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Aviation & Flight InformationBush Sedans - Canada's Bush Plane Museum
by:
Kriss Hammond
Bush Sedans – Canada’s Bush Plane Museum
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I found a gem of an aviation repository
spell on a Hapaq-Lloyd German Cruise Lines voyage of the Great Lakes.
The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre is settled in the historic former Ontario Provincial Air Service repair shed at the edge of the St. Mary's Stream in business district Sault Ste. Marie (often called the Soo), Ontario, Canada. The innovational repair shed dates back to the 1940s; this is wherever
bush piloting started, as well as firefighting victimisation belly drops of water and chemicals.
Sault Ste. Marie is really two cities separating the USA and Canada, split by the St. Mary’s Stream and likewise is the industrial hub for the lock system that raises and lowers ships from Lake Lake
to Lake Superior. The C. Columbus, the Nassau, Country registered ship that I was cruising on, was not due to channel the locks until late that night, so a stroll a few blocks down Bay Street on the Canadian and larger of the two Soos (100,000 plus) found me piloting my way to the "Yellowbird" museum.
The bush planes are all in the innovational 1948 era hangar, and I have the chance to finish and visit with the renovation crew and mechanics clangorous away on steel and aluminum. They perform superb jobs to bring new life back into the rare and often still serviceable and flyable relics.
The Beaver was built about the blueprint of a pickup truck, or so I knowing from a fun film presentation at the Wings Over The North Theater, adjacent to the hangar. The Beaver is still flying bush patrols throughout North american country and the world, and it is one of the most rugged, dependable, and far-famed of the bush planes. A Beaver turboprop version rests a few yards away, and it still works, too.
The Canadian built deHavilland DHC-2 Beaver is a classic plane 1st constructed in 1948 and it is the second Beaver to ever be built, and the 1st of 44 purchased by the Air Service, and the oldest Beaver still flying, settled near the Fire Camp, a replical of a typical Decennary fire crew camp, complete with tent, radio, and gear.
The deHavilland Mk III Turbo Beaver, once
compared to the standard Beaver, has a rotary engine
hopped-up engine that carries additional passengers, climbs and cruises faster, and has a higher service ceiling. The turbo’s snout is much tapered than the blunt pug-nosed Beaver, and the engine is hundreds of pounds lighter, thus needing a bigger tail, according to one of the bush plane engineers. Engines are still to this day ground tested after overhauling and before fastened back into use on the planes inside
the hangar.
Many of the planes were used to deliver medicine and supplies, air ferry fishermen and hunters into the hinterlands, or to spot forest fires.
The story of the Beaver unveils in the theater through Pilot Ron and his canine co-pilot Charlie's adventures, a story that is brought to life through objects and artifacts right in the theatre, and with the use of special lighting and environmental effects that do for an memorable flight.
The Centre honors the activity of bush pilots, a necessary geographic region career that opened up the Canadian north, spell the Ontario Provinicial Air Service or OPAS vie
a major role in protective
Ontario’s forests. The Air Service was established in 1924 and the 1st repair shed was erected that year. The present repair shed was built in 1948 on the same spot, exchange the older building, but it too was declared surplus in 1991 once
newer technology and bigger planes were housed at a new facility across town at the Sault Federal Airport.
The old bush base was formed into a non-profit-making corporation and the plane ollection continues to grow with each new donation. The repository
takes in no government funds to renovate these historic and often antique planes. Most of the funding comes from ticket and gift store sales and memberships of those interested in bush planes. You can even as join in the fun and get the Centre's newsletter.
The Silver Dart is the 1st plane to greet me flying over the museum's lobby near the gift shop. The reproduction
is of the 1st craft
to do hopped-up flight in Canada.
The Noordayn Norse was designed in 1935, and is one of the 1st planes built for Canadian bush flying. The Centre’s example, serial #17, was built in late 1938 and is now the oldest operational Norse in the world.
The deHavilland DHC-3 Otter was introduced in 1953, and it carried on with the tradition of the Beaver; the Centre’s version was damaged in a forced landing north of Moosonee in 1986.
The Centre’s version of the Fairchild Husky is one of the rarest examples of this plane, and it is nearing completion of a total overhaul . The Husky was designed in 1946, an early competition of the Beaver, but even as with the advantage of superior freight handling, the Husky was underpowered and only 12 were ever built.
Canadair CL215 was designed in 1978, and was the 1st purpose-built water bomber. It is capable of picking up over 5,000 liters of water at a time for fire drops.
The Centre’s Great Lakes Trainer was once a in private closely-held plane from the 1930s, built from scratch by long time pilot and air engineer, Guy Laroque.
The Centre even as has a few helicopters on display; the most notable is the Bell 470, improved to the innovational configuration and closely-held by the Ontario Lands and Forest, qualitative analysis
from 1953. The heavier-than-air craft is the 1st to be closely-held by a government agency in Canada.
The Grumman Hunter is an ex-U.S. Navy carrier based anti-submarine craft
that was declared surplus by the military and later regenerate
to a chemical fire bomber. The plane is painted in the colors of its donors, Conair of Abbostford, British Columbia.
The Republic Seabee is a postwar amphibious craft
designed for commercial use but is much popular as a recreational plane.
The above mentioned bush planes are but a small highlight of what awaits you at the msueum. The Centre likewise houses a Flight Cent re with exhibits, flight simulating computers, a Beech 18 cockpit, simulated flights in a Beaver, a Link Trainer, and a pilot ability test. The flight adventure machine
takes me on a flight over Sault Ste. Marie and the local landmarks, following the ACR Tour train and I experience the thrill of fighting a forest fire. Many an of the 1st and much modern bush pilots mug shots are forever placarded in black and white drawings.
You don’t have to use one of the vintage radios to get in contact with the Bushplane Heritage Centre.
Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre
50 Pim Street
(just off Bay St .)
Sault Ste. Marie ,
ON P6A 3G4 Canada
705/945-6242
fax: 702/942-8947
www.bushplane.com
I happen to stumble into the wrong theater to hear a fire fighting lecture before effort ousted to the proper theater. The lightning locater is a real time computer based system that records all lightning strikes in Eastern North America and it is a vital component of the sophisticated fire prediction system based in Sault Ste. Marie.
Read this entire feature FREE with photos at
http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/sports02/adventure/flight/bushplanes/bushplane.html
By Kriss Hammond - Jetsetters Magazine Editor - at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
Just about the Author
Kriss Hammond Jetsetters Magazine. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logotype at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
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