Canadian Aviation Museum

I took my dad to this gem of a museum this week. The Canadian Aviation Museum is not in Ottawa or Hamilton. It is in Windsor and is run by the Canadian Historical Aircraft Association out of the only remaining building of RCAF 07 Elementary Flight Training School. This base came into being on the Walker airfield during World War 2 as part of the scheme to train pilots. The Walker airfield is now Windsor Airport.

The museum's general focus is telling the story of the base and on the aircraft that the novice pilots would fly. To that aim, they have a Fleet Finch, which is very similar to the Fleet Fawn, which was the aircraft that this base had. 

They also have a Tiger Moth and a Harvard. All of these aircraft are flight capable. They are reassembling a second Tiger Moth.

They also have a couple of other training aircraft such as the Boeing Stearman, which was a trainer for the US Air Force.

dditionally, they have a WW2 flight "simulator" and a Vickers Viscount flight simulator. 

Basically, the museum is bursting at the seams and has more aircraft and exhibits. They don't have enough room for their T33 Silver Star, a Korean era jet, so they have to put a tarp over it and park it outside.

What really makes this museum worth it is that it is a working museum. That is, they are actively building and restoring historical aircraft. In addition to a 1/2 scale replica of the Silver Dart and repairing wing damage caused by a deer strike to a training aircraft that they acquired last year, they have two ambitious projects: restoring a Lancaster bomber and building a replica Mosquito.

The Lancaster is in a lot of pieces. We were able to wander around the parts to do things like put our heads up into the bomb bays and look down inside the tail of the Lancaster.

	The nose of the plane is in the background.
One half is painted up as the "Bad Penny", which was the first humanitarian aid flight to the Netherlands in Spring 1945.	The bomb aimer/front gunner position
The main wing span with the crawl route over the wing near the centre of the picture.	The bomb bay from the inside. The view up into the cockpit.

As a working museum, there were a number of guys tinkering on the two planes. We talked to a couple of them about what they were doing.

The Mosquito is a completely new aircraft, although the engines are authentic. Built in 1945, they were crated and left that way until the museum acquired them.

	The aileron under construction.
A wooden plane requires a woodshop.	A Merlin being serviced.
The museum recovered a few pieces from a wrecked Mosquito in Canada's far north.	Parts being built.

If you are in the Windsor area, I highly recommend a visit.

Rough Weekend

Given my lack of progress in getting my hobby storage constructed, my next post was going to be about KEGSCON on the 25th. I have all the cabinetry but I need to assemble it. That was the plan for this weekend but life intervened.

On Tuesday, my dog picked out the kibble in her kibble and moist mix and scattered them around her bowls. She did this for all three meals. She did this on Wednesday but now added the occasional ke-ke-hork strange cough. On Thursday, she didn't eat at all and started to cough more frequently. We started to be a little bit concerned but other than these symptoms and a bit of lethargy, she seemed OK.

Friday was different. Surie was completely uninterested in food, which is highly unusual. Any sort of exertion was leading to the strange cough and extended panting. We were debating taking her to the vet, but she would settle and go back to sleep, which she was doing a lot of.

Finally, we decided that we had to take her. I went to a 24 hour animal hospital. An hour later and quite a bit lighter in the wallet, we got news. The doctor said that the X-ray showed some sort of mass near her heart. My dog has beaten cancer twice already, but this sounded really serious, especially in a 12 year old dog. 

We decided against doing anything else that evening other than a steroid injection to deal with any swelling and an antibiotic. The vet said that she was not in any immediate danger but he did recommend an ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis. We booked it for the earliest slot, which was Sunday afternoon at 4. 

Saturday was very weepy. There was a lot of cuddling and I was taking a lot of mental snapshots, just in case she went downhill fast. I was mentally readying myself to take her the vet for the final time on Monday because she seemed about the same as Friday. We did get some good news in that a cancellation meant that we could get the ultrasound that afternoon. We also noticed that she finally ate a little.

The ultrasound turned everything around. There is no mass. Instead, her heart is a bit enlarged because she has bronchitis or pneumonia. This was a huge relief. She is a tough little dog and she can beat this.

As a bonus, on Sunday she was back to normal, almost. She had an appetite and she had some energy. The strange cough was gone. The cuddles were back but for a different reason.

Today, we took her to our normal vet for a follow up. Surie has relapsed a little bit, in that she does the occasional strange cough and she has moments of panting. But we found out that she had gotten a substantial steroid dose on Friday and we think it had worn off today. Her appetite is mostly back though and she has more energy, so we are optimistic that she will beat this and continue to be in our lives.