Canon A80
I drove to Hamilton (85km/53mi west) for the first time today, after passing by it at least a dozen times in the past five months. If David had more than a few days to join me in Toronto last summer we would’ve visited the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at the Hamilton Airport, but I only got around to seeing it today. When I packed up the house in Scranton in January, I found a brochure for the museum and reminded myself to make a trip once I got settled in Toronto.
I arrived in the morning when there were only a few cars in the parking lot, so it was quiet enough for me to talk to the volunteers. Nearly all of the warbirds in the museum are airworthy or close (except for three?), and I was told that membership to the museum included a ride in one of the planes. The newsletter says that the DC-3 will be available for member rides on Oct 28th and Nov 4th, so I bought a membership today to see if I can go up in it — I’ve never flown on a DC-series plane. (David had, I think in San Diego?) The person who books the flights won’t be in the office until Tuesday, so I won’t be able to find out before then. If the DC-3 is booked, I’ll try to go up in the Beech. I don’t think they’ll be flying over the winter and those rides are only on Saturdays, so I don’t have many chances left this season.
I spent hours in the museum photographing the collection, which drew the attention of volunteers who were enthusiastic to pass on their knowledge. From what I could gather, one of them was retired from the Canadian Forces and patiently explained to me the story behind the sabre-tooth tiger paint scheme seen here. He demonstrated how the aerodynamics of the plane slowed the speed of the surrounding air to make it subsonic during supersonic flight, and I tried to take it all in before moving on to the story of the next exhibit. My brain gets preoccupied just trying to ID the planes.
It’s a good thing I bought a membership — there’s no way I’d be able to retain everything I read/heard/saw today. David was the walking aviation encyclopedia, and I imagined him trotting around the museum hangar the way he did on CAP field trips, explaining the physics and history behind the machinery. He would’ve loved this place.
I uploaded a batch of photos from the museum, available here:
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
I’ve got some WWII exhibit photos to upload tomorrow, not of airplanes but various wartime paraphernalia.
Oh, and the museum also has an interesting exhibit about the G-suit, an invention that I didn’t know was Canadian until today!
— from Allan & Cheryl
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