Convention 2022 at a Glance

Story and photos by John Chalmers,
CAHS Membership Secretary
posted October 2022
For the first time since 2019, stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) was able to hold its annual convention. Held in Winnipeg, it started with a board meeting on Wednesday, 28 September, followed by a meet and greet session. Two days of program sessions were then held on the 29th and 30th. On the evening of 29 September, conventioneers had the new Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada to themselves for a tour. The convention concluded on Saturday, 1 October, with visits to the RCAF Heritage Park and 17 Wing Heritage restoration building in Winnipeg, and a bus trip to visit the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon.
Gary Williams
Prior to the start of program presentations held for two days at the Holiday Inn Express hotel, minutes from the Winnipeg airport, national president Gary Williams, who serves also as the Regina chapter president, welcomed all attendees and voiced the pleasure of the CAHS being able to hold a convention in person. For the first time, Zoom video was integrated to make sessions available to members who were not in attendance, but had registered to sign in for online delivery of presentations.
Jim Bell
National secretary Jim Bell, who serves also as president of the Manitoba chapter, deserves credit and thanks from all CAHS members for his work in planning and organizing the convention and serving as chairman for the sessions. As well, Jim provided technical support for any speakers needing help when cross-breeding their computers with the sound system and projector to show PowerPoint productions.
Sixteen presentations on a variety of topics were included in the schedule, including speakers for lunch, the Friday banquet, and a session at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada on Thursday evening.
Thursday, 29 September
Convention sessions ran from 0900 to 1600 on Thursday and Friday. Coffee breaks morning and afternoon helped provide social opportunities that are so important for attendees to visit and become acquainted with fellow CAHS members. All speakers came prepared with a Power Point show for presentation, which made the program a highly visual experience as a result of the research done by speakers on a wide range of aviation topics.
Bill Zuk
Bill Zuk was the first presenter of a program session, about Air Cadets, a lost film of the National Film Board, produced in 1944. He has worked at resurrecting and reconstructing the film from clips he has been able to locate and would be happy to hear from anyone who knows where there is a complete copy of that wartime documentary.
Patrick Martin
Next up was Patrick Martin with his presentation about post-war finish and markings of Canadian military aircraft, explaining ownership and identity indicated by the many forms and styles used over the past eight decades. Patrick’s exhaustive work has resulted in the publication of a number of books dealing with aircraft livery.
Jerry Vernon
Vancouver CAHS chapter president Jerry Vernon spoke about the operations in Canada and the Caribbean of the ill-fated British designed Supermarine Stranraer flying boat developed in the 1930s. The numbers of the huge twin-engine biplanes were diminished to the point of near extinction by fires, crashes and sinking.
Fred Petrie
Fred Petrie was the first day’s lunch speaker, with his session on the development of the local airport from Stevenson Field to Winnipeg James A Richardson International Airport as it evolved over the years.
Jim Jorgenson
Ken Kalynuk
Jim Jorgenson is seen giving his presentation on BC Airways, operating in 1927-28 on the west coast. Leading up to that, Jim illustrated some of the earliest developments in Canadian aviation, as British Columbia saw its first flight in 1910. Ken Kalynuk presented the little-known story of Saunders Aircraft, that built aircraft in Gimli, Manitoba, operating in the 1970s. The operation was dependent largely on government funding, employing up to 400 people and producing thirteen Saunders airliners until the company folded in 1979.
Terry Slobodian
Terry Slobodian, president and CEO of the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, has good reason to smile! Canada’s newest aviation museum, located right at the Winnipeg airport, will see 4.5 million passengers pass by it annually as they leave the terminal. Since the opening of the museum in May 2022, by end of September over 40,000 visitors had come to see it. Terry spoke about how the museum came to be when it lost its former location, then built the new museum that opened this year.
On Thursday evening, convention attendees had the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada to themselves to see all aircraft there. Latest addition to the plaza outside the museum is a De Havilland DHC-5 Buffalo. After serving first with the RCAF as a CC-115, since 1975 the Buffaloes were used for search and rescue duties. The last six, including this one, were retired from service in 2022.
de Havilland CC-115 Buffalo 115462
Roland Sawatzky
Scott Young
A presentation at the museum on Thursday evening was given by Roland Sawatzky, the Curator of History at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, and Scott Young, the museum’s Planetarium Astronomer. The topic was “Canada’s First Foray into Space – the Churchill Rocket Range,” and the use of Black Brant rockets, built in Winnipeg since 1961 and still in use for upper atmosphere testing and study.
A few of the CAHS conventioneers, captivated by learning about the Churchill Rocket Range, as well as seeing the aviation museum.
An overall view of some the aircraft at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.
The museum at night as seen by the CAHS convention at the conclusion of the tour.
Friday, 30 September
Robert Galway
John Chalmers (Jerry Vernon photo)
Robert Galway is seen during his presentation about the first winter flight to the sub-Arctic in 1922. His extensive research has led to discovery of details of the flight and the personnel involved in a milestone of Canadian aviation history. John Chalmers illustrated how Denny May, son of the famous pilot Wop May, has recorded and preserved the history and legacy of his father. Following that was a showing of the 2021 award-winning film, Blind Ambition: The Wop May Story, which can now be seen on the internet at https://catapultpictures.ca/blindambition.
Will Chabun
David Poissant
Will Chabun during his presentation about the history of the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance service. Lunch speaker David Poissant, who has a special interest in wartime service of B-25 Mitchell bombers, gave his account of RCAF personnel from enlistment to service in operational flying of Mitchells during the war.
Allan Snowie
Gordon Crossley
Allan Snowie presented a session about Canadian naval aviators in the Second World War. His account included history of Canadian pilots from service with the Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War to service and losses in the Second World War. Gordon Crossley described the development of the Griffin Library and Archives developed from the vast personal collection of RCAF material of John Griffin, which is now housed at 17 Wing Winnipeg.
Tim Cole
Banquet
Final speaker in the regular schedule of sessions was Tim Cole with his presentation about the STOL Demonstration Project of Airtransit from 1973-1976. De Havilland Canada Twin Otters and Dash 7 aircraft were used in scheduled flights between Montreal and Ottawa to demonstrate the efficiency of STOL aircraft. Sessions at the hotel concluded on Friday evening with a banquet and a presentation by John Bertram about aviation artist Don Connolly, delivered by Zoom video.
At the banquet the two winners of articles in the CAHS Journal, Volume 57 (2019), were announced. Clark Seaborn is the recipient of the C. Don Long Best Article Award for 2019, for “Wooden Wings Over the Wilderness”.  Recipient of the Mac MacIntyre Research Award for 2019 is Bill Upton, for “Canadair CL-84 – A Canadian Design Odyssey”.
Saturday, 1 October
To conclude the convention activities, two field trips were highlights of the day. First stop was the RCAF Heritage Park in Winnipeg. That was followed by a bus trip to Brandon to visit the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, housed in a BCATP wartime hangar. Besides seeing the aircraft and displays of the museum, conventioneers had opportunity to visit the library and archives building that houses a huge collection of air force uniforms, or even take a flight in one of the museum’s wartime aircraft.
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum
Harvard at the RCAF Heritage Park (Jerry Vernon photo)
Brandon Museum (Jerry Vernon photo)
Above we see the Harvard at the RCAF Heritage Park and an overview of the aircraft collection at the museum in Brandon. In the foreground is a de Havilland Tiger Moth, a basic pilot training aircraft of Elementary Flying Training Schools of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program. Yellow aircraft in the collection are an indication of the museum’s emphasis on the BCATP.
They Grew Not Old memorial at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum.
Located at the site of the Brandon Museum is the magnificent RCAF memorial, called "They Grew Not Old", created by the museum and bearing the names of all who were lost in the war while wearing an RCAF uniform, and are also named in the 900-page book, They Shall Grow Not Old, published by the museum. The monument was dedicated on September 10, 2014, a 90-meter-long memorial comprised of 64 black granite panels that bear the names of 19,000 young people who never returned home from the Second World War. At far right is a larger-than-life bronze statue of an airman in flying gear, striding out to his aircraft.

As always, the CAHS convention provided a fine opportunity to expand one’s knowledge of Canadian aviation history with the presentations given by speakers on a variety of topics. Likewise, the convention provided occasion to renew friendships by meeting in person, and to make new contacts, two of the great benefits of attendance.

Future editions of the CAHS newsletter and e-mail to members will keep you informed of plans for a 2023 convention, at a city and date yet to be decided. Meanwhile, you can learn more about speakers and sessions in the complete programme of the 2022 convention in this pdf document when you click here.
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