RECOVERY UNDERWAY
Flying in the Vintage Wings of Canada Harvard, Rob Kostecka and I returned from the Classic Air Rallye on Sunday. Immediately after climbing out of Rockcliffe Airport we turned right over the Ottawa River, climbing to 1,500 feet for the short flight to Gatineau Airport. …
TAILS OF GLORY
When Captain Gunnar Neiguffson of the Royal Canadian Air Force completed his training as a Public Affairs Officer in 2008, his first posting was as an exchange officer with the Luftforstvaret…
BAND OF BROTHERS
t’s been over a year now since Vintage Wings has opened its hangar doors and began operations. And what a year it has been! Everyone from managers down to our army of volunteers have put out a maximum effort t….
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME
One of the three pillars of our mission at Vintage Wings of Canada is education. To this end, we want to teach young and old alike the incredible history of aviation and in particular, Canadian aviation. To that end Mike Potter instructed architects to include a library component in the design of our new hangar facility at the Gatineau Airport …
FROM A MOMENT OF GREAT CLARITY
If you want to be part of one of the most exciting things to happen to Ottawa/Gatineau in decades, but can only devote a couple of days each summer, have we got a job for you! …
2007 Vintage Wings of Canada Squadron Photo
If we have learned on thing in this endeavour known as Vintage Wings of Canada, it is that excellence is the result of people, not aircraft. Putting ourselves on the vintage aircraft map…
THE BIG DUMP
Looking back now, it was far easier said than done. At a manager's meeting in January, I casually suggested that perhaps we shoot this year's Vintage Wings Squadron Photograph with all of our available aircraft in the photograph too….
JUST PLANE FUN — Vintage wings Open House 2008
At Vintage Wings of Canada’s first of two Open Houses this year, it was a day of many firsts and lots of fun and sharing. The weather was cooperative and as a result we had many unique and beautiful flying visitors …
CANUCKS UNLIMITED — Canada Day 2007
One hundred and forty years ago, Queen Victoria placed her signature on the British North America Act. At that moment, the existence of a new political entity became official: four provinces, Nova Scotia, …
BEAVER TRAILS — Grassroots Aviation at Its Best
The passionate world of aviation holds within its arms many breathtaking moments for those who seek its charms. Many have felt the seismic power of a B-1B Lancer in afterburner at an air show; a few have flown upside down with…
CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS
If you want to be part of one of the most exciting things to happen to Ottawa/Gatineau in decades, but can only devote a couple of days each summer, have we got a job for you! …
ONE LAST DANCE
Sir George of Mayer, The Duke of Penhold, Earl of Argus-shire and Clown Prince of Vintage Wings, dances in the blue Canadian skies with an old flame – still as beautiful and yellow as she was when he was first smitten by her…
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
On a day reminiscent of a soggy watercolour painting, I participated at the Fifth Annual Volunteer (and Guide) Training Day given by Vintage Wings of Canada and held at their hangar at the Executive Airport in Gatineau….
THE GENTLE AVIATOR
This week’s story is not about the tragic end of a Bomber Command crew in the Second World War, nor hellfire aircraft carrier operations off Okinawa in the Pacific war. It is not about Merlin engines,…
BEAVER FEVER — The Great Arctic Adventure
On a cold and wet September afternoon, John Longair stood on the slick duckboards of a gently rocking, floating seaplane dock tucked almost unseen along the shores of the Ottawa River below the Rockcliffe Flying Club. …
ENTER THE DRAGON
Dan Fortin and the Nanchang CJ6A make a memorable sight wherever they go. And not because Dan is six foot three with a shaved head and a flashing smile or because the aircraft he flies is a bad-girl shade of Dodge Viper Red, …
CANUCK STORKMEISTER
Back, then we were all just getting to know the air show business and it was our good fortune to run into a bigger-than-life character like Murray, an airline pilot who simply couldn’t get his fill of flying by hauling a couple hundred butts to Acapulco….
LIVING THE DREAM
I was commuting to Ottawa that early Friday morning. Pete Spence had slipped his beautifully restored Harvard II into my backyard, which so happens to be a grass runway, and was giving me a lift to Gatineau, PQ, a two hour blue sky downwind dash…