HARVARD HAPPENINGS

August 2007 

www.harvards.com

CHAA P.O. Box 175, Tillsonburg, Ontario N4G 4H5

BACKSEATS:

Contact Leroy Gilmore This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   (519) 895-2717 about backseat opportunities.

CHAA 2007 SCHEDULE:

Several Harvard backseat opportunities are available.  (If you are the owner of a CHAA gift certificate, this can be used toward the cost of one of these backseats. A backseat ride in a Harvard is such a thrill! 

Sat, Aug 18 – 900 hrs -- Tillsonburg -- Members Flyday

Sat, Aug 18 -- 1830hrs – over Centennial Park, Kitchener – 4 a/c

Sun, Sept 2 – Port Rowan – 2 a/c

SAT, SEPT 8 – Parry Sound

Sat, Sept 8 – Warriors Day Parade, Western Fair, London – 4 a/c

Sept 8 & 9 – 900 hrs – Tillsonburg -- Doors Open Oxford and Members Flydays

Mon, Nov 5 – Shedden (Fingal) Flypast

Sun, Nov 11 – Remembrance Day Flypasts

Bingo:

Contact Bill Scott at 519-474-1731. The 2007 Bingo dates are:

-Wed, Aug 29

-Tues, Sept 18

members flydays:

Starting at 0900 - great opportunity to get a backseat ride - what a thrill!

There will be a BBQ lunch available.  Bring your appetite!

To all gift certificate holders: These flydays are a great opportunity to use your certificate

-Sat, Aug 18- (rain date August 25)

-Sept 8 & 9: CHAA will be part of “Doors Open Oxford”. 

CHAA is one of 24 sites open to the public in Oxford County (www.doorsopenoxford.ca) This is a two day Flyday weekend as well and will run each day from 10am-4pm. Members are needed to assist with the weekend by showing visitors around (contact Roy Venn at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and to sell Stores merchandise (contact Wayne Wilkins This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

CHAA MEMBERS MONTHLY MEETINGs:

Held at Tillsonburg Airport and begin at 1930 hrs. Stay informed...plan to attend!

-Tues, Aug 21

-Tues, Sept 18

-TUES, OCT 23

other dates:

-Sun, Aug 12 – Starting around 2 pm at Tillsonburg Airport, CHAA will be participating in the taping a segment of the new CBC television show "NOW --- No Opportunity Wasted" which premieres this October. According to CBC’s website (www.cbc.ca/now/), “NOW is inspired by the book and personal life philosophy of "The Amazing Race" host Phil Keoghan. In each episode, two challengers, who do not know they have been chosen, will be surprised by Canadian adventurer and author Bruce Kirkby and asked to take on Phil Keoghan’s 72-hour NOW challenge. The two challengers, total strangers with a common goal, must work step-by-step to complete a series of time targets that will push them to the extreme and help them complete their challenge.” CHAA’s segment will be part of a show dealing with those challengers who have a fear of flying; they will be challenged with flying in a glider and an ultra light, before moving on to a backseat ride in a  Harvard.  This is an exciting adventure for CHAA, and we will be watching CBC to see our Harvards being piloted by Greg Burnard, Tony Donnelly, Greg Tyrell and Dan Cameron.

-September 1: Deadline for submissions to the ROAR:  please send to Wayne Wilkins ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

-Sat, September 15 – SEPTEMBER EVENING at the HANGAR

For the 2^nd year, a CHAA social event, “September Evening at the Hangar” is being held at Hangar 1 in Tillsonburg.  Start time 5pm, with dinner (hot buffet) to begin at 6pm; social time to follow with great music for dancing and listening enjoyment. Tickets are $15 and must be purchased by Tuesday, September 12. They are available from Marg Hollister (519-842-9567) or Eva Hillsdon ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).  Attire casual.  Come and spend an evening at the hangar with CHAA friends and their guests. Last year’s event was a huge success and lots of fun.  This year’s is shaping up to be more of the same. Hope to see you there.

-September 27-30 -- The highly anticipated Gathering of Mustangs and Legends, The Final Round Up, is scheduled to be held at Rickenbacker Field in Columbus, Ohio. From their website (www.gml2007.com) we learn they expect over 100 Mustangs and 51 Legends! To all who plan to attend (from all accounts the numbers will be high...I was visitor 136,302 to their site), enjoy every minute of “formation flying, solo demonstrations, as well as an aviation auction and opportunities to meet the Aces, Legends and Heroes who flew the P-51 Mustangs”.

        MEMBERSHIP NEWS: Marion Bennell This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 519-633-0053

Another busy month!  The membership now stands at 594 which include: life and sponsor members, general members and Harvard Hawks.  At the Members' Fly Day on July 21, 15 new members were signed up, and 9 members with gift certificates had their flights. A total of 20 flights were taken by CHAA members.   I encourage those members with gift certificates to come to one of the Members' Fly Days to use their certificate.  As noted above, there are still 3 designated Fly Days for 2007 - August 18 (raindate August 25), and September 8 and 9 during Doors Open Oxford. Please note: If planning to come for a ride on September 8, there will be limited flying in the morning as CHAA aircraft will be doing a flypast for Western Fair in London at noon so it might be best to arrive after Noon.

As always, our thoughts are with all those who have recently been ill, had surgery or have lost loved ones. We hold you in our hearts and wish you better days ahead.

For the past several years, cards have been sent to guest speakers and to CHAA members who are ill or have lost loved ones.  If you know of someone CHAA should be remembering, please do not hesitate to let Sandra know ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and a card will be sent.

     ADMIN OFFICER REPORT: Roy Venn This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  519-842-3813

It has been a busy year for giving Tours at the hangar. A great big thank you to all of our members who have been helping out as Tour guides; you have done a great job. To date in 2007, 270 people of all ages have been officially conducted through our facilities. We have three confirmed groups coming through on the 9^th & 11^th of August, plus whatever groups show up for Doors Open Oxford on the 8^th and 9^th of September and the Tillsonburg Probus Club on the 18^th of September.

HANGAR-ACTION: The restoration of MTX is coming along, and each week we are one step closer to where we want to be and are proceeding along the timelines and goals we set for ourselves. Under the supervision of AME Rick Lee, a number of people are involved in various phases of the work including Bill Weir, Marv Kent, George Bennell, Bill Ansley and others. This project does need an infusion of cash donations to ensure its completion. If you wish to contribute, please make sure your donations are marked as dedicated to the MTX Project.

Another big thank you goes out to Mike Collier for his recent contribution of a paint job on the Stores trailer. The dull, faded yellow is gone and has been replaced with a deep blue. A third wheel/jack has been added making the trailer much easier to move.

A note of appreciation to Mancel Waugh, Colin Jarvis, Roy White and Dave Gibson, all of whom are always working on some necessary project or another around the hangar.

It is also time to thank Wayne Chuter who has spent a lot of his time in a number of areas. Wayne is responsible for collecting pop cans, crunching them and delivering them to the scrap dealer; to date this project has raised over $344 which has been split between the Yale First Flight bash and the Farewell Flight Fund. In his travels he has also located a source for plastic see-through containers being used to hold various nuts and bolts etc; it seems the plastic doesn’t break as easily if dropped.

There is a major clear-out and clean-up going on in the north side of the Restorations hangar in preparation for some renovations. We know from time to time we all get it into our heads to do some clean up around home and find things we think CHAA might be able to use at the Hangar. Our space is at a premium and it costs us money (CHAA dollars) to dispose of the items we can’t use, so please don’t bring materials to the Hangar for donation without first checking with either Ron Jay at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or Bill Ritchie at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We now have three (3) flag poles on the north side of the ADMIN Centre and are flying the Canadian Flag, the Ontario Flag and the Roundel (thanks Ray for the flag donation). Is it time for CHAA to develop its own flag? If you have any ideas please pass them on to Philippe Morin (CHAA PR) at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

admin Room Bookings should be done through Roy at email above.

      STORES NEWS: Wayne Wilkins This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We had a very successful weekend at Geneseo...the best of this season. To Carl Sapelak and the Team - all those who helped setup, work the tent and stayed around to pack up - Thanks!!!

Bruce Tapp set out our wares at the July Flyday and with some hard working helpers we had a profitable day.

We will be setting up at the following events. A couple of volunteers to assist would be helpful.

Saturday, Aug 18 – 0900 hrs -- Tillsonburg -- Members Flyday

Sat/Sun Sept 8 & 9 – 0900 hrs – Tillsonburg -- Doors Open Oxford and Members Flydays

Also many of you will have noticed a new website has been created for CHAA.  In the future, it will include Stores Merchandise in an Online Store Front.  Sincere thanks to Bill Tully and Walt Irie for their work on this project and to Lance Russwurm who created and updated the site we had been using previously. 

      FLIGHT REPORTS:

-Fri to Sun, July 13 – 15 – geneseo airshow – A wonderful weekend shared by over 24000 aviation enthusiasts (counting the 42 folks who journeyed down on the CHAA bus, there were approximately 100 CHAA representatives in attendance on July 14!). Our Harvards were piloted by Greg Burnard, Greg Tyrell, Dave Martin, Bill Shepard, Pete Spence, Dave Hewitt and Kent Beckham.  For more details go to: http://1941hag.org    (for amazing photos, visit the site, click Geneseo Air Show on menu to left...well worth taking the time to go through all the photos from the four contributing photographers)

-Wed, Aug 1 – LAUREL CREEK (WATERLOO) FLYPAST – 100th Anniversary of Scouting – Pilots of the four plane formations were: Greg Burnard, Johnny Curran, David Martin and Bjarni Tryggvasson. For complete coverage as given by Waterloo newspaper, The Record, go to: http://news.therecord.com/article/223071

Important Grant Announcement: Ken Arnott

On August 1, the Minister of Culture and Oxford County’s MPP officially announced CHAA has been successful in its application for a grant of $ 72,000 from the province of Ontario’s Trillium Foundation.  This has created much excitement...as you can well imagine!  The focus for the grant money is to upgrade our present facilities to better accommodate our needs and those of the public when they visit our site.  (A broader view of this plan will be outlined in the September ROAR). To date, the funds have been received and CHAA members Ken Arnott (fundraising), Murray Hearn and Bill Ritchie (buildings committee), Greg Burnard (construction estimator), Mike Kite and Ron Jay (restorations) have met to discuss the project and assemble a committee who will be responsible for overseeing  the work.  Periodic progress results will be issued.  As always, we look forward to membership participation as we see this project through to its completion.

      CHAA’s ELECTRICAL TRAINING PANEL: Al Speirs

The Electrical Training Panel currently located in the Maintenance Hangar is now operational.  The Panel was originally made at The Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William (Thunder Bay) in 1942 and was donated to CHAA in 2006.  At the same time, CHAA received a complete wiring diagram display board of the panel with all wiring marked and numbered accordingly.

This system was originally used as a training tool for the Maintenance Crew on the 1941/42 Mk 2A Harvard to assist in understanding the working operation and wiring of the 12 volt electrical system in the aircraft.

Over the past few months three CHAA members took on the project of restoring the panel to an operational display.  After 60 man hours of cleaning contacts, tracing wiring, replacing or repairing parts the board is now operating as it was intended. Anyone wanting a demonstration can now view the instrument panel lights, engine panel lights, navigational lights, landing lights, fuel gauge lights, fuel pressure lights, cockpit lights, landing gear lights, upper and lower beacon lights with Morse code capabilities, stall horn, tail light, and the starter motor turning over to engage the spark. 

The system runs off a 12 volt battery, and the external starting system is operational as well.

Wiring for guns, rockets, bombs, gun camera and many other items are on the display, although, currently not wired into the system.

Thank you to Keith Rice and Ron Wilton for their expertise and time assisting on this project. We all enjoyed the time spent and the learning experience.

For a demonstration of this working model, please contact Al Speirs at 519 537 5808 or Keith Rice at 519 582 3845.      

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Until next time, clear skies, safe flights and smooth landings!

Sandra Sparkes, CHAA Member