Wings & Wheels – Meet the Aircraft – Part 4

Posted on Fri,April/17/2009 by Ken

Lockheed 10A “Electra” registration CF-TCC.

From their website:

On September 1, 1937, Trans Canada Airlines (the forerunner of Air Canada) operated its first scheduled passenger flight – a fifty minute trip from Vancouver to Seattle.
The route had been acquired from Canadian Airways Ltd. along with two ten seat Lockheed 10A "Electra" aircraft. Shortly after, TCA bought three other LI0As, all brand new, direct from Lockheed’s plant, at a purchase price of $73,000 each. They were dubbed the "three sisters" and bore the registration letters of CF-TCA, CF-TCB and CF-TCC.
After flying for a couple of years for TCA, CF-TCC was sold in 1939 to the Canadian Government, who turned it over to the RCAF as part of the war effort. Then it was sold again, and went from owner to owner during some forty years. One day in 1975, a retired Air Canada employee recognized it at a Texas Air Show when he saw the faded shadow of the registration letters, CF-TCC, through the paint work.
Air Canada kept track of the aircraft and finally re-purchased it in 1983. The plane was flown to the Airline’s Winnipeg maintenance base where it was rejuvenated and refurbished. Pratt & Whitney Canada arranged for the complete overhaul of its two engines and for furnishing accessories and spares.
In 1986 Air Canada flew the aircraft on a fifty stop "sentimental journey" across Canada with CF-TCC arriving in Vancouver in time for Expo "86. It was on display there at the Air Canada pavilion complete with sound effects as the engines cranked over.
Today, CF-TCC participates in diverse promotional activities, including conducting flights to raise funds for charitable organizations. It has flown across Canada in the last few years raising money for "Dreams Take Flight".
The aircraft weights 4724 kilos (10,500lbs) with a full payload including fuel. It has a cruising speed of 256 KPH (160 mph) and a cruising altitude of 4,800 meters (16,000 ft).

A beautiful memory of times gone by. Great to see her return to Wings & Wheels.

Wings & Wheels – Meet the Aircraft – Part 3

Posted on Sun,April/12/2009 by Ken

The CF-18 Hornet. Canada’s fighter. From the 425 Squadron in Bagotville Quebec, the Hornet is a regular visitor at Wings & Wheels. Pilots and spectators alike love coming to Downsview Airport every year.

One of the highlights of past shows has been the opportunities to see the CF-18 beside the museum’s CF-105 Arrow replica. Separated by nearly 50 years, both aircraft represent the apex of aviation technology for their respective times.

CF-18s have served in the first Gulf War as well as in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Approximately 80 still serve in an air defence role across Canada and the fleet is undergoing a modernization project.

Wings & Wheels provides an opportunity to get very close to both the aircraft and their crews. “Cherry”, standing, was extremely friendly and great with the hundreds of kids who got a cockpit view during the 2008 event. His arrival and departure was a real treat (especially the special manoeuvres on arrival).

At least one CF-18 will be at the 2009 Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival.

(BTW, the plane in my masthead picture is Cherry’s Hornet performing a “runway check” last year)

Some “good” flying

Posted on Tue,April/7/2009 by Ken

(note: not the plane in question)

So Adam Leon, 31, is charged with stealing a Cessna 172 from a flight school in Thunder Bay Ontario and leading authorities, including a pair of F16 fighters on a merry chase before finally landing 6 1/2 hours and 783 miles later outside a little town in Missouri.

A strange story for sure but what I’m wondering is how did he fly so far for so long. I don’t have the POH (Pilot’s Operating Handbook) for the C172R that I’m taking flying lessons on with me but those figures seem a tad on the high side. So I decided to do some Googling to see what I could come up with.

First let’s look at the distance. For flight purposes, we always work in nautical miles while the 783 would be “normal” miles. We calculate that out to be:

783 miles = 680 nautical miles

Now it’s off to the POH. I don’t know what model of Cessna Mr. Leon was flying or whether or not it had extended tanks. Calculating range and endurance is based on so many factors – fuel load, pressure altitude, throttle settings, winds aloft……… that you can’t just pull a number out of your ass but let’s take a look at a “typical” entry from the book.

Some reports had him flying at 14,000 feet which is crazy unless the aircraft is equipped with oxygen so let’s use the 12,500 figures. If he ran at 2200 RPM then he could keep it in the air for 6 1/2 hours as reported but his range is less than 550 nautical miles, about 130 short of the reporting distance. So, we have to assume that he either had a larger fuel capacity or one hell of a tail wind or the news services have it all wrong (no voting!!).

The unfortunate thing here is that this will probably lead to stricter controls over general aviation, especially for those of us who fly fairly close to the US-Canada border.

Wings & Wheels – Meet the Aircraft – Part 1

Posted on Sun,April/5/2009 by Ken

The headliner of this year’s WWHF is “Hawk One”. A lovingly restored Canadair CL-13 Sabre 5, Hawk One comes to us from Vintage Wings of Canada in Gatineau Quebec.

Here’s Hawk One in flight

Unfortunately, regulations prohibit aerobatics over the city of Toronto so it will be on static display but I’ll definitely be there, camera in hand, for the arrival and departure.

Bored

Posted on Sun,March/8/2009 by Ken

Not much to do on a dreary Sunday afternoon so I took a picture of a wall. Actually it’s part of one wall in my home office. Shows how much of an aviation nut I really am.

Clockwise from top:

A picture of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 series 20 that was given to employees in celebration of its first visit to Toronto in September 1972. Back then the plant was officially called “Douglas Aircraft Company of Canada Ltd” and was located at the Northeast corner of the land now owned by GTAA (Pearson International Airport). The buildings, which were torn down a few years ago, were also once home to Victory Aircraft (Lancasters were built there) and Avro (home of the Arrow).

Western Airlines promotional poster from 1961. Western Airlines (1925-1986) started off carrying mail and died when purchased by Delta. In between they flew all the aircraft shown on the poster – from a Douglas M-2 biplane to the Boeing 720B. The tag line is interesting “From Biplane to Fanjet, 22 Aircraft Types Have Carried the Colors of Western Airlines, America’s Pioneer Airline” An eBay find.

Opening the TSX. A recent addition to the wall.

Autographed picture of CF-18. One of my photos that I had autographed by the pilot who flew it in for Wings & Wheels 2008. “Cherry” was a great young man, very professional and friendly. And he likes to fly the Hornet low and fast! The shot was taken as he ran one of his runway “checks”. Since you can’t fly acrobatics over Toronto, Cherry announced that he was a little heavy on fuel and was running a series of runway checks to look for debris or obstructions before landing. Very low, very fast, very loud. Along with his signature it reads “Keep the blue side up” and I’ve tried to keep that in mind during my flight training.

Nearly every wall, cabinet and piece of floor has something aviation related. Every piece tells a story.

Daylight Saving Time

Posted on Sun,March/8/2009 by Ken

Right off the bat, let’s clear up the misconception that Sir Sandford Fleming is responsible for this mess. Sir Sandford brought us Standard Time and I think we all agree that this was a pretty good idea. Little known fact – he came up with the idea after missing a train!

The culprit here is William Willett who first came up with the stupid idea in 1907. Some say it was Benjamin Franklin but he only suggested it as a joke.

From Wikipedia:

Using his own financial resources, in 1907 William published a pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight"In it he proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in the summer. The evenings would then remain light for longer, increasing daylight recreation time and also saving ₤2.5 million in lighting costs. He suggested that the clocks should be advanced by 20 minutes at a time at 2 am on successive Sundays in April and be retarded by the same amount on Sundays in September.

I guess it’s a good thing that the 80 minute thing didn’t catch on. We all got used to it up until a couple of years ago when the US (thanks Bush Jr.) decided to switch to DST earlier and switch back later. Of course Canada wagged its tail and followed suit.

Supposedly, DST was adopted to help farmers and others who depend on daylight to perform their work but arguments covering everything from the fact that more french fries are sold during the day (helping the Idaho potato farmers) to more daylight = more time for outdoor sports (Sporting Goods Manufacturing Coalition) have been used to support a practice that, in my opinion, is no longer necessary.

This diagram shows what areas of the world use, or do not use, DST. In Canada, Saskatchewan never changes the clock. Last time I looked Saskatchewan has a lot of farmers so there goes that argument.

So we spend the next few days in a sleep deprived state as our body clocks reset and I have to remember that Switzerland is only 5 hours ahead instead of 6 (most of the civilized world doesn’t change for another couple of weeks).

(images from Wikipedia)

But will it stimulate the economy?

Posted on Sat,February/21/2009 by Ken

Monday marks the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in Canada. I’ve just had it confirmed that I’ll be part of a group from the museum who will be opening the Toronto Stock Exchange on that morning.

Though not as prestigious as ringing the closing bell on Wall Street, it’s still exciting. Who knows, it might just be the stimulus that the Canadian economy has been waiting for. Or just a whole lot of fun.

Of course, I don’t think we’ll have any giant pandas in attendance like the World Wildlife Fund did when they opened the market.

Heading home

Posted on Fri,February/20/2009 by Ken

Just over 4 hours until we depart Zurich for the 9 hour flight back to Toronto. Another crummy night’s sleep but today I don’t care. Tonight I get to sleep in my own bed again.

I’m really upset that I’m missing the big press event at the museum today. We finally unveil the new name – Canadian Air & Space Museum – and kick off our celebrations of the Centennial of Canadian Flight. I hope that the place is packed and everything runs smoothly.

Time to get ready to go. Grab a quick shower. Finish the packing. Grab the shuttle bus to the airport. Buy the chocolate (I can’t leave Switzerland until I buy chocolate). Check in at Zurich is always a pain as they never seem to have enough people on the desks. Air Canada farms out their passenger services to an outside company and I’ve never been terribly impressed with their customer service skills. Once I endure that it’s a quick trip through passport control (why, oh why can’t Canadian Customs be so efficient) and the 2 minute train ride with the mooing cows and yodelers. If you’ve ever been through Zurich airport you know what I’m talking about.

Seat 21K today. On a Boeing 767-300ER this puts me squarely over the wing. Smoothest seat on the plane. Catch a few catnaps, watch a movie or read a book and then I’ll be home. Home. What a wonderful word.

From Einsiedeln to Schindellegi to Kloten to home

Posted on Thu,February/19/2009 by Ken

Moving day. Woke up this morning in Einsiedeln to the sound of a band crashing and banging up the street at 5am. It’s some sort of winter carnival here in Switzerland but it really doesn’t seem to have a timetable.

A day of meetings (last one!) so I had to make the trip from Schindellegi to Kloten so that I’m closer to the airport for tomorrow morning’s flight. For the first time in all my travels here I boarded the wrong train in downtown Zurich. Figured it out within one stop but it left me a 45 minute wait until I could get the right one going the other way.

Finally made it to the Allegra Hotel in Kloten – surely my favorite hotel here. Bright, colourful, comfortable and smoker friendly!

One more sleep and then Air Canada can get me the hell out of here and back home where I want to be.

A better night

Posted on Wed,February/18/2009 by Ken

Actually got a good sleep last night. Very surprised when the alarm went off this morning. It’s a good thing I got some sleep because the subject of today’s meetings is very, very boring. It has no relevance to the business we do in Canada but it’s mandatory that I learn it.

The snow finally stopped overnight and, while not sunny, the sky is much lighter than yesterday which helps the whole staying awake fight.

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Through The Mist Darkly

My head is in the clouds

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