Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation Issue #48 Spring 1996
CANADA REMEMBERS: A TEENAGER IN BERLIN
Gerhard Eichel was born in Berlin. He was a teenager at the time of the Second World War and survived experiences that are unimaginable to most modern Canadian youth. He was evacuated from his home during the Berlin Airlift and by lucky happenstance was able to immigrate to Canada. He and his wife Chris toiled successfully to integrate into their new country and raise a healthy family.
“Canada Remembers” is a national campaign during the 50th Anniversary of the end of the War, which centers on the personal recollections of those who were there. Gerhard presents us an excerpt from his memoirs about what it was like to be on the receiving end of Bomber Command.
The young Flakhelfer pose with their regular Army Corporal (no shirt) on the roof of the I.G. Farben building.
Photo Gerhard Eichel
In the spring of 1943 the German advance into the Soviet Union had stalled and Stalingrad was about to fall. The presence of so many able soldiers far from the front, manning the anti-aircraft guns at the capital and apparently doing nothing much except having a good time, started to bother the High Command. So Baldur von Schirach, the leader of the Hitler Youth, came up with the brilliant suggestion to “volunteer” his not necessarily willing members, to free up soldiers for the eastern front.
Sure enough, in February, all high school students 16 years and over were being volunteered to become Luftwaffenhelfer, commonly also called Flakhelfer, Air Force Auxiliaries. Anti-aircraft efforts were the function of the air force. The completion of our formal schooling was re-arranged by simply ordering our teachers to conduct classes at or near the gun positions. In the beginning this wasn’t too bad as nightly raids were still infrequent and without much effect. When the big raids started in the fall of that year, however, our education suffered badly.
The unit my class was assigned to was a battery of light anti-aircraft cannon, 20 mm model 38, consisting of four platoons of three canons each installed on roof tops of office buildings in the inner city. Headquarters and one platoon were on the Air Force ministry, one platoon was on top of the Reich’s Chancellery (Hitler’s office), another on top of the new central bank building on Kur Strasse, and my platoon was on the corporate head office of the L.G.Farben chemical trust on Unter den Linden avenue across from the prestigious Hotel Adlon.
On three of the four corner turrets of the old Reichstag building nearby was a battery of the new 50 mm automatic cannons. There were also batteries equipped with captured French 75 mm and Soviet 99 mm caliber guns and numerous search light units. The latter and a unit of barrage balloons were rumored to have crews of high school girls. If this was the case it was being hushed up because women being soldiers were simply not yet meeting with unanimous approval.
The crew of a platoon was the sergeant, who was the commander, and a corporal or private first class, who actually stepped on the trigger when ordered. There was also one soldier in each platoon who was trained to operate the range finder. All the rest of the crew were we “Fakhelfer”, and relations were not always harmonious.
While regular soldiers got pay cheques, all we got was free board. Meals were prepared off-base for the whole battery and delivered in insulated containers. After each nightly attack the soldiers received extra rations of tobacco and liquor while we, beings minors, maybe got a chocolate bar and glory. The population called us “bonbon soldiers”.
After the “all clear”, regular soldiers were allowed to retire while we cleaned the gun, restocked ammunition and often were ordered into the streets for rescue and firefighting duties. In addition we were anxious to find out what may have happened at our homes which was difficult because there were no phones in many houses,
There were remarkably few casualties from direct hits, there were more from buildings collapsing on top of rescue workers. There were cases of people being trapped in their shelters and drowning when broken water lines filled them. There were explosions from bombs with delay fuses as well as from pools of coal gas leaking from damaged pipes. After such experiences the internal walls separating apartment buildings had doors installed.
We were once ordered into a burning bank on Unter den Linden to save the vaults on underground levels from destruction. What was actually burning were five million cigars, of the best quality, which a wholesaler had stored on the assumption that this would be a safe place. We all emerged quickly with smoke poisoning, having become none smokers for life. Of course, after a heavy raid there were no classes, sometimes not for days, because we had more important things to do and so did many of our teachers. Also the public transit on which they depended wasn’t working too well.
In quiet periods our roof top existence had its compensations in the form of a magnificent view over the city and beyond. We were able to witness the comings and goings at the Hotel Adlon, parades down Unter den Linden and through the Bradenburg Gate, and the action around the embassies on Pariser Platz
Right beneath us was the French Embassy, and during lunch breaks on hot days the girls who worked there would sunbathe on the roof. The boldest of our crew chalked our phone number on the side of the gun embrasure facing them but before he could get down to the office the girls had dialed our number on the phone they had brought up with them. Our platoon commander, who was a Barvarian and didn’t like Berliners anyway, answered the ring, hung up, and chewed us out with enough decibels for the girls to hear without the phone. There were long faces on both roofs, and the art work had to be laboriously scrubbed off.
Gerhards’ school mates practice with a 20 mm Flak 38 during the summer of 1943.
Actually we had it quite easy compared with the crew at the Chancellery for whom we felt sorry. At first they had basked in the attention of such prestigious address and company but then they quickly learned that the mere chance of meeting the Fuhrer obligated them to submit to constant scrutiny for impeccable uniforms, frequent haircuts, correct behavior and clean finger nails. Of course Hitler never showed up to experience for himself a raid by Bomber Command.
“We gradually learned not to shoot down our own aircraft
Improvements being made by Bomber Command to find their targets better were happening as were our improvements to better co-ordinate the defense organization between flak and night fighters. We gradually learned not to shoot down our own aircraft. Most of the time we were just spectators, so in order to assure everybody we were ordered just before the “all clear” to fire off a twenty round clip to prove that our weapons were still functional. The population was suitably informed of the exercise via radio so that nobody got too excited. People were also informed that the cloud deck would be illuminated by search lights in order to create a bright background for the night fighters to detect the bombers below them.
Nevertheless the situation here in the centre of the prime target was evidently getting too dangerous for the authorities to be responsible for, especially as the fathers of some of my classmates were high ranking, influential officials of Party, state, or in the armed forces and worried about their boys.
So, soon after the impressive August raid we were moved out of the city centre to the eastern suburbs. My platoon was relocated on top of a ten storey cold storage building by the East Port of the Spree river near the Oberaum bridge. Nobody could convince us that this was safer right next to the Main Station and rail yards, the Klingenberg power station, several industrial plants, and 40 metres above Stralauer Allee on a flat roof. We quadrupled our fire power by taking delivery of four-barrel model 38 cannon, for which the roof structure at the old location was not strong enough.
A 17 year old boy. Gerhard Eichels” Flakhelfer ID card photo.
Train loads of meat, butter, and eggs arriving at the cold storage building were often guarded by troops who had been assigned to this duty as a reward for exemplary conduct at the front or while fighting partisans. Some were lucky and managed to get some rest and relaxation but often they got caught in an air raid for which they were utterly unprepared. After such an experience they couldn’t get back to the front fast enough and were deeply worried about the fate of their families whom they had believed till then to be safe at home.
The real heavy raids on Berlin started in November, and soon we were the target or close to it. We were even credited with thwarting an attack on the vital installations we were supposed to protect but didn’t believe it because we were convinced that bombing runs were flown at a higher altitude than our measly 2,200 metre
Being in the center of a bombing run was equally terrifying and awe inspiring. What impressed me more than bombs exploding and buildings burning and collapsing was the light show leading up to the attack. White, red and green target indicators slowly floating on parachutes obviously meant something to the attacking formations but to us they indicated mostly that we were the target. Without that knowledge the entire light show might even have been pretty but the experience has left me unable to enjoy even the most brilliant display of fireworks. I always expect to hear the unmistakable howl of a 4000 pound “cookie” descending on me next.
We were lucky in that the closest we ever came to being hit was when a bomb came down on a five storey apartment building right across the river from us. It was fairly quiet at the moment so we were all able to hear quite distinctly the sound as the bomb struck the tile roof and penetrated in rapid succession all five floors before it detonated and show- cred us with bricks. In the morning we saw that only the outside walls of the building were standing. The residents in the basement shelter survived.
Many buildings were ignited by incendiaries, and the success of putting out the fires depended very much on the availability of water and trained personnel. We noticed that buildings with a steel skeleton collapsed very soon after the fire started whereas buildings with timber beams might burn for hours before they collapsed. This allowed for the safe evacuation of all the residents, even after the raid.
As more and more people lost all their possessions and perhaps even friends and relatives the mood became black and so did the jokes. The bureaucracy set up to deal with damage claims from air raids was getting swamped and became increasingly selective. Soon there was this story making the rounds of the hapless souls seeking compensation who had to wend their way through a complex office with many anterooms, all having two doors through which to proceed according to one’s case. The last two doors had signs reading “Member of the Party” and “Not Member of the Party”. Anyone entering the latter found himself standing back out on the street.
The family apartment after the last bombing raid Gerd Bichel Photograph
The fall of Stalingrad didn’t help morale. When a new brand of cigarettes called STAMBUL came on the market it only took about two weeks for us to learn that the initials stood for Stalin’s Armee Marschiert Bald Unter’n Linden (Stalin’s army will soon march Unter de Linden). For the telling of such jokes people had to first acquire what came to be known as the “German Twitch”, a quick look over both shoulders to see that there was nobody listening. The irrepressible Berliner wit also found new names for the hardest hit districts of Steglitz, Lichterfelde, Zehlendorf, Friedenau and Charlottenburg. They were soon known as Steht Nichts (Nothing Standing), Trichterfelde (Crater Field), Seelendorf (Souls Village), Wustenau (Wasteland) and Klamottenburg (Rubble Castle).
On January 1944 my family’s apartment was heavily damaged. The raids were becoming more concentrated and destructive and finally our home was totally destroyed in what turned out to be the last of the big raids on March 24. Mom said the bombings stopped when the RAF discovered that they had taken out our place.
Inside
- Canada Remembers 1
- Site Managers Message 2
- Letters 2
- Aircraft Sales 5
- Casino Night 5
- Around the Site 6
- Volunteer News 4
- Giftshop 8
- Donors 7
- Administrative 8
- New Address 7
Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation
The CMFT Newsletter is published quarterly by the Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation. Contributions in the form of articles, news items, letters and photos are welcome, as are comments and criticism. No payment can be made for any manuscripts that are submitted for publication in the CMFT Newsletter. The editor reserves the right to make changes in manuscripts without altering the meaning
Editor Brad Thomas
Contributing Editor…Gerhard H. Eichel
All mail and correspondence can be sent to:
Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation
c/o The Newsletter Editor
5333-216th Street
Unit 200
Langley, B.C.
V2Y 2N3
Tel: (604) 532-0035
Fax: (604) 532-0056
CALENDAR OF COMING EVENTS
C.M.F.T. General Meeting and Dinner
Saturday March 2 Yic’s Dining Lounge, Surrey
Gift Shop. 10% off for Members
7 days a week 10 Am to 4 PM Langley Airport Just off Fraser Highway at 216th Street.
CF-100 Assembly
When the snow clears)
C.M.F.T. Annual Elections
Meeting in April Please consider nominating someone as a director!.
GENERAL MANAGERS MESSAGE
Joining, or more correctly rejoining the staff of C.F.M.T., during the present move into the new facilities, impresses me anew with the dedication, energy and skills of the many volunteers who are helping as frequently as possible to get the organization “up and running” just as quickly as possible. One is also reminded of the vast diversity of the desires and expectations of our members – some want to set up displays of artifacts, others to assist in returning aircraft to operation condition or where more practical, to display condition. Some want library experience, some to build or recondition models, while some seem to mainly enjoy the camaraderie!
Weare now soon be installed in our new home with gift shop, library, office space, display hangar space and shop space (all too small but vastly superior to anything before) so soon, all your wishes will come true.
But remember for every fabric repair, every hour of engine maintenance, every week of restoration work, every session of library cataloguing, for every minute of your favourite activity, we’ve got building maintenance, outside grounds tending. care of displays, and all the other needs of a successful operation.
The hard work of the move is nearly at an end, and the fun stuff is here. Maintain this level of enthusiasm and C.M.F.T. cannot but continue to grow and prosper.
Gogi Goguillot General Manager
Letters
I am enclosing a cheque payable to your organization. This, of course, is in appreciation of one of your members, Bill Thompson,
I met Bill several years ago when I happened to be in Garden Bay. I saw for the second time this beautiful yellow U.S. Navy N3N-3 sitting in the dock. My first sight of this was several years ago as my wife and I saw it flying over Worlcombe Island and then passing over us with a roar as we stood on Cape Roger Curtis on Bowen Island.
Needless to say I walked over to the dock and Bill very kindly showed me the aircraft as well as his partly finished Steerman and tow boats under refit. I have had the good fortune to find him home on several occasions since then and have enjoyed getting to know him and his wife,
Last August on a beautiful evening I happened to arrive just at the right time as he landed and dropped off a passenger. I was treated to a real thrill of a circuit around Garden Bay. I had a leather helmet and my glasses (goggles) on. The air was blowing past at great velocity and I could feel the heat from the air- cooled engine and the smell of heated oil. I am a pilot myself and this matched the thrill I had flying in the purple sunset from Dog Creek airstrip to the 108 Airport with the late Anne Bauer in her 1940 Taylorcraft. It was my 60th birthday. I have since learned to fly and own a little C-150.
That flight with Bill fulfilled a dream that I never expected so I sent a moncy order as a contribution to his work in restoring the N3N-3 and the second onc which is about to start. He refused the contribution but I still want to do what I can to help the cause of restoration of aircraft. I wish I could be a volunteer but I just don’t have the time these days. I have only flown “Queenie” three hours since June!
Please accept this contribution in appreciation of your work and for Bill Thompson’s kindness to this kid at heart who still feels like he was the kid he was sixty years ago looking over the fence at Vancouver Airport wishing ho could fly in one of those acroplanes. Well he did and this is a small way to say thanks.
Cheers!
lan G. Henley
Bowen Island, B.C.
Volunteer News
Dorette and Basil in action.Photo B. Thomas
For 2 years the Muscum has been a host charity at Bingo every second Sunday at the Guildford Bingo Palace. The success of this fund-raiser has been a result of the quiet dedication of volunteers like Basil and Dorette Cooke who have donated 4 hours of their time once a month.
As Charity Representatives at the Bingo hall, they check the Bingo cards, range. verify the cash float and distribute the winnings to the lucky patrons. At the end of each Bingo session they receive the days earnings and write a couple of cheques to the Bingo’s staff and the owners of the hall. The result is a steady trickle of much needed income to the Museum which varies from $200 to $700 depending on attendance.
Basil and Dorette get immense satisfaction from this simple job because the few hours they volunteer translates into a cash flow to the Museum which they could not match with personal donations. Their dedication translates quickly and immediately into a wonderful benefit to the society they care so much about.
This couple have been dependable and charming ambassadors of the Muscum since the very start of Bingo. Basil was a Geology Professor at Dalhousie so Bingo paperwork is quite straight forward, but he enjoys the challange of predicting the number of balls needed to produce a winner. Another of his talents is paleontology and even in retirement he and Dorette are still called on to examine fossils and participate in conferences. With any luck, the discussions he had this summer in Africa will be broadcast on educational television.
Please consider volunteering yourself as a Bingo Representative. More people are needed to ensure the C.M.F.T. continues to be a responsible Bingo Host. President George Proulx has been the Bingo Co-ordinator and he needs someone to take that responsibilty while he deals with other important issues facing the Muscum. If you can be of help please phone the Volunteer Co-ordinator, Keith Retallack at 526-4969.
Casino Night
On the evenings of August 24 & 25 it was the museums turn to be the charity host of a Casino night at the Coast Casino in the Royal Towers Hotel in New Westminster. Longtime member Jane Robinson did a great job of organizing the volunteers needed for the event. As a result the Museum raised over $15,000 in much needed funds.
It has been several years since the expenses. Muscum has hosted a casino night. Doug Fraser and Jane at the last one so they worked in the glamorous positions that required their experience. Volunteers like Keith Retallack and Don Souter attended a special course put on by the Gaming Branch.
Others like Brad Thomas, and Greg Evans-Davies worked at simpler jobs that only required a little on the job training. The Muscum would also like to thank Geri McGrath, Annabel Hann and Laila Bird for the stamina it took to work from 5 in the afternoon until 4 in the morning!
Aircraft Sales
In order to finance improvements at the Langley hangar some of the museums aircraft are being offered for sale. While the Directors may not have been totally unanimous in their difficult decisions about which aircraft to offer, they all realize that it is very critical that money raised go to capital projects rather than be spent on operating
This year a collection of Harvard/ SNJ parts as well as a container load of TBM Avenger parts are being offered to the marketplace.
At the summer barbeque President George Proulx announced the sale of the F-11 Fairchild Husky and the Bristol Bolingbroke for $108,000. The engined Champion Lancer museum has duplicate airframes of cach aircraft. Unfortunately the sale of the Husky (CF-SAQ) was not completed duc to funding constraints on the buyers.
The Stinson Vigilant which crashed on a trip through B.C. Parts of the airframe are stainless steel. Brad ThomasPhotograph
The Stinston L-1 Vigilant was sold to an out of country buyer. This recovered wreck is an interesting and fairly rare bird but it has no Canadian history at all. Also sold was the crashed twin
The Muscum has also put its Stampe SV-4C on the market. This is a fairly complete project because it was one of the Expo restorations. However, it is very similar to the Tiger Moth.
Offers are being entertained for the sale of the almost complete Noorduyn Norseman CF-BSC. This gorgeous craft has immense historical value and was the focus of much volunteer effort during Expo 86. However, Norsemans are still in commercial use, so BSC has a significant price tag.
At the opposite end of the spectrum from complete is the Stinson 10A Voyager project. The parts for this are currently in storage.
The largest item for sale is the Bocing Vertol 44B “Flying Banana” helicopter. While it does have Canadian significance and is an interesting display item, it also has a fairly high value and takes up a lot of storage space.
While the center section of the Canadian built Hawker Hurricane may not look like much, it is one of the most noteworthy of the C.M.F.T.’s salvage items. Offers will be entertained from serious rebuilders.
The Howard DGA-15 is an airplane with a strong U.S. racing heritage but only saw limited use in Canada. Much work would be required to get its’ mahogany wings back in shape, but it is a beautiful craft.
After being rescued from a lake bottom and being displayed for several years the Republic Seabee is for sale. While the Seabee is a type with some significance, especially here in B.C., space constraints require the muscum to part with a craft that will be fairly easy to obtain for a couple of decades
Around the Site
This thin object is the nose of the Hampden. It is at the hangar and Fred Gardham will need help reassembling it.
The museum sites are really a demonstration of extremes. A beautiful new display hall is taking shape in Langley while the Crescent Road site resembles a bombed out acrodrome. Volunteers crews have been making steady progress at all three Muscums work areas.
The moving crews had to race to beat the approach of the wet winter weather at Crescent Road. All the stuff that has been in outdoor storage around the airfield was being brought to the front of the property and placed onto better drained surfaces. This will allowed the loading of trucks and trailers to continue thru the soggy season.
Ron Krywiak, Ross Mackenzie, Mark Zalesky and Mike Dohm reassemble the tail of the T-33 at the new site.
Unfortunately nothing can be done to prevent the mud. It arrived in full force and made the work at the old site a little bit more difficult. However Inky Klett, Doug Moan and John Clark aren’t letting mud stop them and are persevering
To add to the bombed out look, the venerable old storage buildings have been disassembled and removed to the Zalesky farm. The cladding and doors came off and exposed the roof trusses which were then lifted down and moved. Most of the Muscum material that was stored in these buildings has been moved to a new storage site inside of an old milk barn in Fort Langley.
The new storage site is slowly evolving into the eighth wonder of the world. Directors Ron Krywiak and Basil Watson are coming up with some very novel ways of taking full advantage of the limited storage space. Fuselages are standing on their noses and steel bins are stacked to form columns that are topped by wings. This veritable wonderland has not failed to ellicit an expression of amazment from everyone coming through the doors.
The real jewel in all this jumble is the new site at Langley. Volunteer Coordinator Keith Retallack managed to organize a weekend blitz (or two) and got the office and gift shop moved into the triple Atco in Langley. While it may not have gone 100% according to plan, with everybody pulling together a very daunting task was completed in a surprisingly quick time.
The new gift shop is organized and open. It is more spacious than ever and is bright during the day because of the large windows that were installed in the walls of the Atco. The new flooring that Basil Watson laid down looks just great
It is getting difficult to recognize the Atco building these days. Large wooden wheelchair ramps grace the front and rear of the building. Soon siding will go on and an awning will be added.
Margaret Giacomello has gotten the library installed in the Atco. Alas there is not as much room as at Crescent Road so some of the heavier researchers may have to bring a skinny friend with them that can fit between the bookstacks.
A concrete path has been poured that joins the giftshop to the main exhibit hall. The main hall is progressing well thanks to President George Proulx. The drywall has been installed, the handicap washroom has been constructed and a new hangar door is being installed.
The first barbeque at the new site took place this summer. Ron McWilliams gets a helping of chile from Helen Proulx
Member Chuck Haig mixed some destruction with some construction and made a workshop space out of two rooms on the south side of the hangar. The room is near the entrance so visitors will have a full view of the activity.
New manager Gogi Goguillot has been hard at work organizing the display aircraft. The Bowlus Bumblebee Glider, the Quikie and the gyrocopter are now suspended from the ceiling. With help from Tony Hudak and Ye Olde Vette Shoppe the Westland Lysander was moved out from Crescent Road and squeezed (quit literally) under the door into the hangar.
The hangar is starting to make the transformation to a museum Ron McWilliams and Sheila Chmilar have . been setting up models, propellers and uniforms to create the C.M.F.T.s first full fledged indoor display.
A special thanks to Ken Cameron who volunteered his own pilot car services to assist moving the Lysander.
The outdoor displays still need some work. Wings need to be installed on the Canuck and the Beechcraft. The Hampden has made the trip over from Whiterock and is on display in the front yard, and the backyard and along the side of the hangar. It needs to be reassembled as well. The Vampire has also made the journey and is parked just outside the overhead door.
The Husky spent a short time at the hangar after its aborted trip back east. Unfortunately Langley suffered a windstorm that weekend and the Husky tried to go for a flight and took part of the fence with it. Repairs were done quickly but it was one more job that took more of the inuscums’ dwindling money supply.
Most of the volunteer work right now is concentrated at the new Langley site. Most of the artifacts have been transferred to the new storage barn and the Surrey site is being area cleaned up to be acceptable for the new use that the City of Surrey has in mind for the property. If you would like to help please call the Museum or drop by the new site in Langley.
DONORS
The Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation would like to recognize the following persons and organizations for their donations to the Museum, (TSR 5465-5563)
Ace Lock & Key Kalwajtys, Cathy Pleasants, Ed Alpha Tent & Awning Kamm, Rich & June Price, Valerie Anderson, lan Kenny, James Klett, Ingvar & Norah Proulx, George Ray, Martin Aveling, H. E. J. Aviation Art Canada Kluftinger, Martin Rudland, David Ballinger, Stanley Langford, Michael Lingham, Jack Russwurm, Lance Sampson, Phillip Barman, E.J. Beauregard, Ed MacGowan, Kenneth Sandie, Ernie Begin, T.J. Madill, Lock Scarfo, Phil Seller, Art Bordian, Ken Bourgeau, Marvin Malo, Paul & Mary Martin, Patrick Skolovy, Fred Bricklebank, B. & R. McCallister, V. Sorko, Ken Spencer, W & M Brown, Alene Carey, Robert Media Marketing Nicolay, Marcus Stone, William Chater, Giles Clark, John R. Niven, Larry Olson, Len Taylor, Maxse Thomas, Brad Clay, Douglas Coolen, Karl Onarheim, Joyce UPA NAPA Autoparts Orphan, Mel Patterson, Dugald Vancouver Island Air Copeman, Howard Dale, Peter Vernon, Jerry Pelke, Leo Pickup, Dr. H. Walters, Bill Watters, Bruce Danyluk, K. & M. Donny, Mildred Dovrics, P. J. Edmondson, Bert Eichel, Gerhard Ervin, Jerry Fetherstonaugh, E. H. Formula Canada Scale Models Fry, Sheila Gardham, Fred General Paint Gilmore, John Gordon, Patricia Hamilton, Rheta Hampton, Bert Hewlett, Frank Hill, John Hinson, Harold Hoye, Norman
The beautiful painting was donated by Mike Connel along with one from his wife. Plans are in the works to offer the paintings as a sweepstake prize. Stay tuned. Photo by Thomas
ADDRESS CHANGE!
Wouldn’t you know it! The week we released our first newsletter with the address of our new sito, Canada Post decides to change the Langley area postal codes. The new address is:
Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation
5333 216 Street Unit 200
Langley, British Columbia
V2Y 2N3
New Place, New Hours, New Members
The new location is really taking shape but it needs one more thing – YOU. The displays are not yet open to the public but they are open to members so please come on down for a look. If you want to give a hand setting things up or dusting off-all the better!
The Gift Shop is open and is looking great! Don’t forget that members are entitled to a 10% discount. Proceeds from your purchases will go to support the Museum and the Museum needs your support right now. The cancelled sale of the Husky has put a serious crimp in the cash flow at a time when the CMFT is spending money at a record rate. Come down, buy yourself and your loved ones a gift and help our President sleep better.
The Gift Shop is open from 10 AM to 4 PM seven days a weeks. Come to the site in Langley and see if you can arrange to help out.
Due to the disruption at both sites and the lack of visitors this summer, the membership level has been declining You can also help us solve this problem. Make sure your membership has been renewed and consider buying one for a friend. If you have not visited the Museum for a while, come to the hangar at the Langley Airport and be inspired!
The Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation
5333-216th Street Langley, B.C.
Tel: (604) 532-0035
Drop in for a learning experience NE Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation Langley Airport, Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Be involved… contact a Committee Chairperson
The C.F.M.T. is a non profit society dedicated to the preservation of aviation and transportation heritage. Membership can be obtained by completing a membership application and submitting with required dues. Charitable status allows for the issuance of tax deductible receipts for donations of artifacts, goods, and money. The C.M.F.T. is governed by a board of Directors who are elected by the members at the Annual General Meeting in April.
Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation
Administrative Contacts
The following people have been voted by the membership to the capacity of a Board of Directors.
Richmond
Lifetime Directors/Governors Board of Directors Barry Jackson, George Proulx, White Rock 538-3836 North Vancouver Ron W. Stunden, 932-2367 Tony Hudak, Surrey Lori Cockerill, Surrey 538-3392 590-1855
277-3827 Doug Fraser, Delta John De Visser, Richmond 946-2293 277-5000 Ed Zalesky, White Rock 535-1115 Ron Krywiack, Burnaby 433-6240
Executive Committee Rose Zalesky, White Rock Keith Retallack, New West 526-4969 Michael Read, White Rock President Vice President George Proulx Tony Hudak Lori Cockerill 535-1115 536-7402 John Reid, Richmond 271-1899 Secretary Treasurer Basil Watson, Langley 534-7926 The Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation is holding the next General Meeting/Dinner Yic’s Dining Lounge 13639 104th Ave. Surrey For Committee information contact Keith Rettalack at (604) 526-4969 Magazine Collection Membership George Proulx Open Volunteer Co-ordinator Keith Rettalick Corporate Liason Open Dan Millsip Publicity/Promotions Special Events Newsletter Editor George Proulx Brad Thomas Sheila Chmilar Restoration Research Photo Reproduction Jerry Vernon Don Olson Computer Services Micheal Read Exhibits Maintenance Ron McWilliams Flying Library Open Margaret Giacomello Collections Jerry Vernon. Tony Hudak Transportation/Hauling Meetings/Entertainment Open Bingo George Proulx Fred Gardham Hampden Restoration Parts Disposal Barry Jackson on Saturday, March 2, 1996 6:00 pm no-host bar, 7:00 pm dinner, 8:00 pm meeting Open to members and their guests. Please phone in your reservation to 535-1115. Only $12.00 per person, including taxes. Pre-pay using your credit card or pay at the door.