Abbotsford Flying Club

Impressive visitor to YVR yesterday. Anyone remember when and at what event the An-124 first appeared in Canada?

Our new club patch.

747-1D1 C-FDJC of WDA with Lee Fenner at the controls leading the Ray Ban Golds in a formation flight at Abby in 1987. Photo credit: Mike Head

A cool opportunity to ride along on a virtual Concorde flight with the crew of the real aircraft.

Who remembers the Blackbird at the Abbotsford International Airshow in 1986?

Quite the angle of attack on final approach!

Every BCATP aerodrome needed water. Lots of water. RCAF Abbotsford was no exception. During the construction of Abbotsford the task of establishing a supply of ...water fell to the International Water Supply Ltd of London Ontario. The well, which is of the gravel-wall type, is approximately 30 feet in depth and is equipped with a Layne vertical turbine pump. Official test showed capacity of 219 Imperial Gallons per minute, or, 995.59371 litres to be exact. At this point it is unclear who constructed the reservoir to hold all this water. It may have been The Northern Construction Company Ltd., as they were contracted for all the buildings. The reservoir was built like a bunker. It was reinforced with very thick steel rods, thicker than the rebar of today and at the top was approximately a foot thick, tapering out to about four feet at its base. When the City of Abbotsford awarded the contract for its demolition less than ten years ago, it appears it was based on it all being the same thickness as the top. One can only imagine the flurry of emails and phone calls that followed, moments after they busted through and realized exactly how it was built. As Army Cadets, who paraded very close by in the old Ground Instruction H hut, we were told by our officers that this below-ground structure with its tall air vents was a wartime bunker, likely filled with war surplus. We often plotted how to get in without the tower seeing us. Imagine my disappointment when I learned it was filled with nothing but water. Over the course of a few weeks, I made three trips to Abbotsford, to document as much as I could since it was being demolished and, in the process, was able to save some components.

RIP Max Ward. https://www.cbc.ca//cana/north/max-ward-obituary-1.5788258

A tour of the features of Canada's newest Search & Rescue aircraft, the C295 Kingfisher.

Local heroes every day!

Well done, Lt.-Col. Riel Erickson!

Elsie MacGill, aka Queen of the Hurricanes, continues to be an inspiration!

Cool way to re-use a piece of an aircraft.

442 Squadron received its first new SAR aircraft, the CC-295 Kingfisher.

Cool! https://www.cbc.ca//teara-fraser-dc-comics-anthology-1.572

Today, the Abbotsford Flying Club formally unveiled the Memorial Bench for John Spronk. John was a founding member of the Abbotsford Flying Club and the Abbotsf...ord International Airshow 60 years ago. John retired from Pacific Western Airlines as a Boeing 737 Captain and continued his flying activities in the general aviation community in Abbotsford. John provided leadership, encouragement, and enthusiasm for all thing’s aviation. Present today were John’s wife Patricia Spronk, daughter Margo Spronk, and other family members, club members and friends. Funding for the memorial bench was provided by the Spronk family.

The Time Capsule for the Abbotsford International Airshow is sealed once again for another 50 years. Today it was time to return the original time capsule and a...dd the new time capsule to the cairn. Earlier today at the Abbotsford Flying Club there was a dedication of the John Spronk Memorial Bench. John was a founding member of both the Abbotsford Flying Club and the Abbotsford International Airshow 60 years ago. I took photos of that event, copied them to another SD memory card and USB drive, and Valerie placed the SD memory card and USB drive in the new time capsule. It might be a bit of a challenge to find a device to read them in 50 years! The mason arrived with his handy helper and set about the task of sealing the time capsules in place in the cairn. Steve Stewart and George Aug-Thin led the process and were pleased at how everything turned out. I found a small space between the stones of the cairn, so I slipped in a Toonie. Finders Keepers. It’s quite amazing that Millie Watson was present 50 years ago for sealing the cairn and is here once again! Thanks to everyone who helped make this project a success. I am sure that aviation will be quite different in 50 years and so will airshows. What do you think?