Save the Canso - Update
We almost got engines!
by Doug Roy on 09/08/10
It was close - the deal for low hour engines/props off a DC3 was tentatively made - Don & Marg Wieben and Brian & Karen Wilson were packed and ready to go to Oshkosh, WI to run the engines, check oil screens, leak test cylinders and hopefully remove everything from the aircraft when we got concerned about the overhaul history and long idle times on the engines. It was a tough decision as these were exactly the right engines and props and the price seemed fair.
Our Canso Crew discussion was also based on the fact that it would be at least a year before the engines would be needed and existing funds can certainly be used to complete other scheduled repairs.
Things are a little slow with the restoration!
by Doug Roy on 08/16/10
After all our excitement with the Fly-In Breakfast and our visit from Mr. Bob Ellis, former rigger with the RCAF who actually worked on and flew in FNJE during WWII, from 1941-43, things have been a little slow. We are all involved with harvest in the Peace River Country – which is about 3 week earlier than usual.
Watch for an announcement regarding ENGINES/PROPS in the near future.
Thanks,
The Canso Crew
FLY-IN Breakfast a great success!
by Doug Roy on 07/26/10
It was a great morning at the Fairview Airport as about 250 people gathered to have breakfast, watch aircraft landing, check the many small planes on the tarmac and to visit with the pilots and their friends. For the first time in 20 years a Fly-In breakfast, hosted by the Fairview Aircraft Restoration Society, the Town of Fairview and Municipal District of Fairview, brought together flying enthusiasts from through-out the area. Everyone seemed to have good time and many enjoy the short trip to the nearby shop where the Canso is being restored, for a tour. Everyone had a chance to visit with our special guest, Bob Ellis, from Vancouver. Bob was stationed in Nova Scotia during World War II - from 1941-43, and worked on several Cansos as a rigger (airframe mechanic) and specifically on FNJE. Mr. Ellis is with us for a few days so we are trying to listen to and record many of the spell-binding stories of his time with the RCAF and time spent working on and flying in this Canso.
Thanks to everyone for their support!
FLY-IN BREAKFAST - July 25, 2010
by Doug Roy on 07/19/10
July 25, 2010
Everyone is welcome to the Fairview Aircraft Restoration Society Fly-In Breakfast at the Fairview Airport - breakfast starts at 8 AM - tours of the Canso will be available. CASARA will be there to explain the importance of search and rescue in the Peace Country.
Special thanks to the Town of Fairview and the MD of Fairview for their help and support for the breakfast.
A special visitor at the breakfast will be a gentleman named Bob Ellis from Vancouver. Bob was stationed in Nova Scotia from 1941-43 during WWII and was present when the first Cansos were delivered, including FNJE. He flew in the Canso often, inluding to Iceland where he was also stationed for a period of time. We look forward to meeting Mr. Ellis at the Fly-In and listen to, and hopefully record, some of his memories of this historic aircraft.
Great News for FNJE and the Canso Crew
by Doug Roy on 07/12/10
After several months of structural work, today was a moment of truth for the Canso. We have had Mark Bach, a structural engineer from Kelowna, working on many repairs to the aircraft but the area that was of our greatest concern was the pylon, the area where the fuselage meets the wing, which had been significantly damaged during the hard landing, sinking and subsequent recovery of the fire-fighting Canso from the waters of Sitidgi Lake, near Inuvik, NWT.
We were concerned that the wing would not correctly fit back on the fuselage after the repairs were done (in spite of Mark's well founded confidence that everything would be all right). It was just a matter of having to lift the wing and make sure it would work.
Well, that is exactly what happened this morning! FNJE was pushed half way out of the shop and placed under the wing which was waiting suspended by two grain bin cranes and a farm tractor loader. The wing was then carefully lowered to the pylon. It took a little shifting this way and that way but before long the two pins, connecting the wing to the fuselage, slipped into place. Like a hand in a glove. What a great relief!
We talked about it after the work-bee and realized that this was the moment when we knew for sure we had a viable project! Canso PBY 5A C-FNJE will fly again!
CBC Radio - Donna McElligott interviews Don Wieben and Henry Dechant
by Doug Roy on 07/02/10
It was great to have Donna McElligott, host of the CBC Radio show - alberta@noon, visit with us at the project near Fairview, Alberta a few months ago. Donna was very interested in the restoration of the Canso FNJE and talked to Don and Henry about the rescue portion of the project in Inuvik, as well as current work in progress and plans for the future. The show first aired on June 30th, 2010 - the introduction is below.
Several farmers from Fairview have turned their love of aircrafts and military history into an important restoration project. The Fairview Aircraft Restoration Society has formed to retrieve, restore and one day fly an old Canso aircraft. Donna caught up with Don Wieben and Henry Dechant in a huge shed at a local farm where they were working on the plane they pulled from a lake near Inuvik, NWT.
(To listen to the show please click on the link below)
http://www.cbc.ca/albertaatnoon/2010/06/the-canso-project.html
C-FNJE welcomes EAA members!
by Doug Roy on 07/01/10
Recently Jack Dueck, Editor of Bits and Pieces, visited with Henry Dechant in Fairview, AB and toured FNJE and our restoration project. Mr. Dueck was very interested in the project and has subsequently written an excellent article for EAA, The Spirit of Aviation. Please follow the link below:
http://www.eaa.org/bitsandpieces/articles/2010-06_casno.asp
Thank you, Jack, for your interest and a well written history of this historic aircraft..
Important visitor to FNJE
by Doug Roy on 05/31/10
Some of the Canso Crew had an opportunity to meet with the Honourable Lloyd Snelgrove, President of Treasury Board, for the Province of Alberta, on May 17, 2010. The appointment was scheduled with Minister Snelgrove as part of a four Minister Tour to Fairview so Don Wieben and Henry Dechant met with him, talked about our project and showed him a few of our pictures. Henry told me later that "Mr. Snelgrove immediately became excited about what he was seeing and after a few minutes asked where this project was being worked on. We told him it was about 5 minutes out of town and he then asked if he could see it. We, of course, agreed to take him out so we gave him about a 15 minute tour which seemed to impress him even more. He indicated that he had grown up in an aviation connected family and his father had worked on or built a home built aircraft. He indicated that he would - see what he could do - when we advised him that we our grant application had been turned down."
We were very encouraged by his visit and hope to have a follow-up soon.
October 2008 - NTCL Barges The Canso from Inuvik to Hay River - about 1000 km on the MacKenzie River, then on to Fairview, AB with help from Capstan Hauling and many others
by Doug Roy on 05/03/10
SALVAGING HISTORY
By Keith Gerein, Calgary Herald
For the next stage of the journey, the plan was to turn south. The Canso was to be hooked up to a truck that would carefully transport it along 2,500 kilometres of highway to Fairview.
But another business owner from Inuvik -- a man who provided a free satellite phone to Wieben -- had a better idea. He suggested the plane instead be dragged north through Inuvik to the shipyards of the Northern Transportation Company Ltd.
The man said a friend of his with the transport company would put the plane on a Mackenzie River barge. The barge would drop it off in Hay River, N.W.T., near the Alberta border, saving Wieben's crew days of aggravation on the highway.
Agreeing to this new proposal, the group still had one obstacle to overcome. The trip to the shipyard was via a road that appeared too narrow to handle the aircraft.
The Canso's wingspan was originally 32 metres, but about three metres of the right side had broken off in the 2001 crash. Wieben's crew decided to cut off another three metres that had to be replaced anyway, which shortened the width just enough to get it down the road.
"We made it with about two feet of space to spare between the power poles," Wieben says.
As promised by the barge company, the Canso showed up in Hay River a few months later, in October.
But to tow the plane back to Fairview, Wieben again needed a favour. This time, a trucking company from Grande Prairie came to his aid by loaning him a special double-drop trailer -- a device that ensured the 19-metre-long plane rode low enough to travel underneath highway overpasses.
"We were basically strangers out of the blue, but the co-operation we got from people throughout the trip was just amazing," Wieben says.
After removing the top wing and loading it onto a separate trailer, the two sections of the aircraft were driven south to a welcome in Fairview, where it was put on display last summer for six weeks.
Despite all the work that went into rescuing the plane, Wieben says that was just Phase 1 of a three-part process. The second phase will be to determine if the plane can be restored to flying condition. If so, the plan is to operate it as a heritage airplane and fly it to various air shows around the country. Roy also hopes to take it to small northern communities for short visits, allowing children to learn a little about Canadian aviation history.
So far, the repair process has been daunting. Canso parts are hard to find and expensive, and the group will have to pay for certified engineers to do some of the work. Wieben believes it may cost up to $300,000 to get the plane airborne.
He hopes people will come forward with donations of money, parts or aircraft expertise. The group is also considering selling shares in the plane or applying for heritage and educational grants from the government.
Should the repair process fall short, Wieben says the plane will likely be turned into a static display that people can visit.
"All of us in the group can put some money into it, but none of us are wealthy," he said of the six members of the "Canso Crew," all of whom are in their 60s except for Luken. "We've got it this far, but there's a chance for so much more."
"Whenever I turn on the TV news at night, all I hear is the negative -- a killing in Afghanistan, a murder in Vancouver," Wieben says.
"But the experience of Canada we had being involved with this Canso is so much different. We met so many great people that helped us achieve our goal.
"And this is just a little story. Six farmers bring a derelict airplane out of the North. And yet it was such a great adventure."
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/SALVAGING+HISTORY/2593025/story.html#ixzz0mvkdJHXK
FUNDING DISAPPOINTMENT
by Doug Roy on 05/03/10
We mentioned awhile ago that the Fairview Aircraft Restoration Society (FARS) had applied for funding under the Community Initiatives Program (CIP), a Project-Based Grant program from the Alberta Government. Well, I'm sorry to report that we were turned down, this time around. We can re-apply by the end of May - so the plan is to find out what went wrong and try again. There seems to be a lot of groups looking for a share of the same small pot of money these days!
Money to help finance the project is becoming more important every day as we get further into the FNJE restoration so if you have any suggestions for finding funding, donations or sponsors please contact us. Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Planning to be sucessful..... Edmonton Journal/Calgary Herald
by Doug Roy on 04/27/10
SALVAGING HISTORY
High arctic rescue mission launched for Canadian war plane
By Keith Gerein, Calgary Herald
And Wieben knew it all had to be done within a short window of time in early spring -- a part of the year when there was still snow on the ground, but temperatures were mild enough to work in.
Slowly, with the help of some friends and neighbours, an assignment that at first seemed impossible began to move closer to reality.
First to sign up were Joe Gans and Brian Wilson, who set to work welding together a pair of long skis that would fit around the Canso's wheels. Norbert Luken then joined in, along with Henry Dechant and Doug Roy, who used aerial photos to sketch out a route through the tundra.
The skis would allow the plane to slide across the snow, but the group also needed a machine strong enough to pull the plane, yet light enough to avoid damaging the tundra.
For help, Wieben visited a local seismograph services firm, which had a light track machine called a Yanmar. The firm's owner, after hearing Wieben's story about the mission, agreed to loan the vehicle at no charge. It was to be the first of several occasions the group received charity from people they barely knew.
Finally, during the first week of April 2008, Wieben, Gans, Luken and Wilson set out for Inuvik in a pair of one-tonne trucks and trailers carrying all the equipment.
Arriving in the Arctic town 48 hours later, the group used snowmobiles, the Yanmar and the help of a local guide, Albert Frost, to trek out to the plane.
Over the next five or six days, the men camped in Frost's tent beside the aircraft, working in limited daylight and -35 C cold to prepare the Canso for its journey.
Once the skis were securely attached, the first part of the moving operation called for the Yanmar to pull the plane across the frozen lake to the south shore.
The machine worked, barely, but progress was agonizingly slow. Carrying such a load, the Yanmar could travel six kilometres per hour. The group had to leave the plane on the lake overnight and come back the next day to finish the trip.
Even more difficult was the next leg of the journey -- traversing 30 kilometres of tundra to the Dempster Highway.
No longer on the smooth surface of the lake, the Yanmar struggled in the deep snow. To get anywhere, the men were forced to go ahead with their snowmobiles and pack down the trail.
"After two days, we were only halfway across the tundra," Wieben recalls. "It was taking us a lot longer than we expected and we were in a bit of a race. There was a forecast of warm weather coming and we knew we had to be off the tundra before the snow melted."
By that time, Dechant and Roy had flown to Inuvik to help. In town, they contacted a local business owner who agreed to send out a driver with a snow-cat, a bigger and more powerful machine than the Yanmar. Such service could have cost up to $10,000, but the owner refused to charge Wieben's crew anything, agreeing instead to take a free ride on the plane if it ever became airworthy.
At 11 p.m. the next day, the plane made it to the highway.
"That was a great moment," Roy says. "It was a celebration to have accomplished that much, even though we knew we had a long way to go."
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/SALVAGING+HISTORY/2593025/story.html#ixzz0mMVHAEBA
Saving the Canso - Edmonton Journal/Calgary Herald
by Doug Roy on 04/23/10
The adventure started in late 2006. Wieben was in Didsbury visiting his youngest son when they decided to take a visit to the Red Deer airport.
On the tarmac were three Cansos belonging to Buffalo Airways, a company that provides passenger, cargo and other air services primarily in the Northwest Territories. The Cansos were being used as water bombers to fight forest fires.
The caretaker allowed Wieben a closer look at the old planes and told him they were up for sale because the federal government had decided to give the water bombing contracts to newer aircraft. At least two of the Cansos were headed for new owners in the United States.
Wieben knew something of the Cansos' role in the Second World War. He also figured that of the several hundred that had been built in Canada, few were likely still around.
"I thought it was a shame that these historic airplanes were being sold outside the country. I stopped in to see (Buffalo Airways owner) Joe McBryan a little later and I was giving him static about it. I told him he should keep one as a heritage airplane."
McBryan had his own idea. He told Wieben that if he wanted to save a Canso, there was one sitting by itself in the Far North.
Canso 11094, as it was known during the war, was built in 1943 and often flew between Canada's East Coast and Iceland on submarine hunting patrols.
After the war, it was converted into a water bomber and went through a few owners before Buffalo Airways purchased it for firefighting duty in the Northwest Territories.
The plane's service ended abruptly in 2001. Based in Inuvik, the plane was conducting a training exercise picking up water from nearby Sitidgi Lake when something went wrong. The aircraft dug its nose into the water, damaging the front wheel well and right wing. It sank before the crew could save it.
Deciding it would be too costly to retrieve and repair the plane, the company instead dragged it to the northeast shore so they could remove its valuable equipment, including the engines, propellers and some of the instruments. The rest of the aircraft remained on the side of the lake, abandoned in the cold.
"I made a deal with McBryan to buy the plane 'as is, where is' for a relatively small amount of money," Wieben says. "That's where it started, and then we had to figure out how we were going to move 15,000 pounds (6,818 kilograms) of Canso out of the bush."
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/SALVAGING+HISTORY/2593025/story.html#ixzz0lz8VvX9J
How the Canso FNJE got to Fairview, AB (Edmonton Journal/Calgary Herald)
by Doug Roy on 04/23/10
Funding
by Doug Roy on 04/22/10
Our operating wing of the project, Fairview Aircraft Restoration Society, applied for funding in late December, 2009 under the Community Initiatives Program (CIP), a Project-Based Grant. This program is funded by the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Lottery Fund in order to build strong communities and enhance the quality of life for Albertans. We haven't heard whether our application has been approved but we were assured that we would receive a letter in the next 2 or 3 weeks. We had applied for $75,000 for this 2nd phase of the project and at the time we told that it was a good project for their consideration. We are all hoping the news is positive as it will make the world of difference on the viability of the restoration. We will keep you posted
This week's work-bee cancelled!
by Doug Roy on 04/20/10
The regular Wednesday night Canso Night has been cancelled for this week because of spring work. Work goes on each day however with Mark Bach, Don Wieben, Henry Dechant and Brian Wilson working away on FNJE.
