Warbird Information Exchange

The two pictures below from the mid 70's show the Cansos at George Ventress's farm just west of Brighton, Ontario. After WWII George and his wife Gwen hauled many obsolete RCAF aircraft by trailer back to their farm high atop a hill over looking Lake Ontario. Many salvaged parts found new homes in farm equipment.

I'm not sure which airframe, but one of the Canso's is now at Harold Carlaw's Memorial Military Museum in Campbellford about 30 minutes north of Brighton. I'm am quite sure that Harold's Cessna Crane came from George too.

George and his family traveled to Expo 67 in Montreal aboard Sad Sack, the Canso turned house boat.

Unfortunately George passed away about 10 years ago. He was an extremely talented individual.

Sad Sack was sold to a group in the US. Does anyone know what has happened to her since?




Regards,

Wow...great story

Pardon for not beeing up to date on my Ontario geography......But where is Brighton ? or Campbellford for that mather.

The one in Campbellford, is it complete ?

Tks for sharing Mike. Its surprising the amount of story that comes out of Canada on individuals that preserved for a reason or another WW2 stuff.

Is it me or does one of those in the group shot look EXACTLY like the one that's stored in the barn at Geneseo? Anyone who was at the airshow in 2004 remember us going to look at it? Post the photo here so we can get a looksee!

Ryan Keough

That was the first thing that ran through my mind, ok the second, Horror was the first.

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Brighton is about 15-20 minutes west of Trenton and Campbellford is straight north from Brighton.

From what I remember from my last visit a few years ago the Canso at Carlaw's still sits outside and is pretty much in the same condition as the airframes shown in the top image.

Anyone got a picture of the airframe at Geneseo?

Brighton is about and hour east of Toronto.

Mike

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Mike R. Henniger
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Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
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looks as if he's the soplata of canada!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

The Soplata of Canada....

"In terms of gathering stuff. Not just finding and selling"

Was I think...Ernie Simonds

Wow, this is an interesting one.

Have never before heard any real detail about the Brighton aircraft graveyard; only pix I remember ever seeing were in the CWH archives over twenty years ago and, from what I recall, showed one Canso hull and the fuselage of an Anson V in apparently recently-applied TT stripes. Have heard of the "Sad Sack" houseboat as well, vaguely...

Saw Mr Carlaw's Canso hull a couple months ago in his fascinating collection at Campbellford; it's painted silver with A-type roundels and codes Z:DB (??) on one side, and is in the same state of completeness as the ones in Mike's pix (minus wings, tail/extreme rear fuselage, and undercart). Was pretty sure it had come from Brighton; thanx for the confirmation. Saw the Crane frame too, and the forward fuselage skeleton of an interesting very early Anson I with the raked-back windscreen...Anyway...

The TT-striped Anson fuselage later passed to Vince O'Connor at Uxbridge (saw it there in 1984), and a bit later (circa 85) was sitting out behind Hgr#3 at CWH. Anyone have any idea where it went next? It was pretty far gone by then...but still too good to toss away.

S.

Here are a few more pictures of the Ventress Farm on the Ventura Memorial Flight Association website.

http://www.rcafventura.ca/pages/archives/vfarm_pa.htm

Mike--

Wow! I assume that Ventura is long gone by now ...but it does remind me of something else I saw at the O'Connor property 21 years ago. Out at the back was what I thought at the time was the extreme nose of a Hudson, in the remains of brown and green camo. Was I seeing the last remains of this Ventura...?

S.

Ryan,

I thought you told me when we visited the PBY may may years ago that it came from Canada and it was converted into a boat. I just assumed it was a Ventress bird. That would make sense. Sad Sack is somewhere, one is with Carlaw, and one at Geneseo.

Jim

I am quite sure that everything on the property was sold after Mr. Ventress passed away.

I remember reading about Ernie Simonds' stash of Fairey Swordfish many years ago, but was unaware of the Ventress collection, despite having been through the Brighton area several times. I also remember someone had several Harvard airframes on a property not far from the Royal Botanical Gardens outside Hamilton a good twenty years ago or so. I once asked permission if I could go in and take some photos of them, but the person I assume was property owner, was terribly pleasant and told me to leave in no uncertain terms. Anybody know about these aircraft?

Neil H.

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Hi Neil--

The gent you refer to with the Harvard parts near Hamilton would be well-known lightplane-parts dealer Ken Gamble, whose (very) private airfield/storage yard was right beside Highway #6 North between Millgrove and Freelton (kind of an odd location to choose if you don't want anyone seeing what you have!). The fuselage and centre section of a Harvard Mk.II, RCAF 3270, was a landmark in his yard for decades. Ken passed away this past spring, and I have heard the Harvard hulk may soon be moving on after all these years. Also at Ken's were a number of Harvard wing panels and at least one wing from ill-fated restored Yale 3454. But most of the parts there came from various general-aviation types.

Cheers

S.