January 10, 2011 - In April, 2011, Doug Roy had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Hal Burns in Edmonton, AB. Hal is a veteran of WWII and was one of the young men who flew Canso PBY-5A FNJE, or RCAF 11094, as it was known when it flew for 162 Squadron, out of Reykjavik, Iceland.
During active duty he and his flight crew flew the Canso, escorting convoys and searching for enemy submarines across the North Atlantic. Doug said the time he spent with Hal (who was called Harry during the War) was immensely enjoyable and informative. He said he asked lots of questions and always got a ready answer.
Over the Christmas holiday, Doug again met with Hal and was able to get the following videos to share with you that show the vitality of a man who served Canada over 65 years ago, always under very extreme and dangerous conditions.
Dick Milne's Catalina (Canso) Quest
Dick Milne and his wife Heather, from England, visited Fairview and our Canso PBY-5A on June 25, 2011 as part of his quest to visit all the surviving PBYs in the world. Read more about Dick's amazing mission in our Update (Blog)
Check out the very interesting video Dennis made of his trip to Paris in June of 2011 to visit Canso PBY CF-CRR, which he flew from Prince Rupert to Sandspit as his first Captain job in 1958: http://gallery.me.com/baxendale#100085
The video has some great vintage footage of Dennis and his Crew loading passengers at the Prince Rupert, BC Airport, at that time.
Dennis can be contacted at: pby5a747@hotmail.com
The photo to the right is of Captain Dennis Baxendale - a former Canso PBY pilot and recent contact with the Canso Crew
The video below shows Rollie Hammerstedt, retired Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) from Kenora, Ontario, talking to Don Wieben about the Canso PBY and his vast experience with this and other types of historic aircraft. Rollie's knowledge of aircraft maintenance and the PBY is tremendous! The Canso Crew was very fortunate to have him with us for 2 weeks. Rollie's wife Shirley had planned a golf trip with her lady friends and was worried about Rollie being left home alone but he said, "Don't worry about me - I'm going to Fairview to help the boys with the Canso project".
Lucky for us!!
THE LAST RIVET HAS BEEN RIVETED!!!!
The video below shows Don Wieben and Mark Bach, our structural engineer for the past few years, discussing the completion of the structural repairs of the airframe and the rebuilding of the nose section of C-FNJE.
