Anson mystery – 27 Squadron connection?

That’s it! Byron Reynolds himself! The M11A doesn’t seem to have changed much since your photo.

PL, I assume your tour guide was Byron Reynolds. The Miles Whitney appears to have been flown by non other than one Charles Lindbergh. It is also a true veteran of the Battle of Britain, as it was used to ferry pilots around the airfields. I think Sailor Malan flew it on a couple of ocassions during this period.Certainly a true historic !
As for Ansons, Mark12, in Westaskwin, alone,there are four others, similar to the pictures you show, in open storage, just off the airfield. Most of the Ansons in Alberta, ended up at the Nanton Lancaster Musuem. I think they have over 20 frames in various states of decay. There are still a number of aircraft Bolys and Ansons left on Farms. There is still a very complete Bolingbroke airframe in Manitoba, which a farmer has yet to release!
MRP

Andy, once the captions are complete (and they are detailed; those for the first 260 of 720 pix cover over 50 pages) I will be happy to send you a CD, as I have already promised to JDK. As I am currently unemployed, and in Sweden with high postage costs, I am afraid that I can’t afford to send out vast numbers if others are interested! Yourself and JDK are first come, first served!

Peter
that is one amazing place.
Thanks for posting and I too will look forward to the eventual thread on the forum.
Could you/would you eventually be persuaded to release some of your stuff on a disc?
I’d love to view it at my leisure.
Thanks again
Andy 🙂 🙂

Let’s say a dozen of each! We were more interested in the complete ones, that we also found all over the place, many of them composites built from the parts of several different airframes. We visited (I think) 34 museums and air shows in 21 days so there was not much time to stop and stare! That’s why I am having some problems with captions, there wasn’t time to note down all the details!

Thanks, gents, you are right, MRP, one of the Reynolds family (forget his name unfortunately) took us “behind the scenes” to the restoration workshops as well as this normally hidden “reserve collection” – it really is an amazing place, just one corner is shown in this picture! There are absulute gems here, such as the last airworthy Miles M11A Whitney Straight.
When I have assembled all my captions (which is why I asked for help on this one), I will put up a thread of this museum, which I had no idea existed!

This museum is also something new to me Peter. It’s a huge task to find all the background info about all those planes, but when you complete it, it will be a great resource for later work. I cant wait to see that tread Peter! 🙂

Cheers,

J.V.

Mark12, on my trip this year we saw so many abandoned Ansons and Bolingbrokes lying in fields we lost count! They are probably still there!

PL,

Well give us a rough estimate of how many!! 🙂

Mark

Mark12, on my trip this year we saw so many abandoned Ansons and Bolingbrokes lying in fields we lost count! They are probably still there!

Thanks, gents, you are right, MRP, one of the Reynolds family (forget his name unfortunately) took us “behind the scenes” to the restoration workshops as well as this normally hidden “reserve collection” – it really is an amazing place, just one corner is shown in this picture! There are absulute gems here, such as the last airworthy Miles M11A Whitney Straight.
When I have assembled all my captions (which is why I asked for help on this one), I will put up a thread of this museum, which I had no idea existed!

A ‘smidge’ off topic but…

…may I introduce this photo as you are talking Canadian Ansons.

“July 1973, in a farmers yard, 1 mile north of Baron, Alberta. Wings cut and fabric gone.”

Anybody know what happened to these?

Mark

PL

Just a guess here but a lot of squadrons had a “hack” which, although used pretty extensively, didn’t actually count as part of the squadron “working” inventory. In days of yore Ansons were the favourite along with Oxfords, Fairey Battles and the like. 3(F) Sqn, for example, ran a Fairey Battle when they were equiped with Hurricanes, and there’s probably many more such examples. Also in recent times 56 Sqn (Lightnings) had a Canberra T.4 as a runabout, was on strength as a Target Facilities aircraft. Could be wrong of course.

My educated guess without consulting my reference material (at home), is that one of the founders of the Reynolds museum, Stan Reynolds flew Beaufighters with the RAF during the war. My assumption is that it was 27 Squadron.I will have to check when I get home, but this would be the likely connection.
I will also be talking to one of the former pilots of that aircraft later this week and I can get the info then. The Anson was formerly with Canadian Warplane Heritage(Western group), prior to going to Reynolds. It stared in “For the Moment” along with Russell Crowe !
Due to current Museum policy, none of the museum aircraft fly, even though, as you will have seen, there are some real gems in the hanger.
Not sure if you made it over the airfield at Wetaskiwin, but there are serveral interesting airworthy aircraft owned by the Reynolds Family and the oldest Dragon Rapide in existence, being restored to fly, hopefully by next year.

MRP