By Joe Letourneau | June 27, 2022 Estimated reading time 6 minutes, 52 seconds.
This past weekend saw two different aviation events in southern Ontario share a Heritage Flight of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s (CWHM’s) B-25 Mitchell and the RCAF 2022 CF-18 Demonstration Team’s “Honeycomb Hornet.”
CWHM is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and its “SkyFest 50” event in Hamilton, Ontario, on June 25 showcased many of the museum’s acquisitions and restorations of years past. Noteworthy this year is the return to flight of the museum’s flagship, the Fairey Firefly, after eight years of refitting and restoring its engine and wing pivot joints. The wing pivots required manufacturing modern parts to historic standards to attain regulatory approval — which is not an easy task.
Pilot Steve McIntosh took the Firefly to the air without issue on a shakeout flight. Not having flown the type in eight years, a cautious test, evaluation, and re-familiarization flight took place — all while monitoring the newly rebuilt 2,300-hp, 27-litre displacement, V-12 Rolls Royce Griffon engine. A second flight the same day allowed pilot Andy Dobson to get reacquainted with the aircraft as well.
Coming back to life for SkyFest 50 was the Grumman TBM Avenger, emitting a billow of smoke on its first engine run of the season. The “swing-wing” feature was tested and demonstrated for the spectators. After nearly a decade of restoration, the final few details are yet to be signed off before the mighty torpedo bomber takes to the skies again.
On a sad note, the darling of the fleet, Avro Lancaster “Vera,” suffered a setback on its initial test flight of the season and will require a newly rebuilt #1 engine to be installed after a coolant leak was discovered. It is hoped a replacement engine can be found and installed before the end of the season.
During SkyFest 50, the yellow fleet of trainers — the Chipmunk, Tigermoth, and Harvard — flew passenger flights. The medium bomber in the fleet, the B-25 Mitchell, flew several passenger and heritage flights with the CF-18 and P-51 Mustang. The quintessential Canadian bush plane Norseman also made several flights.
Guest aircraft included Hannu Halminen’s award-winningly restored P-51D Mustang. Peter Byl had his beautiful Beech 18 nosewheel conversion on display. Flying in from Virginia was the Military Aviation Museum’s P-40 Warhawk, P-39 Airacobra, Mk9 Spitfire, and a Flug Werk reproduction FW-190.
All flying was limited to museum flypasts, as the event was not classed as an “airshow” after the cancellation of the proposed 50th anniversary airshow in nearby Brantford, Ontario.
Rounding out the aircraft both on display and flying were two CF-18s from the Hornet Demo Team. During several Heritage flights, pilot Jesse “Modem” Haggart-Smith flew alongside the B-25 Mitchell and P-51 Mustang. The flights took off from Hamilton and provided a special treat to the attendees of AirFest 2022, which was taking place at the same time in St. Thomas, Ontario.
AirFest saw the return of air demonstrations to the St. Thomas area after a several-year hiatus. It was a low-key, comfortable, and welcoming event. Static aircraft displays, motor vehicle clubs, recruiters, cadets, and vendors provided lots to see and do.
The aerial demonstrations consisted of The Great War Flying Museum’s Second World War aircraft in a mock dogfight. Dave Hewitt flew his Boeing Stearman in classic barnstormer style. Mackenzie Cline displayed the P-51D Mustang “Double Trouble Two.” Hewitt returned once again to fly his Twin Beech 18 with gracious lines and big smoke. The Heritage Flight from SkyFest 50 in Hamilton provided a loud surprise for the crowd at AirFest. And rounding out the display was the Waterloo Warbirds’ L-29, which was recently repainted to Ukrainian colors.
Flight experiences in the Harvards from the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association ran all day between acts, as well as helicopter rides.
Attendance at both events appeared to be successful, and it was nice to see local aviation events cooperating and sharing talent. After all, aviation is a close-knit community, and a spirit of cooperation will go much farther than that of competition.
