Need space?

[DGP]

One of my ground school instructors at Canadore flew spits in WW2...Ross Linguest was the fellows name...

2 hours ago, ray said:

No, this Spitfire came from the US. It is the lowest time original Spitfire. Built in 1945 just as the war ended. Has around 150 hours on it.

That ship would be worth some jingle!

[robottxt]

The mosquito is worth way more.  Apparently 30 are left and only 4 are airworthy.  Bobs is airworthy.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_de_Havilland_Mosquitos

[BigSkyHeli]

5 hours ago, ray said:

No, this Spitfire came from the US. It is the lowest time original Spitfire. Built in 1945 just as the war ended. Has around 150 hours on it.

This Spitfire is a rare two seater, and it came to Canada after it came off the production line towards the end of the war for high altitude cold weather testing. I believe It was specifically designed to be a reconnaissance aircraft as it has a camera mount in the floor in front of the rear seat.

It eventually ended up in the US which is where I believe Bob bought it from.

A few months after it showed up in the Penta hangar in YVR I watched it being towed onto the ramp. 10 minutes later Bob walks out and gets into the cockpit. I figured he might just sit there and make spitfire noises.....

Nope.....Bob starts it’s up, which was was one the coolest sounds I could have ever hope to witness.

I thought wow, that’s pretty cool that Bob knows how to start her!

After a couple minutes of warm up I hear Bob advance the throttle and the Spit starts to taxi on the ramp. After approximately 25 meters I see that the left front main gear wheel is about to enter the sloped area that leads to the big drain on the ramp. Yup, in goes the wheel causing the aircraft to bounce a little. This obviously scared Bob enough that he hammered on the brakes and suddenly up came the tail with the prop now hovering inches from the ramp!!!!

It seemed liked it lasted seconds but probably was less than 2, and down popped the tail, all good no damage .....except i think to Bob’s shorts.

He shut her down right there and then with the Spit sitting awkwardly on the ramp. Bob crawled out, never making eye contact with anyone and headed back upstairs.

I never saw it leave the hangar again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DGP]

2 hours ago, robottxt said:

The mosquito is worth way more.  Apparently 30 are left and only 4 are airworthy.  Bobs is airworthy.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_de_Havilland_Mosquitos

I find it interesting that Spartan Air Services owned 2 of them...my buddy..RIP...flew for them.

[spartan]

HI DGP

The Spartan Mosquito's are what my Dad worked on as his first job in Ottawa when he left the Coal mines of Alberta.

I believe one is in Naton being restored and the other is in Edmonton. 

[DGP]

11 hours ago, spartan said:

HI DGP

The Spartan Mosquito's are what my Dad worked on as his first job in Ottawa when he left the Coal mines of Alberta.

I believe one is in Naton being restored and the other is in Edmonton. 

Very cool...I was over in Trenton at the Aviation Museum about 2 years ago...they are restoring a Lancaster bomber that use to sit at the airport in Edmunston NB...they actually asked me if I wanted to help them work on restoring it...I said that is a long commute from NB.