The Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum B4A 3X5 The Atlantic ......ACAM’s Avenger is a TBM-3e which is a conversion of a TBM-3 with additional avionics. It was later converted to a TBM-3U

The Atlantic Canada Aviation Musuem NewletterWinter 2006

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DEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE AVIATION HERITAGE OF ATLANTIC CANADA

The Atlantic Canada Aviation MuseumHalifax International Airport

P.O. Box 440061658 Bedford Highway

Bedford, N.S.B4A 3X5

Website: http://acam.ednet.ns.caE-Mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Meeting Dates:

The next General Meeting of the ACAMMembership will not be until the Spring of2006.

Seasons Greetings to our membership andfriends.

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Avenger on DisplayIn this Issue:

- ACAM’s TBM Avenger on Exhibit- Annual General Meeting Report

- Museum Notes- Aviation Frequencies (Pt II)

and Much More

The Atlantic Canada Aviation Musuem NewletterWnter 2006

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Canada’s Only Fire-Fighting Avenger is at theAtlantic Canada Aviation Museum


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On Saturday October 1st, a smallgroup of New Brunswick Wing volunteersarrived at the Museum. It was a beautifulmorning with blue sky and warm tempera-tures. Their task, both fulfilling yet sad,was the final assembly of the Avenger atACAM. As a member of the Museum thathad been working to make sure that therewas enough space to display the Turkey,I was very excited to see the aircraft reas-sembled, but as it was the NB Wing’sshow, and the Halifax group steppedback to take it all in.

First, with a small group, we movedthe aircraft out of the hanger and downto the parking lot so the team would havelots of room to reassemble the aircraft,especially the mounting of the wings. Asthe morning progressed and more peoplearrived at the Museum to help or watch, Iwas able to slip away and observe from adistance as the N.B Crew worked and su-pervised others and I was amazed by thisdedicated crew. All of these gentlemenare retired, yet they could outwork most

people present, myself included! How-ever, while their work ethic was amazing,it was the tenderness with which the oldgirl was assembled that amazed me themost. While the crew worked hard andhad a good time, occasionally, you’d seea hand pat on the side of the fuselage ora certain look and you would know that itwas a hard day for these guys.

Assembly of the first wing took alittle while longer than anticipated butoverall was smooth and once the firstwing was on, the second wing went muchquicker. With the assembly of the wings,a second crew began to assemble thehorizontal stabilizers and vertical fin. Alsothe ailerons were installed on the wingsand then the wings were closed up onthe aircraft. A couple of photos were takenand then the entire aircraft was once againhooked up to the boom truck loaned byAquaterra Resource Services Ltd., andtowed up the hill. Once at the top of thehill, the aircraft was manhandled over thelip of the hanger and inside. That ended

day one of the assembly.On Sunday morning we reconvened

for part two. The New Brunswick crewwas joined by Donnie, Gene and myself.First, the crew had to shuffle the aircraftaround slightly to unfold each wingenough to hook up the aileron cables.This was an oversight that was made onSaturday as we needed to get the aircraftback into the hanger as it was getting latein the day and people needed to leave.After the ailerons were all hooked up, at-tention was turned to the rudder and theelevators. These items went on with afew minutes of attention and all the cableswere hooked up. Locks were installed onall the control surfaces and some touchup painting done.

Lastly the aircraft was parallel parkednext to the Tracker in its current position.We had a plan to park the aircraft withsome rollers but due to the physics of thesituation we ended up parallel parking theaircraft the hard way, which was actuallyquite easily done. Sometimes the best laid


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plans…With some sad expressions and a lot

of pride, the crew said good bye to theirproject aircraft of the last nine years andloaded up to return to New Brunswick.The weekend was a total success. TheAvenger looks magnificent in the hangerand everyone that looks at her has greatthings to say but they almost all use thesame word to describe her: “big”. TheAvenger is a huge aircraft and she reallydoes dwarf the Tracker sitting beside her.With the Avenger’s finished restorationplan the Museum has the only fully re-stored Fire Fighting Avenger in the Coun-try that we know of. When one consid-ers what the NB Wing had to start withwhen they fished the wreck out of thebush at Juniper; to what is on exhibit inthe Museum now, this restoration is noth-ing but amazing and is a piece of work ofwhich our Museum is very, very proudof.

Above: Shortly after being towed downthe hill on Saturday morning for reas-sembly.

Above: Beginning the tricky process ofputting the left wing on. This wing took awhile to attach.

Above: Right wing going on. It went onmuch quicker then the left.

Above: Don Hirtle running the boom.

Above: Clem (on steps) and Danny work-ing on the tail section.

Above: Barry, Gary, Frank and Ken holdthe wing tip in place while its bolted on.

Gord and Don work on attaching the wingwhile Michael and Mike look on.

Barry and Bill looking at the vertical fin.


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Above: Bill, Barry and Clem working atthe tail section.

Above: The N.B. Wing crew (minus Bob Purdue) L-R: Clem Crocker, Don Henry,Gord Neilsen, Frank MacLoon and Bill Leeming.

Left: Parked outside with the wingsfolded prior to relocation in the main dis-play hanger Sat. Afternoon.Right: “It’s Big” by Gene Hamilton!Below: This photo taken by Don Hirtlegives you an idea of how tight the hangerwas getting when we partially opened onewing when hooking up the elevator cableson Sunday.

Above and Below: Sunday photos.


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ACAM Thanks theFollowing

for their Help withthe TBM Avenger

Project


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ACAM Thanks theFollowing

for their Help withthe TBM Avenger

Project

Personal Donations By:

Mr. John (JJ) LavigneMrs. Frances Perkins

Dr. John ChristieMr. Fred Everett


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Above: Here is something that we do not do very often because everybody hates getting their photo taken but I think we managedto get the “family portrait” with this photo taken by Ron Cunningham. These are the volunteers that were present on Saturdayas we finished up for the day. From left to right: Don Hirtle (behind truck), Graham Hicks (behind truck), Gene Hamilton, BarryRodenhiser, Clem Crocker, Don Henry, Gord Neilson, Danny Price, Frank MacLoon, Reg Clark, Ken Brown, Bill Leeming andRob MacIlreith.

Specifications:Grumman TBM-3Powerplant: one 1,750hp Wright R-2600-20 Cyclone 14. 14 cylinder radial engine.Max. Speed: 267 m.p.h. at 15,000’Cruise Speed: 147 m.p.h.Service Ceiling: 23,400’Range: 1,130 milesWeight Empty: 10,700 poundsWeight Max. Take-off: 18,250 poundsSpan: 54’ 2”Span Folded: 21’Length: 40’ 0”Height: 16’ 5”Wing Area: 490 sq ft.

ACAM’s Avenger is a TBM-3e which isa conversion of a TBM-3 with additionalavionics. It was later converted to a TBM-3U which designated its role as a utilityaircraft. A role it performed in U.S. Navyservice until it was stuck off in 1963. From1963 on, the aircraft served in civilian rolesuntil its crash in 1975. For the full storyon this aircraft see the July 2004 issue ofour newsletter, page 12-13.

Above: ACAM’s Avenger on May 20th, 1975 as seen from the air, shortly after itscrash at Juniper. Hard to believe that this is the same aircraft that makes up a mostamazing exhibit in our hanger 30 years later. This photo was received from Dr.Steve Parkin and was run in the May 2002 issue of the newsletter. Dr. Parkin’seyewitness account of our aircraft’s crash is found in that same issue on page 5-6.

Thirty Years Earlier


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ID Quiz

Above: To qualify for a correct answer, you must correctly identify the aircraft andthe manufacturer. Submit your answers to: [email protected] or to the snail mailaddress on the cover.

Oops!From Bruce Atkinson via e-mail.ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — A cargo planefrom Chicago landed safely at DetroitMetropolitan Airport early Thursday af-ter losing an engine that may have landedin Lake Michigan. Federal Aviation Ad-ministration officials in Chicago say aKalitta Air LLC jet took off from O’HareInternational Airport late Wednesday. Itwas bound for New York’s Kennedy In-ternational Airport when it reported me-chanical problems with one of its engineswhen it was 15 miles east of Battle Creek.The Boeing 747-100 was diverted to De-troit Metro in Romulus, where it landedwithout incident. No one was injured.When the plane landed, flight officialsdiscovered the engine not only was amechanical loss, but was physically gone,the FAA said. It was believed to havebeen lost over Lake Michigan, but lawenforcement officials were searching theBattle Creek area as well. The NationalTransportation Safety Board was leadingthe investigation and the FAA was lend-ing support. Kalitta is based in Ypsilantiand offers worldwide airfreight service.

The airplane is a 747 converted tofreighter (with side cargo door). Part ofthe engine remains attached at the aftengine mount. The airplane was climbingthru 18,000 ft after departure from ORD.The crew “sensed an event” but therewere no abnormal indications in the flightdeck (prior to the event). An on-boardmechanic went and looked out the win-dow and saw the No.1 engine gone. Theairplane diverted to Detroit with an un-eventful landing. The engine is suspectedto be in Lake Michigan. Data from initialground inspection: The engine departedthe pylon (the pylon is still attached tothe airplane) The separation is near somewelds that are discoloured. Part of theoutboard LE slat was damaged/missing.

Above three photos show damage to the Boeing 747 after having “jettisoned” thenumber 1 engine and making a safe landing in Detroit. Oops!!!


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Halifax, N.S. – Halifax InternationalAirport Authority (HIAA) released the re-sults of an economic impact study todaythat calculates the total provincial eco-nomic benefit of Halifax International Air-port and its aviation community at $1.135billion for the year 2004.

The study, conducted by SGE Acres,also reports that since operational trans-fer of the airport from the federal govern-ment, HIAA and airport tenants have con-tributed over $95 million in renovation andnew construction impacts, generatingsome 1,345 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.As well, the airport continues to play amajor role in tourism as a gateway to NovaScotia, with tourists accessing the prov-ince via the airport generating $368 mil-lion in tourism-related spending. The re-port concludes that Halifax InternationalAirport represents a major economic, fis-cal and employment generator for theHalifax Regional Municipality and NovaScotia.

“The airport continues to make a sig-nificant contribution to both Halifax Re-gional Municipality and the Nova Scotiaeconomy, in spite of the challenges thathave come our way,” says EleanorHumphries, President & CEO for HIAA.“As an aviation community, we havebeen able to respond and adapt our strat-egies to continue to grow our businessesand diversify under changing circum-stances,” she says.

The study shows that Halifax Inter-

national Airport has achieved consistentgrowth over the past 15 years, resultingin a 43 per cent increase in total grossoutput for the provincial economy and a59 per cent increase in employment since1989. A key area of growth has been inaerospace activities by tenants that arenot directly impacted by the economicchallenges facing air carriers.

For 2004, the report calculates a wageand salary impact of $364 million, a retailsales tax impact of $19 million, and a per-sonal income tax impact of $53 million.The direct employment created by the air-port was 5,490 full-time equivalent (FTE)jobs – close to the population of the townof Kentville. As well, the report attributesa total of 11,910 FTE jobs to the airport,which equals 2.7 per cent of Nova Scotia’stotal employment, with IMP Group, AirCanada, and Air Canada Jazz employing2,767 FTE staff or over 50 per cent of theairport’s direct employment. IMP Groupis the largest employer with 1,400 FTEemployees. There are over 20 major com-mercial and industrial tenants leasing air-port land.

Halifax International Airport is Atlan-tic Canada’s principal full-service airportproviding passengers and cargo clientswith access to markets across the coun-try and strategic locations in the UnitedStates and Europe. The Airport welcomesover three million passengers each year,making it Canada’s seventh busiest air-port.

Halifax International Airport Worth Over $1.1 Billionto Provincial Economy

In the NewsFirst Arcturus Retired

The Canadian Armed Forces haveretired CP-140A 140119 as part of a costsaving measure. The other two Arcturuswill remain in service until the CAE FlightDeck Simulator is installed at CFB Green-wood. 140119 will be used as a mainte-nance training aid at Greenwood now thatit has been retired. Eventually, all threeArcturuses will be retired along with twoAurora Patrol aircraft, no decisions havebeen made yet with regards to disposal.Only 16 of the 18 aircraft Aurura Fleet aregoing to receive the AIMP upgrades. Fi-nal plans for withdrawl of the others areon hold while acqusition of UAV’s forcoastal patrol is ongoing.

The 3 Arcturus were ordered in 1991and were the last 3 P-3 airframes off theLockheed California assembly line. Un-like the 18 Auroras (first delivered in May1980) the Arcturus aircraft do not haveany of the antisubmarine warfare relatedsystems. The Arcturus aircraft werebought to support crew training, generalmaritime recce, counter drug operations,smuggling, fisheries patrols, pollutionmonitoring, arctic sovereignty patrols andSAR supportBelow: 140119 performs at the CFBGreenwood open house in 1999.

415 Sqn. Stands Down

415 Squadron was stood down onJuly 29th. As reported before, its aircraftand personel were absorbed by 405 (MP)Squadron.

Commuter Facility Opening SoonIn preparation for U.S. preclearance next fall, work continues on the new com-

muter facility at the southend of the terminal building. Once complete in early 2006,commuter airlines, including Jazz, will relocate their operations from the northend tothe southend . Passengers will benefit from an expanded holdroom, with access to,new retail and food court, improved ground access to aircraft, and more gates.


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South End Terminal Expansion(HIAA Photos)

Above: New Bus Depot being built on theNorth end of the terminal. Below: Thepermanent International Hold Facility.

HIAA’s Airport Improvement Pro-gram is well underway with many visiblesigns of progress throughout the termi-nal building. Installation of Common UseTerminal Equipment (CUTE) has begunin the ticketing and gate areas. Thisproject will provide new computer equip-ment at both the ticket counters andgates. In the past, dedicated counter po-sitions were leased by the airlines. Underthe new HIAA-owned CUTE system,counters will be assigned as needed andairline staff will be able to utilize anycounter position and log into their com-pany specific computer system. Installa-tion of the equipment is planned in phasesto minimize operational impacts, with theinitial transition at check-in counters tak-ing place in mid-January.

The new common use equipment of-fers many benefits to airport operationsand airport users. The equipment will al-low the community to be better servedthrough greater accessibility by airlines,and improved flexibility provided by com-mon use operations. The airlines will haveflexible access to gate positions to betterdeal with weather delays and seasonalfluctuations. CUTE also represents a

Technology Upgrades for Check-in and Gatesmodern solution to capacity constraintsand will improve facility efficiency with-out a major capital investment to expandthe ticket counter and gate areas. Travel-ers will benefit from common use self-ser-vice check-in kiosks to be installed in theSpring. With the introduction of CUTE,HIAA joins most other major airportsacross the country in employing this lead-ing edge technology.

Construction continues at thenorthend of the building for the U.S.preclearance facility, on schedule to openin Fall 2006, and the permanent interna-tional holdroom facility. As well, work isprogressing on a covered walkway toemployee parking and a bus depot thatwill facilitate the development of Hfx as ahomeport for the cruise ship industry.

U.S. Preclearance FacilityFlying Along

Effective February 17, 2006, HIAAwill increase parking fees in the Park’NFly™ lot to bring rates in line with com-parable Park’N Fly™ operations at air-ports across Canada and the local mar-ket. Based on research of various parkingfacilities and following consultation withthe Community Consultative Committeeand HIAA’s Rates and Charges Commit-tee, the daily rate will increase to $9 perday (from $8), to a weekly maximum of $45(from $35). Rates at the terminal (long-term)lot remain $10 per day and $50 per week.Notice of these increases will be pub-lished in provincial newspapers on De-cember 17, 2005.

Park’N Fly Rates to IncreaseHIAA’s long-term plan calls for

HIAA to offer customers a variety of ser-vice levels and pricing options in park-ing. To complete this strategy, HIAA willbe looking at a further investment to ad-dress long-term customer needs with thedevelopment of a parking structure in2006/2007.

IMP AdditionIMP has begun construction on an addi-tion to their main hanger at the airport.Rumor has it that the addition is for in-creased office and storage area andshould be completed sometime in 2006.


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Museum Notes

Above: Paul Tuttle’s World War I paint-ing has been framed and mounted. Aswell, the track lighting has been installedover it. The case below contains some ofthe World War I artifacts on display.Left: Raised lettering has been added tothe tabs in the Theory of Flight Exhibit.Carpet and baseboard are required on thefloor to help finish the area.

Bob Aikens’s Model Collection

Museum member Bob Aikens re-cently moved to The Rock and donatedhis extensive model collection to ACAM.As mentioned last newsletter, Glenn andDanny had been working on building apair of cabinets that were designed byBarry. The project is coming right along.A few kits need to be added to the cabi-nets at the time of writing. A key is beingdeveloped to identify the collection andsome finish painting will need to be com-pleted in the spring.

Since out last newsletter, we havereceived a generous donation of the glassshelving from Kidston Economy Glass.This donation represented a major sav-ing for the Museum. All the glass was cutand polished to size so that all we had todo was unwrap the glass and install it inplace.

Bob Aikens was born in Nova Scotia.Bob started his modelling career building

the Gullow’s balsa and paper kits alongwith the Strombrecker basswood stuff.Bob built his first plastic kit circa. 1950 anAurora F-94 (with balsa glue), he cut thecanopy open with a penknife. At age 11,Bob spent the summer in the Boston area(Haverhill), and brought back Lindbergkits and several of the old Aurora WW1series. Bob says he tried building every-thing, but airplanes were for him. Whileteaching high school in 1970, Bob made aconscious decision to try to “do this stuffto the best of my ability.” He bought anairbrush from Mike Larisy, when MaritimeHobbies and Crafts was where the DeltaHotel is now on Barrington St. and is stillusing same airbrush! Bob is still trying toget the best out of himself. Bob notesthat he has maybe 20 un-built kits andthat he is not a collector, just a builder,and he is still having fun! Bob currentlylives in Newfoundland.

Above: Museum member Bob Aikens.Top Right: Our thanks to KidstonEconomy Glass for the donation of theglass shelving to this exhibit.Right 3 Photos: The Aikens Exhibit inlate December. Finishing touches will beapplied in the spring as we get closer toopening. The exhibit can be found on thewall behind the CF-100 in the hanger.


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Short Museum Notes

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope oftoday and the reality of tomorrow.

- Robert H. Goddard.

Facility Notes:- Water was turned off for the seasonin mid-November.

- The Hanger wall damage was sealedin late November. This damageoccured late last winter when the snowload on the roof was shed and the icecake damaged the wall leaving sev-eral small holes in the wall. Barry andRob closed in the holes and sealedthem with caulk.

- The Hudson was rewrapped for thewinter in late Novemeber. This job hadto be carried out again this winter assome homeless people cut the tarp offthe Hudson last year to use it to pro-tect themselves from the elements.While rewrapping the Hudson, wediscovered a hole that was cut in thecompound fencing. This hole will haveto be repaired at a later date due to theweather.

- Gene has been working at changingone of the cameras from the hangerinto the tunnel area so that it improvesour security.

- The Link Trainer has been movedover by the CF-104 Starfighter inpreparation for the assembly of theBAe 146 Simulator in the spring.

- Work began on the Boardroomproject just prior to Christmas Breakwhen we emptied out library 2 and themanager’s office. These 2 rooms andthe hallway between them will bemerged into one large room to be usedas a meeting area. The room will beinsulated so it can be comfortablyused in the winter as well.

- Recently relaxed radiation protocolswill allow us to to reopen the ArgusSim in the future.


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The idea of Service Learning is notnew at the Atlantic Canada Aviation Mu-seum. In years past, our Museum haspartnered with Leslie Thomas Junior HighSchool, the school where I teach, to com-plete a large-scale project for the Mu-seum. Our first project was completed in1999-2000, as a trial project when 4 stu-dents and myself began to lay the foun-dation for the Museum’s website. Thatproject proved to be a success, but notwithout several teething problems.

By 2001, several bugs in the processwith planning, funding and the schoolwere worked out and we undertook build-ing the Airfields of the Maritimes exhibit,a great success! In 2002-2003, we under-took 2 major projects. The Airfields ofNewfoundland and Labrador completedthe Airfields exhibit and lead to the over-haul of the tunnel exhibit area as a sideproject by ACAM members. The AirfieldsProject also lead to a Service LearningVideo by Heartwood that was sent to ev-ery school in the Province, showcasingservice learning. Our group was one ofthree case studies in the video and I havereceived requests for information andplanning from other schools based onthis video. Also in 2002-2003, a secondgroup of students built the cabinets forthe Sabre exhibit and Museum membersinstalled the cabinets and exhibit at a laterdate. 2002-2003 was a significant year asPiercey’s: the Building Material Peoplecame on board as a supply partner for theMuseum and they have been a major helpto these projects, providing materials tothe Museum at a discounted rate.

In 2003-2004, the Museum and schoolbuilt the Old Halifax Municipal AirportDiorama, located off of Chebucto Road.This project was a real hit with the stu-dents and we filled a major hole in ourHalifax Municipal Airport Exhibit with thediorama. 2002-2003 saw the Halifax In-ternational Airport Authority,Clearwater Fine Food and the HalifaxCounty Local of the Nova Scotia Teach-

ers Union join the program as fundingpartners in the exhibit, along withPiercey’s continued support.

During 2004, I wanted to see theMuseum undertake an exhibit that couldbe used by teachers to help teach out-comes Theory of Flight in the Grade 6curriculum. The Museum hopes that thisinvestment will help increase our schoolvisitation in the late Spring and early Fallwhen we are open during school hours.For the 2004-2005 project, we decided topursue developing a Theory of Flightexhibit where the students built many ofthe components for. The overall projectwas a huge scope as it required the mov-ing of several major exhibits and the build-ing of some new infrastructure in theMuseum. It also required intense efforton the Museum’s behalf to accomplish.The results to date are nothing less thespectacular and I am very pleased withthe progress of the volunteers to date.This exhibit area requires some more work,on the Museum’s behalf, in order to com-plete all of the additions in the area.

The Halifax International AirportAuthority, Clearwater Fine Food and theHalifax County Local of the Nova ScotiaTeachers Union, again joined us to fundthe students part of the Theory of Flightproject. Piercey’s, again came to help theMuseum with materials and they continueto play a vitally important role in ACAM’ssuccess. The 2004-2005 project requireda lot of coordination between the Mu-seum and school on my behalf to make

sure that everything went smoothly; I wasextremely pleased with the performanceof all involved.

Service Learning has allowed us toexpose students in other classes to theMuseum as well. In addition to theseprojects that are well documented, formerstudents have completed other smallerscale projects for the Museum such as,our coloring book project by KatieHillman. and a PowerPoint presentationby Justin Fizzard. and Issac Tracz. thatwill be on display for the 2006 season onour Harvard restoration.

Now, in 2005-2006, the Museum, withthe help of Leslie Thomas, are going toproduce another major exhibit. At the timeof writing Halifax International AirportAuthority, the Halifax County TeachersUnion Local and Clearwater Fine Foodshave agreed to sponsor the students workagain this year. I was very pleased whenHIAA and Clearwater called in August toconfirm that the school and Museumwere going to do another project this yearand both companies offered their supportbefore they had received the project pro-posals! Piercey’s has agreed to continuetheir sponsorship as well.

This year the students are construct-ing a 4’ x 8’ diorama of the Halifax Interna-tional Airport, a very large diorama, there-fore, we have to use a smaller scale thenour last diorama. Thanks to Karen Sinclairand Keith Connor of the Halifax Interna-tional Airport Authority for providing uswith the contour maps and aerial photos

ACAM’s History of Service LearningBy Rob MacIlreith

These photos show students cutting out layers of foam core for the contours.


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Left Column Photos: Students from Mr. Capstick’s homeroom glue the layers of thecontour map together, after having learned about contour lines in their Social Stud-ies class. The students used 4 litres of glue to put all the layers of the map togetherin about 40 minutes.Above: Mr. Capstick’s homeroom group pose with this year’s Service Learningproject after they had glued the map to the base of the project. Some of these studentslater volunteered to put plaster on the map and sand it down prior to a coat of paint toseal the entire unit in early December. All of sanding and painting was done afterschool.

of the region we are going to map. Thedata provided is an absolute must for theproject.

This years project has also seen amajor positive change in the program atthe school level. Instead of having justone group of students participate in theproject, 2 other teachers, Malcolm Captickand Mike Blennerhassett at LT, havejoined with me in promoting ServiceLearning with their students, this meansthat there will be many more studentsparticipating in our program this year thenever before… a good thing for all in-volved! At the time of writing we havealready exposed 31 students to theproject, almost double the number thatparticipated last year!

When the students return from theChristmas Break, a group of grade 8 and 9students have volunteered to begin the

process of wiring the exhibit with 40 cir-cuits to light up various parts of the ex-hibit, such as runways, taxiways, roads,building locations and other landmarksaround the airport.

Cross Curricular as Well:Besides improving the students

building skills and looking at the hobbyof diorama building students have beenexposed to a number of cross curricularcomponets in this project as well suchas:

- scale useage.- contour map reading skills- electricity and electronics- wood working skills- finishing skills- measuring and proportion- and many others.

I am very excited about this year’sproject and expect to see it complete intime for the Student Showcase event atLeslie Thomas in late April, early May,with delivery to the Museum to followthat event! I am very proud of my stu-dents and the things that they have ac-complished. As one student remarked,“this project is really cool because whenits done, it’s going to a Museum whereeveryone will be able to see it for years tocome and not in the garbage like most ofmy other project work does at the end ofthe year.”

My thanks to the Museum Execu-tive, Funding Partners and School Ad-ministration for allowing us to put such aunique and successful project togetherfor another year. For more infomation onour past projects, see the LTJH Website:

h t tp : / /www. l t jh . edne t .ns . ca /servicelearning.htm


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Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting wentoff well on October 29th. Although theAGM was held two weeks later thenusual this year it was fairly well attendedwith just over 30 people being presentfor the event. Each year we are requiredto have such a meeting to elect new offic-ers and complete any business requiredby our governance package including areport on operations by the President anda finacial report by the Treasurer. [Copiesof these reports can be obtained elec-tronically from the President for membersthat did not attend the AGM].

The Board of Directors was reap-pointed for the 2005-2006 Operations pe-riod by those members present. Later, ata Board of Directors meeting the Execu-tive Committee Members were appointedto run the day to day operations of theMuseum; they consist of:

Rob MacIlreith - PresidentBarry Rodenhiser - Vice PresidentGary McMahon - TreasurerDanny Price - SecretaryRob MacIlreith reported that the

Museum had a banner year in terms ofdisplay improvements and achievementsmade by the volunteers. Rob also re-ported that there are several major areasof concern that must be dealt with by theProvince. Mike Garvey promised thatthese issues will be the major focus of

the Board of Directors this coming year.In fact, the Planning Committee of theBoard has been working on these itemsfor many months now, with efforts headedby Frank MacLoon.

Gary reported that the finances forthe Museum were in good order and thatACAM remains in the black. Althoughfundraising is something that we mustcontinue to work at and improve.

Also at the AGM there were 2 majorpresentations: The Volunteer of the YearAward was presented to Don Henry ofthe NB Wing for his contribution to theAvenger Restoration Program. Don wasinvolved with the program since day oneand contributed over 1/3 of the total hoursof restoration time over 9 years.

A second presentation was made toMichael White to recogize his long termand valued contribution to the Museumin the shoulder season year. [The periodfrom when our summer students returnto school until the Museum closes forthe season.]

A BBQ lunch was provided withDanny and Gary cooking. Great job guys!Everyone enjoyed lunch.

The fundraising print was won byReg Clark. We raised just over $130.00 forthe Museum with the print.

Frank MacLoon then introducedDon Henry as our guest speaker. Don

Left: Mike Garvey, Chairman, Board ofDirectors.Center: Rob MacIlreith, PresidentRight: Gary McMahon, Treasurer.

Top: Mike Garvey Presents MichaelWhite with a Special Recognition Award.Middle: Mike Garvey Presents DonHenry with the Volunteer of the YearAward.Bottom: Don Henry as our guest speaker.

(Dave McMahon Photos)

spoke of the Avenger restoration and itsrecovery from the alder swamp at Juni-per. Don also told a few interesting sidestories along the way and his talk wasvery much enjoyed by everyone.

Thanks to all those that helped makethe AGM a great success.


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Fredericton Airport - (CYFC)

Frequency Service119.000 Fredericton Radio126.700 Halifax FIC - RCO124.300 Arr/Dep - Moncton ACC122.875 Diamond Aviation Ltd130.375 Air Canada Dispatch/Load/AGRIS270.800 Arr/Dep - Moncton ACC

Moncton Airport - (CYQM)

Frequency Service120.800 Tower121.800 Ground122.75 Apron124.400 Arr/Dep128.650 ATIS122.500 Halifax FIC - RCO122.150 Shell Aerocentre122.725 Terminal Ops123.500 Moncton Flight College128.950 Purolator (Flt’s Op’d by??)130.375 Air Canada Dispatch/Load/AGRIS131.275 Westjet Ops131.750 Bulmer Aircraft Service131.925 Federal Express236.600 Tower275.800 Ground

384.800 Arr/Dep

Editor’s Note: Of course, ACAM takes no responsibility for the information transmit-ted on these frequencies and reminds you that it is illegal to transmit on these fre-quencies unless you are liscensed and authorized to do so. In future issues, we willlist some frequencies at other airports for your “listening pleasure”.

Aviation Related Frequencies (Pt 2.)News Shorts

BRAC Announcements for NewEngland:

The Base Realignment and Closures Com-mission has made its recommendationsand these have been accepted by Con-gress and the Defense Department.In Maine, NAS Brunswick will be closedinstead of being realigned as a Naval AirField. Also, the Maine ANG will now re-tire all of their KC-135Es and upgrade toKC-135Rs instead of being a mixed force.The Mass. ANG base at Barnes will seethe 104th FW lose all their A/OA-10Asand re-equip with F-15C/Ds transferredfrom the 102nd FW at Otis ANGB. The 102nd

will be disbanded and Otis is rumouredto be on the next round of base closures.

Last Military F-104 FlightThe Italian Air Force retired their last 2 F-104 Starfighters when they were flown todisposal on Oct 31st, 2005. There are nowno military operators of the 104 left in theworld.

RSAF F-15’s in HalifaxSaudi F-15’s that stopped at Halifax asreported in the last newsletter were ontheir way home from RED FLAG. Theyare homebased with No 92 Squadron fromKing Abdullah Aziz AB. This was the firsttime that the RSAF participated in REDFLAG in 25 years.

Maritime Patrol AircraftCanada has officially withdrawn from theUS Navy P-8A Multi Mission MaritimeAircraft Program (MMA) [based on the737 series of airframes] and has decidedto extend the Aurora Fleets service lifeuntil 2025 instead. The Aurora fleet is inthe first stage of upgrade with newelectro-optics and infrared sensors in-cluding a Wescam MX-20 sensor from L-3 Communications. This portion of theupgrade should be complete by 2008.

CF-188 Upgrade ProgramThe CF-18 Upgrade program has seen 52

of the 80 aircraft completing Phase 1.Phase 2 begins in Oct 2006.Phase 1 improvements include:AN/APG 73 radar (similar to F-18C)New IFFRadiosMission Computer

Phase 2 includes:Color cockpit displaysLink 16 DatalinkChaff and Flare dispensersHelmet Mounted SightDefensive electronic SuiteAIM 120C AMRAAM

The SRAAM program has been deletedfrom the project.

Transport UpgradesCanadian Air Force Development Plansfor Transports is looking at a $5.1 billioncalling for:15-20 C-130J15 new SAR aircraft (the C-27J is seen asthe leading contender)20 new CH-47 Chinook helicopters [Edi-tors Note: Our old Chinooks are still serv-ing with the RNAF faithfully, 3 are cur-rently in Afghanistan. Everything thatsold is new again?]


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In the Air and on the GroundLeft: MV-22B Ospery at Halifax Inter-national. The Ospery is here to undergoanother season of icing trials. This yearthe Ospery is based at Halifax Interna-tional as opposed to CFB Shearwater.Trailers have been added around the AirCanada Hanger for the project.Last seasons icing trials in Nova Scotiaresulted in a change in the windshieldwiper fairing to prevent icing on theblades when flying in icing conditions.

(Ken Brown Photo)

Top Right: Comorant practicing in theHarbour with the Coast Guard.

(Ken Brown Photo)

Left: AH-64D visiting from the UK foricing trials. Seen here at CFB Shearwa-ter.

(Ken Brown Photo)

Below: Marine Corps C-130J from VMGR-352 “Raiders”based at MCAS Miramar, CA., seen at the Avitat in late No-vember. Nice to see some color on a C-130 again!


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Above: RAF Special Forces Green C-130K (XV197). The cargo in the backwas moved to an RAF Gray C-130J andthe 130K was still at IMP a week later.

Above: RAF Gray C-130K (??209) Wasparked at IMP after the December storm.An AFRC was parked beside it but hid-den by the snowbank.

Above: KC-130T (164999) from VMGR-234 “Rangers” lifts off from a snowyYHZ in mid-December. VMGR-234 isstationed at NAS-JRB Fort Worth, Texas.

Above: Boeing 757-2Q8 (OH-LBR) be-longing to Finnair takes off runway 23at Halifax in mid-December. Finnair isoperating charter service betweenHalifax and Helsinki between Nov 8th,2005 and March 28th, 2006.

Below: An Aurora airframe sits on theramp at IMP looking in a sad state of af-fairs with two engines removed, devoid ofpaint, the nose cone, radar and FLIR re-moved.

(All photos by Rob MacIlreith unlessnoted otherwise.)


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Winter - Spring Projects

The Construction Crews at the Mu-seum are underway, again. It will be abusy and intersting winter and volun-teer help will be required.

- Complete the Theory of Flight Ex-hibit area.

- Carpet.- Covebase - baseboard.- Cub Case- Cub interactive- Flight in Nature Segment.

- Pictures- Text- Signage / Tabs- Fixtures

- Hanger Signage- Hanger Weathering.- BE 2 Clock stand- Office Drywall repairs- Lighting

-Complete the Bob Aikens CollectionExhibit.

- Signage- Key- Bio.

- Remodelling the Library Annex, stor-age closet, managers office and hall-way into a heated boardroom that canbe used to entertain and hold meet-ings.

- Repair and repaint the lobby wallbehind the tourism desk around to theenterance of the Museum.

- Rebuild the BAe 146 Simulator.

- Build custom cabinets for the 434Exhibit around the CF-5. The old cabi-nets will become surplus and will bedisassembled.

- Service Learning Project with LeslieThomas Junior High.

- Halifax International Exhibit.

Wanted!We are looking for asupply of square orround steel, as wellas, some steel plateto build floor standsfor several aircraft

this winter.

President’s MessageFrom the Desk of Rob MacIlreith

First let me wish the membership abelated Merry Christmas and Happy NewYear! Our 2005 Season was a excellentyear and I am very pleased to announcethe finalized grade on our Nova ScotiaMuseum Audit. The Atlantic Canada Avia-tion Museum came first with an overallgrade of 84%. This grade is slightly higherthan the unofficial results that we reportedat the Annual General Meeting. This isthe third audit in a row that our Museumhas rated the number one position dur-ing our Audit year. The Audit is an impor-tant tool to let the Executive know thatwe are on the right track in preservation,documentation, exhibit and infrastructurein keeping with the best practices of theNSM’s Community Museum AssistanceProgram (CMAP) guidelines. I have hadmany people ask me, “Why do we put somuch time and effort into preparing forthe audit?” My response is that the Au-dit forces the Executive to address all theneeds of the Museum and to make surethat we are a well rounded organizationwho is putting the best overall productout there for the viewing public as pos-sible.

The AGM was held in Oct., at whichtime the Board of Directors was re-electedwith no changes in the roster. Later at aBoard Meeting, the Executive was reap-

pointed for the 2006 Season. I am veryhappy to see that our entire hard workingexecutive has opted to volunteer for an-other year. Congratulations to Don Henryfor being the recipient of the Doug Ordi-nal Volunteer of the Year Award. Don isa hard working member of our very activeNew Brunswick Wing. Also, a special pre-sentation was made to Michael White torecognize Michael’s contribution toACAM over the last number of years inrunning the Museum once our summerstaff has returned to school. This is avery important contribution as it allowsthe Museum to exploit the shoulder sea-son tourism sector, mainly seniors, whichenjoy visiting our facility.

As we move into 2006, there are manyprojects that are on-going at the Museum,as has been documented in MuseumNotes. We are in need of several majoritems this Winter that are not currently inthe budget with which we are looking forhelp. Please let me know if you have in-formation that would help us to find:

- A source of steel plate, tubing orsquare stock to build some aircraftstands.- A stainless steel kitchen sink and tapsfor the board room kitchenette.- Cheap disposal method for the oldmattresses from the T-33 shipping.- Someone to head up a fundraising pro-gram for new carpet / flooring project inthe Silver Dart Exhibit building.- Someone to consider taking on therole as the Museum’s curator.

Lastly, as newsletter editor, I con-tinue to be on the hunt for story ideasand support with the newsletter.

Thanks to all the volunteers that con-tribute to making our Museum the orga-nization it is, I hope that you will con-tinue to join us in taking our Museum “tothe next level”. As always, our doors areopen to new volunteers, we have manyprojects that we would like to do and wecan always find a way to fit new peopleinto our organization.Hope to see you at ACAM this winter!

Rob

Documents

The Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum B4A 3X5 The Atlantic ......ACAM’s Avenger is a TBM-3e which is a conversion of a TBM-3 with additional avionics. It was later converted to a TBM-3U