CANADIAN UPDATES

Air Classics, Mar 2005 by McNulty, Gord

NEWS BRIEFS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Restored Bird Dog and donated Tiger Moth

A nicely finished Cessna L-19 Bird Dog in Canadian Army colors is an unusual sight in Canadian skies. The aircraft is registered C-FJPA and is owned by Steven Coleman of Toronto and is flown by his father, Gordon. The aircraft was built up by the Colemans starting from scratch in 1983 after they acquired numerous L-19 parts. The job was completed in 2001 and the plane was registered as a homebuilt.

A total of 25 Bird Dogs, including 16 L-19As and nine L-19Es (the primary difference being electric flaps on the E model) were delivered to the Canadian Army between 1954 and 1957. They were used as an observation platform, artillery spotting for the army's guns and self-propelled howitzers, and light utility duties. Many of these aircraft became tow planes for the Royal Canadian Air Cadets glider program as they were retired from the Canadian Forces in the early 1970s. The Colemans' Bird Dog is a combination of A and E models and does have electric flaps.

Beautifully restored cle Havilland Tiger Moth ex-RCAF 3874/NX820DH is now with the Toronto Aerospace Museum. The aircraft was donated by William Laidlaw of Nevada City, California, who flew the biplane on a historic 3200-mile homecoming journey from California to its birthplace in Toronto during the summer of 2004.

It was a double homecoming for Toronto-born Laidlaw who learned to fly on a Tiger Moth with the RCAF in 1943. His first aeronautical engineering job was with de Havilland Canada in the same building at Downsview Park where the Toronto Aerospace Museum is today.

Tiger Moth No. 3874, one of almost 1500 built by de Havilland Canada between 1940 and 1942, spent most of its wartime career based in Manitoba. After the war it was sold to a farmer and stored in a barn until 1989. Laidlaw acquired the Moth in 1998 and on 29 April 2000 he piloted it on its first flight in 55 years.

His homecoming flight received extensive media coverage, especially in western Canada. The only problem occurred when the engine failed when he reached Brandon, Manitoba, in June. Laidlaw had to load the aircraft on a train from Brandon to Oshawa, east of Toronto. Bob Murphy loaned an engine that allowed Laidlaw to fly the Tiger Moth to Downsview in July.