft but I sure have a lot to learn. The wealth of knowledge in this museum is staggering.

Bob Smith

I just have to ask you this: With your flying and auto-racing experience, if you were to drag race a Harvard down Langley’s main runway in your fastest car, who would win?

Glidepath

Because of the length of Langley’s runway, any car would. The short-range acceleration on the Harvard is not that great. But if we were out on the twenty-mile salt flats, the Harvard would win.

Bob Smith

After your vibrant career as a RCAF instructor on the Harvard, can you tell us about your next path to the stars?

Glidepath

After the air force I moved to Vancouver and joined the Department of Transport checking and calibrating radio aids, eventually working up to be the Director of Flight Operations.

Bob Smith

You also have an interest in astronomy. What compels you?

Glidepath

That is the ultimate. All life, as we know it, involves a star. Our sun, although a very small one, is indeed a star with eight planets orbiting it because of its gravitational pull. Just recently astronomers have discovered there are objects (planets?) in orbit around several stars in our galaxy. Since our Milky Way galaxy has some 400 billion stars and is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies – the odds are there must be unfathomable numbers of stars with planets orbiting them. Surely life of some description must have evolved on some (if not all) of these planets over the past 14 billion years-the age of our universe. When I go to that big pilot’s lounge in the sky. I would like to be like Captain Kirk and tour the universe forever and “Go where no man has gone before”. Sure beats folding your wings, sitting on a cloud playing a harp.

Bob Smith

The great writer and pilot Antoine de Saint- Exupery once wrote that a pilot’s business is with the wind and the stars. “He looks forward to port as to a promised land, and truth for him is what lives in the stars.” Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to via your association with the Canadian Museum of Flight?

Glidepath

If I read Antoine’s “a promised land and the truth for him is what lives in the stars” correctly, it appears he and I think alike and perhaps he is on his trip right now. In the meantime, I am looking forward to continuing my association with the museum and making new friends. The amount and high degree of knowledge in this museum is indeed staggering.

Bob Smith

You have been a most interesting interviewee and I thank-you for this.

Glidepath

My pleasure, thanks,

Bob Smith

Around the Museum – News and Events

Large Engine Display

With winter coming, it is wonderful to have our new structure to house and protect a selection of the more important large aircraft engines in the extensive CMF collection. Many thanks are extended to the team that put this structure in place, particularly BJ. MacMillan, Gordon Varney and Cyril Meadows.

Many hands make light(er) work of easing a massive P&W R2800 into the new large engine display area.

Vic Bentley inspects one of the rare Bristol Taurus engines held by the CMF.

Vic Bentley is busy selecting the more significant engines to display in this new space, to provide Museum visitors with a good cross-section of the evolution of aircraft engine technology. Rare radial engines held by the Museum include the Bristol Taurus and Armstrong Siddeley Tiger.

Fleet Canuck

Progress continues on the Fleet Canuck as it inches its way towards the fabric covering stage. We have secured a space suitable for the covering task; many thanks go to Werner Giesbrecht for offering the use of his hangar.

As mentioned in the last issue of Glidepath, the Canuck will be painted in the blue and white colour scheme used by the B.C.. Aero Club during the 1950s and 1960s heyday of the Fleet Canuck as the taildragger backbone of their training fleet. Numerous B.C. pilots trained in those aircraft, including many CMF members, so there are strong attachments. The heading photo for this issue of Glidepath provides just one example of that attachment, a Museum Member and current Museum pilot, Bill Findlay, proudly leaning against a blue and white Canuck. Looking younger, too.

Cosmetic restoration of the Vampire cockpit is now complete with installation of the gunsight, control grip and seat pan.

Sparkling in the morning sun, the CMF Quickie shows off its new white paint job, complements of Eric Dickerson and Hank Koehler.

Barn Inventory

A major milestone has been reached in the huge task of better cataloguing and consolidating the Museum inventory of artifacts: the Barn is complete. We have 1521 entries in the database, covering some 4995 items. We have taken 2,183 photographs of these items, often 4 or 5 of larger pieces.. Many entries include multiple items, either several examples of the same aircraft component, or a group of related items

Most recently the team tackled the loft area, an upper platform absolutely crammed with items from floor to ceiling. Highlights include parts for Grumman Avengers, Beech Model 18 varients, Norsemen, Ansons and others.

Work will now move on to Hangar 30, across the Langley Airport from the main Museum facility, and then finally the current display areas interior and exterior. Ultimately, the greatest opportunity lies in review of the thousands of photographs and descriptions of artifacts, to better describe them, to better understand what the Museum holdings include, and then to optimize those holdings.

The Hampden’s wounded left wing is now under cover, so reconstruction can continue through the winter months. Thanks, B.J.!

Museum Calendar

Nov. 8-12 Semiahmoo Mall Display Nov. 11 Nov. 20 Remembrance Day Flyby Movie Night A look ahead to the events of 2011…

February 12 “A Night for Lovers” (Valentines Day Event) March 26 March Annual Fundraising Auction Open House for Air Cadets April 23 CMF Annual General Meeting April 23 British Car Show, Fort Langley May 14 June 18 Movie Night Boundary Bay Airshow July 9 Hope Flight Fest July 16 Princeton Airshow August 12-14 Abbotsford Airshow August 21 Chilliwack Airshow Sept. 10 Langley Cruise-In Sept. 17 CMF Members’ Day October 21 Teachers Prof. Development Day Nov. 6-10 Semiahmoo Mall Show

Nov. 19 Movie Night 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.

For more information on Canadian Museum of Flight collections, displays and events, please visit our website at www.canadianflight.org We recently added a section on the aircraft models held by our Museum 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