Page 11 - Photos by Friends and Guests

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On a regular basis people sent me photos, to share their enthusiasm for vintage airliners or to illustrate a question. These photos have been lingering in a scrapbook or a discarded box somewhere and/or probably wouldn't find their way to Online-use or publication.
To prevent them from getting lost, with permission of the sender, I would like to share them on this page.
Photos already online (personal websites, airliners.net, jetphotos.net, etc) are not meant to be included here.

For this and other Abandoned Wrecks of the North, see my webpage on this subject.

A 1980s arrival at Bluefields (BEF / MNBL): The Bluefields air terminal is located on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS), approximately 45 minutes from Managua by plane. Its coordinates are: N 11 59' 20", W 083 46' 30".
For a selection of photos by Ron Mak see his webpage on my website.

There was video news footage on KRCG Online News ('Your 24/7 source for everything Mid-Missouri') on the subject of stormdamage, 10Jan08: "The wind storms that hit Webster County in southwest Missouri caused nearly $1.6 million in damage just too public property in hard-hit Webster County. County officials say the total is mainly for roads and low-water crossings washed out by flash floods.
More than 50 homes in the county and more than a hundred outbuildings were destroyed."
The video also showed damage to a DC-3/C-47 parked at Vichy,Missouri:

This news item was brought to my attention on Yahoo's forum on the Douglas DC-3.

It was identified as N486C c/n 6325.

Several other DC-3s were reported present at Rolla International Airport in 2006: N51938, N47FJ, N1350A and N19721 all ex/ Baron Aviation Services (it seems presently under ownership of E&L Leasing).
Baron Aviation Services is also known as Maples Aviation and started feeder services for Federal Express in 1975 (not sure if the company is still trading).

When I checked Google Earth in Jan.2008 (no doubt the imagery predates the storm) I seem to be able to make out one DC-3 on the ramp and 3 parked on a disused runway. Unable to conclude anything on condition or airworthiness of these DC-3s.

Albert Stix Jr shared these photos, made by Greg Valero during Jan.2008, on the Warbird Information Exchange Forum (WIX):

Aad van der Voet (of OldWings.nl) wrote:
"Baron are still in service, and still operate out of Vichy. But they don't use the DC-3s anymore, they now operate a fleet of Cessna 208 Cargomasters for Fedex.
Google Earth actually shows all 5 DC-3s. I think you missed N19721 c/n 19721, which is parked with the other three on the disused runway. But it is without its outer wings, and doesn't look much like a DC-3 anymore..
The one on the ramp is N1350A c/n 33032. This was the last Baron DC-3 to be retired and it had been painted in unrealistic USAAF look-alike warbird markings. N1350A was parked farther away and may have escaped the tornado, but I agree that with the other four being so close together, it is very likely that they were all hit pretty bad.
The tornado touched down at the airport on 07-Jan-2008 at 21:42 hrs local time."

Alexandre Avrane wrote: Baron Aviation's web is: www.baron-aviation.com.

Gary Hilton's photos taken on 11Apr09 provide an update, click HERE..
Photo by Joel Moellinger in June 2018 show N1350A being disassembled for a move to Basler; Guestphotos #55.

The above photo has N51938 (ex/ FAA N25) in the rh-botoom corner. One Giacinto Lucci posted on FB's Aviation Wrecks & Relics in May 2019: "Bought a relic the other day & started taking her apart. Old FAA calibration plane. Updates of her will be posted to (Facebook) Round Engine Aero.
The fuselage is kinked in at least 3 places, and has some other damage, so we're turning it into a bus/RV. Usable parts to people flying them."
Photos shared on that post show N51938, ex FAA N25.

UPDATE 2021 (SEPTEMBER) on N486C: 'My name is Danielle and I have a DC-3 project under partial restoration that I thought you might be interested in following.
On my www.instagram.com/38_north_aviation_/ are some photos of our recent transport of the aircraft, wings and fuselage to my property in Montana.
This plane will be restored to a bed and breakfast on my property!
All photos on the page are mine, taken during our work on the project this past several months, with the exception of one photograph of the aircraft when it was still airworthy.'

Douglas C-49K N486C (c/n 6325) for B&B in Montana!

It seems that disassembly started in April this year (2021), the 'lift-off' on July 1st, transport July 18th and
by August 30th Danielle posted this with some disasembled & cleaned parts: "While I’ve been out flying the boss around on his European vacation, Dun and Brian have been hard at work on the elevators and fabricating a trim tab (for looks)! Thanks for all the hard work, boys!!!"

Rolf Larsson sent me this in Jan.2008 for my Mystery Gallery.
He wrote:
" In 1967 I flew a Swedish registered Cessna 182 around Western Africa.
In February 1967 I took this picture of a US Navy C-47B at Dakar, however there is no visible BuA-number and I have not been able to identify it.
The text on the nosesection reads "United States Naval Attache to Senegal and Mauretania".
Perhaps anyone has the info to positively identify this C-47B for me?"
How this worked out can be read here..

Rich Hulina sent me a nice series of photos, made in Fort Frances on 01Jan08:
-click on the image for a larger photo-

Dr Péter Moys sent me these photos of Antonov An-2 HA-YHF. I have to admit the industructable An-2 is seldom featured on my website...
Péter added: "this AN-2 is from Dunakeszi airfield at the MALÉV AeroClub. I took them at the Open Day on 26Sep05."
By googling I found the c/n: 1G22413 (source).
Antonov An-2 on Wikipedia.

An-2 HA-YHF in take off !

In Dec.2007 Nigel Aylmer provided me with some interesting images of his part of the world...
He wrote: "Here are a couple of pictures of former World Aircraft Museum airframes...
Taken on 23Nov07 at Mercer Field, Calhoun,GA is N1178Q Convair T-29B (c/n 276). It is still on the FAA website as current with W.A.M !
From what I have read it has been here since 1982, would have thought it would have been at least under question if nobody returns paperwork..?"
(See also my visit to this airfield in 2001 -Webmaster)

24Nov07at Rome (KRMG), GA: N47060 C-47H (c/n 19066).
Still on the FAA website as current with Northern Illinois Aircraft Museum...

It appears to be under the wing of the locally based Tiger Flight outside whose hanger it is parked. Believe it has been here since 2001. With it appears to be a Brantley B.2B helicopter, a non-flyer.

The history of N47060 has been described on my page Deep South 2001.

In 2009 Jürgen Scherbarth found it at Thomaston,GA and he wrote:
"It has recently made its way to Thomaston,GA with at the controls the one-and-only Mr. McSwiggan himself!" Photo on Photos by Friends & Guests (18)

Bob Patullo sent me this photo and he added the following information:
"In Sept.2007 we flew to Muskoka,ONT. to participate in a reunion of Norwegian Vets who had trained there, so I took the occasion to try to find if any of the crew of the Norwegian PBY who first spotted Hornell and crew in the water were there.
I asked every one in a Norwegian uniform if they knew about any of them with no luck... But as I was walking back to the aircraft, I heard a voice behind me say 'I am the last surviving member of that crew'.

!

The one photo is of him (Rolf Hauge) with some of our crew. They are holding a panel from inside our aircraft which has the signatures of Ashley Hornell (first cousin of David and also a PBY pilot), Rolf Hauge, Gabby Gabreski, Len Birchall, and Art Gillard (76) who just retired from our aircraft. "

During WW2 Bill Poag flew Canso aircraft and trained flight crew on this type of aircraft. In 1943 he was stationed at Yarmouth,Nova Scotia with 162 Sdqn where he trained with the crew who flew Canso 9754. It was during this period when Bill named this aircraft after his wife Mary and their daughter Kathlene: hence Mary K.
In Jan.1944 Bill flew Mary K and its crew to Iceland where he became Wing Commander.
Bill Poag was very influential in Canadian Aviation. Before the war he was a bush pilot in northern Ontario and became one of canada's first pilots to obtain a commercial licence.

"Mary K (9754) is the number of the PBY that F/L David Hornell was flying when he won the Victoria Cross attacking U boat 1225 on 24June1944. The U-boat was sunk but the PBY was shot up pretty good . The right engine fell of the PBY making it impossible to fly and they crash landed in the North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland...
Our PBY is registered as C-FPQL and while painted as 9754, it is the former RCAF 11084.
It is owned and operated by Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum of Hamilton in Ontario,Canada.
Their web site is www.warplane.com "
See also my photos there, taken Sep.2007

C-FOPA is a Turbine-configured DHC-2 Beaver Mk.III (c/n 1688TB56), registered on 22mar68 to Province Of Ontario, Ministry Of Natural Resources, operated by the Aviation and Forest Fire Management Branch (registry renewed on 31Aug07).
I came across C-FOPA myself, on a visit to Dryden Mun'l Airport 01Oct07, have a look here.
For more photos by pilot/photographer Ray Fread, see his work on my website.

Lou Ruggiero sent me this photo in Dec.2007
He wrote: "Here is a C-119G in the Shadow Gun Ship Configeration, sitting in a reventments at Phan Rang Air Base,RVN late 1968."

More of his photos, as well as more information photos from others on my C-119 Information page.

Rolf Larsson sent this images and information to me during Dec.2007:

"The aircraft is a Beech 18 and marked FBCCI but it actually is a Beech E18S c/n BA-184 F-BUOP..."
Taken on on 7 August 2001 and it is situated in a roundabout, just at the entrance to Cannes-Mandelieu airport.
More photos, how it changed its colours over the years, on my Off-airport (Europe) section.
An Oct.2009 pictorial update was sent by Xavier Cotton: Photos by Friends & Guests (22)

Rolf wrote: I have a special interest in propliners. Also, now retired, I had the pleasure of flying the Convair 340/440 and 440 with Linjeflyg, I logged approx. 3500 hours in them before transfer to the F28 fleet and later the Boeing 737.

"I noticed from your travel reports from Australia, that you have the story about DC-2 c/n 1286.
I send you this picture which I took at Albury, NSW on 31 October 1990, while the aircraft still was on poles."
- Rolf Larsson

When Rolf sent this photo, he also wrote: I was copilot on the Convairs (logged some 3500 hrs on the CV340/440 & CV440) and to start with also on the Fokker F.28. Later I was promoted captain on the F.28 and transferred to the Boeing 737-500 when we got them (also leased 737-300 & the Falcon Aviation -300QC).
As you know we were integrated into SAS in 1993 where I flew the 737-600/700/800 until I retired...
We (Linjeflyg) leased a Convair (PH-CGD) from Martin'Air Charter ("MAC, later to become Martinair) and also Fokker F.28 PH-MAT in which I spent many hours !
The picture was taken early-1965 (sorry, I don´t have the exact date) at Stockholm-Bromma airport. Linjeflyg used PH-CGD as a replacement aircraft for SE-CCK which was lost in an accident in November 1964.

Mark Fidler's propliner albums on Picasa

Mark Fidler sent these photos, which he took while driving past in the 1980s. The location was on the I-75 near Byron, Georgia.
Fellow enthusiasts on the DC6 and DC7 Yahoo forum provided following details:
"It was DC-7B N51700 c/n 44700, which was delivered to Panagra - Pan American Grace Airways in 1955. It looked like this then:
www.airliners.net/open.file/0009803/M

And here is how the plane looked like in 1989, shortly before it was broken up for scrap:
www.airliners.net/open.file/1173262/M"

And on this link http://atlantatimemachine.com/misc/steakhouse.htm more details can be read.

While I visited Red Lake shortly after Timo de Vries did, I wasn't so lucky as to catch this Classic Propliner: BAe HS748 C-FFFS (c/n 1663, ex/ G-BHCJ) of Wasaya Airways.
It flies as a freighter and Wasaya has 2 more in the same role (C-FTTW & C-GMAA) plus one as a 'Fuel Tanker' (C-GLTC). This company has its homebases at Thunder Bay, Bearskin Lake & Pickle Lake in Ontario Province,Canada.
[Source: JP Airline Fleets 2007]
Wasaya A/W on Airliners.net

See an update of C-FFFS derelict at Thunder Bay 31Oct21 by David Perston on my Photos by Friends & Guests #64.

Timo also wrote:
"I spent the night in nearby Balmertown (closer to the airport than Red Lake itself), because I wanted to get up early that fridaymorning to catch the 07:00 departure of the Wassaya 748.....
Things turned out a little different because of the fog, stood there for over 3 hours waiting to see it depart, but it did no tmove. So I left but I have these photos to show for it.
Balmertown is even smaller than Red Lake; the Balmer Motel was a hangout for boozing youths and other characters, felt uncomfortable there, so we stayed in a motel on the edge of town (quiet and big rooms), not too cheap and that was probably for the best".

Rich Hulina, head honcho of Slate Falls Airways which is based at Sioux Lookout (Ontario, Canada) and proud owner of this Turbine Otter C-FNWX, sent me these photos (taken 17Dec07) and they clearly show Slate Falls Airways doesn't close during the winter as most operators in the area do...

More details of C-FNWX as well as of Slate Falls A/W are on my page dedicated to a visit to Sioux Lookout in Oct.2007 and one can see C-FNWX in its summer outfit: on floats.
Meanwhile, enjoy these powerful impression of NWX on skis...

Happy Holidays everybody!

Credit where credit is due: I used part of a wintry image of PV-2 N7458C, posted by owner Gary Hilton on the Warbird Exchange (WIX) forum: thread. The image was subsequently altered by use of Photoshop.

A number of propliner airframes at Chandler,AZ have recenty succumbed to the scrapman... Most of C-54Q N44915 (c/n 10854) was lost this way, but 2 days before the forward fuselage and cockpit (photo below) would undergo the same sad fate, Danny rescued it and gave it a place next to his house!

Here is some history of N44915 from the "Piston Engine Airliner Production List" (by Messrs. Eastwood & Roach, published by TAHS in 2002)-
Douglas C-54D-10-DC / R5D-3, C/n 10854 (line nbr 585)
Delivered to US Army Air Force 01Aug45; US Navy Bua56528, transferred same date; converted to C-54Q. Stored 'without further use' at Davis Monthan in Sep66; Texas Truck Salvage Company bought it on 21Feb75; registered N67035 by Robert B. Audiss Jr who bought it on 03Apr75; To Biegert Aviation Inc on 10Sep75; N44915 Biegert Aviation, reregistered 13May76.
And stored 'wfu' at Chandler,AZ since 1981.

Aad van der Voet, creator & webmaster of OldWings.nl, added the following history to this aircraft (compiled from his own files and books):
"This was somewhat of a famous aircraft... It is R5D-3 / C-54Q "Carole Jeune", which flew with the US Navy unit VX-6 for use in the famous "Deep Freeze"-operations in Antarctica.
This particular aircraft, 56528, participated from the earliest beginnings of the project in 1955, until it was retired at Litchfield Park, AZ in Dec.1964. This included many operations in preparation of and during the famous and often-mentioned IGY, the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958). 56528 was in fact the first aircraft to land in Antarctica on wheels!
In 1955, the first year of operation "Deep Freeze", this aircraft was one of two R5D-3 (C-54Q) Skymasters assigned to VX-6. This unit experimented with different types of aircraft, to judge their suitability for Antarctic operations. They also had two R4D/C-47 Skytrains, two P2V/P-2 Neptunes and two UF-1/HU-16 Albatrosses. They also had four UC-1 Otters for local operations. On 20 December 1955, all eight Neptunes, Skymasters, Skytrains and Albatrosses departed from New Zealand for the long first flight to McMurdo Sound. Almost halfway into the flight, the Skytrains and Albatrosses had to abort and return to New Zealand. But the Neptunes and Skymasters continued and after more than 14 hours landed safely at McMurdo Sound.
A Neptune landed first, but this was a ski-equipped aircraft. 56528 landed soon after, which made Dan's aircraft the first aircraft to land in Antarctica on wheels!
It was also the first four-engined aircraft to land there."

The first wheel-equipped aircraft to land on the North Pole, in 1967, survives in a better state: preserved and on display at Yellowknife,NWT is Bristol Mk.31 Freighter CF-TFX

Rolf Larsson sent me this photo in Dec.2007; he also added- Here is c/n 10854 still standing on its own landing gear...
I took this picture at Chandler on 13 October 1997.
Best regards,
Rolf

I visited Danny in MAY 2008 and got a closer look at how N44915 sits these days...

Bob Patullo wrote me an update on Canso PBY-6A C-FIZU in Nov.2007; this amphibian still wears the airtanker code 704 from its active fire fighting days for the Provinces of Newfoundland & Labrador, to which it was registered on 23Apr1970 (according to online records of Transport Canada at time of writing, nov07). Bob wrote-
"Here are some photos of C-FIZU at St. Anthony, NFLD. The pictures were taken by Chester Slade about June/July of this year; however no one seems to be able to contact him. They were first sent to the pilot Roger Penny, who then sent them on to me."
It seems C-FIZU (c/n 2019) has found a new home in St. Anthony, Newfoundland.

Registration C-FIZU was officially cancelled on 16Dec09, as permanently retired ('wfu'); it has been preserved at St.Anthony,Newfoundland (Aviation Letter 518, jan.2010).

In Nov. 2007 I received following message concerning Lockheed L.1049G CF-TGE, taken 02Nov07.
Here are some photos of the Super Connie, which is being restored by Empire Air Services at what is now officially called "Griffiss Business and Technology Park", formerly Griffiss AFB...
Two cranes cradled it at first and as of monday 29Oct07 the cranes are gone and it is now sitting on its own gear.
Note the weights on the nose and that tail jack, as they discovered without its engines, it is tail heavy...
Enjoy!
Dave.

More on this Super Connie on my page Surviving Connies.

John Olafson wrote me:
" It is not often I get to photograph propliners in the air and on the day (18Sep07) this Convair came into Vancouver, it was (of course!), cloudy and dark, unlike the previous day...
I took a sequence of shots as C-FKFZ came in for landing on runway 26R, over Templeton Street.
Really like the beautiful, graceful wings on the Convairs. 'KFZ carries Purolator freight to locations throughout British Columbia and it is one of the few which still has all the passenger windows in it.
I think it was used as a passenger charter up until a few years ago and I usually get to see it every time I am in Kelowna or Vancouver."

"Kelowna Flightcraft has quite a few Convairs sitting in Kelowna. 3 or 4 are ex/ ERA and 3 are ex/ US Navy & USAF. A few retired Purolator too.
KF are converting a couple more to Air Tankers as well. I hope to get to Kelowna this winter to visit them and find out as much as I can about all the ones they have there now."

C-FKFZ (CV580 c/n 151) was flying passengers (fishermen to the Charlotte Islands) in July 2002, together with C-GKFG (CV580 c/n 22). But I would assume they can be configured to either cargo or passengers? -Webmaster.

(I came across C-FKFZ myself on 18Sep2010 at Vancouver IAP, unfortunately not flying - see my 2010 report

Lee Cormie wrote me in Nov.2007 about the following:
"I was in the Arctic in 1977 and just south of Fort Ross, at the south end of Somerset Island, I saw the remains of a C-47 or DC3. The story (most of it is published in the March 1944 issue of The Beaver magazine (which is the history magazine of the Hudson Bay Company which established Fort Ross) goes that the Fort had to be abandoned in 1943, due to a failure of the resupply ship to get to the fort.
A fellow named Stanwell Fletcher parachuted in to prepare an ice runway to allow an aircraft to land.
The first attempt ended in failure and is the source of the remains of the DC3 including the wing centre section and the wings. This part of the story is missing from the article...
A second runway was prepared inland and was successful in evacuating the HBC people to Winnipeg.
There are only two small buildings left up there, no one has lived in Fort Ross since that evac.

Would anyone have a confirmable story of the remains of the C-47 / DC-3 near Fort Ross???

Lee

Other aviation mysteries are featured on my gallery Searching for...

James Ferguson shot N400UA lining up for departure at Bethel,AK on 24Nov07.
N400UA at Bethel

That is some serious winter they got over there.
More photos of propellor planes in Alaska in general and in & around Bethel in particular: see Martin Prince Jr webpage.

N400UA is a Douglas DC-6A (c/n 44258), operated by Everts Air Fuel, hauling fuel to the remote communities of Alaska, though registered to C&R Leasing LLC (C&R no doubt being the initials of Chris and Robert Everts) since 02Aug04.
Previous operators include Woods Air Fuel, Gillispie Air Transport, Piedmont Air Transport and Pan Am.

This photo was shared on www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=124154

Following caption was added: "German troops serving with the EU Force (EUFOR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, prepare in the EUFOR camp Rajlovac near Sarajevo an old World War Two airplane for transportation to France, 20 November 2007. The air transporter C47, known also as Dakota 43-15073, has enormous historic and cultural value since it was inolved in the D-Day Battle for Normandy, which changed the course of the war. The old D-Day Dakota was purchased in 1973 by the former Yugoslav Army and left in the ex-military air-base in Rajlovac near Sarajevo. Bosnia's Presidency decided to present the plane to France, where it will be exhibited in the famous D-Day Museum in Merville-Franceville, Normandy."
Website Batterie de Melville

I noticed James Kightly publishing these photos on the PlaneTalk forum in Nov.2007 and sought his approval to reproduce his photos here.
James wrote: "I caught up with this Lockheed 12 now owned by Doug Hamilton at Steve Death's Hazair hangar in Albury,NSW (Australia)."
Photos credit: © James Kightly, Air Heritage
It was flown here from Broken Hill (read about a sighting in 2001) Oct07. D.Hamilton became registered owner on 09Aug07.

The Lockheed 12 Electra Junior was an 8-seat, 6 passenger all-metal transport designed for use by smaller airlines and private owners. Developed as a scaled-down version of the Lockheed 10 Electra, the prototype made its first flight on June 27, 1936 [Wikipedia]

Peter J. Marson's book The Lockheed Twins identifies this VH-HID as c/n 1262; it allows following details-
L.12A/C-40A USAAF 38-545 delivered 23Mar39; to Barksdale 27Mar39, RFC Gary Field, Blythe,CA 02Jan45.
Reg'd NC48741 to The Pure Oil (14Feb45), later becoming N48741.
Rereg'd N37P on 09Feb56 and N299A on 17Aug61. It went to Business Aircraft Inc 21Aug61. And to A.M Trussel on 24oct61.
To Stagecoach Airways 16Feb62, rereg'd N712FM 06Mar62. Repossessed by Citizens Nat'l Bank of San Antonio, 10Aug62.
To Arthur D. Rhoades 26Apr63, Keystone Builders Supply 22Jul64 and to Larry Gulihur on 02Jun65.
Mustang Enterprises Inc 30Aug65, repos by bank of Texas 06Dec65. Ret to Garry Gulihur 07Dec65. Repos by State Capital Bank at Oklahoma City 28Apr67.
To Aircraft and Engine Enterprises Inc 18May67, to William D. Haynes 03May72, James T & Jeanne W Quackenbush 24Oct72, Donals R Eyre 03Mar75, Leonard F Fieldler 03Aug77, ret to Donald R Eyre 28Dec80.
To Raymond William Piggott 14May82.
To Australia, E-213619 28Jun82. Stored at Mareeba,QLD 1984-7. US Reg cancelled 17Jul87. Rereg'd VH-HID to J Rundell 16Sep87, delivered Alice Springs-Jandakot 20Oct87.
(NB Aircraft was painted as N712EM at one stage, but not officially registered as such).

David Carter added the following:
The AAS logo on the nose is Australian Aircraft Sales, which was owned by the late John "Honest John" Connelly. John brought the VH-HID to Australia, having owned a Lockheed 12 in the past.
John was one of the great propliner owners of all time. He had almost exclusive rights to Australian DC-3, DC-4, DC-6 and Viscounts when those planes were being disposed of in the 1960s. In those days Australia had a two-domestic airline policy and the government, unable to ban airlines from forming, choked any potential start-ups by refusing import permits. And to stop an airline starting using planes already in Australia, the airlines sold unwanted planes to John, who then guaranteed to sell them overseas.
John had some very interesting regular customers, including airlines in Laos and Taiwan. He ferried his planes into some of the most exotic and dangerous places in the world but died taking his story with him. When I interviewed him the 1980s he hinted at all sorts of shadowy deals in South America and Asia but never revealed the details. I still use an AAS key chain for my shed key!

Nigel Aylmer wrote me in Nov.2007: "I drove up to Warner Robins AFB last Monday (12Nov07); not much change in the propellor aircraft here...
At the back of the restoration hangar though was, I believe, 42-71714 UC-78B... back from Americus ,GA. I presume for display in the nearly finished new hangar..?
Also an updated photo of C-47A N842MB c/n 19741."

Dave Rowlands sent me this photo of two Twin Otters, equipped with skis. The company name on the building can be read: Survair Ltd.
Dave wrote: "Most memorable was an aeromagnetic survey done by Survair Ltd. in an Aero Commander 680E using Decca Navigation, flying lines over the Beaufort Sea towards Russia from a base at Mould Bay, Prince Patrick Island in the high Arctic...
Though we saw it as cold as -62F, it was 24 hour daylight in early spring. We therefore flew round the clock using triple crew of which Mac was one of the pilots. I was an apprentice mech. We flew 500 hours in a little over 6 weeks. An article in the Ottawa Citizen (our home town newspaper) noted that "in one calender day" our Commander flew 25 hours and 20 minutes air time! This consisted of 4 sorities of 6+ hours with the first fllight off just after midnight and the last before midnight. We log flight time in the day of takeoff and thus logged more that 24 hours in one day!!
The photo is of two Twin Otters we operated for International Nickel on Elctromagnetic survey."

Gordon Reid -a name connected to propliners and vintage aircraft for a long, long time!- also travelled parts of Canada and indeed: also visited Red Lake,Ontario (on 04Aug07) as I had done. But he found people to talk to and went by the tips & directions he'd been given. In this way he found out about aircraft and places I have missed... (see my Red Lake report).
Gordon wrote: "My first stop in Red Lake was the Chimo Air Services office and the fellows there told me where to find the aircraft I was interested in.
As you did, I worked my way from Chimo to Green Airways to Viking Outposts, which are all in close proximity on Red Lake.
I then headed out on the road (105) that runs to the airport and, following directions, I found the Norseman C-FFUU... which was not airworthy on the Birch Lake Lodge dock.
Next stop was the Sportsmans Lodge dock, where I found DHC-2FP C-GWEY. And close by was Amik Outposts (Lac Seul Airways) with DHC-3FP C-FHXY and then DaxAir with Beech 3N/FP CF-TDB.
From memory, this bunch of aircraft were on the right hand side of highway 105 as you headed to the airport. I then continued on up 105 to the Red Lake airport and went beyond to Couchenour where I found the Kenora Air Charter dock down a side road, on the right, as you came into town... and there Beech D-18S/FP C-FTBX and DHC-2/FP C-FJEI were moored."

Noorduyn Norseman Mk.IV C-FFUU c/n 74

Beech D18S C-FTBX c/n A-479

What is it you don't want to hear after you returned home from a 'million miles'-trip..? Right: 'you missed something which you could've seen if you drove a little further...!'
Andrew Farr made me aware, when I got home, that I missed the Kenora Air base near Red Lake at Cochenour... I did not know about their base, thought they were only based at Kenora (see my report). But I should have known about C-FTBX, as Phil Gies sent me a photo recently (here).

CF-TBX or C-FTBX is a Beech D18s (c/n A-479), registered to Kenora Air on 24Feb06 (but may have been registered to Kenara Air as CF-TBX prior to that - would welcome details). It seems this Beech was previously registered as N481B.
Andrew wrote me:
"I saw your pictures of your recent trip to Red Lake. It is too bad you didn't check out Kenora Air's base in Cochenour while you were there! I have worked for Kenora Air for the past 4 years and have flown all their aircraft. Most recently I was flying TBX, one of their Beech 18's out of Cochenour. I did see your pictures of CBA on your Kenora visit. Had the pleasure of flying her 3 seasons ago, but I do have to say TBX was my favourite machine! Presently I am in the Maldives flying Twin Otters but I really do miss my old TBX. "

Roger Soupart sent me these photos showing good progress on the restoration of the Lockheed L.12 Lodestar of the Military Aviation Museum in Soesterberg, Netherlands.
The aircraft is not yet on public display, but a guard made an exception for Roger...
He had more luck than I as such privilege was denied to me when I visited the MLM in 2006.

Timo de Vries sent me these images of Curtiss Commandos, taken at Gimli, Manitoba, and turning these C-46 Skytrucks into subjects for works of art!
By sheer coincidence my fellow Dutchman and I almost met in this remote location: he left in the morning of 27Sep07 and I showed up later that same afternoon!
Below is C-46 C-GTPO, under a serene moonlit sky.. History details of this Curtiss Commando can be read on my Gimli Report.

Curtiss C-46F Commando C-GIBX of First Nations Transportation (FNT) continues its freight hauling business late in the day...
Details of this aircraft, as well as photos, on my Gimli Report.

Fred Barnes did me the pleasure of sending me this photo of Noorduyn Norseman CF-FQI, taken at Selkirk,Manitoba on 30Oct07. CF-FQI is owned and operated by Viking Outposts, which I visited at Red Lake, Ontario on 30Sep07. See my report.

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