Museum Newsletter
CANADIAN MUSEUM OF FLIGHT AND TRANSPORTATION No. 22 Oct., 1983
Policy
Every letter, newsletter or other communication throughout the year contains a return envelope or other form of solicitation. We urge you to use these forms to recruit new members and to make memorial, tribute, anniversary or other additional contributions. Remember, in order to help build and maintain the Museum, and to acquire outstanding exhibits, we will remind you of the need for funds in every mailing.
COVER PHOTO:
The museum’s latest acquisition is Noorduyn Norseman Mk. V CF-BSC, c/n N29-17, donated by King Perry. Author Larry Milberry rates this aircraft as “the most historic Canadian Norseman still around”,” and it is prominently featured on the cover and in his upcoming book on Austin Airways (out in November). CF-BSC flew over 14,000 hours with Austin Airways be tween 1946 and 1971, with some 10,000 of these flown by Rusty Blakey. Photo by Larry Milberry, taken at Sudbury, Ontario, September, 1961.
CANADIAN MUSEUM OF FLIGHT AND TRANSPORTATION 1983/84 EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
- Edward Zalesky President
- Vice-President Brace Duncan..
- Rose Zalesky Secretary-Treasurer
- David Jones Chairman, Vancouver Island
- Peter Knowles (Acting) Vice-Chairman, Vancouver laland
- Adele Hatch Public Relations, Vancouver Island
COMMITTEE HEADS
- Robert Kennedy Newsletter
- Wayne Manning. Recovery and Hauling
- Gordon Dann Special Events
- Jerry Vemon… Research
- Ken Swartz Communications
1983/84 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
- Wayne Cromie, Richmond, B.C. Partsman
- Bruce Duncan, Richmond, B.C.. Salesman
- Werner Griesbeck, Abbotsford, B.C.. Transport Canada
- Adele Hatch, Victoria, B.C.. Housewife
- Barry Jackson, West Vancouver, B.C. Contractor ****
- Civil Servant David Jones, Victoria, B.C.
- Robert Kennedy, Richmond, B.C. Supervisor
- David O’Byrne, Victoria, B.C. Sales Agent
- Ronald Stunden, Richmond, B.C. Technician
- W. A. Thompson, Garden Bay, B.C. Master Mariner
- Edward Zalesky, Surrey, B.C. Parts Dealer
- Rose Zalesky, Surrey, B.C. Office Manager
The Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation is a non-profit society dedicated to the preservation of aviation and transportation heritage. Charitable status allows for the issuance of tax-deductible receipts for donations of goods and money. It is governed by a board of 20 directors, divided 15 for the Lower Mainland area and 5 for the Vancouver Island area, elected annually. Elections are held in April.
One Man’s Obsession With Wings, Wheels and Water
By Lock Madill
As a boy I was always interested in anything that goes, especially anything that goes fast, and this led to experiences in all three-wings, wheels and water.
In the summer of 1928, when I was 15 years old, I worked to get $25 to buy an old motorbike that I located in a run-down shed. On the day of taking possession, I wheeled my pride and joy out into the lane, not knowing what to expect. The name on the fuel tank was obliterated, but I later found inside the engine, the name, Precision Engine Works, England, 1912. So a Precision it was.
It was a single cylinder, air-cooled, belt drive, one-speed, push-to-start machine and looked rather formidable to me, but I understood the mechanics of it. The man who sold it to me knew nothing about it whatsoever. I had to start from scratch and that’s exactly what happened.
It was fitted with a lever throttle and mixture control and a hand clutch on the left. With uart of gas in the tank, I gave it a good push, wed the controls, let the clutch out and we too too fast to jump on and it dragged me abo feet and we ended up jammed between. foc phone pole and a chicken coop wit: fer flying all around, and me with two sets of booy knuckles, a sprained ankle, torn pants, a skinned knee and a badly bruised ego. The handlebars were somewhat narrower than before.
The next attempt was more successful, except that I couldn’t turn a 90 degree corner without the handlebars hitting the gas tank, and I managed to get home by stopping at every corner, lifting the rear wheel around to the general direction I wanted to go, and then taking off again.
All this leads up to my practical experiences in aviation, motorcycle racing, and hydroplane racing.
After early Sunday paper delivery a couple of months later, I read about an airplane that had landed at the Lansdowne airfield on Lulu Island. At that time it was located behind the racetrack where Woodwards Mall is now. Hopping on the bike, I took off for a look-see. And there she was the most beautiful piece of equipment I d ever seen-a three-place, open-cockpit biplane with a maroon fuselage, silver wings glittering in the heavy morning dew, and shiny metal prop. The plane was called Northern Light.
I ran my hands over the wings, stroked the prop and took a look inside the cockpit at all the instruments and the controls. Boy! I just had to learn to fly!
A man dressed in plus-fours appeared on the scene and started to do things around the airplane. It turned out he was heading somewhere up north. He was going to do a check flight and asked me if I would like to go for a ride-would I! He didn’t have to ask a second time.
I climbed in the front cockpit, the engine fired up and ran for a few minutes, then bumped over the rough field, took off and climbed up over Lulu Island. What a thrill-my first airplane ride! We circled over part of the city, did a few dips and turns and landed about 15 minutes later.
Right then I was addicted. I climbed out, and thanked the pilot. He grinned, waved and took off heading east. That was the first and last I ever heard of G-CAUZ.
The aircraft was a three-place, open cockpit, Alexander Eaglerock biplane with a Wright J5 radial engine and metal prop. A beautiful job.
This led to an intense desire to get into aviation, so whenever possible I was out at Lansdowne Airport (the original Vancouver airport) shooting pictures, asking questions, bumming rides and generally making a nuisance of myself, and I did the same thing at the Jericho Beach RCAF station. I even managed to scrounge a couple of rides there in Gypsy Moth seaplanes.
I joined the RCAF in the summer of 1929 and was shipped off to Camp Borden, Ont., for ground school training as an engine fitter. After that I went into “A” flight (basic flight training) and then into “F” flight with the Siskin fighters. Subsequently, I was shipped to Jericho Beach Air Station and worked on DH Gypsy Moth Seaplanes, Avro 504s on single float, Consolidated Courier on single float, Vickers Vedette flying boats and a little time on Vickers Vancouver flying boats. Needless to say I got a fair amount of air time.
The cut in establishment came in the spring of 1931 and myself and many others were demobi. lized. I was disappointed as I wanted to make a career in the air force. Things were tough then, jobs hard to find and a lot of unemployment and unrest. Not unlike the present day.
I got a job at Turner Boat Works because of my mechanical experience, started to build boats and install engines, etc., for 20 cents an hour and glad to be able to work.
I was with Turners for eight years and worked up to driving all the fast charter boats, the ship docking line boats and building all types of wooden boats from 8-ft. dingys to 32-ft. cruisers, and doing a lot of the mechanical installation work.
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
Please check your address label, the date on the upper right hand corner is the date your membership expires. Send in your $15 annual renewal today. CMFT needs your support. Thanks to all of you who have already renewed your memberships.
It was during this time that I started taking flying lessons at the new Vancouver Airport on Sea Island. My first instructor was Hal Wilson of the Aero Club and I soloed in Lew Finlay’s Aeronca C3 CF-ATL in a little over five hours. This machine was damaged, while parked, by Len Foggin’s “Bird”. Jack Hames-now a retired Air Canada pilot-gave me some further instruction in the same plane, Bird CF-AUB, a three-place, open-cockpit biplane (small bottom wing), and powered with a Kinner 5-cylinder radial engine. The chief instructor of DOT passed me for my private license at 15 hours, and I continued to build up time from then on.
The “Private Aircraft Club” was formed during this time by some of the boys who were building home-builts. Some of the members were Cecil Lightheart, Len Milne and his partner Gibson, Bert Price (MLA), Gran Gatrell, Jack Barbour, Pete Wong, Harold Turner and myself.
I teamed up with Harold Turner and we purchased a wrecked DH 60X wooden moth on floats. It truly was a complete wreck. Jack Hames was the club instructor at that time.
Cec Lightheart was building a 2-place side-by- side Corbin, parasol monoplane and a Cirrus engine up front. I rolled this airplane upside down one time when a wheel broke. Pete Wong and Bert Price were building Pietenpols (single-place, high wing), Pete using a modified Model A Ford engine and Bert using a Cirrus Mk. II. Len Milne and Gibson were building a design of their own– a Gibson-Milne Special-single-place, high wing with an Anzani 3-cylinder engine up front. Gran Gatrell and Jack Barbour were building Lincoln Sportsters, beautiful single-place biplanes with the fuselage suspended between the wings. Gran was using a 9-cylinder Samson radial that sounded like a sewing machine and Jack used a 3-cylinder Anzani.
There is one other I would like to mention-a Heath Parasol, a single-seat, high wing, powered with a converted Henderson 4-cylinder motorcycle engine. The prop wasn’t much bigger than a toothpick. The only person to get it off the ground was Walter Gilbert’s wife, as she only weighed 110 lbs. Walter was operating a flying school at that time.
MEL LEE, left and Lock Madill when things were tough!
Nineteen thirty-five rolled around and I acquired my Air Engineers Certificate, and Harold Turner and I started on Moth G-CAUM. We bought the wreck from the Taku Trading Co. of Takla Lake, B.C., and did the paper work through Howard MacDonald (Big Mac), the pilot who wrecked it at Juneau in 1934, because of a necessary can in the cockpit which rolled down and jammed the rudder bar causing him to sideslip into the water and roll over.
The airplane was really a mess, having only half of three wings and one full damaged wing. Struts were bent and broken, the fuel tank leaked and the engine was missing. The only things that were okay were the floats. The fuselage was all in one piece but moisture had damaged the glue joints. The original registration was Aug. 18, 1928 in England, at the deHavilland plant, which was G- CAUM.
Using the spars from the one wing as patterns, we made eight new ones and all the material for rib construction, etc. This was where Cyril Charter and Norm Fairfield came into the picture. They were two young aspiring aircraft engineers who wanted and needed experience (two years) to get their license. They were willing to help rebuild the Moth. There were no jobs around unless you had a ticket, so you worked for free or even paid for the privilege of acquiring time on an aircraft. A sorry state, indeed.
My wages were now 35 cents an hour so we settled on paying their streetcar fare. This was the real beginning. These two boys put in a lot of hard work, long hours and ingenuity and saw the final product of their craftmanship take to the air. With me holding an AME ticket and being an aircraft owner, I was privileged to endorse their applications for AME licenses for the time accumulated building C-CAUM.
Wing rib jigs were built and all new ribs assembled and glued. Turner and I were working steady on it, gathering material and making fittings and various parts.
One half of a Moth fuselage was found at Boeing Aircraft, next door to Turners on Georgia Street which we purchased cheap along with some orange and blue aircraft dope. Total bill— $27.
The Moth was originally fitted with a 60-80 hp, 4-cylinder, Mk. II Cirrus engine. Through various aviation magazines we located a used Mk. III, supposedly in good shape with 90 hours time and situated in Pennsylvania, USA. I visited Canada Customs to find out what the duty would be on a $300 engine. They didn’t want to tell me ahead of time, but finally figured it out at the new retail price of an engine from England which was $2700. The duty, at 45%, worked out to about $1200. This was out of the question. The gears in my head started turning and I said I was going to bring that engine in for very little duty.
The owner received a money order and he co-operated by partially disassembling the engine and sent the parts to a friend of mine and shipped the rest to us. When the customs inspector opened up the crate, he said, “Oh, just some engine parts,” and gave us an estimate of $45, which we paid willingly.
When I was in the air force at Camp Borden, I used to go up to the dump and look around, and when I think of all the scrap aircraft parts that were there and how they could be used at our museum now, it makes me sick. There were Le Rhone rotary engines (used in the earlier Avro 504s), Armstrong Siddeley, Lynx and Jaguars, DH Gypsy engines, fuselages of nearly everything on the station and wings galore, some as good as new.
I removed a complete set of differential aileron controls from a Moth and brought them home with me when I came back to Vancouver. I lugged them all over the place for years and-you guessed it-we were short these pieces on the G- CAUM rebuild and so made good use of them.
We were also short the float spreader bars and struts (they were damaged beyond repair) and being a bonafide scrounger, I heard about some seaplane surplus stores for sale at Jericho Beach Air Station. I purchased all the parts we needed (part of a complete assembly with floats) for $22. Now we had everything we needed, except instruments and a prop.
At that time, the RCAF sent out notices of surplus aircraft stores available and asked for bids. One notice said Fairey Reed metal propellers, drawing number such and such, and that was all. We had no idea what they were for and no way of finding out quickly. There were also used and damaged instruments listed. We took a chance and bid on two props and two of each instrument. We sent the required deposit and waited. Our bid was accepted and we sent the balance. We were pleasantly surprised when we received one new Fairey Reed metal prop for a Cirrus engine and a slightly used Fairey Reed metal prop for an Armstrong Siddley Genet engine; one set of new instruments and a few that were damaged and repairable. What a break! Total cost? Under $100!.
We leased the Genet prop to the owner of a 2- place metal Junkers who had run into a fence. He used it for a short while and then we sold it to a home builder in High River, Alberta for what it cost us for the whole works. He was glad to get it.
In the meantime, Cy and Norm were busy on the Moth. The new side of the fuselage was used as a pattern for the other side and it was nearing completion, and the wings and tail surfaces were about ready to cover. I modified the rear cockpit to improve the looks and visibility by cutting down the combing to the top longeron, adding a streamlined headrest on the rear combing and padding the works with dark red leatherette upholstery. The instruments were also set in the red leatherette. A larger windshield finished it off.
I designed and installed a set of retractable water rudders on the floats that proved very suc cessful. That was the first time that water rudders had been fitted on Short Bros. floats in this area.
The airplane was being built in Harold Turner’s basement on Haro St. in Vancouver. We worked every spare hour we could in between building boats during the day and on call 24 hours a day for charter and line boats. Two years went by pretty quick. By this time the fabric was ready to go on and I was busy doing some more scrounging. The RCAF were doing some initial flying training in Gypsy Moths and Avro Trainers at the Vancouver Airport. The Flt./Sgt. of this operation was one of my instructors from Camp Borden. When I told him that I was looking for some Moth parts, he said they were going to burn up some Moth wings soon and he would let me know. The word came, so I rushed out to the airport, and there still smouldering were the Moth wings, including two upper wings with Handley Paige slots undamaged.
I asked him what I could have and he answered anything you can carry away quick. We loaded all we could pile on top of the car and took off. I hope he enjoyed that big bottle of rum. That’s how G-CAUM ended up with wing slots.
PHOTOS WANTED
Well-known historian and writer John Griffin is currently labouring over his next book, covering all RCAF aircraft up to and including the Stranraers. He advises that he is lacking any photos of the deHavilland DH4. aircraft in the “two letter” markings carried between 1924 and 1927. That is DH4S with markings such as DB, DL, DN, EC, etc., probably taken in Western Canada at places such as Eckville, High River, etc. If you have any shots like this, contact Jerry Vernon at 420-6065.
The airplane was ready for covering so the DOT was called in for inspection, and it was passed OK. Mrs. Turner was a whiz on the sewing machine and she sewed all the fabric. All four of us did the doping and taping. Why we didn’t blow the house and the one on each side into Lost Lagoon, I’ll never know. Mrs. Turner couldn’t get the stink out of the house for months. One good thing came out of it. The house had become infested with tiny fleas about a month before doping. The fumes sure cleaned up that problem.
In the midst of all this the PAC had some planes flying. Cec Lightheart was cruising up and down the Fraser Valley in his Corbin and Bert Price was putting in time in his Pietenpol. Some of the boys were having problems with the DOT on small technicalities. Unknown to the owner, a piece of control cable was cut out of one of the airplanes. He was furious and we backed him up. A short time later, we were all summoned in to the DOT office for a consultation. The chief of Air Regs from Ottawa was there and some hot words were used. The piece of control cable landed on the table. It was a new cable that exceeded the designer’s specs for strength but lower in cost.
The big man said, “The trouble with you guys is that you’re trying to make flying cheap.”
He was the one to talk, he got all his flying free in the air force.
This was typical of the attitude towards private construction and flying in those lean years. It’s a lot different now.
Finally, the day came to get G-CAUM out of the basement and completely assemble it in the back yard. The engine and cowlings were installed, all controls hooked up and completely rigged. There were no problems. In order to get it out of the basement, we enlarged a rear window and slid the pieces out.
The airplane was painted royal blue with orange wings, aluminum floats and something I always wanted a checkered black and white tail. She sure looked pretty sitting there. Even a Moth on floats takes up a lot of room in a back yard.
CORRECTION
Brian Burke’s address was incorrectly given in the story in Newsletter No. 21. The correct address is 14376 Marine Drive, White Rock, B.C., V4B 182.
We fired up the engine and it was music to our ears after all this time. The engine sounded good but was noisy with the short open stacks. I plopped a tomato can on each one to muffle the noise and managed about an hour’s time before someone called the police. The tomato cans worked well, dancing up and down like puppets on a string.
The next step was dissassemble and out ot Wells Air Harbour on the Fraser River, right where the airport bridge is now. The Keg and Cleaver restaurant is in the old hangar.
The chief inspector was called after rigging and ready to go and he passed it OK, and signed the log book. He asked what the two 25-cent shin plasters were doing pasted on each side of the fuselage. I reminded him of the session we had with the chief and said we were trying to make flying cheap, and that if we ever ran out of money and gas, we could always get a couple of gallons to get home on. He then told us that we were defacing Canadian currency. I told him that he could still read them. He then asked how we got the airplane out of the basement and I told him we just bent the pieces around and up the 90-degree stairwell and left it at that. He shook his head.
He grounded me for a month later that summer for low flying.
The big moment finally arrived, June 14, 1938, three years after starting the project. We asked Len Foggin to test it for us. That really was a big thrill to see that little beauty lift off the water and soar into the air almost ten years after its first flight.
Len circled around for about 20 minutes and landed back at Wells. The only thing he found was a little left wing low condition. A bit of rigging soon fixed that.
June 5, 1938-a red-letter day in my log book. It was my turn.
Going back a few weeks, we had loaned Terry Finney our spreader bars to use on his Gypsy Moth on floats in exchange for checking me out on seaplanes. He gave me one take-off and one landing then waved to go into the dock. He hopped out, said what are you waiting for and waved me off. I did two more landings and takeoffs solo and came in. That was my seaplane endorsement. Not even a signature in my log book.
The real moment had arrived as I nervously fired up and climbed into G-CAUM and taxied out on the river. I headed downstream, crosswind, the only directions to go, and opened the throttle. I was airborne in about 300 feet due to the more powerful Mk.III 85-90 hp engine and climbed up a couple of thousand feet and proceeded to get the feel of things. She handled beautifully, sensitive but positive on the controls, and those Handley Paige slots certainly improved the stability at slow speed.
I circled around a few times. This was really a thrill, flying my own plane which I helped build from a major write-off. (We considered it a new airplane). I flew around for about 30 minutes then greased her in and taxied into the ramp. Harold Turner climbed in and away we went. We stayed up until the fuel ran low.
That was the beginning of three great years of flying G-CAUM. I introduced 78 people to their first flight in those years.
Cec Lightheart was so envious of us being able to fly just about anywhere on floats he built a set of wooden floats for his Corbin and realized what a great time you can have and not be confined to the Fraser Valley.
We had three bases we worked from-Wells Air Harbour, Turner Boat Works in Coal Harbour and a camp we had up the Indian Arm of Burrard inlet where we spent most weekends in the summer provided we could get someone to take over on the boats. A great way to spend a nice afternoon was to take off from camp and follow the contours of the coastline, about a hundred feet up, along Burrard Inlet, up Howe Sound, down past Gibsons, up the Sunshine Coast, across the gulf and down past the Gulf Islands, back to Point Grey, then on back up to camp.
Our fuel consumption was 2.99 gallons per hour at about 1500 rpm and 65 mph. She stalled at about 40 mph and flat out at 2300 rpm would do 95 mph. It was a real pleasure to fly.
The metal prop was great. I had the engine tuned so good that the tachometer wouldn’t even register at idling speed. That and the very effectual water rudders made for easy handling, even with wind and river current running in different directions.
The engine did have a high oil consumption- about 1 quart per hour, which was excessive. I tore the engine down and found that the pistons had three compression rings only. That was the way it was made. I drilled and regrooved the bottom land, bevelled the top edge of the bottom ring and this solved the problem. The oil consumption was reduced to less than half a pint per hour.
We got fed up trying to keep the fuel tank from leaking. I always carried chewing gum on a flight to patch leaks. It worked in an emergency. A friend of ours in the sheet metal business made a new fuel tank and that fixed that problem.
It was a common occurence to fly from camp back to town to get some ice cream and other goodies for supper. We ran out of bread and milk one day, so my wife climbed in the front cockpit. wearing only a halter and shorts and me in swim trunks and flew down to Deep Cove. It was fun to watch the natives as we taxied up in to the gov ernment dock and went up to the store and came back with the groceries and a couple of ice cream cones, casually climb in and take off back up to camp. Everybody up the north arm came to know the little blue and orange seaplane with the checkered tail.
I left Turner Boat Works and took a job as ground school instructor with Brisbane Aviation at the airport for $100 a month where I stayed until the war started.
While working there, I used to commute to camp every day for a month in the summers of 1938,1939 and 1940. I made good use of the Moth. The only forced landing I had happened one day with Harold Turner in the front and we had taken off from Coal Harbour heading west. About 400 feet up over the rowing club, the engine lost revs and acted strangely. I nursed it over Lost Lagoon
DONATIONS
Elsie Mosher, Richmond; Bob Banford, Port Moody; M. R. McCubbin, Vancouver: Gary McGowan, Richmond; MacMillan Bloedel, Vancouver; Brian Burke, White Rock: ross Gregory: Anonymous; Jerry Vernon; M. S. Trajanowski; John Lyne; Monty Montazuma: Garry Gillis, White Rock; Ken Swartz: Bert Newberry: Thomas Davis, West Vancouver: Tony Sandhurst, Delta: Werner Griesbeck, Abbotsford: John Moutray. Richmond; C. A Stewart, Richmond; Bud Beaton, Coquitlam: Marjorie Nichol; N. L. McIntyre: Linton Moore, Richmond: Bill McGarrigle, White Rock; Doug Moorhouse, Richmond; Bernie Tully, Vancouver: Leonard Harber, Richmond; Reg Waite, Richmond.
Bev Sherman, Vancouver: Bert Prothero; Ross Kimmerly, Surrey: Earl Gerow: 1. B. Barnes, Victoria; Maurice Addison, Delta: Harry Fordham; John Churchill: Mike macGowan, New Westminster: Gary Warnock, Surrey: S. B. Sherman, Vancou ver: Dick Richardson, Green Bay: Bill Lamberton, Mercer Is land; Art Sellers. Langley: Donna Sambrook, Clearbrook: John: and Joyce Tarvin, Burnaby: Don Staples; Fleck Bros. Ltd., Vancouver: Joe Bertalino; Ignace Airways, Ignace: Public Archives Canada, Ottawa; J. G. McKeachie, Vancouver; Lock Madill Vancouver; Jim Cline: Bob Lalonde: Inky Klett; G. Hall Mackennie, New Westminster.
and the trees behind 2nd Beach and landed close to shore in a bit of a slop (waves, that is). On checking, I found the mixture control on the carburetor had come apart. A little locking wire, some ingenuity and a pair of pliers fixed it. A rather tricky job standing on a slippery float in rough water and hurrying before we hit the rocks.
The last flight in G-CAUM by me as an owner was on August 4, 1940, at 15:55 hours, for 25 minutes. What a terrific and memorable six years. The war came and that was the end of commercial flying on the coast except for airlines. G- CAUM went into storage in my basement for the duration.
I instructed in the RCAF Ground School for three years and then joined Boeing Aircraft Co. at the Vancouver Airport Nov. 19, 1942, as pilot on one of the two flight test crews, test flying PBY5A Amphibians for the RCAF, and Catalina Flying Boats for the U.S. Navy.
Our crew test flew a total of 357 PBYs for a total of 605 flights. The contract ended in Feb., 1945. But that’s another story.
At the end of hostilities, in 1946, Harry Bray and Bob Marcou were organizing a fishing camp at Paul Lake near Kamloops, B.C., and needed a seaplane. They bought G-CAUM. It was recovered and painted by Brisbane Aviation in 1946 and I had the pleasure of flying it once more on a test flight. It started Kamloops Air Service and was the oldest registered airplane in Canada at that time and was the only amateur home-built that ever got a Certificate of Airworthiness.
KAS Sold the aircraft to Peter Blake, an old student of mine, and he flew it around the Kamloops area. While beached on a a river bank one day, a flash flood caught it and partially sunk it, but no serious damage was done.
Peter sold it to an unknown party and it was tied up at the dock at Vancouver Airport. The floats filled with water and it really did sink this time. It was parked out behind B.C. Airlines hangar and gradually disintegrated for lack of care.
The last time I saw it there was no rear fuselage or tail assembly, the wings were gone and it was sitting on some bent struts. It was about as big as a bathtub without an engine. The shin plasters were still there. I could have cried.
That was the end of DH Moth G-CAUM, and I’m glad I shared a part of Canada’s flying history with that one beautiful airplane.
VANCOUVER ISLAND NEWS Tillicum Mall Show Huge Success
By Adele Hatch
Vancouver Island’s annual mall show took place in June and was an unqualified success. Public interest and enthusiasm made it the best ever effort from this side of the pond.
A large group of members lent their all in organizing and producing some superb exhibits. Bruce Jupp came up with some very impressive poster boards, Dave Rhumke made a formidable amount of wooden stanchions for our rope-off areas. Dave Jones, Howard Hill, Tom Palmer and Bob Bullough all contributed many of their aircraft models. These drew a very admiring public.
Dave Jones and Dave O’Byrne set out the exhibit floor plan which included the Baby Gruneau glider, the Boly nose, complete with pilot, a parachute, and an “authentic” operational aircrew sergeant-still holding his parachute ring!
There was an excellent engine display, including the 1919 Hall-Scott engine, kindly loaned by Mel Price, also a photograph tied in to the engine of the first official airmail run between Seattle and Victoria. Pictured is the pilot, postmaster and assistant postmaster, the plane, running the original engine which was on the floor. The date was 1919.
Our photograph and display boards brought in many comments congratulating us on our ar rangements and subject matter.
The publishing booth literally talked to dozens of people during the entire six-day show and Adele Hatch and Peter Knowles received on behalf of CMFT many artifacts.
A busy sales booth did an excellent trade and was fully manned by members. Our membership turned out in full force to help and answer questions.
Channel 10 TV came down and did a tenminute “tour” of the show with Adele Hatch as their guide. The show has been aired intermittently over the summer and has drawn a lot of interest.
Our “comments” books registered from “excellent” to “best show I have seen”, and thanks for this go to Dave Jones, Dave O’Byrne, Dave Rhumke, Bruce Jupp, Peter Knowles, Stoney Jackson, Howard Hill, Adele Hatch, Bob Bullough, Clarke Warwick, Tom Palmer, Val Hinch, John Lyne and Olive Quail.
We have already been invited back for 1984 to Tillicum, and Adele Hatch has been approached by several other malls up the island to request our very capable members to produce another show up their also next year.
The boys in the shed have been very busy taking down the Wasp engine. The propeller is now off and the engine is ready for the lift-out. Dave Rhumke has organized a work party to achieve the lift.
Historian Peter Knowles took a trip to the interior and was invited to speak about CMFT over a three-night period. He took up and showed 11 hours of movies and tapes. The response was overwhelming, he received artifacts and there were many possible memberships. He hired a screen from a shop at Grinrod but when the management saw his presentation, they donated the equipment for all three nights.
Vancouver Island artifacts are now being catalogued and Peter has his work cut out. We have had so many artifacts given to us and awaiting collection that it is about a full-time job.
John Lyne resigned as vice-chairman as he has other commitments. Peter Knowles was appointed to take his place until the March, 1984 elections.
Peter Knowles and Adele Hatch attended the Military Museums Archives course at Comox and were very well received. Once again, we were the recipients of artifacts given by other museums, and were offered help with our restoration work.
Dave O’Byrne has been trying very hard to find us a place to display our items and there are several irons in the fire at this time.
NOTICE OF MEETING
Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation, Vancouver Island Branch, holds meetings on the last Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m., at the Bay Street Armouries. Please use the Field Street entrance. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.
AUTO DEALER’S EYECATCHER Cornell Comes Down To Earth
By Jerry Vernon
After many years poised in the air atop Brett Motors in Chilliwack, and being ravaged by the elements, the museum’s Cornell trainer is now undergoing some phases of rebuild work.
The Fleet-built Fairchild PT-26 Cornell was once a familiar sight in Canadian skies, during and afer WWII, but only a handful (8 at last count) show up on the current Canadian Civil Register, out of over 150 once registered.
The type originated in the U.S. as the Fairchild Model M-62 (PT-19) open cockpit tandem trainer, powered by an inline Ranger engine. It was also produced in the U.S. as the PT-23, with the Continental R-670 radial. When the RCAF went shopping in 1941 for a new primary trainer to replace the Tiger Moths and Fleet Finches, they settled on a modified version of the PT-19, with an enclosed canopy to ward off the friendly prairie weather, originally to be named the PT-26 Freshman, later changed to Cornell. A number of different engines were examined, due to a potential shortage of Rangers, including Lycomings, Continentals, Warner Super Scarab, the Jacobs and even the de Havilland Gipsy Six. Most were produced with the standard Ranger, but Fleet Aircraft of Canada did also turn out a handful of the round-engined PT-23s for U. S. service.
We Repeat…
you can be a part of the effort to insure that our priceless relics are preserved and properly cared for through future generations if you include in your will a bequest to the Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation. You may bequeath cash, securities and real or personal property to the permanent Endowment Fund where the income from your memorial will continue helping to support the museum. Or you may choose a special purpose such as constructing buildings, acquiring important relics, the reference library, or renovation or restoration of an exhibit.
You will find that a living trust will secure your wishes while providing income for you or your designate for the rest of your lives.
Think of the Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation as you look to the future.
Fleet turned out 1,642 Cornells for RCAF/RAF service, from their Fort Erie, Ontario plant, including many ordered by the USAAF under Lend- Lease, but actually delivered to either the RCAF or RAF. Some of the RAF Cornells were shipped overseas to flying schools in India and South Africa. By late 1943, production had built up to around 150 aircraft per month. A further 760 PT- 26s were produced by the parent company in the U.S., also for Lend-Lease use in Canada.
The Cornell featured a fabric-covered, welded steel-tube fuselage, with the wing and fixed tail surfaces made of wood, with plywood skins. Control surfaces were fabric on metal frames, while the flaps were either wooden (Fairchild- built) or metal (Fleet-built). The Canadian-built models also were equipped with an engine- driven generator, electric starter and lighting, which was lacking on the U.S. versions.
At the end of the war, quite literally hundreds of Cornells were snapped up at bargain prices in surplus sales, but most have faded away over the years.
The museum’s Cornell started off in life as RCAF 10668 (c/n FC 169, and was taken on RCAF strength on April 22, 1943, with 4 Training Command. Following a Category “B” accident on June 11, 1943, it was transferred to M&C Aviation for repairs, which were not completed until April 21, 1944. It then went to Midwest Aviation for a short while, and then into Stored Reserve with No. 2 Training Command (July 25, 1944), which was later renamed No. 2 Air Command. The aircraft was struck off strength on August 21, 1946, stored at Estevan, Saskatchewan, and later sold through War Assets Corporation for $800.
RCAF 10668 was one of two Cornells purchased by Brisbane Aviation Company, of Vancouver, and allotted registrations CF-FJR (RCAF 10668) and CF-FJS (RCAF 10561) in January, 1947. At that time, the total airframe time was listed as 216:25 hours. A number of required civilian modifications were carried out, and the aircraft was test flown on April 9, 1947, by R. W. Berryman.
On April 10, 1947, CF-FJR was sold to William Denmark Burton, of Chilliwack, B.C., who made the mistake of listing himself on the Application for Registration as “Nationality: American”, which then created enough paperwork to fill out the file nicely!
SPECIAL NOTICE VANCOUVER ISLAND MEMBERS
The HARBOUR PUBLIC MARKET 1810 Store St. VICTORIA
has made available to the Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation the most desireable, high traffic central aisle area of their new building for a dispplay of airplanes and artifacts.
We will also have a gift/sourvenir “shop” there – a very important source of revenue to CMFT.
THIS IS A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE OUR MUSEUM VISIBLE, AND EARN THE DOLLARS REQUIRED FOR PRESERV- ATION AND RESTORATION PROJECTS.
Initially the display will include the Flying Flea (Pou de Ciel), the Radioplane Target Drone, showcases of artifacts, sign boards and tables, show cases with goods for sale, as well as other Transportation-related displays.
THE DISPLAY WILL BE OPERATED EVERY WEEKEND COMMENCING OCTOBER 28th
YOUR PARTICIPATION IS URGENTLY NEEDED TO HELP MAN THE DISPLAY. DON’T LET YOUR MUSEUM DOWN. GET YOUR NAME ON THE WORK SCHEDULE RIGHT AWAY. PHONE
- DAVE O’BYRNE 388-5464 Pager 267 or 382-4672
- DAVE JONES 479-4582
- ADELE HATCH 642-5046
- PETER KNOWLES 477-3684
It was pointed out to Mr. Burton that “Under Air Regulations (1938), British Subjects only may register aircraft in Canada”. In his own defence, Mr. Burton replied that he had been born in Saskatchewan, but had lived in the U.S. for several years, up to mid-1946, and had taken out U.S. citizenship in 1941. Initially, this was resolved by rolling back the clock to April 9, issuing a new Bill of Sale to Mrs. Mary Bettine Burton, of Chilliwack- nationality: Canadian. This didn’t really satisfy the suspicious minds of the ministry bureacrats. Did you think it would? Ultimately, reams of paper and documentary evidence was produced to prove that Betty and Bill Burton had married in 1931, while both were still Canadian citizens, and that Mrs. Burton was still a bona-fide Canadian citizen. This all went on for 6 months, until the DoT finally admitted defeat, and registered the aircraft.
By April of 1948, the total hours on the airframe now stood at 275:20 hours, when the C of A was renewed. However, it does seem to have flown for too long, as the Burtons advised the DOT in 1952 that “the aircraft has been totally scrapped”. In 1950 or 1951, they had sold the aircraft to a soldier, temporarily based at the Chilliwack Army Camp (no name given), and subsequently the DoT had refused to renew the C of A.
Some time following these events, the aircraft passed into the hands of the Brett family, operators of Brett Chevrolet, Olds, Cadillac in Chilliwack. The wings were metallized (sort of) and the aircraft was hoisted up onto the roof of Brett’s dealership to become a landmark for the next 25 years.
In 1977, Doug Brett arranged to donate the Cornell to the Pacific Aviation Museum, where it became the first aircraft in the short-lived PAM collection. In June, 1977, a crew of PAM volunteers, with assistance from CFB Chilliwack, removed the aircraft from Brett’s roof, and it was temporarily stored at the PVI Sea Island Campus. After sitting around PVI for a while, the aircraft was then moved over to the Tradewinds hangar. In 1980, it was evicted from that safe haven and piled outside in the weather in dismantled condition. By this time, PAM was virtually defunct, and the precarious state and potential destruction of the Cornell was one of the important elements that finally united former PAM members with CMFT. Ed Zalesky agreed to take the Cornell into protective custody at the farm, and a crew promptly res cued it from the dirt behind the hangars, before too much permanent damage took place.
Some restoration work has begun on the Cornell, with Gordon Dann tackling the coordination and major work, Bill McGarrigle the tail feathers and Herb Hough building up wing ribs. lan Morrison is redrafting a set of Cornell drawings to aid in the process.
At the present rate of progress (slow), we do not expect to see the aircraft in flyable shape for at least three years. Any additional volunteers would be appreciated.
PIONEER PROFILE WOP MAY
One of the most colourful men in the creation of the legend of the Canadian bush pilot was W. R. “Wop” May, after whom Wardair’s second Boeing 707 and later on its second McDonnell- Douglas DC-10, C-GXRC, was named.
The adventures of Wop May could, and do, fill a book. Born in 1896 in Carberry, Manitoba, and raised in Edmonton, Wop May’s fame first spread in 1918 when the famous Red Baron, Germany’s fighter plane ace, lined him up as his 81st victim. Rescued in the nick of time by his friend, Captain Roy Brown, he returned to Edmonton in 1919 to establish one of Canada’a first commercial aviation services.
A diphtheria epidemic in Fort Vermilion induced Wop and Vic Horner to fly anti-toxin in an open cockpit plane to the tiny settlement 250 miles north of Edmonton. The same year he made the first non-stop flight from Edmonton to Winnipeg, covering 800 miles in 6 hours and 48 minutes. The year ended with Captain Wop May receiving the coveted McKee Trophy for his many outstanding achievements in aviation. In 1935, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
During WWII, he continued to remain active in the RCAF in Edmonton. Later, in 1947, he earned the Medal of Freedom for his services to American forces. Wop May’s long and distinguished career in aviation ended with his death in 1952.
SV4B Stampe-Tiger Moth Lookalike?
By RAOUL SCHREIDEN
The museum has an SV4B training biplane in its collection. It is commonly known as a French copy of the Tiger Moth.
In fact, the SV4B is neither French nor a copy of the Tiger Moth..
It is a Belgian aircraft, designed and built by Messrs. Stampe and Vertongen of Antwerp in 1937 and is derived from their own SV4 built in 1933.
Before the war, 30 SV4bs were ordered by the Belgian Air Force. Twenty-three of those planes found their way to North Africa, near Oran, where the Belgian Air Force flying school emigrated in 1940.
In 1939, a licensing agreement was concluded between SV and Farman, the French aircraft manufacturer. Finally, in 1946, after the liberation, a merger between Mr. Stampe and Mr. Alfred Renard (a splendid aeronautical engineer) was concluded and the construction of the SV4B was resumed in both Belgium and France, where most aeronautical factories had been nationalized.
NOTICE TO NITPICKERS
No more cards and letters, please. Jerry Vernon does know how to spell “Gipsy Moth”, which was carefully spelled out the way Mr. de Havilland did it, all 11 times it appeared in his article on CF-ADW in the June Newsletter. Just as carefully, some gremlin in our printing process “corrected” it to read “Gypsy” 11 times in the finished product.
Lord knows, it took him almost as long to spell it correctly as it did to get him to pronounce “Waco” correctly!
On a more vital and serious note, an important last paragraph on the article on Gipsy Moth CF-ADW also fell on the cutting room floor. That is, we understand someone in the Winnipeg area (perhaps a previous owner?) has the original logbooks for CF-ADW. Any help that any readers can be in getting him to part with them would be most appreciated.
Altogether, 95 SV4BS were built in Belgium, whereas about 856 were built in France and this is probably why it is sometimes thought of as a French aircraft.
Those built in Belgium were equipped with de Havilland engines; Gipsy Major (145 hp) or Cirrus Major (155 hp). After the war, the plane had an enclosed cockpit.
The French version had open cockpits and were known as the SV4A or the SV4C, depending on the model of Renault engine that powered them (4 PO-3 of 140 hp or 4 PEI, hp unknown). These were built by SNCAN.
Although the Tiger Moth and the SV4B do look quite a bit alike, the main diffferences are in the size, power and the wing loading of the aircraft.
The standard engine of the Tiger Moth was the de Havilland Gipsy Major, rated somehow to 120 hp only, instead of 145 hp for the SV4B. The latter was equipped for inverted flying.
The SV is also about two feet smaller in length and span than the Tiger. Their weight is very nearly equal.
Consequently, the wing loading of the SV is about 20% higher than the Tiger Moth’s and that makes all the difference for a student pilot!
The Tiger Moth is a much easier and forgiving initial training aircraft, while the SV4 is a Ittle more touchy but can be used in a more advanced phase of training. It is particularly suitable for aerobatics.
Joe Chesney
Canada Furmanent Trust Company/Realtor 20269 Fraser Highway Lange &C VA 4E7 Office 50 4111 Residence 888-3281 Toll Free: 520-1455 The Permanent
FOR SALE-Pair of skis for 1927-29 Tiger Moth. Send $2 for Polaroid to Mr. Schisler, Box 584, Orillia, Ontario, Canada, L3V 6H3.
A Grand Veteran
By S/Sgt. D. J. Klancher (Reprinted from RCMP Quarterly)
A veteran aircraft reached an impressive milestone on April 23, 1981, when 35 years of service with the RCMP were completed by police aircraft CF-MPG, with no retirement in sight.
The annals of this aircraft began August 21, 1944, when the U.S. Navy accepted, at the Grumman Factory in New York, a Grumman Goose, Model G21A amphibious flying boat, serial number 877. The USN designation for this aircraft was Model JRF-5 with USN serial number 37824. The brief period of service with the USN (only eight days) was most unusual and although little informatic was located to support this theory, it is assumed the USN took delivery and conducted apiance flights for the RCAF. The aircraft left the U.S. Naval Air Station at Brooklyn New York on August 29, 1944, after being turned over to the RCAF with a total of 11.6 flying hours.
During the period of service with the RCAF, this Goose was RCAF 391. During the next nineteen months there was a small amount of flying under.ken, but the majority of that period was rant a “hangar queen”, logging only 12.9 hou. The remainder was spent in storage at Moncton, N.B., and Mont-Joli, Quebec.
Following WWII, the RCMP was in the process of reorganizing the Aviation Section”. The quest for suitable aircraft for use by the Force led to this aircraf being offered to the RCMP through a let- : dated October 26, 1945. The potential of this type o aircraft was quickly realized and acceptce of this offer was confirmed in a letter dated November 16, 1945. Several months would pass, however, before the aircraft was delivered, as the sale was not completed until March 11, 1946, when a purchase order for $50,000 was issued. This was followed on April 3, 1946, by members of the A lation Section travelling to Mont-Joli to make the necessary arrangements to ferry the air- ait to Rockcliffe, Ontario. The Goose was checked and found serviceable for the flight, which was completed the following day. At the time the aircraft was turned over to the RCMP, it had a total of 24.5 hours of flying time.
Upon arrival at Rockcliffe, maintenance was undertaken to meet the requirements for a Certificate of Airworthiness. Additionally, several modifications were incorporated, one of the most obvious being the removal of the RCAF communications equipment which required at 14 CMFT/Oct., 1983 radio operator, and replacing it with simplified, up-to-date equipment. The Certificate of Air- worthiness was issued April 23, 1946, with the assigned registration of CF-MPG and the remarkable career of this aircraft with the RCMP was. underway.
The Grumman Goose is an eight-place, amphibious flying boat with a wing span of 49 feet and a length of 38 feet, four inches, powered by Pratt and Whitney R985 radial engines producing a maximum of 450 horsepower each. The aircraft has a gross weight of 9200 pounds and a cruising speed of 120 knots.
The Goose was not long with the Force when the first major patrol was carried out from June 24 to September 30, 1946. During this time, flights were conducted in the NWT, Yukon, Ontario and Manitoba. By early fall the Goose was operating out of Fort Frances, Ontario, making extensive patrols of the Quetico Park and Lake-of-the- Woods areas on preventative patrols in connection with illegal hunting and fishing.
Following this busy schedule, it was back to the hangar for repairs and modifications, remaining out of service until May 2, 1947. Extensive patrols were undertaken again that summer and, through early June to mid-September, flights were conducted in Manitoba and Ontario before once again being taken out of service until late January, 1948. During its early service with the Force, CF-MPG was officially known as Mobile Detachment, though this changed to No. 4 Detachment in 1947.
The Officer i/c Aviation Section, Sub-Inspector P. B. Cox, noted in a memorandum that “a number of incidents have occurred when aircraft registration letters have been mixed up in transmission… a system of code words to be used for different aircraft has now been put in operation.” Each code word was the name of a bird, the name of which began with the last letter of the aircraft registration. The natural choice for CF-MPG was the Grumman designation for the model of aircraft-the “Goose”.
When patrols with the Goose resumed in late January 1948, they were concentrated in B.C. for some two and one-half months before heading to Northwestern Ontario for a similar length of time. Following this, flights were conducted in Manitoba for a month before returnig to the NWT and Yukon for the remainder of the summer and early fall. In late fall the Goose was again working in Northwestern Ontario, making many patrols in the Quetico Park and Lake-of-the-Woods areas for illegal hunting and fishing. These patrols were so successful, it was noted that “out of season hunting and fishing had been brought virtually to a standstill in the district.”
The home base of the Goose in 1948 was Calgary, but this was changed to Vancouver the following year. The Vancouver operation continued until 1952 at which time the base moved to Pat Bay, near Victoria.
The long summer patrols were becoming a regular feature of operations with the Goose, and 1951 flights were conducted to Newfoundland and then north-Herschel Island to Cambridge Bay and intermediate points, as well as Lake Harbour, Frobisher Bay, Pangnirtung and both sides of Hudson Bay. A mercy flight was conducted in August to transport the wife of a member from Chesterfield Inlet to Winnipeg where her husband was seriously ill. The 2,000-mile flight, originating at Winnipeg, was completed in two days.
Keep Track of Time
It is advantageous for CMFT to show government and financial supporters how much time and effort our members put in for the museum. This strategy has resulted in major financial benefits for other organizations. Let’s put them to use.
If you make some phone calls, spend an evening or a week writing an article for the Newsletter, come out on a workbee, or spend some time on a restoration project, keep track of your time. Use the work record sheets and make your contribution really count.
Did You Know?
The first wind tunnel in Canada was built by Wallace R. Turnbull in Rothesay, N. B., in 1902.
By 1953, the majority of the flights were concentrated on the West Coast, though the annual four-to six-week tours were still conducted, visiting detachments in the western and eastern Arctic. That summer the tour was longer than usual as a three-month patrol was undertaken, during which time nearly all detachments in the MacKenzie District around Hudson Bay were visited, as well as those in northern B.C. and the Yukon. This was to be the last of the summer patrols as the introduction of more Force aircraft at strategic locations throughout Canada had diminished the need. Thus by the mid-1950s, the flights conducted by CF-MPG were concentrated mainly in the Southwestern areas of B.C. This led to another change in the detachment name, as in 1954, No. 4 Detachment was renamed Patricia Bay Detachment, a name which continued until 1959.
In February, 1957, a flight was conducted to transport a Canadian Army specialist with a mine detector to Prince George, B.C. to assist in the search for a murder weapon, a search which proved successful. On May 14 of the same year, a demolition party was transported to Morgan Point in the Queen Charlotte Islands of B.C., where, using some 60 pounds of dynamite, the party exploded an old Japanese mine which had come to rest in the inlet after drifting around the Pacific Ocean.
The following year, the Goose was involved in a rather unusual task. The aircraft was used to take aerial photographs of the scheduled demolition of Ripple Rock, a hazardous miniature mountain in the Vancouver Island’s Seymour Narrows. These photographs were used to assist in planning security and traffic control before and after the blast, which took place on April 5. During the blast, the Goose, now several miles away, circled slowly. A doctor and stretcher were on board, as a precaution to ensure medical aid could be flown to the area if needed. The blast was a complete success, however, and the medical services were not required.
Attend the next general meeting, Nov. 17th, 1983, 8 p.m. 13527 Crescent Road, Surrey CMFT/Oct., 1983 15
Many modifications have been incorporated over the years to modernize the aircraft and increase efficiency. In 1958, the two-bladed propellers were removed and replaced by three-bladed ones, and that same year the fabric was removed from the wings and metal surfaces installed. Then in 1960, electric undercarriage retraction was installed. Previously, the gear had been lowered manually with a crank. In 1964, retractable wingtip floats were also installed as part of a modifcation to increase the gross weight of the aircraft from 8,000 pounds to 9,200 pounds. In recent years, Transport Canada changed from the 3-letter to 4-letter registration identifiers for Canadian aircraft and this required a slight change in the registration. The dash was moved and CF-MPG became C-FMPG. The most obvious change to the casual observer is, of course, the paint scheme. The Goose is white with blue and yellow trim as opposed to the old paint scheme of blue and yellow.
The base for the Goose remained at Victoria Airport until 1976. In June, approval was granted to transfer the aircraft to Prince Rupert, B.C., with the move taking place on September 20. The areas covered by the Goose were much more confined now, basically operating in Prince Rupert Sub-Division.
The types of work in which this, or any other Force aircraft, was involved were as varied as police work itself. Flights were conducted to transport members and their families to and from isolated detachments for court duty, medical treatment, transfers; to transport identification members to assist on investigations. Dog masters and custom and excise members also found the service of the Goose beneficial; senior officers and NCOS were transported to conduct detachment audits; and searches were undertaken for missing persons, as well as missing or wanted boats or vehicles.
This record of service will undoubtedly never be equalled again by any Force aircraft, and such a period of service by one operator (the RCMP) is remarkable indeed. This aircraft has proved to be a valuable asset to police operations.
C-FMPG will continue to provide valuable service to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
OUR FUTURE HOME?
CANADIAN MUSEUM OF FLIGHT AND TRANSPORTATION Has been searching for a home for 5 years.
An option has now been offered on Fort Langley Airport. This is an excellent location for the following reasons.
- 1. Already an existing airport
- 2. Waterfront facilities on the Fraser River for float planes
- 3. Trackage for railway and steam buffs.
- 4.50 acres. Room to relocate and amalgamate all transportation museums…
- 5. Hanger storage and tie downs for those who wish to rent or lease.
- 6. Close proximity to two existing museums
$1,000,000 IS NEEDED!
A benefactor or group of benefactors who could come up with the sum of $1,000,000 plus. Time is of the essence. Monies to be paid in over a period of 5 to 10 years.
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW!
This is a chance of a lifetime! Please help out your museum by letting as many people as you can know about our endeavors.
All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE and receipts will be issued.
Congratulations, Albertans!
Calgary Aerospace Museum Association reports that their association now has a permanent office, paid staff, new acquisitions and a budget that puts them well into the black.
Their collection of aircraft and artifacts includes 35 aero engines, ranging from WWI to a current jet, and approximately 20 airplanes, including a replica Sopwith Triplane, Vampire, CF-100, Harvard, Seafire, Banshee, Seafury, Sikorsky S-51, Beech 18, Cessna T-50 and several Ansons.
A building has been acquired, and now with the Federal Government NEED grant of $256,512, things will soon be happening there.
Did You Know?
The first balloon flight in Canada was made in Montreal on July 31, 1879 by Richard Cowan, Charles Grimley and Charles Page.
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A. 8. (BRUCE) DUNCAN Goods may be purchased from Airplane Supply Ltd.
“TIGER MOTH” “HARVARD” WINGED HISTORY
We are pleased to announce that the second full-color aircraft print, the North American “Harvard” is. now available.
The perfect companion piece to the first in the RCAF Trainer Series, the de Havilland “Tiger Moth” introduced last year, the “Harvard” is reproduced on high-quality stock and the image size is the same 29″ x 22″ Both prints are from original oil paintings by Vancouver artist Robert Banks.
Powered by a 550-hp. Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine and weighing 5300 pounds, the Harvard was the advanced single-engine trainer in the RCAF. It served from 1939 until 1965.
“Tiger Moth” and “Harvard” make the perfect gift for collectors and antique aircraft enthusiasts everywhere.
The prints are priced at $15.00 each plus $4.00 handling and mailing (two prints can be mailed in one tube for $4.00). B.C. residents please add $1.02 provincial tax per print.
Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation 11040 Cambie Rd. Richmond, B.C. V6X 1L2. Please send me print(s) “Tiger Moth “Harvard” Name City Address Postal Code Cheque Money Order enclosed
SHOW WINDOW FOR C.M.F.T.
A choice location on Granville Island has been offered to CMFT. Granville Island is in the centre of Vancouver, adjacent to the Expo ’86 site, it is a destination for locals and visitors from all over the world, and is decidedly different from the usual tourist attraction.
The site is an ideal adjunct to the Fort Langley complex as large artifacts such as aircraft, locos, etc., can be barged between sites to provide rotating displays. A 35,000 sq. ft. building needing renovation is available to CMFT. We are now starting a program to raise the approx. $500,000 required to complete the renovation of the build ing, furnish a gift shop, and put displays in place.
Your donation of money, equipment, materials, labour, expertise, and people-comtacts is solicited. We need public and political support to take advantage of this excellent opportunity to provide a world-class museum to serve the west.
NORSEMAN CF-BSC REBUILD PROJECT SPONSORS REQUIRED
If you have a soft spot for this airplane and can sponsor rebuild of all or part of it, please contact us.