Tom HWe 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
Tom HDogsbody
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
Tom HI guess it all depends on the aircrafts mission and what you are able to start with…
If its privately owned then its up to the owner and his/her desires.
If it is publicly held it gets more complicated.
The Mossie in the Alberta Aviation Museum is a good example.
It is the mate to the one noted above, but it arrived derilict, badly damaged and (at the time before new airframes) not restorable to airworthy in the remotest chance, barely salvagable to static.
It also came with baggage and a complicated deal that it had to represent a 418 Sqn FB aircraft.
Currently the colours are not correct, the engines are wrong for the Mark it represents. But as the only Mossie currently on public display in Canada it has brought many a tear to former Mossie crews, inspired a new generation to the heroics and traditions of 418Sqn and helped tell a story of a generation that could not have otherwise be told.
In time (and as funds come availabile) the errors will be corrected, it will be re-restored (not to airworthy as the Spar and back cannot be made airworthy) and steps taken to insure it will continue to paint the picture of history to new generations.
So answers are not always so cut and dried, if we had not been able to make the deal that allowed the aircraft to be restored it would have remained damaged and unprotected outside…would that have been a better fate?
I think all would agree it would not.
In a perfect world I would see each restored to tell its own story, but in the world of funding and acqusitions that is not always going to be possible and a type being able to be on public display, inspiring, teaching and presenting import parts of our past is far more valuable than a perfect example in private hands that will never been seen.
My 2 bits anyway
BlueMax Dr 1
I know both your aircraft you mentioned…thanks for saving them
Tom H
Tom HEvening 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
Tom HFort Vermilion Mercy Flight, what’s it been like so far.
Check out the original story from 1929…
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
Tom HJDK
Funding in Canada for anything but Provincial/Federal Museums is a joke.
The policies are such that not for profit museums, read aviation, fight to stay alive with the exception of 1 or 2.
Federal dollars may as well be non existent, Provinces are better with matching fund grants that have allowed many things to happen, but first you need the matching funds. Our tax system does not really reward those donating making it very difficult to raise significant funds to grow or restore aircraft with.
This year is the 100th anniversary of flight in Canada and a great example.
Other than the Canadian Armed Forces there is no Centennial of flight program.
No Federal program, Alberta is having its 100th anniversary of flight and there is no provincial program.
At least in our case the City of Edmonton understands the importance of its history and the economic impact we create and has helped with support on the operational side.
There are lots of reasons for the problem and many in politics support our movement and their efforts appreciated. But the overall attitude is discouraging.
That said our museum is going to have its most successful year, 18 events planned and major centennial programming, and we are fighting to continue to grow and educate.
After doing a ton of research over the last several years it seems of the Western World the 2 countries that get the least support for aviation heritage are Australia and Canada…funny with Canada’s North and the Australian Outback the 2 countries that owe aviation possibly the most.
Ok rant over back on topic.
Tom
Tom HHappy New Year to all…
Knowing a number of the folks from Langley and having just hosted them at the Canadian Aeronautical Preservation Asso conference that was held in our museum, I can assure you that within the means available to them they do a fantastic job of saving, preserving and restoring what they have.
As has been said Langley is not known for snow let alone the very unusual heavy snow they have been hit with this year.
Canada has had a very vicious winter coast to coast, I can personally attest to this as we have been trying to complete a mail flight recreation across the prairies and we have been fighting temps 20 to 30 degrees colder than normal and severe snow conditions.
To Gord and the team at Langley, if you read this before I call on Monday…
How can we help?
Tom Hinderks
Alberta Aviation Museum
Tom HJust 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
Tom HThanks
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
Tom H2009 Anniversaries at the Alberta Aviation Museum
2009 will be a busy year at the Alberta Aviation Museum!
With the 100th Anniversary of flight in Canada we are pulling out all the stops and celebrating a whole series of Canadian and Edmonton anniversaries with events.
Draft 2009 Aviation Celebrations at the:
Alberta Aviation Museum/Edmonton Aviation Heritage Centre
January
2 to 6 Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight, from Edmonton 1929
Flight recreation and events…see mercy flight at http://www.wopmay.com for more info on the flight.
February
– 21-22 100th Anniversary event – Let Fly
Teaming with the EAA Young Eagles program we hope to fly several hundred children on the 100th Anniversary weekend
March
– 18 418 “City of Edmonton” Squadron 65th Anniversary event
– 504 Squadron Blatchford Field Air Cadets 60th Anniversary event
April
– 1 85th Anniversary of the RCAF
May
– 1 60th Anniversary of Edmonton’s first transcontinental air service
Stage of flight planning on being re created
June
– 7 90th Anniversary of first Western Canadian Commercial flight, Edmonton 1919, Flight recreation being planned
26-28 10th Anniversary of Airfest events including:
– Combi Concert (Race the Sun Tour)
– 55th Anniversary of Edmonton’s first Sonic Boom
July
– Edmonton Indy Car race will feature programming on the 100th Anniversary of Flight in Canada
August
– 30 90th Anniversary, First use of an Aircraft in a police pursuit
Flight recreation planning on going
September
– 20 Battle of Britain parade
One of Canada’s largest
October
–
November
– 11th Remembrance Day
December
– 17 70th Anniversary of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
Event planning in progress.
Plus we are part of the Canadian Aeronautical Preservation Association coast to coast tour “Back to Baddeck” and several other national events.
These are not all the anniversaries…just the ones we think we can celebrate here in Edmonton.
Tom H
Tom H“What is it with people that they feel the need to tap an airplane to see what it feels like! Shame to see her unprotected like that! If you had the same aircraft on display in the UK or North America, you wouldn’t have been able to get within 5 feet of it.”
Peter its time to come to Edmonton…
Very few of our aircraft are roped off, you can even get up close and look in the Mossie.
Just opened up our Sabre to allow the public to sit in it under strict supervision.
Our one Beech 18 is set up to allow the public in and take an aerial tour of Edmonton on video
The 737 is open for Supervised tours weekend through the summer.
We believe in making aviation come alive, as long as it can be done safely while maintaining the artifact.
Tom
Tom HWell….
The Hurricane currently owned by the City of Calgary might vie for the honours.
I don’t have the details on hand but she is unrestored, complete, original, less fabric, only served in Canada, Lethbridge I think.
See what I can dig up.
Tom
Tom HThanks for posting that Peter.
My Dad was a Lanc Pilot
My Father in Law a tailgunner
Great piece, means alot
Tom
Tom HWell June 22 was Airfest 2008
In spite of pouring rain all day it was a great event attended by approx 7000 people.
the 737 Combi Concert went well featuring 3 artists and the world record is applied for.
Hosted by the Alberta Aviation Museum and Edmonton Aviation Heritage Society it is Edmontons only Aviation event each year.
Now on to Airfest 2009 celebrating Canada’s 100th anniversary of flight.
Tom
Tom HUpdate
B-25 Pacific Prowler due in June 20th, 2008 at approx 4:00pm
Arriving at the same time CF-18 Hornet from 410 Squadron Cold Lake
The good times begin Friday!!!
Tom H
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