News: She Flies! Early flight news.
Silver Dart re-creators get tip of Welland council's hat …
“look how beautiful …”
By Allan Benner, Staff Writer, Welland Tribune
WELLAND — Doug Jermyn wanted to give city councillors a taste of the “feeling of elation” he and his colleagues felt at that moment on that cold February afternoon, when more than three years of hard work paid off.
During Tuesday’s city council meeting, he played a video filmed from within one of the vehicles that chased the odd-looking plane down a runway in Hamilton.
The voices of several people could be heard shouting with joy as the wheels of the Silver Dart replica lifted from the runway.
“Oh my God. Look how beautiful,” Jermyn’s wife Carol said on the video, amidst the cheers of the other passengers in a van.
Jermyn and members of the AEA 2005 (Aerial Experimental Association) were at the meeting to tell city councillors about their achievement, building a flying replica of the …
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The story can be seen in its entirety at the following Welland Tribune web site …
http://wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1556444
AAEA 2005 Inc. volunteer Jaro Petruck, right, proudly displays his certificate of recognition from City Councillor David Alexander, centre, while AEA 2005 Inc. President Doug Jermyn, looks on. (Photo AEA 2005 Inc.
Kevin Gibson, right, Electric Dreams Video, Welland, and associate Kevin Fazekas, left, put together the finishing touches on the 2-minute, 44-second video, shown in City of Welland Council Chambers at the Tuesday meeting in which the city honoured the two core group volunteers of the AEA 2005 Inc. (Photo AEA 2005 Inc.)
To downlaod the video, please click here … To view the video, please click here... (the video is 11 meg so it will take some time to load).
Where is C-IIGY now and where it is going this summer
Since its remarkable and well-received commemorative flights in Baddeck, NS on Sun., Feb. 22nd, 2009, the Welland Silver Dart replica – C-IIGY, has been temporarily hangared at Canadian Forces’ 14 Wing in Greenwood, NS. It was on static display there for a Mess Dinner on March 31. It has been stored in a base hangar following the Mess Dinner … where it will remain until brought open for public viewing during an air show scheduled at Greenwood on May 20.
Following that air show, another Silver Dart replica support team will head to Greenwood to dis-assemble and ship the replica back home … home to the Russell Aviation Group hangar at the Niagara Falls South Airport, in time for the RAG Air Show, slated to take place this year on June 6 and 7.
Whether it flies again for the RAG air show is unknown at this stage.
The committee is also fielding many requests … from aviation interests who stage annual conventions and associations through the spring, summer and fall season … to air shows across Ontario and Canada … all asking if C-IIGY could be on static display or fly at their particular event.
Decisions are being made on a request-received basis. The costs to dis-assemble, ship, and to re-assemble it at a new destination can reach into the thousands of dollars, depending on the distances involved in shipping the replica throughout Canada. Each time the replica needs to be taken here or there, costs can range from a low of $3,000 to a high of $10,000 for a four-person support team to move with it, and to move the replica about the countryside.
More information will be provided over the next few weeks as the air show and annual meetings seasons kick into place.
Walking on Air aviation trilogy now in production
| Read about the new book series here. | ORDER FORM | |
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| Book 1, Pilot of Fortune (click for larger view in pdf format) |
Book 2, C-IIGY Flies! (click for larger view in pdf format) |
Book 3, Earth Angels Rising (click for larger view in pdf format) |
Silver Dart replica arrives in Baddeck
DATELINE: Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 – 10 a.m., Atlantic Standard Time
C-IIGY, the Silver Dart replica has arrived in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada, today after a nearly 48-hour transit by two Mackie Moving Systems (Oshawa, ON) long-distance moving vans which left Wednesday from the John C. Munro International Airport in Hamilton, ON where it had undergone six test flights on Friday, Feb. 6th.
By day’s end, the first part of the AEA 2005 Inc. Silver Dart support team who arrived in Baddeck Thursday, Feb. 12, had already offloaded the dis-assembled aircraft and planned to re-assemble it on the weekend.
The Silver Dart replica is now housed in large heated tent provided by the Silver Dart Centennial Association, being readied for what is being billed as the Flight of the Century, for Monday, February 23rd, to commemorate 100 years of powered flight in Canada and in the then British Empire, now British Commonwealth.
The tent is located close to the shoreline and weather conditions are expected to improve, meaning getting cold and clear for the flight day, hopefully providing nearly 1,219 m (4,000 ft) of ice runway for the flight.
NOTE: Due to the great amount of interest at Hamilton International Airport on Friday, Feb. 6, 2009, there were different reports as to the actual number of test flights … it turned out that there were a total of six (6) test flights on Friday – and two (2) more on Sunday, Feb. 8. Special thanks for this corrected information go to kite flying enthusiast Bob White, Port Colborne, of Best Breezes who along with fellow kite enthusiasts managed to video tape ALL six flights on Friday as they accompanied AEA 2005 Inc personnel in chase vehicles on the runway. See Bob’s web site for actual videos … http://best-breezes.squarespace.com/journal/2009/2/7/silver-dart-replica-flies-into-history-books.html
The two Mackie Moving Systems moving vans at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, ON on Wednesday afternoon as the Silver Dart replica began her move to Nova Scotia.
(AEA 2005 Inc. photo)
Silver Dart replica has got all of THE RIGHT STUFF!!!!, 1 ASTRONAUT INCLUDED
C-IIGY successfully test-flies into international aviation history books
… 6 times in one hour … in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Next flight – Baddeck, NS, Canada – ETA Mon., Feb. 23rd, 2009
What at first looked like, to many, a rudimentary pile of fabric-covered sticks has blossomed into the silver-winged darling of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children as the Welland-Ontario built Silver Dart replica – C-IIGY - took to the air five times Friday afternoon, February 6th, 2009 at the John C. Munro International Airport, in Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Flown by retired NASA / Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason and - thanks to strong local, regional and national media support - watched on international television by hundreds of thousands of viewers, it passed its flight tests in preparation for its first scheduled flight on Monday, Feb. 23rd, 2009 nearly 1,600 km (1,000 m) east of Hamilton.
That one is expected to take place in Baddeck, Nova Scotia where C-IIGY will help Canadians and the Silver Dart Centennial Society celebrate 100 years of powered flight in Canada and in what was the British Empire of Feb. 23rd, 1909 – 100 years ago and honour the memory of Alexander Graham Bell, his original Aerial Experiment Association five-member team and their dream to be the first among the few.
5th test flight - Photo courtesy of retired Air Canada captain Jim Millard, London, On, taken from the cockpit of a Kanata aircraft sitting on a Runway 24 access ramp as pilot Tryggyvason flies C-IIGY about 4 m – 11.5 ft - above Runway 24.
Transport Canada has a keen sense of historical accuracy
Perhaps few outside the aviation community will notice, but whenever C-IIGY, the Silver Dart replica flies, it does so without its Transport Canada official registry identification … C-IIGY … this is thanks to Transport Canada (TC) regulatory officials who possess a fine sense of historical accuracy. TC knows full well that the original Silver Dart could not have flown with any official registry letters as nothing remotely resembling Transport Canada even existed at the time.
Since C-IIGY is flying to help celebrate a century of powered flight in Canada, and to help Canadians commemorate that event of 100 years ago on Feb. 23rd, 1909, it may as well fly the same way today – unadorned thanks to a body of men and women who are driven with their passion for the ongoing aviation safety for all - pilots, aircrew, passengers, cargo, and their airplanes, old and new. These are truly safety-conscious men and women who want to assure that magnificent flying machines stay just that way - magnificent.
Thanks, Transport Canada.
What’s a WW II Lancaster bomber jacket doing wrapped around an astronaut?
Some photographs have appeared in print and on electronic media (internet, web sites, television) showing Silver Dart replica pilot Bjarni Tryggvason, retired NASA / Canadian Space Agency astronaut wearing a Lancaster bomber jacket over his more official NASA / CSA blues.
The Lancaster bomber jacket is on temporary loan from Ken Spurgeon, a volunteer at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton. Here in his own words is how and why pilot Tryggvason is seen in some photographs with Mr. Spurgeon’s Lancaster bomber jacket … from an e-mail he sent us the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 7:
I'm writing to offer my heart felt 'Congratulations' to everyone involved for the very impressive flights of the Silver Dart yesterday afternoon in Hamilton.
I was really pleased to be able to see the many flights and have an opportunity to speak with all of the volunteers and the pilot.
When I spoke with Bjarni Tryggvason after he had done his first pass around noon I heard him say that it was a little cold out there so I asked if he would like to borrow the 'Lancaster' bomber jacket that I was wearing.
When he did his flights later in the afternoon his decided to use the coat and I believe that it was a little warmer for him.
After the plane had been returned to the hanger he returned the coat and indicated that it was great and I thanked him for taking such good care of my lucky coat.
When he was returning the coat to me a Mr. Ron Zwarych asked if the coat could be taken to Baddeck for the Feb. 23 flights and I could see no reason to say no. Mr. Zwarych indicated that he would make sure that the coat would be returned so I left it in his care.
He later handed it off to Mr. Tryggvason so I trust that Bjarni was going to take it with him.
(NB: Ron Zwarych is one of many volunteers within the AEA 2005 Inc. group.)
Looking tickled pink – tickled with the jacket and pink from the cold – Bjarni Tryggvason shows what a well-dressed astronaut wears in an “open cockpit” during a cold February day while test-flying a replica of the first powered aircraft in Canada of 100 years ago.
(Photo courtesy Bob White - Best Breezes)
News Archive
Final Preparations for flight.
LINK: Read about the final fight preparations and related news.