Warbird Information Exchange

Hey everyone, I just thought I'd post some pictures of my little air museum so you can see a few planes that we've got. I've been with the museum since I was 10, which was 15 years ago and I'm still loving it. I'm dreaming of trying to acquire a Canso for our museum, but we would not be able to fly it because of our limited runways at Langley Airport, BC.

I apologize if I've already posted these pictures. I can't remember if I have or not, but I'm so proud of our little museum that I just love sharing photos.


Our newly acquired Canadair Tutor. It is a memorial to Capt. Miles Selby who was tragically lost during a training flight with the Snowbirds. (STATIC DISPLAY)


deHavilland DH-82C Tigermoth Note Harvard Mk. II and Waco INF in bachground (FLYING CONDITION)


Fleet 16B Finch (FLYING CONDITION)


Our Harvard Mk.II at the Chilliwack Airshow last year. Note Bud Granley's Harvard in the background
(FLYING CONDITION)


SE5a 7/8 replica
FLYING CONDITION


This is Lockheed Lodestar CF-TCY located at Delta Air Park, BC
(STATIC DISPLAY)


deHavilland DH100 Vampire Mk. 3 (We used to have to cage it up, but it's been good lately so we've let it play in the main courtyard now)
(STATIC DISPLAY)


Our Beech 18 (C-45) RCAF 2307
(STATIC DISPLAY)


Here's Handley Page Hampden P5436. Note our CF-100 Canuck Mk. 3, Beech 18, and CF-104 Starfighter in the background.
(STATIC DISPLAY)


Here's a look inside our little tiny hangar. Note the WACO AQC-6. Out of the view of the, picture to the left, would be our static display Westland Lysander Mk 3.


P.S I'm just wondering if anyone knows where we can get cowling pieces for our Lodestar

The pics of the SE5a really made my day.

Does the museum have a website?

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"So there I was, knee deep in a river I couldn't pronounce..."

Daveymac- not totally sure on the Canso's performance figures, but it should go in and out of Langley with a little skill. I know we had our HU-16 in and out of there a couple of times.

-WC

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real airplanes have round engines

Hey guys,

The Canadian Museum of Flight's website is www.canadianflight.org.

I am glad to hear that the SE5a picture made your day.

As for the Canso fitting into Langley... when I first considered trying to find a Canso I wondered if it would fit into Langley's airstrips.. .being 2300' (grass) at best... but soon to be extended to 2500' paved, apparently. I looked online, and asked a few people. I asked Jack Livesey of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and told me the T/O distance was about 2300' and I imagine the landing distance would be roughly the same or longer. That's pretty tight. I'd imagine an HU-16 would have a longer T/O and LDG than a Canso, so I was very surprised when you said you got one in.

Cheers,

David

it was tight. if there are any Cascade Warbirders on here, they can attest to some of the places we got it into (a la Concrete, WA)

-WC

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real airplanes have round engines

Can you post pics of the tutor cockpit and the pilots panel of the tiger moth?

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Cheers,
Peter

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Great looking place you have there.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Very nice, my wife and I visited the museum back in 2001 before the Hampden was painted. A great museum that needs a bigger hangar to get the Hampden, Vampire and other aircraft under cover. We had a great time and if I remember I picked up a Abbotsford airshow shirt.

Eric

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The air resounds from the Rolls-Royce roar!
To an enemy the warning is dire: here only eagles soar,
and the last thing he'll see is a mirrored Spitfire!

Hey everyone,

Peter: I don't actually have any pictures of the Tutor's cockpit, but I can tell you that it is complete other than having the radio and compass removed. As for the Tigermoth cockpit, I've attached a picture. It isn't the greatest shot, but it'll do, right?



Mustang Driver, thank you for the kind comments.

Eric, I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to our museum. There are plans in the works to build a new facility on the same property that the CMF is on now. It will finally cover the entire collection, but it wouldn't give us any more space than we already have. They want to have that completed by around 2010 and it'll take about $2.5 million. Long long long term planning includes building a new hangar on another part of the airport, that will allow for extreme expansion.

The problem I have with the plan to build on our existing site is that it'll mean that we'll be closed for however long it takes to build the hangar (which reduces our revenues) and it means that in the end, we still won't have room to restore our Fleet Cornell, our DH-60 Gypsymoth, our Noordyn Norseman, our Bolingbroke, our two Ansons, our Hurricane (centre section only)

I want to move the CMF into a hangar at Boundary Bay Airport, which is an old WWII hangar and it is already significantly larger than the CMF's entire site at Langley. I just needs an expensive sprinkler system in it, and I'm working on finding out what the lease rate would be.

Here's a picture of the hangar I speak of, that Brian posted.

[/quote]

Note the Sea Fury... It is no longer at Boundary Bay Airport.


This building is rather large, and is at an airport that has nearly unlimited runways. It's very historic too, having been home to B-25's, B-24's, Hurricanes, P-40's, and at the beginning of the war, over 120 Tigermoths.

Hey David,

Its about time you posted photos of the CMF. Is the INF flying again? Last time I seen it, it was in a zillion pieces. Also any updates on the Fleet Canuck or any new acquisitions or restorations in the works? The Finch looks like its being worked on, have the repairs from the accident been done? So many questions !

I haven't been to the museum for a while, maybe I'll pop in sometime this week.

The CMF is a nice museum, its worth the visit if you're in the area.

Thanks for posting the pics.

Brian...

Hey Brian,

Yes I know it's been a while. I was sort of holding back, so that I wouldn't run out of things to post on WIX... haha... and also, I couldn't remember if I already posted pics of the CMF airplanes or not.

As for the INF, it is still in many pieces. We now have paint for it, and it will be painted sometime in the near future and reassembled.

The picture below is of the Fleet Canuck (left) and the Waco INF (Right). The pink pieces behind the Canuck are the wing parts of the INF awaiting painting.


The Fleet Finch has had all of it's repairs done, and painted and is reassembled. It will probably have its test flight done in the spring, but that's an assumption. I haven't heard anything from the guys in the hangar.

The Fleet Canuck is sadly at the bottom of the pile. It hasn't really been touched for well ove a year. The fuselage is close to covering, but the wings are in need of a lot of work. I can't wait for it to be done because maybe then I could finally fly PIC in one of the CMF's planes.

There are absolutely no plans for acquisitions at all at the CMF. The only plans for acquisition are the dreams in my head: Canso, Sabre, TBM Avenger, and Chipmunk.

I do have to say that the Finch accident and the Waco repairs have been a blessing in disguise. Before the Finch and Waco were taken apart there was absolutely no space in the hangar to bring anything new in and the CMF was faced with a space stale-mate. Having the wings off of both planes gave everyone the false idea that we still had space, and that expansion planning was not important. I had actually clued in to the concept that the CMF was out of space over 4 years ago (2 years before the two biplanes were taken apart), and brought it up several times while I was on the board of directors, but the idea was ignored each time I tried to suggest it as a priority. Now they seem to be panicking about what to do when the Finch and INF are together again, and when the Fleet Canuck is in one piece too.

My solution is the hangar at CZBB, but it seems that everyone else is dead set against such a smart move. Like I mentioned before, the cost of the lease could be too much. If that's the case, then I'll support staying at Langley, but for now, I'd prefer the museum to move to CZBB.

Hi David,
A few questions about the Lodestar (which I spent some time painting when it was at the Victory Air Museum): Is the interior still intact? Was the horizontal stabilizer replaced? I recall Earl Reinert cut off the stabilizer to move the plane; the verticals were supported by fuel drums. Do you have any photos taken in front of the plane?

The post I made about this plane on an earlier thread was pretty unkind and I do apologize for the tone I used; I just always wanted to see this plane restored to fly (like Lockheed 10 CF-TCC) someday or at least under cover...

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Nice shots Dave, looks like a nice museum. Is that a T-28 I spy behind the Seafury in that last shot?

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Whiat is on the panel itself? It looks like dark colored foam or something. I will keep a lookout for a radio for you as I got one off the internet for our tutor. The radio you are referring to s the one between the two oxygen panels right?

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Cheers,
Peter

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Sorry guys,

I've been away from WIX for over 24 hours and it feels weird. But I'm back and happy

Hey Chris, as for Lodestar CF-TCY, I don't know too much about its history other than it was used by TCA and then as the private transport of a few Canadian Prime-Ministers. Seeing as how it is not located at the CMF's main site, it isn't really the centre of anyones attention accept for a small group of volunteers headed by John DeVisser and John McCreedy who have helped with its upkeep. I have briefly been inside the fuselage and know that it has some spare parts and other random bits in it... like ladders and other things (This is from memory). The CMF received a collection of parts from another Lodestar that crashed in near Vancouver in the 1940/50's that wasn't found until a few years ago. We recieved some engines, cowlings, tail-feathers, and a few other pieces. I don't have any more decent pictures of TCY, but if you take a look at the link below, Ruud Leeuw took some great pictures of her while he was over here (almost half way down the page):

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/alcan06-p2.htm

I'm unfamiliar with the previous post that you made about TCY but am interested to hear your opinion. As I haven't read it, I haven't taken any offense yet and chances are I won't take offence anyways. I'm not terribly happy with the lack of care TCY has received in recent years from the CMF, but I suppose it is better than being sold like some other pieces of our collection have.

Believe me, I would absolutely love to see this airplane fly again. I do know that its spar was sawed through in order to take the wings off of it before the CMF acquired it, so the restoration would probably be quite challenging. I could pull out the CMF's guide to the collection book (1994) and fill you in with more history/info, but it's stored away somewhere that I can't find.

I'd also like to see the silver paint of TCY's removed and have it all polished aluminum again. I don't know what the condition of the skin is, but none-the-less, I would think that it would look decent.

I'd love to chat more about TCY because it's one of the planes in our collection I need to learn more about.

Cheers,

David