Wing and a Prayer
Tommy Siers – The Man Who Solved the Cold Thomas (Tommy) Siers was born on May 13, 1896 in Yorkshire, England. He started his career overhauling and servicing aircraft with the Canadian Air Force in January 1922. After a brief stint with Huff-Daland Aero Corporation in Ogdensburg, NY, he returned to Canada to work for the [...]
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Original Article By Bruce Bowles Remember the by-gone days of frost shields on car windows? They were installed every fall and removed every spring and they were required by law for winter driving. Did you know that airplanes back in the 1940s and 50s also used frost shields on the cockpit windows? Cabin heat wasn’t [...]
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There was no obstacle more frustrating to early Canadian bush pilots than the cold weather. Each night, the oil was drained and both the oil and the engine were preheated the following morning before re-installing the oil. This was a time-consuming, laborious and at times hazardous job involving a gasoline “blow pot”. Though highly effective, they [...]
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We’re cleaning out our library and archives and have surplus magazine titles available. If you’d like to fill in missing issues, or catch up on a specific issue, here’s a list of our surplus. Magazines are $1.00/each for first 10 magazines and $.50/each for any over 10 (plus shipping and handling). If you’d like more [...]
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Wilfrid “Wop” May was born in Carberry, MB, in 1896 and grew up in Edmonton, AB. Inspired by images of aircraft on the front during the First World War, May joined the Canadian Army and eventually was accepted into the British Royal Flying Corps School of Instruction. He was still a rookie pilot in April [...]
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In 1927, Western Canada Airways landed a contract to move men and approximately eight tons of equipment to Churchill Manitoba as part of a survey to determine the location of a northern seaport. The company purchased two open-cockpit Fokker Universals for the contract. To ensure that the aircraft would perform as advertised, Fokker sent one [...]
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Hudson Bay Post, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut On August 24, 1929, an expedition party of eight prospectors led by Colonel MacAlpine – president of a Toronto mining company called Dominion Explorers – set out with two single-motor planes and rushed into the Arctic hoping to stake claims in a rich copper find they heard was to be opened [...]
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Andrew Mynarski In 1941, Winnipeg’s Andrew Mynarski enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He trained at the British Commonwealth Air Training bases at Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, and MacDonald, Manitoba and graduated in 1942 as a mid-upper air-gunner. He went overseas in December 1942 and was eventually posted to 419 (Moose) Squadron to fly as [...]
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We’ve cleaned house and have discovered surplus aircraft manuals on planes from early props to jets, bush, military and civil. We also have surplus blueprints (eg. Cessna, DC 4, 6, 7, 8, 9) Fokker Friendship). If you are interested, please contact us at info@wcam.mb.ca. Prices $5 – $50 plus shipping Surplus Magazines Looking for a [...]
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If you look at the back right-hand side of a Canadian $10 bill, you will see an old veteran standing at attention near the Ottawa war memorial. His name is Robert Metcalfe and he died in 2008 at the age of 90. That he managed to live to that age is rather remarkable, given what [...]
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