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.
I’ll go out on a limb and say we’re seeing the end of Winter 2008-2009. 10C and brilliant sunshine. A great day to grab the camera and go planespotting near Pearson International Airport.
A beautiful PIA (Pakistani International Airlines) Boeing 777-200/LR glides in for a landing. Magnificent in the serenity of the approach. This is one quiet airplane.
Air Jamaica G6-JAF (Airbus 320-214) bringing folks home from somewhere just a bit warmer than Toronto.
Probably the strangest of the bunch. Although it wears the name CanJet complete with Maple Leaf in the C, this Boeing 737-800 actually carries a German registration D-AHFT.
It was nice to have the big camera in my hand again and feel the sun on my face. It’s time to come out of hibernation.
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.
Yep, that’s yours truly helping to open the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) this morning. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have helped the markets as they’re down about 112 points as I write this.
So the TSX invited us to celebrate the Centennial of Canadian Flight. The museum gets some publicity and we all had a good time – except for having to drive downtown during the morning rush hour.
Big thanks to Monique who herded us through the process which is coordinated like a military operation. 9am – arrive. 9:05 – coffee and snacks. 9:15 – meet and greet with the President of the Exchange. 9:20 – presentation. 9:27 upstairs to the media section. 9:29:45 – start clapping. 9:30 – Museum Chairman Wayne Barrett touches a screen to open the market (keep clapping) 9:31 – stop clapping. 9:45 – get out!
An interesting experience.
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.
Let’s close the book on this one. Flight from Zurich to Toronto took 9 hours and 5 minutes. The plane was only half full so I got 2 seats to myself. Not enough to stretch out (like some lucky bastards who grabbed the middle row did) but much more comfortable than normal.
Turbulence across the Atlantic was pretty brutal for about an hour. Always fun to watch those big-ass wings flex. We took off in cloud and I didn’t see the ground or water until we were about 5 minutes from touchdown as we crossed Lake Ontario.
I shot off the plane and managed to get through Customs in about 5 minutes which must count as some sort of record. We landed at 1:15pm and I was home by 2.
Delivered chocolates last night and this morning so I can now say that the trip is officially over!
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.
A few weeks ago, I hinted at some changes coming to the Toronto Aerospace Museum. Well, now that YouTube has the word, I guess I’m safe to share it. We’re being renamed as the Canadian Air & Space Museum.
Changing the scope of the museum is seen as vital to our continuing growth. The video describes some of the plans to expand the size of the museum and create theme areas. This will cost a lot of money so a fundraising campaign is underway.
The name change was made official at a special membership meeting on Tuesday and will be introduced at a press conference on February 20th. Not everyone is happy with the change but a majority of the members who were present agreed with the Board’s direction.
As Chairman of the Wings and Wheels Heritage Festival committee, I’ve been waiting for this to be confirmed so that we can begin contacting vendors, aircraft owners and the press to get the word out about this year’s event using the new name and logo.
(Yes that’s a crappy copy of the logo – best image I have so far)
I couldn’t be more excited about this new direction and I’m proud to play a small part in the museum’s operations.
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about the Toronto Aerospace Museum. I’m spending a lot of time there and some big things are happening – some I can talk about right now and others that will have to wait.
I’m honoured to have been chosen as Chairman of the Wings and Wheels Heritage Festival committee. Wings and Wheels is our largest public event and we’re hard at work planning for the 4th year. Mark your calendars for May 22-24 and come on out to see me at Downsview Park in Toronto.
As the name suggests, the festival is comprised of two main components. Wings covers anything that flies, or used to fly. Military, civilian and general aviation is always well represented. Last year, the Canadian Forces joined us with a CF-18 Hornet, a CP-140A Arcturus, a Tutor trainer in Snowbird colours and a helicopter.
Vintage Wings of Canada brought down their Waco Taperwing and Bombardier brought over a few of their planes.
On the Wheels side, we had a nice collection of custom and classic cars from local clubs as well as some military vehicles and vintage motorcycles. I think this picture really captures the theme of Wings and Wheels. In 2009 we’re really going to try to play up this side more.
Of course, one of the stars is always our Arrow. The only full-size replica of the famous CF-105 fighter. It’s the most spectacular piece in the museum’s collection and is always a crowd pleaser. Everyone is amazed at the size and the quality that shows the thousands of dedicated volunteer hours that went into its construction.
We’ve already got some incredible aircraft coming but I’ll hold off on making any announcements until we’re ready to officially release the news.
There’s other museum news coming that I’m not at liberty to disclose at this time. Suffice it to say that we’ll be moving in new directions that can only enhance our reputation as one of the finest aerospace museums in North America. Stay tuned.
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