In 2015, my husband, Terry, and I flew to the annual Father’s Day Fly-in Breakfast. We took off from a farmer’s grass strip near Lac Cardinal in my husband’s homebuilt plane and landed on a lovely asphalt strip just outside of Fairview. There was a great variety of private aircraft to see and pilots eager to share their passion for flying. The Alberta Government water bomber was open with pilots and firefighters to give tours. Opportunity was given to go to a nearby farm to see a restoration project in progress. The CANSO was a Canadian-built patrol plane and bomber used in WWII to protect convoys from enemy subs, and later used to fight fires. It was in the process of being made airworthy again by six farmers. I was wide-eyed with wonder at the size of the plane and the complexity of the project. There was a myriad of wires hanging out of the top of the plane where the wing was once attached, cables, controls and parts and ailerons stored here and there. And the wing was massive!
I love the challenge of taking artistic photos of mechanical subject matter, so I had fun climing in and out, over and under, zooming in and out…all the while wondering how they were ever going to get this big bird in the air again.
Two years later, Terry and I got to see the CANSO take off, and I had my camera ready. What a glorious sight and sound, and a great Canadian story. You can read it on the back of the card we created.
Here are some of the photos that I couldn’t fit on the card.
And here are photos of the historic flight of 2017:
