Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre 
Addendum to October coverage

By Gord McNulty
CAHS Vice President
Additional notes and images of the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre (www,bushplane.com) at Sault Ste. Marie are in order to supplement coverage that we didn’t have space for in the October e-newsletter.
The Centre’s Fairchild KR-34, as illustrated, has a remarkable history and is the only one of its type in airworthy condition.  Built at Montreal in 1930 and originally registered as CF-AOH, the biplane was flown by Fairchild president Hubert Passmore before its purchase by the Ontario Provincial Air Service the following year.

It served as a patrol aircraft to supervise and check the progress of isolated work projects within the huge area of Algonquin Park.  Routine flights checked the movement of wildlife, activities of poachers and the progress of campers. 

“The use of the aircraft has shrunken the park area …. To about the size of a good big farm,” observed Frank MacDougall, park superintendent who flew the KR-34. 

From 1938 to 1944, it was stationed at Temagami and flown in early experiments to drop water from an aircraft on a forest fire.  In 1945, the KR-34 was acquired by Robert Dale of Sault Ste. Marie.  It became the first aircraft for his fledgling bush airline, Air-Dale Ltd.  

In 1948, it was written off after an engine failure on takeoff.  However, in 1963, it was given a new lease on life. A group of Air Service engineers retrieved the wreckage and transported it to the OPAS hangar for restoration. Parts and plans were difficult to find, but the restoration was ultimately completed in 1984, in time for the 60th anniversary of the OPAS. 

As the original registration was no longer available, it was registered as C-FADH.  Towed to the Sault Ste. Marie airport, it made its first flight in 36 years.  This historic aircraft is powered by a 165 hp Wright Whirlwind.

Visitors to the CBHC will notice a nifty Aeronca 7A Champ, CF-IHU, on display hanging from the ceiling.  This restored vintage aircraft was donated to the centre by Dan Campbell.  He served as an accomplished and decorated Search and Rescue pilot during a 30-year career in the RCAF.   

Dan is a resident of St. Joseph Island, ON, located 45 kilometres east of Sault Ste. Marie in the channel between Lakes Huron and Superior.  He purchased CF-IHU from a pilot who landed it on the ice at the home of his friend, Murray Smith, who flew a ski-equipped Piper Cub, CF-AKN. 

A couple of months later, when the ice was melting, Dan flew CF-IHU to a level location on property owned by Murray’s son Pat.  When the snow disappeared, they reinstalled the floats on the Cub and built an airfield and a hangar where the Champ was located.  

They enjoyed flying both wheels and floats in what Dan described as “an idyllic arrangement” until Murray’s death in 1991 and the sale of the Cub to an American purchaser. 

Dan continued to enjoy his rugged airfield. He used hip waders to break beaver dams each spring when they attempted to flood it.  “I loved the solitude.”

In the fall of 2009, at age 80, Dan decided to donate CF-IHU. “Since IHU and I had both been flying since 1946, and we’d survived a couple of forced landings together, and my Armstrong Starter was not as strong as it once was for not only starting, but also for snow shovelling, it would be wise to let the old field revert to nature.

“We were lucky that the Bushplane Museum accepted IHU, and that she is looking so nice and safe hanging from the rafters,” Dan said in an email. “She will never grow old.” 
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