Volume 37 * Number 5 January 2003 www.cahs.com/torontochapter Post Agreement No. 40599010 This Month: Thursday, January 9th, 2003 7:45 p.m.

Bombardier “Q” 400 series Dash 8

Bombardier Photo.

• Barry MacKinnon, Bombardier Downsview, will be telling us about the “Q” series Dash 8 Turbo Prop A/C and the CRJ series of Regional Jets. Don’t miss this meeting!

Secretary’s Remarks Robert Winson At our Christmas meeting of December 19th Chapter Member John at the time of writing stand at approximately 175. At the end of our Brookfield told of his personal experiences flying the stalwart cargo December meeting, the audience was invited to comment on the recent hauler, the CC-130 “Hercules”. The Hercules is probably one of the best chapter executive decision to reduce the number of yearly meetings to examples of a design that was “right” from the beginning, considering that eight from the present ten during the 2003-2004 time periods. the first model flew in the early fifties and that it is still going strong in the Canadian Forces and other air forces around the world. The meeting of chapter directors in early 2003 will review the views expressed at the December meeting. Once again, please advise Don As regular readers have noticed in this space for the past four Flypasts’ Evans or myself of any delays in receiving your copy of Flypast. On the we have been appealing for volunteers to assist in the running of the plus side Canada Post improved the delivery of the December Flypast Toronto Chapter. In response to our requests, Don and I have both after we formally complained about the late and non-delivery situation that received a number of emails and telephone calls of encouragement. happened in November. However, volunteers are still needed for the chapter’s successful operation during the 2003 season. Please consider volunteering as a part Our February 13th. meeting is the second Thursday of the month with of your New Year’s resolutions! Toronto Chapter Member Andy Carswell (5249) and Transport Canada Inspector Will Boles speaking to us. Their topic for the evening will be A positive note has been the steady flow of chapter and national renewals “Canada’s Aviation System Safety- Past, Present and Future”. Looking that Canada Post has been delivering to our mail box. A goodly number of forward to see you all at the meeting. our members have also included generous donations and for that additional thought the Chapter Directors thank you. Membership renewals Dec. 19, 2002 Chapter Meeting Winnipeg. They went on to the U.S., visiting places such as Speaker: John Brookfield Chicago's O'Hare Airport, Detroit, Buffalo and then back to Trenton. Then it was on to overnight stays at Thule, Subject: 436 Sqdn.'s Lockheed CC-130 Hercules Greenland for Arctic training, followed by Alaska, and on to Reporter: Gord McNulty Midway Island in the Pacific. Next, they went to Wake It was "Hercules Night" as Chapter Secretary Bob Winson Island, followed by two nights at Honolulu. Not bad! introduced John Brookfield, a CAHS Toronto Chapter However, a sombre incident occurred at Honolulu when the member who enjoyed a long, diversified and far-flung flying Hercules departure was delayed for some time. As John career in the . John attended secondary school in recalled, a flight was coming in from the Pacific. It was a Simcoe, Ontario, graduating in 1946. His aviation 707 refrigerated mortuary aircraft, returning from Vietnam, experience began as an air cadet. He won a flying fully loaded with bodies stacked on stretchers right close scholarship with the air cadet squadron at the Brant- together. John noted that the Americans had quite a Norfolk Aero Club in 1946. John had already enlisted with protocol for such an event. Flying was not allowed near the the RCAF in 1944 and was released about six months airport, 15 minutes before and after the mortuary flight. later. He re-enlisted in 1947 and retired from the air force in The bodies would either be taken to Honolulu and buried in 1972. His air force career included postings to the a beautiful cemetery at Diamond Head, or flown to the Transport School in Rivers, the Joint Experimental Station mainland , depending on the family's wishes. at Fort Churchill, and Tactical Air Command Headquarters From there, John and his crew went to the Lockheed in Edmonton. John has also been through the Flying facilities at Palmdale, California, before returning to Instructor's School at Trenton, the No. 2 Flying School at Trenton. Moose Jaw, and was on the C-119 Flying Boxcar Soon they were off on North Atlantic training, including conversion course. He spent a fair amount of time with 436 resupply of the NATO Air Division in Europe. They flew to Sqdn. in Downsview, and also with 436 when it was at Marville in , one of the bases used before France Trenton. He's flown a variety of single-engined aircraft, turfed out all of the NATO squadrons, and then on to Lahr starting with the likes of the Tiger Moth, the Champ, and in Germany which John described as "a much better Auster, and then the Harvard, Norseman, Otter, through to place." By the time they returned, John was qualified as a the T-33 Silver Star. He's also flown gliders. His experience first officer, with 123 hours and 40 minutes on the Herc. On on multi-engined aircraft included the C-119 Flying Boxcar the return trip out of Prestwick, John's aircraft lost an as well as the Hercules. He has a total of approximately engine. The centre bearing on the compressor section had 9,000 flying hours. failed from what's known as coking. The trouble originated John began by outlining how he loved to fly "the Herc." with the tremendous heat that builds up in a turbine engine as he said, "It was one of those types of machines that as during high-altitude flying. Coking is the hardening or big as it was, it was a beautiful aircraft to fly." While the burning of the oil. Later on, engineers decided to replace Herc was a very sophisticated aircraft, it handled well and petroleum oils entirely with synthetic oils and they have was very forgiving. Unfortunately, it's not quite large seldom encountered engine failures since. Back with the enough to accommodate the long-distance air transport squadron, John did a multiplicity of flying assignments, requirements of the Canadian Forces for assignments in practice with instruments, emergency procedures, route far-off places like Afghanistan. On several occasions, the checks, aircraft handling and instrument rating tests, prop Canadian military has had to rely on larger American or and engine failures, decompressions, undercarriage tests Russian cargo aircraft. The Herc has a span of 132 and so on. feet, seven inches; a length of 97 feet, nine inches; and a Some of the more interesting flying involved tests with height of 38 feet, three inches. Power is supplied by four Jet-assisted takeoff (JATO). Four rocket units were Allison turboprops of 4,040 horsepower each. The normal mounted on each side of the fuselage, aft of the wheel payload is 44,000 pounds, with all-up weight of 155,000. well. It was quite a jump-start. The Herc would climb at The Hercules was big and powerful when it first about a 60-degree angle with the boost from the JATO appeared, but John noted it's since been overtaken in bottles. John described "a very funny feeling" of those categories by today’s massive cargo jets. A Herc weightlessness when the JATO bottles were firing. As he can be loaded and unloaded very quickly. The cargo recalled, "You would float over the top." Just as the bottles compartment is 41.5 feet long, extending to a hinge on the were about to die, the pilot would get the nose down, the ramp, which is another 10 feet in length. It stands three speed would pick up quickly, the thrust from the JATO feet, five inches above the tarmac --- truck-loading height. bottles would suddenly end, and normal flight resumed. The ramp can be lowered to ground level quickly, to Training also involved re-qualifying for paratrooping provide immediate access from the tarmac to the and heavy drops, involving operations where a pilot chute compartment. Special metal pallets were used to manage was dropped away from the aircraft. It would deploy the cargo. It wasn't necessary to tie down any of the load, as main chutes, and they would gently lower the load to the the cargo was already lashed on to the pallet. Initially, in ground in theory at least. On several occasions, John saw the early 1960s, .the RCAF flew the C-130B Hercules. loads that would get hung up on the parachutes and impact They were followed by the upgraded C-130E model, flown heavily on the ground. He recalled one case where a very by 435 and 436 Sqdn.’s., in 1965. John started intensive expensive radio system being developed by the army pilot training in May of 1965. By June, John and fellow landed in a mess. Some of the flights were "sked flights," members of the training crew were heading off for short involving pre-set flights such to , or maybe to stops at such places as Wiarton, Sault Ste. Marie and Downsview, then on to Moncton, followed by places such as Greenwood and Shearwater. Other skeds were to ground. Several of the lashings broke and released some Goose Bay, for instance, and some up to Thule. Special of the rounds of ammunition." To compound the alarm and flights involved specific loads to carry, including air defence confusion, the unloading crew was a NATO mixture of shipments involving the nuclear weapons at various fighter Italian and British servicemen. Some of them "scattered bases. The Herc crews would fly the weapons, in boxes, like heck" because of the ammo. The whole scene was to and from North Bay to places such as Val-d'Or, something else for the poor British officer in charge the Bagotville or Chatham. Special flights also involved engine operation. As John noted, he was "just about ready to pull and propeller changes for aircraft that were down; also his pistol if they didn't get back to work." Fortunately, the rush shipments to U.S.A.F. bases for NORAD fighter crew was large enough to correct the problem. They competitions such as the William Tell exercises. John squeezed as many people as they could into the front recalled one trip to Burbank, California, to bring back the cargo section, packing them like sardines, until they were discredited Napier engines that originally powered the able to shift the weight and get the aircraft upright. Cosmopolitan before it was re-engined with Allison One of the more stressful flights involved a trip to turboprops similar to those in the Hercules. Arctic flying as part of a United Nations mission. John included re-supply for weather stations, involving bases recalled leaving Bahrain on a Hercules. It was hot, humid, such as Resolute Bay, and Alert, described by John as "the dusty and smoky. The airport was at sea level and the nearest thing to the North Pole that is still habitable." Thule runway configuration wasn't the best. When they took off, it was often used as a staging point. It was a valuable base, was calm. John shut off the air conditioning to get the although it was subject to severe storms coming from the maximum power. As he recalled, the aircraft was very ice cap. sluggish. After lift-off, it just seemed to sit there. The pilot Once, on a beautifully clear flight after leaving Thule, was allowed five minutes at maximum Turbine Inlet John noticed a light ahead of him. He wondered if it was Temperature before power had to be reduced to in order to Hall Beach, but the navigator reported they were 250 prevent engine damage. As John recalled, "Just at exactly nautical miles away. Despite the distance, they could see the five minutes, the aircraft came alive and it felt as if it the bright lights of the small base at Hall Beach. John was going to fly." Before then, they had been climbing at mentioned that anecdote in recalling the Hercules crash at barely 100 feet a minute. It was a nice flight until they got Alert, involving fatalities but also a surprising number of to the -Pakistan border. They had to fly along the survivors. As John observed, the pilot may not have been border until they got a direct into Lahore, accompanied by informed of the tremendous visibility that's possible in two MiGs that flew two or three miles behind. Lahore was Arctic flying. The pilot was not three miles away from the stressful too. Flocks of huge buzzards created headaches airport, as he believed, but 13 to 15 miles away. The for the crew on approach to the runway. The birds would fly aircraft hit on a down slope on a side of the hill, which in a thermal, and it was hard to predict where they would prevented the toll from being worse. One of the favourite be. John said the birds would "pull up and stall, and fall, trips was across the North Atlantic, which provided and flop around." They would also tighten their wings close opportunities for long-range flying and navigation. As John to the body and "drop just like a stone." Fortunately they recalled, Ireland made a "beautiful and glorious" sight first missed the Herc, but it wasn't much fun. thing in the morning, a grand combination of green/blue. Bill Wheeler, editor of the CAHS Journal, thanked our Once across the pond, the Herc crews often enjoyed flights guest speaker on behalf of the Chapter Directors, within Europe, to places such as Düsseldorf, Prestwick, members and guests for taking us around the globe and Gatwick, and so on. Special flights would involve Frankfurt, providing fascinating insights into a fascinating aircraft. Baden-Soellingen, and other airports. On one memorable occasion, John set a record by completing a crossing in seven hours, and 32 minutes. The crew had left Trenton, elected to fly a route over Sydney, Nova Scotia, and headed across to Marville. John wanted to gain as much as altitude as he could to get the best possible tailwind. He picked up a terrific ground speed because of the strong tailwind from the jet stream. Ironically, he was on the longest crossing, Route 3 South, on the North Atlantic. The crew arrived in France over the Bay of Biscay. It was one impressive trip! One colourful episode involved a NATO artillery shoot. John's crew was given permission to carry an extra load totalling 47,000 pounds, with an all-up weight of 158,000. That meant a pretty heavy, sluggish aircraft which didn't want to get much above 18,000 feet. The load involved howitzer ammunition, packed in square tubes. Bob and Georgina Brookfield with Bob Winson. Unfortunately, shortly after the Herc was parked, the crew Flypast photo by Norm Harrison. was startled to see the aircraft in nose-up position. It turned Bob Winson announced that our regular attendees, Ken out that when the loadmaster went to unlock the last pallet, Jennings from , and John Matthews from Ingersoll the entire load unlocked. As John recalled, "The pallet kept wished the Chapter members a very Merry Christmas and on sliding until it was half off the ramp and half off the a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Yes, our first three meetings for January, February and March will be held on the second Thursday of the respective months. Jan. 9th, Feb. 13th, and Mar. 13th! The Toronto Public Library has yet to confirm our April, May & June dates as yet but we will inform you just as soon as they are made available. Now comes the most difficult part. The discussion meeting held after John Brookfield’s interesting talk on 436 Sqdn.’s Hercules with our Chapter members explored our need for additional Chapter Directors to help us run the Chapter as well as the meeting, plus the need for additional funds to cover our meeting hall, and Flypast publishing costs. It was said by members that 10 meetings & 10 issues yearly of our Flypast was a bargain and urged the Chapter Directors to increase the Membership fees by $5.00 to $10.00 yearly. A show of hands indicated all 60 members present were in agreement with this. Also Air Force Photo. discussed was a possible change in venue which if readily th accessible by subway/ bus could possibly insure we had Next Month’s Speaker: For our February 13 meeting our second Thursday confirmed for each month and Chapter member Andy Carswell and Transport Canada possibly allow us to have storage facilities. Centennial Inspector Will Boles will tell us about “Canada’s Aviation College, Ashtonbee campus is being considered. Further System Safety: Past, Present and Future”. Should be a advice on this is being investigated and will be reported to very interesting meeting. you. The available Chapter Executive [not including your Join Us: Our Chapter meetings are held at the North York Editor] had a telephone conference on the week-end Central Library, Main auditorium, second floor, 5120 Yonge following the December meeting and they have decided to St. Toronto, ON. You can enter if motoring by the increase the Chapter Membership fees to $20.00 for the southwest corner of the library off Beecroft Road. TTC 2004 Season and are planning on 8 meetings a season North York Civic Centre Subway station exit will lead you due to costs and also not having volunteers step forward to directly into the library. join our Chapter Executive and assist us at our meetings. Over 80% of the Chapter membership resides too far away to assist us at our meeting, following our meetings via the Flypast newsletter and they have always supported us with extra donations for which we truly thank them. You continued financial support is badly needed now. Please write to the Chapter Box number giving us your views on how we can continue to operate the Toronto Chapter 10 meetings a year and also possibly increasing our membership dues by an additional $5.00 to $10.00 yearly. This is an urgent appeal so please mail us your views.

Air Force Photo.