A most excellent day in Montreal

[David Stroud]

'I thought some of you might interested in reading this. This list is consumed with F24's and newer
examples of the Fairchild line mainly, but you may do well to hear about the forefathers of the lineage.

The Bride and I attended the annual CAHC ( Canadian Aviation Historical Centre) 's annual Holiday Get together
in Montreal today. The very existence of the CAHC is singularly the most important outside source of inspiration
and in fact, basic plans, for me to be able to tackle such a project. My replica will clone RCAF ser. no. 626
which was used in Borden, Ontario for bombing practice with the BCATP and have reserved the correct
registration marks YXV for my project.

The CAHC was founded by Godfrey Pasmore,the son of Hubert Pasmore, who has more than once been
identified as "Mr. Fairchild of Canada" and was responsible for bringing the Fairchild aircraft development
program into Canada, Longueil, Quebec way back around 1928. The Centre is building a display model of
a Fairchild FC-2, a flying replica of a Bleriot Monoplane, researches other interesting artifacts of Canadian
Flying History and has parts of Bolingbroke's, the very Canadian Fleet Canuk and many other bits and pieces.
They have a website here :http://www.cahc-ccpa.com/main_eng.htm

A highlight of our trip today was to present Godfrey with a 1993 Canadian $20 Coin with a Fairchild 71 CF-ATZ
on it. ATZ now resides in the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Edmonton.
http://albertaaviationmuseum.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=41 .

From time to time, it was nice to see some visitors approach us and ask if I was the guy in Ottawa building the
Fairchild 51. I got dragged into their shop more than once and had quite a session with an elderly Dutch lad
named Jake who had done considerable work on the FC2 replica. I noted that they had to put a spacer into
the fuselage aileron split lever to make it match up with the wing's aileron split lever and he admitted to scratching
his head many times over this. One trouble with a project like this in Montreal is that they have many volunteers
helping from time to time. I took a look at the split lever on the wing side of things and figured that it's lever
was inverted according to my plans. That would make a piece of 1" angle iron either match up or be 2" away
from where it should be. We both laughed and teased each other about it, but he said with a wink in his eye
as we left..."you may be right, but it works right now and I'm not changing the ........thing.! Such are the good
times visiting Montreal.

I was pleased to have a picture taken with Pasmore and I when another lad nodded me over and introduced
himself. Robert explained that his Dad flew Fairchilds back in about the same era and knows about the
FC2's and it's ensuing lineage. His Father was non other than Stuart Graham, the first professional Bush Pilot
in Canada. Remarkably, Stuarts navigator was his wife, Marguerite in the old Vickers Vedette just years
before.

It's a good feeling to be part of this group, while I plod along building my own contribution to Canada's
aviation history.

The smoked meat in Montreal is still among the best......


David Stroud Ottawa, Canada
Christavia C-FDWS
Fairchild 51 replica
under construction C-FYXV

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]'