CAHS National Newsletter - August/September Edition

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Hello Visitor,

 
   
 

Welcome to the September edition of the CAHS National Newsletter.

 
   
 

 CAHS National News

 
   
 

SAVE THE DATE for the 2015 CAHS Convention!

 52nd CAHS AGM

The Canadian Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) will be holding its 52nd National Convention and Annual General Meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, on 17-21 June 2015 at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. Check the CAHS website for further information about the convention that will be coming in the months ahead.

 


CAHS Journal Volume 52-1 Update

The Spring 2014 Journal issue is going through the printing and mailing process now!

 

Journal Sponsorship Opportunity

Individuals and corporations are welcome to sponsor, in part or in whole, the publication of upcoming Journal issues. Recognition as a sponsor will be given on our website, in our e-newsletter, and in the Journal itself. Journal publication costs breakdown into the following categories:

  • Physical Printing: $3000
  • Mailing House Services: $1000
  • Canada Post Postage: $1000

If you are interested in donating to specifically help with the costs of Journal production, contact the CAHS National Treasuer at treasurer@cahs.ca to specify the issue, the cost category, and the amount.


A Special Reunion

gw journeyCAHS President Gary Williams set out this summer on a deeply personal historical journey to Sweden, where his late father's Lancaster aircraft had been shot down while returning from a raid in the summer of 1942. Gary's father, George Edgar Williams, DFM, was a flight sergeant when his aircraft went down in July 1942. He was on an all sergeants crew flying a Lancaster Mk I, R5663, QR-L, for RAF 61 Squadron flying out of Syerston, England on his twenty-first and final bomber mission. He was the only survivor of his crew and owed his life to a young woman, Aina Berg, who rowed a small boat to the crash site and rescued him.

The story of the reunion of Aina Berg and Gary is told in this video clip. Most of it is in Swedish, but the drawings and Gary's English explanations tell the story effectively and warmly. Below is a translation from the website:

Shortly after midnight on the morning July 4, 1942, the RAF Lancaster bomber aircraft from the Allied forces flew over the Straits to lay mines between Elsinore, Denmark and Helsingborg, Sweden. Level with Hornbæk, it met with German anti-aircraft fire from the Danish side and a few minutes later the plane crashed into the sea off Lerberget, Sweden, which remained neutral throughout the war.

When she and her father rowed out to the plane, the wind created a little "street" in the sea of fire so that they could get closer. At the same time, they heard a voice that cried, "Help, help me!"

george lois

George Williams with his sister Lois.

"So we could row up to Williams and my father got hold of him. But we could not get him in the boat because he had so much equipment on himself, he was too heavy. But we managed to hold him until a fisherman came to the rescue."

Seven men were on board, all drowned except the 25-year-old pilot George Williams. After the crash, he was treated in hospital in Helsingborg for two months and then held in a prisoner of war camp in Falun, Sweden until March 1943 when he was secreted back to Britain and then returned to Canada. He died fifteen years ago, and rarely spoke about the dramatic emergency landing, says his son, Gary Williams.

"It bothered him that he was the only survivor, and the rest of his crew perished that night. He was my hero and I will miss him every day of my life."

Aina Berg notes that the meeting between them "feels great."

"And I'm so grateful that it happened as it happened, that we rescued him."

Note from Gary Williams: There is so much more to the story and I will attempt to recount the entire experience in an upcoming issue of the Journal.


 

MacRitchie Scholarship

The CAHS National Executive would like to recognize the recent donation by Bruce MacRitchie to continue the Douglas MacRitchie Memorial Scholarship which the CAHS awards each year to a deserving student in the Aircraft Maintenance Technician program at Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario. The scholarship was established by Douglas' brother and friends to recognize and remember the volunteer work that Douglas MacRitchie contributed to the CAHS.

For more details about Douglas MacRitchie's life and contributions to the CAHS, click here to read the articles written by Gord McNulty and Bill Wheeler.

 


 

Donations Needed

Donate to the CAHSWith just four months left in the 2014 calendar year, the CAHS is looking for donations from individuals and corporations to help end the year with a balanced budget. There will be extra bills this year since the CAHS has been working to get caught up with Journal production and financial audits, so donations and corporate sponsorships will be most appreciated. Donations of $25 of more will automatically be given tax receipts; tax receipts can be given for any amount upon request.

Donations, of any size, can be made by cheque or credit card (download form here) or online through Paypal.

 


Sights and Sounds at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada

Lancaster panorama

Friday night run-up of all four Merlin V-12 liquid-cooled engines on the Lancaster bomber at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada.

Write-up & photos by John Chalmers, CAHS National Membership Secretary

Each year the Bomber Command Museum of Canada at Nanton, Alberta, holds a number of special events that include run-ups of aircraft engines, tours of the museum, demonstrations of an operating Lancaster gun turret, speakers on aviation topics and social events, as well as providing an opportunity to see the many aircraft and displays. Each year I try to attend at least one event, especially the big weekend program in August.

This year on August 22 and 23, I enjoyed the events, demonstrations, restoration projects, the program of speakers, and the opportunity to meet and chat again with the amazing volunteers who do such a great job at the Museum. The Friday evening always features a social meet & greet gathering, followed by a night-time run-up of all four engines on the Museum's Lancaster bomber. As I watch the propellers spin, see the blue flames spitting from the exhaust pipes and hear the sweet sound of the engines, I find it an emotional experience, having lost an uncle who fell with all other crew members during the Second World War when their Lancaster was shot down in Denmark on the return flight of a night bombing operation. I can only imagine what it would be like to be on a Lancashire air base in England when entire squadrons of Lancasters were running up their engines prior to take-off when young airmen would again put their lives at risk in dangerous bombing runs.

 

Bud Larson, DFC and Bar, who flew as a pilot with the RCAF during the Second World War signed up at age 18 in 1941. He spoke about his experiences in training and operational flying. Bud defied the odds, flying 12 operations with RCAF 424 Squadron in Halifax bombers and another 40 as a Lancaster pilot with RCAF 405 Pathfinder Squadron. 02 Bud Larson 200

 

As usual, besides the engine run-ups, there were many highlights for me. Bud Larson, now 91, spoke of his wartime experience with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and operational flying as an bomber pilot. He sailed to his overseas posting on the Queen Elizabeth, aboard with some 10,000 others when it served as a troop ship during the war. It was so fast, he said, that it could outrun submarines and sailed without convoy escort. In flying on operations, "We were like brothers," Bud said of his crew.

 

It was a pleasure also to meet and speak with post-war RCAF veteran, Duke Dawe, in uniform from 1949-1980. He makes an annual trip from his home in Vernon, BC to the August event at the Museum, which has special meaning for him, as his log book includes 224 hours as flight engineer in the Museum's Lancaster, in maritime patrol from Comox and Arctic flights with RCAF 407 Squadron.

 

06 Ted Barris 575

Ted Barris was the featured speaker on Saturday, speaking about Canadians in the RCAF who were vital to The Great Escape from German prison camp, Stalag Luft III, the subject of Ted's latest book, The Great Escape: a Canadian Story. Some 300 people were at the museum to hear Ted's great presentation and take in the sights and activities at the museum.

 

Featured speaker on August 23 for a large crowd was well-known writer Ted Barris, on the topic of the critical role of Canadian airmen in the famous Great Escape attempt from German prison camp, Stalag Luft III. His excellent and well-illustrated presentation based on his book, The Great Escape: A Canadian Story, was well received by a large audience. I now have a signed copy of the book, which has special meaning for me; it includes mention of two RCAF members whom I saw regularly when I was a guest at meetings of the Edmonton RCAF group of former Prisoners of War.

 

11 Duke Dawe 575

Retired Flight Lieutentant Duke Dawe of Vernon BC is shown with display panels for which he donated most of the photos. Duke has been a regular attender at museum event for many years, and actually flew 224 hours in the museum's Lancaster as a flight engineer. Duke served as a flight engineer in the RCAF from 1949-1980.

 

The Bomber Command Museum of Canada is operated by the Nanton Lancaster Society, which holds a Museum Membership in the Canadian Aviation Historical Society. If you can't visit the Museum in person, you can do it online by clicking here. And speaking of membership, don't forget to renew yours when it comes due. Be sure to remain part of our historical family!

 
03 Richard de Boer 200 Richard de Boer, president of the Calgary Mosquito Society and president of the Calgary CAHS chapter, has plenty to smile about, pointing out the news item in the September issue of FlyPast magazine, about the de Havilland Mosquito now undergoing restoration at the Bomber Command Museum. Richard's article about the first flight of a restored Mosquito at Victoria BC appears in the September issue of Aeroplane magazine.

04 Shirlee Matheson 200 Calgary writer and CAHS member Shirlee Matheson is shown with a table of her books on aviation displayed at the August weekend.

05 Scrounger Presentation 200 Museum president Rob Pedersen, right, presents the annual Scrounger Award to Ernie Leonhardt for his help in scrounging parts for the Bomber Command Museum of Canada.

07 Ted Barris 200 For over an hour after his presentation on The Great Escape, author Ted Barris was busy signing books for an enthusiastic line-up.

08 Daytime run-up 200 A run-up of the four Merlin engines on the Lancaster bomber at the Museum is always done with members of Nanton's volunteer fire department on duty.

09 Hercules run-up With Karl Kjarsgaard at the controls behind the roaring 14-cylinder Bristol Hercules radial engine, Kevin Charlton checks the cylinder head temperature to ensure that the mighty motor isn't allowed to overheat. The mobile engine stand was designed, built and donated to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada by FalCan Industries of Fort Macleod, Alberta. It's another example of the great community support received by the Museum. To see John's video of the Hercules engine run-up, click on the photo.

10 Dan Fleet Fawn 200 Dan Fox addresses the crowd prior to the startup of the 5-cylinder radial engine on the museum's Fleet Fawn biplane trainer.

12 RAF pulpit 200 A recent addition to the Museum is this lectern/pulpit which bears a wartime crest of the Royal Air Force. Where it was originally located is unknown, but it came to the museum from a church in Waterton, Alberta when the church closed. Any details about the history of this item would be welcomed by curator Bob Evans at curator@bombercommandmuseum.ca. Could the item be from an RAF station in Alberta from the BCATP? Shown behind it is the Museum's restored Bristol Blenheim two-engine bomber.
   

 

     
 

 CAHS Chapter News

   
 

 

 
 
 
     
 
Upcoming Chapter Meetings
 
 

 Chapter

 Date

 Location

 Calgary

18 Sept.

Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

 Manitoba

25 Sept.

Western Canada Aviation Museum

 Montreal

 18 Sept.

Royal Canadian Legion, Pointe Claire

New Brunswick

 20 Sept.

Provincial Archives of NB 

 Ottawa

25 Sept.

Canada Aviation and Space Museum

PEI

 No regurlarly sheduled meetings until further notice.

 Regina

 13 Sept.

Walking tour - meet at Briercrest College

 Toronto

04 Oct.

Canadian Forces College

Vancouver

09 Sept.

Richmond Cultural Centre

 
 

 In the News

 
   
 

northern lights awardNorthern Lights Award

Come celebrate the 2014 Northern Lights Award Winners, including Canada's first woman astronaut, Dr. Roberta Bondar.

Danielle Metcalfe ChenailSpecial congratulations go out to former CAHS President, Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail, recipient of the Rising Star Award.

When: Friday, September 26, 2014
6 - 10 pm

Where: Toscana Banquet and Conference Centre, 3201 Hwy 7 West, Vaughan ON

Congratulations to the 2014 recipients:
Pioneer Award, Roberta Bondar
Business Award, Eva Martinez
Education Award, Lynne McMullen
Government/Military Award, Sandra McDonald
Flight Operations/Maintenance Award, Nachelle White
Rising Star Award, Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

 



Polar Winds: A Century of Flying the North

By Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

polar windsDanielle Metcalfe-Chenail's new book, Polar Winds: A Century of Flying the North, is set to launch this month with Dundurn.

"They were all gamblers and fortune seekers. They did things on their own — were independent people who wanted to be free to roam. They were good people, but, of course, some were loners or escapists. They all depended strictly on their wits."

Joe McBryan, pilot and owner of Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways, was talking about gold prospectors in the 1940s when he said this, but he could just as easily have been describing the aviators who have flown northern skies for over a hundred years. They were adventurers and pioneers, but also just men and women doing what was required to make a living north of the sixtieth parallel.

Polar Winds uses the stories of these pilots and others to explore the greater history of air travel in the North, from the Klondike Gold Rush through to the end of the twentieth century. It encompasses everything from exploration flights to the North Pole in airships to passenger travel in jet liners; flying school buses for residential schools to indigenous pilots performing mercy flights; and from the harrowing crashes to the routine supply runs that make up daily life in the North. Above all, it is a unique history told through the experiences of northerners on the ground and in the sky.

special offerThe CAHS will be offering a special price for Polar Winds and will be including a PDF of Danielle's first book, For the Love of Flight, with each purchase. A special notice will be coming to your mail box soon!

 

Launch party dates taken from daniellemc.com:

September 20: Book launch and writing workshop (Jasper, AB)
September 28: Launch event at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (Yellowknife)
September 30: Launch party at Yukon Transportation Museum (Whitehorse)
October 5: Book Birthday Bash at Audrey's Books (Edmonton)
October 17: LitFest kick off event and book launch at Alberta Aviation Museum (Edmonton)
October 19: hosting novelist Padma Viswanathan at STARFest (St. Albert, AB)
October 25: LitFest event and Words in the Park book fair (Sherwood Park, AB)
October 26: LitFest A Brunch of Writers event (Edmonton)
October 30: Glass Door Coffee House reading (Edmonton)
November 1: Book event – TBA (Ottawa)
November 4: Book event – TBA (Montreal)
November 7: Red Deer College with Elinor Florence and Anne Gafiuk (Red Deer, AB)
November 8: Red Deer Chapters with Elinor Florence and Anne Gafiuk (Red Deer, AB)
November 20: Canadian Aviation Historical Society – Calgary Chapter (Calgary, AB)
November 21: Book event – TBA (Calgary)

 


 

letter to grandsonA Letter to a New Grandson, The Story of a WW2 Lancaster Pilot by Wally Kasper (Lt Col retired) Ottawa Ontario, August 11, 2014

The Story of a WW2 Lancaster Pilot, chronicles Wally's life as he goes through pilot training and then on to flying a Lancaster during WW 2. A Letter to a New Grandson is written with wit and understanding. It touches the heart, while bringing a clearer understanding of the day to day experiences of the airmen of WW2. The story is factual without getting technical. The reader is led through each step of Wally's journey in a clear and concise manner that is easy to read and appealing to both the younger reader and to the more seasoned reader of military accounts. Wally is witty, ingenuous, imaginative, and at 93 has plans for more books. A Lancaster pilot in WW2, Wally is as special now as he was then. In the past year, he has published three novels, and has plans for more. A Letter to a New Grandson, The Story of a WW2 Lancaster Pilot is published on Amazon and as a Kindle book. Click here to purchase the book. Wally Kasper is a knowledgeable and entertaining speaker and writer.

For more information visit: snowowlfpress.com or write to snowowlfpress@gmail.com.

 


 

Rosella Bjornson - Canada's first female commercial pilot

rosella bjornsonRosella Bjornson, Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, and hard-working member of the Hall of Fame's operations committee, was featured on the front page of the Edmonton Journal in the July 12 edition. On July 13, at a ceremony in Lethbridge, Rosella will mark the 50th anniversary of her first flying lesson and be recognized on a postage stamp developed by the Ninety-Nines. Below is an excerpt from the article in the Edmonton Journal. Congratulations, Rosella!

By Marty Klinkenberg, Edmonton Journal

Photo from Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - The walls are lined with paintings of airplanes, and shelves and bookcases are crammed with mementoes marking her many achievements. A windsock ripples in the breeze at the end of the driveway of Rosella Bjornson's sprawling acreage southeast of Edmonton; a half-century-old Cessna 170 is parked in the garage.

On clear days, when she feels the yearning, she occasionally rolls out the aircraft, climbs into the cockpit and takes off. To where, it doesn't matter.

"My Dad had a plane on his farm and I grew up thinking that riding in it was as routine as riding in a car," says Bjornson, who turns 67 on Sunday, looking out over her property across from the landing strip at the Twin Island Air Park in Strathcona County. "As a kid, any time anybody ever asked me, I would tell them I wanted to be an airline pilot."

There were women that flew before Bjornson — on charters, as instructors, and as auxiliary pilots in the Second World War — but in April 1973 she became the first female commercial pilot in Canada. That three-stop flight aboard a Transair Fokker F-28 from Thompson, Man., to Winnipeg was the beginning of a groundbreaking career that is being celebrated tomorrow with the release of a commemorative postage stamp by the East Canada Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots.

View the video clip and read the full article here.

Read the article in the Lethbridge Herald here.

 


 

Lancaster bombers: flying together for the first time in half a century

The Canadian (left) and British (foreground) Lancaster bombers on the tarmac in the United Kingdom. PHOTO: MoD Crown Copyright 2014

 

News Article / August 19, 2014

By Royal Air Force public affairs, with files from Veterans Affairs Canada

At Royal Air Force (RAF) Coningsby in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, two Lancaster bombers took to the skies on August 14, 2014, for the first formation flight of this aircraft type since the 1960s.

The Lancaster "Thumper", which is part of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, was joined by the Canadian Lancaster "Vera" from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario.

They are the only two airworthy Lancasters in the world.

On August 8, the day Vera arrived at RAF Coningsby, 22 British veterans of Bomber Command gathered at the air station to welcome the Canadian Lancaster and to receive their Bomber Command clasps (bars) from Group Captain Johnny Stringer, RAF Coningsby's station commander. The veterans had the opportunity to get reacquainted at close quarters with an aircraft with which they were once so familiar.

Air Vice Marshal Stuart Atha, air officer commanding 1 Group, RAF, welcomed Vera and paid tribute to her pilot, Don Schofield, and her crew who had "flown her across rather a lot of water, dodging quite a few thunderstorms".


Read the full article here.

 


HMJ Mosquito at the Abbotsford Air Show

New CAHS member Brent Robertson was at the Abbotsford Air Show on August 10th and shared a few photos with us. Brent got a close-up view of the Mosquito and had this to say about it: "Need I say she was a sight and sound to behold!" Thank you for the photos Brent!

 

HMJfront 280 HMJrear 280

 

Calgary CAHS chapter president, Richard de Boer, who is also president of the Calgary Mosquito Society, has a Mosquito being restored at the Bomber Command Museum in Nanton. Richard has an article about this Mosquito in the September issue of Aeroplane magazine. Check your news stand! To read the full, unedited version of the article, click here.


 

Request for Information

Dear CAHS Members

I am the Chief editor of the French aviation magazine Le Fana de l'Aviation. We are presently writing a feature article on the Dassault Mirage G. We are searching for some information on the flight tests by the Canadians in 1972. If you could be of help, please contact Alexis Rocher at: aviation.rocher@gmail.com.


 

Researcher - to - Researcher

From James Sarkesain:

If anyone knows where to get a reprint of "Manual Fleet Aircraft Inc.: The Fleet Model S-10-11 (Consolidated Aircraft Corp., 1933)", please contact James Sarkesain at ARSDIEHL@aol.com.

 


 

From Dr. Rachel Lea Heide:

I am conducting research on NATO flight training and service at various RCAF stations in Canada and Germany during the 1950s. Specifically, I am looking at:
Course #37 (Officer Intake) London, Ontario
May 1952-June, 1952


Course #42 (4 FTS) Calgary, Alta
June 1952-February 1953

Course 41/42 (2AFS) Portage La Prairie
February 1953-April 1953

Course 41/42 (1PWS) MacDonald
April 1953-June 1953

Course 30 (OTU) Chatham – August 1953-October 1953
Course 5305 (2AFS) Portage la Prairie
February 1954-June 1954

Course 36 (OTU) Chatham – July 1954-October 1954
434 Fighter Squadron Zweibrucken, Germany
December 1954 - April 1956

 

For these stations during these periods, I would like to obtain copies of station magazines, photographs, training syllabi, accident records, and unit diaries (beyond what is available on microfilm at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa). I am also looking for a copy of the RCAF Zweibrucken station map.

If you are able to help, please contact Dr Rachel Lea Heide at rlheide@yahoo.ca


 

From Jamie Allison:

I am currently engaged in a research project pertaining to the history of aircraft technicians within the Canadian Air Force. Since the inception of Canadian military air-power, there appears to be minimal material available concerning the evolution and the accomplishments of these aircraft technicians. Stemming from this challenge, I am seeking input that may aid me in my quest.

Specifically, I am trying to capture when Canadian military aircraft maintenance began, compare the length and type of training, various working environments, morale and esprit des corps, evolution of aircraft trades, general policies and airworthiness standards, challenges relevant to Canadian military aircraft technicians and how these pieces compare to today's Royal Canadian Air Force. Moreover, despite the recorded rich history and heritage of Canadian military aircrew accomplishments, I have encountered very little documented Canadian military aircraft technician accounts and achievements, especially in times of conflict.

I am requesting assistance from your community in the retrieval of information in this area, commencing from the beginning of Canadian military air-power activity until present day. Furthermore, any stories related to noteworthy Canadian military aircraft technician accomplishments would certainly be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Jamie Allison
Ottawa, Ontario
Jamieallison10@msn.com


Corporate Support/Corporate Membership

Thank you for your supportHave you thought about becoming a Corporate Member of the CAHS? Your membership helps the CAHS cover costs of operations, send out the Journal, and maintain and expand the website. In return for your membership, we provide a donation tax receipt and recognize your membership in the Journal, in the e-newsletter, and on our website.

Will you join the CAHS team today and help the CAHS in its work to preserve and disseminate Canadian aviation history? Click here for more information about sponsorship.

 

 
 
 
 

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Special thanks to the following supporters:

Corporate Members:

hope aero logo good to go North Wright Airways vac-dev-logo

Corporate Partners:

Aviaeology

CANAV Books

Vintage Wings of Canada

Northern Lights Awards/Elsie MacGill Foundation

Museum Members:

Bomber Command Museum of Canada

Secrets of Radar Museum

Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame

 


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Federal charter B/N Registration Number: 118829589 RR 0001

 
     
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