Great news Mike, I will have to stop down to Gatineau again in the fall. By the way my brother and I were greatly impressed with the collection of Mr. Potter and the presentation in the hanger looks amazing. Anyhow I just wanted to thank you for the tour of the hanger back a couple weeks ago as it was one of the highlights of our trip to Ottawa.

Are any of the aircraft going to be at Yankee or the Gathering of Legends this summer?

Jeremy

Hi Tom, as a full scale flying replica builder I think that they are going to become more and more valueable to museums who want to showcase a representation in the air. With the current state of insurance and governments not wanting rare types risked in the air the next best thing is a full size flying replica modernized internally to showcase the type in the air for future generations. It is important to not confuse the point that it is infact a replica and not the real thing but again I like to see my airplanes fly. There will always be the purest who says it doesn’t sound like a merlin or a DB but in 30years these engines will be coming up on the 100year mark and what transport authority is going to allow them to fly. So the museum that has a good mix will be able to showcase both static originals and some flying replicas far into the future.

There is the other point that if it does not exist would it not be better to have atleast a representation of it. Such as if a DH Hornet were to be built to flying standards under the experimental class here in N.A. would that not be quite the site as none exist at the moment to compare it to other than in pictures.

A buddy of mine brought up another interesting fact the other day when he was over helping out and that was that most of the flying warbirds left today are not exactly originals either where in some cases 90% + of the material has been replaced. Glacier Girl the P38 is a good example it has a few major components from the recovery but alot of the airframe was unuseable in the flying plane.

Cheers Mate

J

Hi Tom, great website the museum will definitely be on my to visit list next time out west.

Some suggestions:
-Having not visited your display yet I can not say if this is true or not but many museums I find are stagnant. The displays rarely change and there is never any more story just plaques with some basic facts. I think many of the museums today need to start telling some of the stories behind their aircraft – this would provide new content for generations and would prevent the personal histories from being lost. I find I go back to talk to the veterans that show up from time to time as their story with that particular aircraft is what is really interesting. Such as if you had a spitfire just dont say this saved Britain and it goes X mph and is 29’10” long- tell who designed it, how they got to the design, what they went through to build it under bombing, who flew it and what was it like, etc. etc.

One visitor who stops in to see our spit twice a year shares bits and pieces which are just amazing from his wartime flying. An example we were in the process of riveting our p8 compass tray when Jerry arrived and he told us of how they drained the alchol out of the RAF compasses in the aleutian island campaign. And how it was a ****** alone with the weather without flying with a compass full of water in below 0 temperatures. I will not go on but this is the kind of stuff which puts a human perspective on an item which by itself is just a compass.

From the children aspect I think this is the really important factor as all our aviation associations are suffering from low attendance these days. I think some projects which give the kids hands on experience with the aircraft is what is really needed. How can a nintendo/xbox generation child know what is involved to build and maintain one of these aircraft if they have never riveted a solid rivet or helped fabric cover a wing. Now I am not talking about a working piece but some displays with a mockup that they can be shown how to do this stuff hands on. Run a different program each month or weekend and tie it in with young eagles so there is an end goal of getting to actually fly in a light aircraft.

Just some thoughts.

Oh and the big one I know but aircraft were meant to fly – so a museum with a flying display will always be my favorite over one which has hanger queens.

J

This thread reminds me of what almost happened at CWH or should I say what could have happened. They had a jet donated by the swiss I believe a few years back and they had flown it into the museum. No one had ever thought about deactiviation obviously becuase they had a child in the cockpit of it shortly after and he deployed the drag chute in the museum. Fortunately no one was hurt, but upon the aircraft being dismantled years later for transport it was found the ejection seat was still armed. Hmm that kid could have made a nasty dent in the roof of the new hanger – fortunately God and a little bit of luck were on his side.

Cheers

Yes I agree take in an airshow with the ride it will make your trip all that more worthwhile. I went up in the “Yankee Lady” at the Willow Run Thunder over Michigan show this past summer and it was the best money ever spent. Went up for almost 45min flight out over detroit area, the best part of the ride though was to sit up there in the nose oh and opening the bomb bay doors in flight that was great to.

I am not part of the organization but that airshow last year was the best I have been to in a while. They had one of the largest flying RAF/RCAF collections present outside the UK last year. So if you are not set on California that would be another place to take in a ride.

Cheers

J

Yes new material really is not an option take for example what had to be done to get spar material for the Bolingbroke at Canadian Warplane Heritage. They had to get the original steel plant in the US to do a custom run of material to spec so that the transport authority would accept the construction of the new spar.
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