Hey Gang,
just the other day I went flying with a friend of mine from the Canadian Museum of Flight. His name's Bill Findley and he is one of the CMF pilots, as well as part owner of a Harvard Mk IV, and full owner of a Globe Swift.
About a year ago I had put in the winning bid for a flight with Bill in his Swift at the CMF's annual fundraising auction. I was entitled to a one hour flight and finally took advantage of it a few days ago. I have only found the time today to post pictures since I just got back from Toronto, where I visited the Canadian Warplane Heritage (in Mt. Hope) and the Canadian Air and Space Museum (In Downsview). I will post pictures of those two visits in the WIX hangar when I find the time.
Anyways... My flight with Bill in his Swift was wonderful. He has owned it for a very long time and it has been maintained in terrific condition. It's got a 145hp Lycoming (I think that's what he said) which was just overhauled and ran beautifully. The paint job is actually several decades old, but since it's always been hangared it still looks amazing. Bill was also a member of the local formation flying team known as the "Swift Birds." They would perform at practically all the local airshows with their 4 or 5 plane group with matching paint jobs and smoke systems.
We took off out of Langley Airport only to be presented with very low visibility due to the smoke from all of our local forest fires. There were no clouds, only haze and smoke. From Langley we proceeded to the Fraser River where we came across a couple airplanes parked on a sandbar in the middle of the river. They had set up camp and were clearly asking for a low-and-over from us. So, we notified Chilliwack Traffic of our intent to "inspect the landing area" and did so with a nice pull up and peel to the left. From there we carried on up to Harrison Lake for a look around. Conditions were nice and smooth considering seeing as we took off at 7:30pm when most of the heat of the day had dissipated, but it was still quite warm. Our OAT was indicating 23 C, and when we tried putting on the cabin air, it only made it hotter in the airplane. It wasn't too hot, but just a little toasty.
So on our way back from Harrison Lake Bill took the controls again and showed me how easily and willingly the little Swift could do barrel rolls. I hadn't been upside down in quite a while and it was great! We then carried on to beat up Pitt Meadows Airport, then back to Langley for a low pass and landing. In the end it was a great day and a great flight. Thank you Bill!
Peace,
David M
