Marie and I went to Calgary last, primarily to move Christine and Michelle into their new apartments. We boarded the dogs at the breeder as they would have been too much to deal with during the moves. We managed a speed visit with Daniel on the way down, and did the manditory drop off of food.
Christine was supposed to have moved on the Friday, but the movers screwed up their schedule and couldn't come until Saturday. We have a Suburban full of stuff for her that we dropped off first thing Saturday morning, then promptly abandoned her. She has a beautiful one bedroom apartment downtown, just a block away from the university's downtown campus. Being late wasn't the only challenge with the movers. They also damaged some of her furniture, destroyed her printer, lost the legs to her couch, didn't bring all her boxes but made up for it by leaving two boxes that weren't hers. It made for a stressful day when she had her plate full with assignments. Fortunately one of her classmates, a new friend also named Chrstine, was able to stay the day and help her unpack and pick up supplies. We would come back a few days later, bringing food from a Costco run, and help set up some furniture and further sort her apartment out.
It was quickly apparent, during our visit, that Christine has a massive workload that has her working 18 hour days. She is no stranger to hard work but the first couple of weeks almost seem to be designed to force people out of the program. The attrition rate has been high, with 4 people in her pod already leaving. It seems strange for a grad program.
In the midst of this we sold both of our "extra" cars. The Vibe, after 21 faithful service, was sold to a neighbour. Coincidentally, they are also Daniel's landlord in Edmonton. The car is intended for their son, and will be heading to Edmonton, we Daniel will be able to look at it everyday. In another strange coincidence, the Venza, which was bought from by parents, will be returning to their parking garage. Christine has bought it, but won't have parking in her building for another month. We made arrangements to store it at my Mom's manor, where it is just a few spaces away from where it used to park.
The big effort of the Calgary trip was to move Marie's mom to a new room. It was effectively just Marie and I doing the move, and turned into two and a half long days before we got her moved and settled in. The new room is only a little smaller than the previous room, so we were able to get most of her stuff moved. She to likes her new room, has been making new friends and participating in group activies. It can be hard to tell but she seems happy.
With all that going on we also were able to visit my Mom several times while in Calgary. She is doing well but is working thru the effects of a new medication. She is also dealing with a change in her transportation. The manor has switched from a provided driver to Uber, and everyone is learning the new system. She used it last week for the first time for a doctor's appointment, and confusion at the doctor's office meant she missed her return ride and had to stay longer at the doctor's office.
We had our first scheduled Sunday call with Nicholas. It took place while we were at Michelle's setting up furniture and handing pictures, so it was a little rushed. Frosh week activities are over and Nicholas is now settling into routine. He is sharing a residence room this term, and is getting along well with his room mate. His friend Matt had a res meal plan so they are eating most of their dinners together.
Daniel was asked to be Project Manager for the UofA F1 team. His goal is to make the team stronger than he found it, and he has a ton of ideas on how to go about it. They held their first meeting /recruitment last weekend and got a very positive response. Daniel is really happy with the quality of the new members and is excited for the new year.
CF-104
The Starfighter is finished. Well, almost. I have lost the small photoetched fret so I can't add two small antenna. I will get some more pictures up for the next post. The silver turned out a little darker than I would have liked but still looks really good. I am very pleased with how this one turned out. A serious rearrangement of the shelves will be needed as I have now run out of display space.
Lightning
I am surprised at the size of the plane as it has come together. It isn't huge but is is noticeably larger than the CF-5 and CF-104. Perhaps that has adjusted my perspective.
I have felt more like building than painting or finishing details so was spending an disproportionate time on the Lightning. It has therefore come together quickly. It certainly isn't a shake the box kit. No haven't been any major issues but it has required lots of fitting and adjusting, and filler has been required regularly to deal with small fit issues. The most difficult area was immediately behind the cockpit, with required considerable filling, sanding and rescribing - Photo 6. I eventually resorted to using CA as a filler, allowing the joints to be rescribing reasonably well. Overall, construction has gone quickly and I haven't been very good at taking progress pictures, so the kit is now essentially at the end of construction.
Photos 1&2 - Top view
Photo 3 - Bottom view
Photo 4 - Rear underside showing filler on fuselage and stabilizers
Photo 5 - Underside filler and rescribing on belly
Photo 6 - Filler and rescribing behind cockpit
Photo 7 - Filler at base of tail and stabilizers
Photo 8 - Filler on stabilizers
Photos 9&10 - Cockpit, ready to install canopy
Photo 11 - First cost of primer
Frog Fokker F VII-3m
This is one right out of the blue. There is a four part story behind building this kit .
I was browsing the Above & Below Graphics website and noticed they had several new decal sets for Canadian Airways aircraft. As I was clicking thru the links I stumbled upon a Western Canada Airways Fokker F VII-3m. (That is supposed to be F dot VII but everytime I put the dot in the computer converts it to an url!). I was very surprised as I hadn't realized that the F VII-3m was used in Canada, and had not previously heard of Western Canada Airways.
Channel flipping one evening I came across a History Channel show on the machines that built America. This particular show, just getting started, was about the early airliners that made commercial aviation possible. It was primarily about Boeing, Douglas and Ford, but spent some time on Fokker and the F VII-3. Fokker aircraft were common in Canada thru the late 1920's and 1930's, especially in the west and up north, where their rugged all metal construction was appreciated, but I was not familiar with the "Trimotor Fokker" and learned some interesting history.
Coincidentally, the fall 2021 issue of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society was just released, and it contained a three page article on this plane in WCA service. Suddenly I had context and background.
I attended the Alberta Open Model Show in Edmonton the third week of June. The vendor area was small but there were a couple of very well stocked vendors present. One had the Frog Fokker kit for $10! I was obviously meant to buy it and promptly did.
The Frog kit came out i 1966, so it isn't quite as old as I am. The kit is definitely basic but is well cast and contains surprisingly good detail. The wings and fuselage have an unusual "stippled" appearance that may need some sanding and primer to tone down. Panel lines on the wings are present as raised lines. The kit also includes cockpit details, including two pilots.
The previous owner(s) had removed most of the parts from the runners but all the parts looks to be present.
Photo 1 - Box artwork
Photo 2 - Box painting instructions
Photo 3 - Kit instructions
Photo 4 - Kit parts as received
Fokker aircraft were one of the most successful aircraft manufacturers post WWI. The Fokker F VII was originally designed as a single engine transport for Dutch airline KLM. In 1925, Anthony Fokker learned of the Ford sponsored Reliabilty Tour for transport aircraft and decided to enter. Fokker quickly modified the single engine F VII into a three engine design to enter the competition. The new design, with a fabric covered fuselage and plywood covered wing, won the competition in late 1925. The plane went on to great commercial success, and it dominated the American and European markets until the 1931 crash of a Transcontinental & Western Airways plane, carrying famous Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. Investigators determined inherent weakness with the plywood laminate wing construction, lengthened to accommodate wing mounted engines, caused the wing to fail. A temporary flight ban was placed on the plane until necessary modifications could be made. New, all metal designs from Boeing, Ford, and Douglas were just entering service, and quickly displaced the Fokker design. Fokker aircraft eventually regained some commercial success in Europe but the crash resulted in them essentially disappearing from mainstream North American airline service.
Western Canada Airways was founded by James Armstrong Richardson in Edmonton in 1926. The new airline quickly expanded, winning key air mail contacts in Western Canada and thru the north. By 1929, WCA was the second largest airline in the Commonwealth, behind only Britian's Imperial Airways. Continued growth lead to the purchase and amalgamation of several smaller airlines into Canadian Airways Limited in 1930. Canadian Airways continued to expand until impacted by two key federal government decisions. In 1932, the federal government cancelled its airmail contacts without warning. WCA struggled to replace this business and never really recovered from the loss. In 1937, the newly created Teans Canada Airlines, based in Montreal as a crown corporation, was created by C.D. Howe. TCA was granted a number of desirable concessions, including the major routes between Canadian cities, as well as exclusive airmail contracts, that effectively crippled WCA. In 1939, Canadian Pacific Railways stepped in and bought WCA, consolidating it with other bush and northern airlines into Canadian Pacific Airlines.
In 1928, at the peak of its expansion, WCA bought the only Fokker F VII-3m to see use in Canada. Registered as G-CASC, it was based at Stevenson Field in Winnipeg. The plane did not see much use, other than a notable tour made thru Western Canada in the summer of 1929. The trip carried company officials and dignitaries from Winnipeg to Saskatoon, then on to Edmonton, Prince George, High River, and Vancouver, before returning to Winnipeg via High River. Afterwards, the plane then sat unused in Winnipeg, from July 1929 until March 4 1931, when it was destroyed in a hanger fire.
Several good black and white pictures of the WCA Fokker exist, providing good details of the plane. It is interesting to note that it appears to have arrived with two bladed props, but at some later time was converted to three bladed props. Unfortunately, the black and white photos don't help figuring out the colours used on the plane. The nose and wing mounted engines appear to be black, rather than following the the normal Fokker practice of using silver. The fuselage is a dark colour, but noticeable lighter than the black nose. Fokker frequently used a medium blue as a fuselage colour, so this is the likely fuselage colour. The black and white pictures show the wings to be lighter than the fuselage in colour, but that is all that can be determined. Fokker frequently used both silver and an orangey yellow to paint the wings. Canadian Airways planes were also painted in a medium blue fuselage with the orangey yellow wings. Given that, I will paint the fuselage in a medium blue and the wings in an orange/yellow.
Well, that's it for another blog. Be well and stay safe.
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