I was introduced to aviation only within the last five years. Following my university degree, I applied for an internship through Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame (CAHF) as a Collection Manager’s Assistant, where I worked with the Hall of Fame and the Reynolds-Alberta Museum. What a wonderful fit this internship was, culminating in my full-time job today as Collections Manager with CAHF, one that I am extremely passionate about.
Now with my work at the Canadian Aviation Historical Society, I am brought into yet again, another outstanding aviation organization. What an honour to work with people who have such a strong passion for aviation and preserving its history. I will be coming up on one year with the CAHS in December 2021, and I would like to extend my thanks to all who have made me feel welcome into this community. Already in this position, my aviation knowledge is growing, having learned about the forgotten tragedy of the loss of 21 RCAF airmen through the report Will Chabun shared in our September issue, to knowledge shared through various Chapter presentations, to Gord McNulty’s articles on airshows and restorations. These and many more historical aviation moments are helping me to grow my knowledge of the culture and everything it encompasses.
Whether you are a museum, a local reader, a chapter member, or simply anyone passionate about this industry and its legacy, I encourage you to send in stories of aviation events or activities in your area. Please feel free to reach out to me if you would like to see something in the e-newsletter.
It is your stories that build up the history of aviation, your stories that will drive the passion for the younger generation of aviation enthusiasts to join this incredible industry and continue to take it to new levels, and your stories that will keep the memory of aviation enthusiasts, authors, historians, and playmakers alive for generations to come.
Click the button above or, if you have a smartphone, simply point its camera app at the on-screen QR code to donate via mobile.
From the Desk of the Journal Editor
In mail boxes soon!
Journal 57-3 is in proofreading, the final stage before print production and posting of the digitial edition to the Members Only area of the website. Follow this link for a preview of its feature articles and ongoing updates on other work-in-progress Journal editions.
Digital editions are posted to the website upon completion where both Traditional and Anywhere-Online Members can access these high-resolution, full colour PDFs immediately, before the print edition is printed and mailed to Traditional Members
Terry Higgins, Creative Director, Website Administrator,
CAHS Journal Managing Editor and Graphics Director,
Canadian Aviation Historical Society
From the Desk of the Treasurer
Can you believe that Christmas is less than two months away? Well it is true! The good news is that the CAHS has some great gift ideas for the aviation enthusiasts on your shopping list. In addition to our annual eye-catching full colour aviation art calendar, we are featuring a new book from the Alberta Aviation Museum, and we are extending the availability of other books for a little longer to maximize your shopping options. We hope that you find these very interesting - for your own wish list and for anyone you might decide to give a book to as a gift.
Cordially, Dr. Rachel Lea Heide,
National Treasurer,
Canadian Aviation Historical Society
Our beautiful full-colour annual celebration of aviation artwork is now available for sale. A broad range of styles and subjects represented. Featuring 13 individual pieces of aviation art. They sell out every year, so come get 'em while you can!.
This special offer – $15.00 (GST included) plus shipping worldwide.
Please order by 6 December to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.
A new book published by the Alberta Aviation Museum celebrates 30 years since the museum was established in a 1941 wartime hangar built in Edmonton for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
The stories of the people and planes are presented in a highly readable format that is full of both historic photos and new colour images.
Get yours for just $25.00 (GST included) plus $6.00 shipping per copy in Canada.
(The publisher's retail price is $29.95 plus shipping and GST)
Please order by 6 December to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.
Recalling some of the most memorable escapades ever conducted in the Canadian Arctic with bush planes, Flying to Extremes takes place in the late 1960s and early 1970s from a base at Yellowknife, in the heart of the Northwest Territories. Illustrated throughout with colour photographs. Click the "Buy Now" link below to learn more.
Get yours for just $21.00 (GST included) plus $6.00 shipping per copy in Canada.
(The publisher's retail price is $24.95 plus shipping and GST)
The CAHS stock is almost sold out - only 5 copies left, so don't delay to secure your copy.
CAHS member and author Carl Vincent's book Canadian Aircraft of WWII (Aviaeology Publishing's bestseller), illustrated throughout with CAHS Journal editor Terry Higgins' profile artwork.
Get yours for just $25.00 (GST included) plus $5.00 shipping per copy in Canada.
(The publisher's retail price is $29.99 plus shipping and GST)
With less than 20 copies left, we're offering this great book, probably for the last time, as part of our Christmas drive. Please order by 6 December to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.
The latest edition in this great series, Flight, Vol. 3 includes 33 short stories plus an introduction – 6 stories and introduction written by Deana J. Driver and 27 stories written by 14 other Canadian writers: Bill Cameron, Will Chabun, Richard Dowson, Peter Enzlberger, Mary Harelkin Bishop, Dave McElroy, Vincent Murphy-Dodds, Curtis Penner, Don Riekman, Ralph Tweten, Walter D. Williams, Ken Wilson, Mason Adam Wray, and Bill Wunsch
Get yours for just $17.00 (GST included) plus $6.00 shipping per copy in Canada.
(The publisher's retail price is $19.95 plus shipping and GST)
Please order by 6 December to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.
The Northern Lights Aero Foundation held their Elsie MacGill Award Gala in October after having to postpone the event for two years. A wonderful slate of honourees, the awards span seven categories that include business, education, engineering, flight operations, government, trailblazer and rising star..
The Texada AeroSpace Camp offers four-day camps held during summer in a purpose-built hangar that doubles as an aviation museum for the rest of the year. Donations of aviation components, paraphernalia and sponsorships are constantly being brought in.
The 47th Annual Induction Gala for 2020, previously scheduled for Calgary, was unfortunately postponed following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. New inductees to the Hall for the period of 2021 to 2022 are…
The Alberta Aviation Museum celebrated their Open Cockpit Day in conjunction with the release of their new museum book! An exciting day of aviation activities brought in many visitors who were looking to take advantage of the opportunity to sit in a cockpit.
The Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton has added new commemorative stones to their Aviation Heritage Memorial. Their most recent additions honour Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame inducted members Molly and Jack Reilly.
Longtime CAHS Member Invites Visitors to New Website
Have you ever heard of the Corby CJ-1 Starlet? The Volmer VJ-22 Sportsman?
Do you need an Oshkosh-like fix of homebuilts?
CAHS National and Ottawa Chapter Member, Ian Macdonald, welcomes visitors to his new website, General Aviation Album, or GAA. Already at more than 2000 images and growing weekly, Ian's vast photo collection is organized by aircraft manufacturer for quick one-click (or tap!… it is also a mobile / tablet friendly site) or use the custom search engine to search for individual aircraft by model, registration, and many other keywords.
Ian is one of my essential "go to" guys when I need to consult on civil aviation (and many other…) subjects during the CAHS Journal editorial process. The scope of his new site crosses into other aspects of civil aviation as well. In working on this new site with Ian, I learned about many individual aircraft types and manufacturers of which I had no prior knowledge. The scope of general aviation in Canada and more generally North America as a whole is truly mind boggling! You may want to start at the blog to get the gist of things, and then just dive in…
by Terry Higgins
2021-2022 Captian Judy Cameron
Scholarship Applications Open
03 November 2021
TORONTO
The Northern Lights Aero Foundation is excited to announce the opening of online applications for the third annual Captain Judy Cameron Air Canada Scholarship, established in honour of the airline's first female pilot. This is the third year that Air Canada has provided this scholarship, which targets women who are Canadian citizens and who are enrolled in a fixed wing aviation flight program at a college, university, or flight school, or an aircraft repair and maintenance program anywhere in Canada.
Application details and the application form can be found on our websitehere.
Applications will be accepted fromNovember 1st to November 30th, 2021.
About the Northern Lights Aero Foundation
The Northern Lights Aero Foundation is in its thirteenth year of celebrating women in Canada’s aerospace and aviation industries. Other initiatives of the Northern Lights Aero Foundation include a speakers’ bureau, mentorship program, scholarship program and a junior board.
via Dr, Rachel Lea Heide
In Memoriam
CAHS Ottawa
Remembers Paddy Gardiner
To many in the Ottawa Chapter and CAHS community, Paddy Gardiner was well known, not only for his friendly and welcoming personality, but for his hearty laugh and sense of humour. He was also our chapter’s first president, as well as one of its founding members in 1964; contributing much to it and the CAHS through the years.
Membership Secretary John Chalmers reflects on Denny May, son of famed pilot Wilfrid “Wop” May, who died suddenly at home in Edmonton in October 2021, the day before he was to see the premiere of a new film about his father.
With a heavy heart the CAHS relays the passing of Eric Dumigan, a CAHS National member since 1995. Eric was a skilled aviation photographer known across the world for his many award-winning shots of new, vintage, and historically significant aircraft.
I'm greatly saddened to have to report the loss of a great friend and frequent collaborator, Tony Stachiw, who passed away in early October after five months of illness. As a member of the CAHS and the Canadian Branch of the International Plastic Modellers Society, Tony made many contributions to the documenting of Canadian military aviation's broard range of aircraft types and their operators. His work covered everything from postwar biplanes to the fast jets and turboprops of more recent years.
The first of his two-part article on the CF-101 Voodoo in Canadian Service appears in Journal 57-3 (currently in proofreading). We are working on a larger CAHS website In Memoriam for Tony.
Question One: During the First World War, what did the Royal Flying Corps training plan in Canada find the cost of training a pilot to be compared to similar training in Britain?
Source:
Dancing in The Sky,
pg. 177 (Hunt)
Question Two: What was the replacement in late 1922 for the Curtis HS-2L?
Source:
Jericho Beach and the West Coast Flying Boat Stations,
pg. 226 (Weicht)
Question Three:What is an example of how some aircraft during the Second World War appeared to be unlucky when associated with the assignment of the three-letter squadron and individual identification codes?
Source:
No Prouder Place,
pg. 188 (Bashow)
The Answers Will Appear in the November Newsletter
Here are the answers to September's Canadian Aviation Moments:
QUESTION 1: Why did 600 Texans join Canada’s air force during the Second World War before the United States entered the war? How did the RCAF show their appreciation?
ANSWER: “While there was some friction between Canadian and American airmen, overall relations were good. The British and Canadian airmen seem to have made a favourable impression on the Texans.” Note: This occurred during the winter of 1917 – 1918 when the IRFC (Imperial Royal Flying Corps training plan in Canada) had done their training in Texas. “Before the United States entered the Second Word War, more than 600 Texans travelled to Canada to join Canada’s air force. In the spring of 1949, a seventy-man contingent from the RCAF, headed by an air vice-marshal, flew to Austin, Texas, to present a totem pole in memory of the Texan boys who served with the RCAF during the Second World War; a war which the Western world now regard as crucial to the survival of democracy and freedom.”
FromDancing In The Sky
QUESTION 2: How did the Felixtowe F-3 Flying Boat come to Canada?
ANSWER: “Eleven Felixtowe F-3s were included in a British Imperial gift to the Dominion of Canada on June 4, 1919. The eleven aircraft were withdrawn from service in 1923. Only one F-3 was in use at the Jericho Beach Air Station: G-CYDI.”
From Jericho Beach and the West Coast Flying Stations
QUESTION 3: What was arguably the greatest of all the Canadian built Lancaster Xs in the Second World War?
ANSWER: “At any rate, sometimes you just had to have luck to survive and that applied to both the aircraft and their crews. Several Lancasters could be singled out for their combat longevity, including “Able Mable,” a 100 Squadron Lancaster flown operationally by Canadian pilots Jack Playford and Lloyd C. “Mo” Morrison. Of the Canadian-built Lancaster Xs, KB732, coded VR-X from 419 Squadron, was arguably the greatest of them. KB 732 was the thirty-third of 430 Mark Xs to roll off Malton’s Victory aircraft assembly line. Christened “X-Terminator by 419 Squadron, it became the first Canadian-built “Lanc” to shoot down an enemy fighter, when gunners Bill Mann and Paul Burton blasted down a Ju 88 over Acheres, France, on the night of 7/8 June 1944. Both of these gunners eventually received DFMs for this action. Prior to war’s end, “X-Terminator” amassed eight-four combat operations, the last being a raid on Wagerooge, 6 Group’s final combat operation of the war. It never failed to bring its crews home safe and sound.”
From No Prouder Place
Chapter News
Select a chapter to discover what they have been up to since the last newsletter.
Many of our Chapters remain very active on Zoom with presentations every bit as good as they would be if we did not have pandemic restrictions to deal with!
Special Thanks To Our Supporters
In addition to its members, contributors, and newsletter subscribers, the CAHS is thankful for the ongoing support of its Corporate Members, Museum Members, and Partner Organizations, as well as the many individuals and organizations whose financial donations are so generously given.
If you would like to become a Corporate Member or Museum Member - or if you know an organization that might like to join - we are always happy to receive new applications. Please use the hyperlinks above.
If you have changed your mailing or e-mail address, please get in touch to keep us up to date. Contact the Membership Administrator here. To enquire about membership payment records, contact the Treasurer here.
If you have any aviation history-related news or events to share, please contact our newsletter editor here.
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The Canadian Aviation Historical Society (CAHS)
P.O. Box 2700 • Station D • Ottawa • Ontario • K1P 5W7