Northern Lights Award
Come celebrate the 2014 Northern Lights Award Winners, including Canada's first woman astronaut, Dr. Roberta Bondar.
Special 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
Danielle 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.
The 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)
A 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 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!
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
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