FLYBOYS MEET FOR HAMILTON AIR SHOW 2012
“SALUTE TO VETERANS”
Bringing young boys flight paths into the future at
the Hamilton Air Show 2012 “Salute to Veterans.”
"I first came to CWH as a young boy to see the first flight of the Avro Lancaster in 1988. From this moment, I knew I had to become part of this magnificent collection of vintage aircraft,” said Chris Rekiel.
Rekiel was one of the 16,000 lucky enough to be at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum when the Mynarski Memorial Avro Lancaster took to the skies in front of a record-breaking crowd at Hamilton Airport, in Ontario Canada on Sept. 24th, 1988.
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWH) was formed in 1972 and is a non-profit charitable organization. It has grown into one of the largest flying museums in the world. CWH’s mandate is to preserve and maintain, in flying condition, a collection of aircraft that were flown by Canadians and the Canadian military services from the beginning of World War II to the present, including other related aviation artefacts and memorabilia of significant historic importance to this period.
The museum’s most prominent artefacts are its aircraft. Of course, the dynamic aspect of CWH is that 16 of the 40 aircraft are operational and fly for thousands of people both at the museum and at air shows across North America every year. Keeping these aircraft flying is no small task. Volunteer members pay annual dues for the privilege of working on these rare aircraft while a small staff handles day-to-day administration.
Rekiel continues, “My father joined CWH in 1990 and soon followed when I was old enough. For a kid fascinated by vintage aircraft, I found my place at the old Hangars 3 and 4.”
The museum was housed in two World War II hangars at the Hamilton Airport for many years and after a devastating fire in 1993, which destroyed half of one hangar, the new facility was constructed. CWH moved into the current building in February of 1996.
“In my 20 years of volunteering at CWH, I have had the privilege to explore the many different areas of the museum. My first time "working" on an aircraft was when it was decided to change the Fairchild Argus from yellow to silver. I spent every Saturday throughout one winter stripping and prepping the paint. For a teen boy, I was elated,” said Rekiel.
Rekiel then joined the ramp crew and became active on the Flight Operations side of the museum. He had the privilege of working close to the flying aircraft, and knew one day he would fly one. The first flight in a CWH aircraft came for Rekiel in 1999 in Harvard UUU.
“In June 2009, I was fortunate enough to join the pilot group and checked-out as a Fairchild PT- 26 Cornell pilot. After one flying season, it was on to the deHavilland Chipmunk.
Then for the 2011 Hamilton Air Show, I was asked to fly the Cornell as a tribute to the 70th Anniversary of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.” said Rekiel.
During the Hamilton Air Show 2011, Rekiel joined up with another pilot Mark Allen, from the visiting Commemorative Air Force (CAF) flying the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. Coincidentally Allen had also begun his flying career in a Harvard.
Allen begins, “As a boy I watched these aircraft doing touch and goes at the SAAF central training school about 2 miles from our house. I bought the Harvard sight unseen having never flown a Harvard and having no idea how much this aircraft would change my flying career.
I received some basic flight instruction in the Harvard from a very good local instructor named John Hess. In the 70’s and 80’s he flew low-level aerobatics at air shows in the Harvard. He taught me all the basics about the Harvard including some aerobatics.”
Allen’s flying career started in 1982 when he saw 3 skydivers jump into his attending university in South Africa. The following weekend he made 3 static line jumps and continued to jump until 2003.
“During my 21 years as a skydiver I made 6,000 jumps, in 10 countries, won numerous medals and was on 4 world records,” says Allen.
In 2008, Allen got the opportunity to pilot the world’s only flying Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, a great honor and privilege. In the 3 years he’s flown the aircraft around the US and Canada, and has met numerous WW2 pilots and back seaters who flew the aircraft during the war.
“Throughout WWII, there were no specialized training aircraft to learn to fly before flying a single engine fighter or bomber. Instead, pilots learned to fly the North American AT-6 Texan/Harvard. The T-6 was known as the “pilot maker” as it tort the pilot the skills needed to fly the advance fighters and bomber. My training was the same when preparing to fly to Helldiver. After gaining enough experience in the T-6 my check pilot gave me a cockpit checkout and told me to go fly the Helldiver. A very nerve racking experience I will tell you, taking off in the largest and most powerful aircraft I’ve ever flown, and the added pressure of being the only flying Helldiver in existence. Looking back, the training I received in the T-6 was “right on the money,” in fact; I would venture to say that the T-6 is more difficult to fly due to its slow speed flight characteristic.
Flying the Helldiver is relatively easy, if everything is working. It has great control in all three axes. Being a heavy single engine aircraft at 19,000 Lbs gross weight, it loses speed quickly in a climb, but gain speed quickly in a dive. It has a Wright R2,600 14 cylinder engine producing 1,900 horsepower and a 4 bladed propeller. Typical cruise speed is 175 knots burning about 70 gallons an hour. A typical dive bombing run would commence between 15,000 and 20,000, pitching the nose over too an 80 degrees down angle, deploying the dive breaks and gaining speed to Vne of 350 knots. At between 8,000 to 5,000 feet the bombs would be released and the pull-up would commence. The lower the pilot went the more vulnerable the aircraft would be to surface fire. Over 7,000 Helldivers (5 different navy variants) were produced by Curtiss between 1942 and 1945. Sadly, only 7 aircraft survive, 6 in museums (3 overseas and 3 in the US) and the CAF’s flying aircraft example.
In June of this year I flew the “Beast” to Hamilton, Ontario, for an air show hosted by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. I knew this was going to be a great show when I arrived in Hamilton and Canadian customs official wasn’t interested in seeing my passport. Within hours of arrival the Helldiver was in formation with the Lancaster over Toronto doing a flyover for the Veterans at Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital. Over the course of the weekend we flew a number of rides, photo flights and in the air show. The flying was great, but the most memorable part of our visit to Hamilton was the people. The hospitality was great; we made many friends and spent many hours in the local Wing embellishing on our flying experiences,” said Allen.
The Commemorative Air Force was started by Lloyd Nolen and a small group of ex-service pilots from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas when they pooled their money to purchase a P-51 Mustang in 1957. They formed a loosely defined organization to share the pleasure and expense of maintaining the Mustang. A short while later, the group added a pair of F8F Bearcats to the P-51 Mustang. At this point, the mission of the CAF became clear: save an example of every aircraft that flew during World War II, a mission no one else was undertaking. What started as a hobby became an urgent mission to preserve history.
The CAF mission is to acquire, restore and preserve in flying condition a complete collection of combat aircraft, which were flown by all military services of the United States, and selected aircraft of other nations, for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations.
More than just a collection of airworthy warplanes from the past, the CAF's fleet of historic aircraft recreate, remind and reinforce the lessons learned from the defining moments in American military aviation history. CAF fleet now consists of over 140 flying aircraft.
The Avro Lancaster and Curtiss Helldiver announced the successful re-birth of the Hamilton Air Show under the direction and control of CWH for the first time in over 30 years. The Fairey Firefly and B-25 Mitchell engines aided the rare gaggle of Lancaster and Helldiver in formation, deafening the noise of the cities below to announce to Hamilton and surrounding regions that the air show is back in town.
CWH’s Chief Executive Officer, David G. Rohrer has made many progressive strides in all areas of the museum operations, and with the approach of 2012 and 40th Anniversary of CWH; he anticipates that the current pace of activity will only increase.
“I do not know about you, but as 2012 approaches I find myself quite often thinking about the rich history of the museum and the tremendous vision, dedication, financial support and staff, volunteers, members, and supporters since 1972.
I remain extremely appreciative of the decisions, dedication, support and efforts of all those individuals and organizations that have preceded us at the museum and I know we could not enjoy the current privileges and opportunities that we do at the museum without prior collective effort of many individuals over the last 40 years,” said Rohrer.
CWH has owned and operated the Avro Lancaster, VRA MK 10 “FM 213” longer than the RCAF with total hours logged at 5,397 collectively.
So with these thoughts in mind Rohrer wants to structure 2012 to be years of remembrance at CWH and continue to recognize Canadians rich history while preparing for even greater endeavours in the future.
Aircraft Attractions for Hamilton Air Show 2012 at the John C. Munroe International Airport are the entire fleet of CWH operational vintage aircraft.
Boeing B-29 Super Fortress, Consolidated B-24A Liberator, Curtiss SB2C Helldiver from Commemorative Air Force
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Focke Wolfe FW-190 Würger ( new build), Messerschmitt ME-262 Schwalbe (new build) from Jerry Yagen/Military Aviation Museum
Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI, Hawker Hurricane Mk IV, Blackburn-Fairey Swordfish Mk III from Vintage Wings of Canada
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt from American Airpower Museum
de Havilland Mosquito FB26 from Jerry Yagen/ Military Aviation Museum, as restoration is on track for spring flight
Canadian Forces Snowbirds Demonstration Team
Mosquito from Jerry Yagen as restoration is on track for spring flight.
By Annette Koolsbergen