Bought a Fairchild 24

[Dave Hadfield]

Very cool little ship, Steve! What is it, other than schooner-rigged? I love that stuff -- even made a squaresail for our ketch.

Rob E is OK -- had a stint put in, I believe. He's mostly annoyed at being sidelined, although pleased to be still alive.

Dave

[K225]

Glad to hear Rob's doing well, was over working on the Hurri today progressing 2 steps ahead, three back!
The schooner La Revenante is a 30-ton replica of an 18th Century New England “pinky” schooner built in 1762 and used by James Cook to chart Newfoundland and Labrador.
Her purpose is to serve as an historical display and voyaging vessel in support of historical pageantry, re-enactments, community commemorations of aspects of North American colonial marine history. Currently we are portraying an 1812 gun ship, either American or British depending on the event.
This is at the flight of the Royal George event in Bath and Kingston Ontario. We were part of the American squadron chasing the Royal George depicted by the US Brig Niagara. The shots show the US Squadron in Kingston Harbour, and the Brig Niagara barreling down on us.
Now for the warbird connection, her builder had been a USAAF Mustang driver in WW2. See I can't get away from those warbirds!

[Dave Hadfield]

Wonderful!!!

Dave

[Canso42]

Hi Dave and co., I'm catching up on what's always been an interesting and entertaining thread. Notice that Dave is always surrounded by very attractive women?
I love that little airplane barrel train at the fly-in! Seems like a good project to copy.

[Dave Hadfield]

You mean like this?



Our friend Marilyn R, who is not a pilot but who did great, beating herself up if she gained 40 ft of altitude.

Here's one from last August, of Robin about to taxi over to the gas pumps at Gatineau, with John A in the Spit on a test flight after a long down-spell. (She enjoyed the gassing-up. Her first solo in the airplane.)



Then later I flew the RV6 there and to Rockcliffe to help with the first tryout of the Hucks Starter on the CASM Museum's Hawker Hind. Here's CEO Rob Fleck in the Cornell as we happen to taxi out together.

[Dave Hadfield]

This is a bit different. I took it from the cockpit of the Hurri while we were waiting for the F-18 to get out of the way, at the airshow in Sept. I looked up into my rear-view mirror and saw the 4 Merlin props ticking away....



Same with this one, taken from the Hurri while we were waiting. The P-40 is out of the frame.



I was walking through the Museum during the Hucks event, and saw this poster of my brother. Couldn't resist.

[K225]

What bothers me is your looking a little stiff compared to Chris!

[K5DH]

"OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR"

(Great shot, Dave!)

[Dave Hadfield]

Yeah, Chris spreads himself pretty thin.

Flew the Fairchild to Stan the Mechanic's place in Grand Valley to plan the Annual. We did a compression check to see if a cylinder would have to come off. If so, then we'd do it at my hangar at Alliston. If not, we'll do it at his place later. Verdict, and Big Sigh Of Relief: compressions were OK, and it should be a straightforward Annual at his place.



This is an odd combination, a Acroduster with a Gipsy Major engine. Stan bought it himself. Says it's great, and the airplane was very undervalued because folks would have preferred a Lycoming. But of course since he rebuilds Gipsies, it was a natural fit.



He also has a nice Auster in there.



Here is Stan annealing the spark plug washers before re-installing.

[Dave Hadfield]

The Hucks event went very well. Background: my Dad was commissioned by VWoC to build a Hucks Starter from scratch, for use in the Hawker Fury we have under restoration. He spent a solid year building it, and then we tested it on the Hawker Hind at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum at Rockcliffe, Ottawa.

Here it is on the farm a year earlier, during its first test, using Dad's Stampe SV4B.



Here I am at Rockcliffe, re-aquainting myself with the uniqueness of the Model T transmission. (That's a ride-business Waco UPF7 on the left, and our RV6a on the right.)



Here is my brother Phil giving Mike Potter, Founder of VWoC, a checkout.



It works!


Peter Handley photo

You gotta love the Hawker biplanes...



Dave

[Andrew Semon]

Dave, You mentioned a Hawker Fury that you have under restoration...is this a family project?

Love forward to seeing the Hucks Starter in action next year...sure makes for an easier start on the Hind.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Dave Hadfield]

Andrew, the Fury is a Vintage Wings project. It's happening in Toronto. We haven't done a story, on the website, just yet. It's no particular secret, but we will probably wait for the next significant completion milestone before we publish anything.

Dave

[Andrew Semon]

Thanks Dave, I look forward to seeing a VWoC article on their project as things start to come together.

I have heard many different stories about the Rockcliffe Hawker Hind used in your demostration below...was it restored to airworthly standards? Everyone I ask seems to have a different answer these days..

Cheers
Andrew

[Dave Hadfield]

The Hind was never permitted to fly, a fact that very much disappointed its restorer, George Neal, the famous De Havilland Canada test pilot.

It was indeed restored to flying standards. But I have no idea about the documentation of the aircraft, which is a gigantic hurdle. To gain a C of A or a Flight Permit for it would involve a great deal of expensive investigation. A paper trail would have to be established.

It's do-able, but very unlikely. Currently the CASM has no flying aircraft.

Dave

[Dave Hadfield]

Got through the Annual OK, no real issues. But I have GOT to re-plumb things behind the engine so that I can get at the oil screen more easily. It's a solid hour of irritating knuckle-busting work to remove it now -- things have to be removed to allow access. I need to replace a metal tube with a flexible hose, an oil return line, so that I can gain 6" of clearspace and thus fit a hand with a wrench in it back there. A good winter project.

Didn't take many pictures -- too busy. Here's Stan working on the carb heat rigging. Good thing he did -- the cable was chafing, the valve was creeping open, and as I climbed away later from his airstrip I noticed I got 40 more RPM when at full throttle and the same airspeed. (The fellow on the wheel is one of the several pilots who landed during the day, to experience Stan's lovely smooth grass strip, and come into the hangar to offer valuable advice.)



Had a very interesting flight to Chile. The cycle involved a red-eye to Santiago, a 48 hour layover, a turn to Buenos Aires and back, another 48 hour layover, then a red-eye home. I picked it for the novelty -- never flown to SA before, and Robin came along to enjoy the mini-vacation. On the first layover we went gliding. The Vitacura club is located right within Santiago, tucked alongside a multi-lane highway. Some of my crew joined me and off we went.

Here's Robin getting tucked in.



They used a Super Cub with a 4-bladed prop to tow. Also an extended exhaust/muffler. The airplane made hardly any noise at all -- good neighbour initiative. The Andes are right there and they tow you close before casting-off.