Mossies of Spartan Air Services

There is a whole series of video’s about Spartan Air on youtube that I found recently and well worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSVfSsu4gMI

Dave:

Could you make contact? Am writing a book about Spartan and would like to include some background on Kenting’s B-17 operations.

There was actually a third company conducting high-level photo surveys in Canada during that period (1950-1962): Aero Surveys Ltd. of Vancouver. They operated the orange P-38 in your photo, CF-JJA, and provided around 4% of the high-level survey coverage in Canada. Spartan provided 55% while Kenting provided 41%.

Kenting acquired two P-38s but ended up standardizing on the B-17, trading the pair to Spartan for their Sea Hornet. P-38 CF-JJA went to Spartan’s operation in Argentina but was lost when the pilot took off with the radiator doors closed.

Robert

Topspeed:

The P-38 was a fine aircraft and easy to fly but it had a serious limitation in that at the operating altitude of 32-35,000ft it flew nose-high when fitted with the two external fuel tanks. This meant that the camera in the nose was not pointing vertically at the ground, as required for photo-mapping. So Spartan flew them without the tanks which greatly limited their endurance and therefore time ‘on line’ taking photos. In addition, the P-38’s liquid cooling system, with aluminum piping going back to radiators in the tail booms, was prone to leaking following overnight ‘cold soaks’ during operations in the northern latitudes. The intake ducts were also vulnerable to sand abrasion when operating off gravel strips, resulting in loss of engine performance.

The Mosquito reached operating altitudes quicker (25 vs 40 minutes), was faster once ‘on line’ and could carry the required state-of-the-art Wild cameras.

Robert

There were 2 survey companies from Canada at the time, Spartan and Kenting. My father flew B-17s for Kenting 1960-62, high-altitude photo-survey.

He mentions that the Mosquitos were considered by the company pilots as a bit suspect by then — no one wanted to find out the hard way which glues had been used to put them together.

One particular P-38 was extremely successful — it mapped pretty much the whole Andes.

http://picssr.com/tags/cfjja

Rather late to this thread………….!! Photograph certainly NOT taken in Kenya…!!! The aircraft was allocated Kenya marks VP-KOM. These were never carried and they were subsequently used by a Wilken Air Services PA-24 Comanche. A number of other aircraft were registered to and used by Spartan in East Africa.

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/search?q=CF-HMQ&f=_all&exact=1&type=&registration=&operator=&code_number=&construction_number=&airport=&country=&photographer=&date_taken=&airshow=&military_unit=&information=&exact=1&search_type=simple

Mossie was chosen over P-38 ???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSVfSsu4gMI

Was it lighter…more capable to fly higher ???

Curious who your Kenya contact is or, perhaps, was
Cheers,
Robert Stitt

Photo of CF-HMK
http://www.cahs.ca/journal/1994back_d.html

Here is a picture of CF-HMP. This is a painting by Robert Bradford. Maybe contacting the CAHS may further your request for a photo of CF-HMQ.

http://www.cahs.ca/

History:
Spartan Air Services Ltd, Ottawa, Ontario, Dec. 9, 1954-1957.
– Civil conversion, Burnaston, UK, 1954-1955.
– Registered as CF-HMQ.
– Delivered to Canada, arriving Ottawa, June 2, 1955.
Spartan Air Services (Eastern) Ltd, Nov. 1957 – Registration VP-COM reserved but not taken up.
– Delivered from Ottawa to Nairobi, Kenya, Nov. 1957.
Spartan Air Servies Ltd, Ottawa, Ontario, 1957-1967.
– Reregistered as CG-HMQ.
– Returned to Canada via Prestwick, May 4, 1958.
– Last flight, Grand Prarie to Uplands, Ontario, Oct. 7, 1963.
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/mossieregistry/mossie-vp189.html

Canadian Aviaton Historical Society journal, Vol. 32 No. 4 Winter 1994,
The Spartan Air Services Mosquitoes

Photo
http://www.kwarc.org/bulletin/98-04/summerjob.html

How’s this?

Info gleaned from Larry Milberry’s ‘Air Transport In Canada – Volume 1’

1957, Spartan acquires a Kenyan air charter co. – renames it Spartan Air Services (Eastern)…
November ’57: Mosquito Mk.35 CF-HMQ ferried to Nairobi by John Nock joining fellow Spartan crew in Nairobi: Ralph Burton, Vince Kluke and Dennis Boyer (mechanic)
Early ’58: Burton flies HMQ to UK for maintenance
May ’58, Nock returns HMQ to Ottawa

I’ve only seen the one pic of HMQ in the book – and its a small BW taken in late ’58 in Canada. Spartan’s ‘house’ colours at the time were overall aluminum paint, with bright red (almost day-glo) spinners, fin/rudder/elevator/wing tips. The registration was carried in black on a white band (bordered in red) across the fin/rudder, along with a Canadian Red Ensign below that on the fin. Registration CF-HMQ carried top stbd wing and bottom of port in black outboard of the engines. Spartan Air Services Ltd. titling on fuselage in black. Spartan logo (stylized wing superimposed on triangle) carried port and stbd of nose ahead of windscreen – in line with observation windows.

Darn.. I think I’ll have to draw this one…

For what it’s worth, there was an article in Air Enthusiast 5-7 years ago with lots of color of Spartan Mossies. The shots were taken in Canada, not Kenya.
My favorite was someone doing engine word at some remote location using the hood (bonnet) of a well used (though fairly new then) Jeep CJ-6 as an work platform.