ROYAL CANADIAN INSPIRATION
I don’t remember if my path was decided that day or whether it took me some time to think about it but I asked lots of questions and soon learned that young boys were eligible to join the Air Cadets when they turned 13 …
THE FARM BOY FACTOR
If there is one person you should introduce yourself to at Vintage Wings of Canada this year, make it Todd Lemieux, our new Chairman of the Board. You will be glad you did, for your life will be the richer for it. …
INSPIRATION MACHINE
It had been a long week at work. My wife and I and Wallace the border collie were jammed into the truck with a weekend’s worth of gear, headed to the cottage. Ramping up onto the 417, westbound into the sun, we found ourselves in…
THE ROAR OF FOUR
There are not many man-made objects more awe-inspiring and more emotionally and physically impacting than the sight and the sound of a Second World War Rolls-Royce Merlin engine running flat out just thirty feet from you…
POSTCARDS FROM PENHOLD
In late January, I received a Facebook message from WestJet Captain Dave Maric, with whom I flew as an Air Cadet and Cadet Instructor List Officer. I hadn’t seen Dave much in the last 13 or so years, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear from him. …
CHECKING OUT
If you take a stroll through the Vintage Wings hangar you will notice the distinctive shape of the Westland Lysander, currently undergoing refurbishment. The crew is making excellent progress…
BOY IN A HURRICANE
I remember as a boy watching Ba Ba Black Sheep on television riffling through my father's Warbird magazines and going to Oshkosh, walking in the warbird section, marvelling over the magnificent aircraft of the past…
MOVING UP BY THE WARTIME ROUTE
One of the most legendary and charismatic machines ever to fly. One of the last generation of face-to-face aerial gladiators. These are some of the superlatives that come to mind when the Supermarine Spitfire is mentioned. ..
GLORIOUS FUN — flying the WACO Taperwing
As I walk up to the WACO on a sparkling day in June, light reflects off the rich, crimson, and glossy paint. This airplane is a jewel flashing in the sun! …
HURRICANE SEASON
The Hurricane first flew in November, 1935 and was the RAF's first monoplane fighter with an enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage and the first capable of level speed in excess of 300 mph. …
BOUNCING CLOUDS — Flying with the Spirit of Erich Hartmann
“Achtung Spitfire”, I heard in a ridiculous German accent. I smiled. The voice was my own. My head swivelled within the tight confines of the Bf-109 cockpit, looking for the attacker. There it was, above and behind, …
HAWK ONE — The Choreography
After more than two years of planning and thousands of hours of hard work, Vintage Wings of Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces and Discovery Air are set to bring to centre stage, …
GROUND LOOP — How not to fly a Harvard
Ground loops result from the loss of directional control. What flight control is most critical for directional control? The rudder you say! What if I told you that the reason Harvards ground loop is because of a lack of aileron usage?…
FLYING THE SPITFIRE
The Supermarine Spitfire: has there ever been a more universally admired airplane in the history of flight? Perhaps I reveal a personal bias – after all, I was born in London in 1944 …
FLYING THE HURRICANE IV
Parked on the ramp, the Hurricane evokes a mixed sense of frailty and terrific solidity. Beneath a fabric covered exterior is a tubular truss structure like a bridge. The wings are not just thick, but seemingly fat, as if it had just eaten something….
FLYING THE FOX MOTH
The Fox Moth presents some interesting challenges to the pilot, but overall it is a very pleasant airplane to fly, quite controllable on grass surfaces if the crosswind is kept below 8 kts [less than 5 on pavement ,,
FLYING THE CORSAIR
Huge! Huge and Blue! Yep, that’s what the Corsair is when first encountered. The Allies’ biggest fighter! An airline engine with weapons and a seat strapped on. As you approach it, it’s a bit intimidating…
MAGNIFICENT FAILURE
When I started to write for this website, I promised myself and you that I would never do an Avro Arrow story. Canadians, as Canadians will tell you, know all about this magnificent symbol of what might have been…
LOVE AND KISSES
Most of us lucky enough to have flown the RCAF's de Havilland Comets had many "interesting" experiences. While having to shut down an engine shortly after departure and dump fuel…
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Rock idol Rod Stewart once crooned "Every picture tells a story, don't it?" Well that's the way we would like it, but most photographs we receive, while pleasant, tell no story at all. But, then again, many do…