Hello Visitor,

Welcome to the April edition of the CAHS National Newsletter.

 CAHS National News

The convention will be held at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Hamilton, where a block of rooms has been put aside for convention attendees at a special convention rate of $145 per night for 17-21 June. You may make your reservation by calling their Reservation Line, 1-800-MARRIOTT and identifying yourself as members of the "Canadian Aviation Historical Society group." Reservations must be received on or before Monday 18 May 2015.

The convention will culminate in the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's annual Skyfest event (tickets to Skyfest will be included as part of the convention registration package - registration information will be available soon).

Check the CAHS website for further information about the convention that will be coming in the months ahead.

Donations of items for prizes and the silent auction at the CAHS 2015 convention in June are welcome – books, posters, merchandise, vouchers, subscriptions, etc. Items for auction are used to generate funds for CAHS operations, and prizes add to the benefits of attending the convention.

Please consider what you can contribute or obtain for our convention auction and draws. Sometimes all you need to do is ask! Items can be brought to the convention or sent in advance to convention co-chair Richard Goette at 911 Vickerman Way, Milton, Ontario L9T 0K5. Let him know at richardgoette@hotmail.com.

CAHS Merchandise

In conjunction with this year's convention, the CAHS is continuing the merchandise sale concept, and a variety of items are now available for purchase online at the CAHS Store.

We are excited to offer CAHS merchandise this year that features the logo created by our graphics manager, Terry Higgins, for the 2015 convention in Hamilton. It combines the distinctive CAHS logo along with the date and location of this year's convention. Items that include this commemorative logo are polo shirts (in eight different colours), t-shirts (available in three colours), baseball caps (four colour options), mugs, and mouse pads.

Additionally, the CAHS has partnered again with our amazing Canadian aviation artists to produce a stunning full colour bilingual 2016 calendar. These will make beautiful Father's Day, birthday, and even Christmas gifts, so stock up now! To learn more about the gifted artists involved, click here.

Orders picked up at the CAHS Convention in Hamilton in June will be free of shipping charges. For those unable to attend the Convention, shipments will commence after the Convention. Payments can be made by cheque, credit card, or Paypal.

The deadline to pre-order and pay is 20 May 2015.

 CAHS Online

New on the Blog

Sea King

Written by John Orr

First Flight! 4005 at UACL Plant 9 April 1964.
Credit: UACL and Don MacNeil Collection

Author: Col. John L. Orr, CD, Ret’d - Former Sea King pilot and author of "PERSEVERANCE: The Canadian Sea King Story”

This article first appeared in the Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation Newsletter, THE WARRIOR, and is reprinted with permission.

Do individual aircraft have personalities?

I’m sure that all those Sea King personnel who read the WARRIOR (www.samfoundation.ca) will recall the pre-embarkation scramble as each HELAIRDET struggled to ensure that they would get a ‘flier’ for the upcoming deployment. This led to an almost totemic trust in the ‘personality’ of a particular aircraft and drove maintenance officers crazy as they sought to ensure that there were enough aircraft available to deploy with sufficient hours to preserve the stagger of aircraft into and out of heavy maintenance.

The purpose of this article is not to engage in a theological (or even metaphysical) debate about aircraft ‘personalities’ – but I’m sure that your editor would entertain any reflections that you may have on this topic. Rather, the intent is to tell the story of the introduction of one particular aircraft - CH 12405 – the first of the ‘Canadian’ Sea Kings (1).

Those who have studied the topic will know that only the first four Sea Kings acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) were manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft at their plant in Stratford, Connecticut. So why were the remaining 37 aircraft assembled in Canada? The answer gives an interesting insight into the state of the Canadian aircraft industry and the defence industrial policy of the day.

To read the whole article, click here.

 CAHS Chapter News

News from CAHS Toronto Chapter

From Flypast Volume 49 No. 6, by S. Benner

Douglas MacRitchie Memorial Award
Two members of the Toronto Chapter Executive – President Sheldon Benner and Treasurer, Paul Hayes, represented the CAHS at the Student Awards night on March 12, 2015 at the Centennial College Progress Campus in Scarborough. The CAHS was gratified to learn that long-time aviator Bruce MacRitchie of Welland, Douglas’s brother, has committed to renewing the scholarship for another 10 years. We thank Bruce for his generosity.

Chi-Wai Wong, the 2015 Douglas MacRitchie Memorial Award Winner with Larry MacRitchie, son of Bruce MacRitchie.
Photo credit - S. Benner

Bruce was not able to attend the presentation in person this year, but his son Larry was able to represent the MacRitchie family at the event. There were some 400 students, staff and donors in attendance for the second and final night of the 2015 award presentations. The $500 scholarship was awarded to Chi – Wai Wong who is a full time student currently enrolled in the Aviation Technician – Aircraft Maintenance program who best exemplifies a responsible attitude combined with acceptable academic standards at Centennial.

G. McNulty wrote earlier that “Douglas MacRitchie, CAHS No. 76, was an exceptional volunteer for the Society. He played a key role for many years in the production and distribution of the CAHS Journal, and had many friends in the aviation community. He was a national director at the time of his death at Burlington on August 20, 1980, while flying his Stinson 108, CF-DAF, to Fort Erie to visit Bruce at Fleet Industries Ltd. and help in the restoration of a Fleet Cornell.” For further information on Douglas MacRitchie’s background including his service in the RCAF, click here.

 Canadian Aviation Moments

We hope you enjoyed answering the Canadian Aviation Moments in March. Here are the correct answers:

Question: In his memoirs One Foot on the Ground, wartime bomber navigator Norman Emmott wrote “...in those last five hours he had put on the most spectacular display of aerial gymnastics that any Canadian, and very probably any man alive, has ever made in a plane – certainly a twin-engined plane.” Who was the pilot referred to in the preceding quote, and what town in Saskatchewan did he come from?

Answer: On Dec 6th, 1944, the RCAF lost two bombers – a B-24 Liberator and a B-25 Mitchell – and one of its most gifted pilots, Sgt. Donald Palmer Scratch of Maymont, Sask. It was wartime, but Don Scratch did not die in a theatre of operations. He was killed at an air base at RCAF Station Boundary Bay, BC. His flight was not authorized. He was joyriding. For 5 1/2 hours, he terrorized airports in Seattle, Vancouver and nearby Boundary Bay with risky zero-altitude aerobatic flying. “Four Hurricanes arrived from RCAF Stn Sea island. Their primary orders were to force the Mitchell out over the sea and shoot it down. They also had orders to shoot Scratch down if he tried to return to Vancouver or Seattle. The fighters tried to box him in but his superior flying skills enables him to easily elude them. Scratch made fools of the fighter pilots. He kept low to restrict their manoeuvres. He teased them for three hours.” “Scratch put that B-25 through aerobatics that most of us thought only a Tiger Moth or a Harvard could do.” Tiring of the game of cat and mouse, Scratch flew over the wrecked Liberator “vertically”. He climbed to 2,000 feet, rolled the Mitchell over on its back, aimed for a spot on the uninhabited Tilbury Island and “dived vertically in”.

Source: Air Force Revue – Winter 08 – page 17

Question: What was the total number of personnel who served with the RCAF during World War II, how many served overseas and how many lost their lives?

Answer: The country the size of Canada with a population of only 16 million, it was quite an impressive contribution: 249, 662 personnel served with the RCAF during the war, of which a total of 93,844 served overseas. 17,100 people lost their lives, of which 14,544 occurred overseas.

Source: Canadian Combat and Support Aircraft - page 31

Question: What was the name of the company – which, with its name on elevators all over the prairies – confused British student pilots and navigators?

Answer: After cross-country flights on the prairies, British students often returned in confusion and abject fear of being washed out because of poor map-reading. Ogilvie Oats had grain elevators sprinkled all over the prairies with the name “Ogilvie” standing distinctly tall. British student pilots and navigators checking landmarks invariably saw Ogilvie, but failed to find it on a map. Confusion grew by the second because there were few other landmarks as distinctive as the elevators, and if they flew on they came to another Ogilvie. Canadian trainees would nod sympathetically as the distraught Britishers later told their story, but there is no record of anybody ever actually telling a Brit that Ogilvie was a guy who made oats.

Source: From Baddeck to the Yalu – page 98

The Canadian Aviation Moments were submitted by Dennis Casper from the Roland Groome (Regina) Chapter of the CAHS.

The Canadian Aviation Moments questions for April are:

Question: What is Canada’s Search and Rescue area of responsibility?

Source: Air Force Revue – Winter 08 – Page 25

Question: What were the Fairey Battle’s Merlin engines prone to do?

Source: Windsock – Volume 20 Number 8 - Page 4

Question: What airplane was one of the most successful early transports, one of the first and largest crop dusting aircraft, and the RCAF’s largest aircraft on inventory in early 1937?

Source: Canadian Combat and Support Aircraft – Page 172.

 In the News

From Edmundston to Edmonton – Another Lancaster for Alberta

By John Chalmers, CAHS Membership Secretary

Alberta will soon have three of the few remaining Lancasters of more than 7300 built for service during the Second World War. Lancaster KB882, an RCAF war veteran, made its final flight on July 14, 1964 at Edmundston, New Brunswick and has been on static display there ever since. It will now be relocated to the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton. The Lancaster was built by Victory Aircraft Limited in Toronto and flew 12 operational flights during the war.

When efforts to raise funds for restoration and housing the four-engine bomber at Edmundston were not realized, a new home was needed to ensure the survival of the Lancaster. Of proposals submitted to relocate the warbird, the Alberta Aviation Museum submitted the successful one, and Edmundston City Council approved the transfer to Edmonton.

Lancaster KB882 at Edmundston NB. The aircraft is to be dismantled, then moved to Edmonton AB later this year for reassembly and restoration at the Alberta Aviation Museum. (Photo by Benoit de Mulder via RCAF Association online newsletter)

Tom Sand, president of the Alberta Aviation Museum Association, has said, “We are honoured to have been chosen to receive this important artifact. It shows the high regard for our museum and its track record of preserving and telling the important stories of aviation in this country.”

Built from a scrapped fuselage and wings located in California, a restored Mitchell bomber gleams like new at its public debut in Edmonton, as it is rolled out by retired RCAF Sgt. Ed Doucette, a key volunteer on the big restoration project. (John Chalmers photo)

The restoration and preservation of the Lancaster will be the biggest restoration project undertaken by the museum, which built a B-25 Mitchell from scrap for its roll-out to the public on September 3, 2011. Other major restoration projects have included a de Havilland Mosquito, two Noorduyn Norseman bush planes, an Avro Anson, and a Stinson SR-9 now nearing completion.

The Lancaster at the Aero Space Museum of Calgary, as seen in 2005, when it was still on outdoor display. (John Chalmers photo)

The other two Lancasters in Alberta include one at the Aero Space Museum of Calgary, and one at the Bomber Command of Canada at Nanton, an hour south of Calgary. That Lancaster is rolled out of the hangar several times a year for startup of all four V-12 Merlin engines, restored to running condition by volunteers at the museum. Edmonton likewise plans to return the four Merlins on KB882 to operating condition.

Volunteer firefighters at Nanton AB are on duty when Lancaster FM159 runs up all four engines at public display events. The Lancaster is dedicated to Calgary-born RCAF Squadron Leader Ian Bazalgette VC, killed in action during the Second World War. (John Chalmers photo)

New Coin Commemorates Canadians In The Battle of Britain

From RCAF Public Affairs

In mid-1940, Nazi Germany launched an aerial campaign to soften Great Britain in preparation for invasion. The Luftwaffe had no idea just how hard that campaign would become.

More than 100 Canadians were among the aviators who arrived in southern England from Commonwealth nations around the world. From July to October, 23 Canadians were killed in the first battle ever waged entirely in the air. The Battle of Britain not only put an end to the Nazi intent to invade Great Britain, but inspired Allied Forces throughout the war and thereafter.

The Royal Canadian Mint has launched its Second World War Battlefront Series of coins with a silver coin commemorating the role Canadian aviators played in the Battle of Britain.

The coin depicts a dogfight in the sky above England’s southeastern coast. A Canadian pilot ascends in his Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft after leaving a Luftwaffe Dornier Do 17Z with dark smoke billowing from one of its engines. Far below, the English Channel meets the White Cliffs of Dover.

The Second World War Battlefront Series of coins will depict scenes from key battles in which Canadians participated during the Second World War. To learn more about the coin, please click here.

Coin images© 2015 Royal Canadian Mint. All rights reserved.

An invitation from the College of Pilots - upcoming events in Toronto and Ottawa

Join us in Ottawa on Friday, April 17th to hear from former Concorde pilot John Hutchinson speak about what it was like to fly one of the world's most famous airliners. This event is being held at the Canadian Aviation Museum starting at 1800h and everyone is welcome. Following Captain Hutchinson's speech there will be an informal networking session where pilots can learn more about an organization we recently became affiliated with, the Honourable Company of Air Pilots. This event will be a good opportunity for pilots early in their careers to make contacts with more senior members of our industry.

Join us in greater Toronto on Sunday, April 19th to hear from Hon. Colonel Gerald Haddon of the Royal Canadian Air Force speak about Canada's first pilot, J.A.D. McCurdy. This event is being held at the Brampton Flight Centre starting at 1800h and everyone is welcome. Following Hon. Colonel Haddon's speech there will be an informal networking session where pilots can learn more about an organization we recently became affiliated with, the Honourable Company of Air Pilots. This event will be a good opportunity for pilots early in their careers to make contacts with more senior members of our industry.

For more information please visit our website at: www.collegeofpilots.ca.

This Week In History: 1937

The federal government created Trans-Canada Air Lines, Canada’s first national carrier

Air Canada was born as Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA, for short) three-quarters of a century ago on April 10, 1937. Its mission: to span the young country’s broad expanse by air. It took $5-million and three airplanes: a tiny Stearman, fresh from crop-dusting duties, and two Lockheed Electras. Philip Gustav Johnson, an engineer who had become president of Seattle’s Boeing Airplane Company at age 31, moved to Montreal as Vice-President of Operations, at an annual salary of $17,500, and started the engines on a history full of high moments and invention.

Restored TCA Lockheed Electra at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, in Winnipeg.

To read more, click here.

 From Around the World

Some photos to share from www.militaryimages.net:

© IWM (TR 827)

THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE IN TUNISIA, APRIL 1943

The ground crews of No 417 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force riding in and around a crowded jeep at Goubrine, Tunisia. Supermarine Spitfire Mark Vs of the Squadron are in the background.

©IWM (TR 861)

THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE IN TUNISIA, MAY 1943

Flight Lieutenant W H Pentland, of No 417 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, awaiting start up in his Supermarine Spitfire Mark V, BR195 'AR-T' at Goubrine. Other aircraft of the squadron are lined up alongside.

 Skyward

Toronto CAHS Chapter member Brander Andrew McBroom (CAHS No. 1527) passed away on December 26, 2014. Brander was born on July 27, 1925 in Dunoon, Scotland. He came to Canada at the age of 11 months and spent most of his childhood in Toronto. Brander was mechanically inclined, and from an early age he was always building things. This included a number of soap box derby cars and model aircraft that were built from balsa wood covered with fabric and painted with dope. One such model had a gasoline engine which he enjoyed running.

Brander attended Central Technical School, and it was there that he first met his friend the late Don Evans (CAHS No. 1806). At about the age of 17, Brander took flying lessons at Leavens Brothers Flying School at Barker Field and possibly at Malton Airport and received his pilot’s licence. He took his flight training in a Taylorcraft aircraft. It was 1942 at this time, and Brander went to St. Johns, Quebec to attend the Number 9 Air Observer School which was part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Don Evans also attended the school at this time. At the age of 17 and a half, Brander enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Initially he was assigned to be trained as an air gunner. However, through a strange twist of fate, which involved a meeting with Air Marshal William A. Bishop, he instead became an aeroengine mechanic. Brander serviced and flew a number of different types of aircraft including the de Havilland Tiger Moth, the deHavilland Mosquito and the Avro Anson. He was stationed at several bases across Eastern Canada including: Fingal, ON; Rivers, MB; Mont-Joli, QC; Moncton, NB; and Debert, NS. His unit was set to become part of the Tiger Force that was to go to the south pacific but the war ended, so much to his disappointment, he did not go overseas.

Following WWII, Brander studied mechanical engineering at the University of Toronto. He graduated in 1952 and became a Professional Engineer. He was then employed at Orenda Engines and was involved in the development of the Iroquois engine for the Avro Arrow. Following the cancellation of the Arrow program in February of 1959, he became the Quality Control Manager at Purolator Ltd, where he worked for over 20 years. In the mid-1990’s he started flying Cessnas, ultralights and gliders. However, of all the aircraft that he ever flew, his favourite was the Avro Anson Mark V. He enjoyed taking his family to airshows and telling stories about World War II vintage aircraft and the Avro Arrow. He thereby passed on an interest in aviation to his grandchildren.

Forwarded by Linda McBroom – Cerajewski, Branders Daughter

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