Spirit of Edmonton project

Good Luck, Tom.

Thank you Gentlemen…

Yes you haven’t lived till you have flown open cockpit in a Canadian winter!

It has been a very educating experience. You can imagine as a museum we did our homework before embarking on this adventure, we knew it would be very very difficult but we under estimated drastically.

Much of the history of open cockpit cold weather operations was never written down and we have re learned it the hard way, and documented it.

Canada, because of its size, has really relied on aviation to tie it together. As our President recently stated ” aviation picked up where the railway ended” and it is very true.

We will soon be heading out to complete the Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight, I hope the weather finally gives us a break.

Tom H

We will be happy to…

Flight remaining 2009

Completing Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight (80th Anniversary) March 2009
1st Western Canadian Commercial Flight (90th Anniversary) June 2009
Back to Baddeck leg to Cold Lake June 2009
1st aircraft use in a police pursuit (90th Anniversary) August 2009

We will also be doing a number of the Western Canadian airshows and other events.

Keep you posted

Tom H

Awesome that you’re re-creating Wop, Punch & Co.’s exploits. 😎

The Silver Dart may have flown in Baddeck, but Western Canada and The Territories REALLY confirmed canada as an aviation pioneer.

Stormbird262 wrote ” That’s blooody friggin cold , we get nothing that cold down ere in Oz! ”

The winter cold here goes way beyond ” friggin. “

Amen.

Mind you, as awful as a Prairie Winter IS, we can dress for it. Those 40+ temps “Down Under” would kill me. 😮

Fort MacMoney ain’t my idea of a fun Winter, though… I prefer the Ottawa Valley today… Alberta Blue sky, and all!

Stormbird262 wrote ” That’s blooody friggin cold , we get nothing that cold down ere in Oz! “

The winter cold here goes way beyond ” friggin. “

Top stuff!!

Thank’s Mr Tom 😀

A very interesting read, Thank you for taking the time to type it all

Good luck with the rest of it

😮 That’s blooody friggin cold :eek:, we get nothing that cold down ere in Oz!

Ok Oooooo Roooooo

Cya

We will be happy to…

Flight remaining 2009

Completing Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight (80th Anniversary) March 2009
1st Western Canadian Commercial Flight (90th Anniversary) June 2009
Back to Baddeck leg to Cold Lake June 2009
1st aircraft use in a police pursuit (90th Anniversary) August 2009

We will also be doing a number of the Western Canadian airshows and other events.

Keep you posted

Tom H

Keep us posted, please.

Dogsbody

With these flight recreations/commemorations we have become reaquainted with the size of our country.

More importantly we have become re awakened to just how exceptional the pioneers were that made the original flights.

I am now signed off again to fly (thank heavens) so we will be back in the air soon to finish the Fort Vermilion flight.

Thanks TomH

Evening Dogsbody

The country s very similar only more sparsely populated.

Folks forget how big our country is

Our Winnipeg to Edmonton Flight would be similar to flying form London to Near the Western Swiss border.

Edmonton to Peace River is something like London to Mid France.

I think only Australia can compare with the vast open spaces

TomH

I know what you mean. I grew up in Nova Scotia, where nothing is that far away. Most people there don’t travel very far. I know a few folks who have never been any more that a hundred miles from home.
I tell them that at least twice a year I get up early, drive to Edmonton, do a little shopping, visit your museum, go to the Wild West Shooting Range and then drive back to Fort Mac, all in the same day. That’s a round trip of about 1000km. They can’t imagine someone driving that far, on a day off, for no other reason that that they felt like it.

My longest one day drive was from Golden BC, to Fort Mac.

Evening Dogsbody

The country s very similar only more sparsely populated.

Folks forget how big our country is

Our Winnipeg to Edmonton Flight would be similar to flying form London to Near the Western Swiss border.

Edmonton to Peace River is something like London to Mid France.

I think only Australia can compare with the vast open spaces

TomH

Thanks for the update, Tom. I hope you’re feeling better real soon.

I’ve never be past Slave Lake ( Faust, actually ) so have no idea what that country looks like. Is it much different that the way up to Fort Mac?

Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight, what’s it been like so far.

Check out the original story from 1929…

www.wopmay.com

And on to the 2009 version:

We just finished battling 1300km across the Canadian Prairies recreating the First airmail from Winnipeg to Edmonton, December 1928. Real flying time was basically 4 days. Weather delays caused by the worst prairie winter in 30years. Flying in temps as low as -20 to -30C

We finally arrived back in Edmonton to a huge fan fare, but rather than sit on our laurels we began the Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight an approx 1800km round trip taking us up close to the 60th parallel.

Seems Mother Nature is bound and determined to teach us a lesson.

We left Edmonton Tuesday morning under reasonable conditions. On lift off our airspeed indicator failed, a big deal but not insurmountable. Rather than interfere with traffic at Edmonton City Centre we chose to make the first leg to Westlock and deal with it during refueling.

STARS helicopter escorted us out of the ECCA control zone and it was a spectacular sight, 1920’s technology side by side with its next millennium brother in arms…just as the sun was breaking. Hope someone got a picture.

Landing at Westlock was a bit of a challenge with no airspeed indicator but we did it safely to meet a small crowd waiting our arrival. The folks were great and assisted with the refuel and with assistance we checked the ASI, by all appearances it was fine on the ground so our best guess was moisture had frozen the line in flight. We tested and checked the system and pressed on.

On lift off the airspeed indicator again failed to respond, all else was ok so we continued. Our support aircraft flew the route ahead and reported light turbulence about 40 miles out. At this point we noticed the cold starting to penetrate our gear, the heat packs were failing and the wind chill was penetrating our insulated coveralls.

A short time later we found the light turbulence, light in a modern light aircraft and light in a 1920s-30s design are (2) different things. We were bounced around like a plastic grocery back in a windstorm. Not really dangerous but very hard work and tough on the crew. The bigger problem was the cold getting worse.

We arrived in Salve Lake to high winds and real rough turbulence on approach. We did get an extreme attitude on approach that got the old adrenaline running but nothing that good training hadn’t prepared us for. Again not really dangerous but sure woke you up.

At Slave Lake the airspeed indicator HAD to be repaired, to continue without it would not have been smart as the territory beyond here gets rougher and the turbulence and conditions were mounting. The great folks at Can-West aviation diagnosed and repaired the problem in record time!!! Super people. Meantime we had done everything possible to warm up and prep for the run to High Prairie. On arrival we were cold to the extreme, my right hand and left foot and toes had frozen…talk about uncomfortable thawing out! Curtis the co-pilot/navigator was in similar condition.

Repaired and prepped we made the next jump and it was as rough as the previous, but the crowd greeting us in High Prairie was fantastic, a really great reception thanks to all.

A refuel, warm up and we made the final jump to Peace River, the cold was now right through the gear and us, we were now watching each other for human factor problems, poor decision making, slow reactions shaking etc. This run was only about 1hr and we flew as fast as safe in the biplane, arriving before legal sunset.

Peace River greeted us with a fantastic reception, several hundred people, Mounties in Red Serge, wonderful cake and displays…the whole North sure knows how to throw a reception!!!

But now the Biplane flight crew was ill, we hung in, got out of gear and did our best to promote the Centennial or Flight, answer questions and encourage the kids present to get involved in both our history and aviation. Even got a few kids in and out of the biplane.

When the team reached the hotel we knew the biplane crew was not well. I felt rough but not a wreck, Curtis was a wreck, shaking and shivering. We figured a good sleep, warm up back in action. We were wrong.

Through the night I became much worse, in the early hours vomiting. By morning I was in no condition to fly…we were grounded and the weather forecast to drop the next day.

It was a tough call but we broke into (2) teams. The back up aircraft would fly to Fort Vermilion with the pilot, our Museum President and my co-pilot Curtis to make the planned celebrations. The ground team would follow with me in the back as I was now in no condition to fly even as a passenger.

Fort Vermilion was fantastic, special celebrations, a community dinner, memorial plaque unveilings…again the North knows how to do a reception. Great place, great people and thanks to all.

The biplane is being kept safe in Peace River, thanks to the great folks at Northern Air Charter, till we can get healthy and finish the trip to Fort Vermilion. Till it gets there we are not done.

In the meantime everyone back safe and sound in Edmonton. I have been to the Doctor and it appears I had been clobbered by hypothermia. I have to go through a series of tests to confirm there is no lasting damage. Once confirmed I am ok we will be regrouping to complete the trip to Fort Vermilion with the Biplane, we will complete this flight.

Until you have driven and flown over this country you have no idea just how huge Alberta is, how beautiful and how lonely once past Westlock. This Province is massive and without the series of airports threading it together it becomes obvious that medical services and business/commerce would be difficult to impossible.

Most important to these recreations is the tribute we are paying to those that lead the way.
Without their super human efforts the North would never have been opened and developed and many lives would have been lost.

We are not the same cut of cloth, we just follow in their foot steps to honour their true accomplishments and promote awareness of the 100th Anniversary of flight in Canada and Alberta.

Tom Hinderks

Doint commerative flights can be a lot of fun. I did a re-enactment to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first mail flight of QANTAS (what used to be Australias national airline, but not any more),

I flew from Charlieville to Cloncurry (about a 1000km) and landed at each of the places that the original flight did. I did it in formation four Tiger Moths and a Stampe (making a 5-ship formation).

Wish I knew some other flights that could be flown to celebrate some local achievements here in S.E Queensland, Australia

cheers

Got any pics?

Doint commerative flights can be a lot of fun. I did a re-enactment to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first mail flight of QANTAS (what used to be Australias national airline, but not any more),

I flew from Charlieville to Cloncurry (about a 1000km) and landed at each of the places that the original flight did. I did it in formation four Tiger Moths and a Stampe (making a 5-ship formation).

Wish I knew some other flights that could be flown to celebrate some local achievements here in S.E Queensland, Australia

cheers

Hi, Tom. I saw you on CFRN News the other night. The re-enactment of the mercy flight to Fort Vermillion was about to start. I hope it went OK. I haven’t heard anything about it since you left.

Just a short update:

When you go to recreate history careful about what you are getting into.

We have gotten our biplane part way home after 2 attempts and are now grounded due to the spectacular low temps.

Currently hovering in the -25C to -30C range making simply unsafe to fly in an open cockpit biplane.

We will hold off till temps get to the -15C to -20C range before the next attempt.

It’s been 50+ years since we can find a record of anyone flying an open cockpit biplane across the Canadian Prairies in the winter….and we now know why (lol)

We are not cancelling, just waiting for safer conditions, we are still planning on making the Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight commemorative flight this winter but it has had to have been delayed as well.

Tom H

Thanks

We feel the project is really important…

– It’s the 100th Anniversary of flight in Canada
– The 100th Anniversary of flight in Alberta (Reg Hunt May 1909 in the Peace
Country.
– 80th Anniversary of this Winnipeg to Edmonton Airmail flight (1400km)
– 80th Anniversary of the Fort Vermilion Mercy flight (wopmay.com)
– 90th Aniversary of first Western Canadian Commercial Flight
– 90th Anniversary of first use of an Aircraft in a police pursuit

We are trying to get everyone excited about not just our history in Aviatoin but also our future. We are hoping ro get pre teen and teens excited about aviation again, history and future.

Tom H

Thanks, Tom. I’ve seen something on the TV about the Winnipeg-Edmonton flight.