FLEET FINCH

The Vintage Wings Finch is dedicated to Leader Hartland Ross “Hart” Finley, DFC of Montreal who learned to fly at Number 4 Elementary Flying Training School at Windsor Mills, where he actually flew the very same Finch that we now own - RCAF Serial 4462. Finley became a BCATP instructor at Summerside, PEI as well as at No. 2 SFTS here in Ottawa. He went on to fly Typhoons at his Operational Training Unit in England, but transferred to Spitfires with 403 Squadron, eventually commanding 443 Squadron. After the war, Finley continued to fly with the Department of Transport in Ottawa as the Chief VIP pilot for the federal government, flying Prime Ministers, Presidents and Royals on state visits.

Click here to learn more about Hart Finley

The Fleet Finch (Fleet Model 16) is a two-seat, tandem training biplane produced by Fleet Aircraft of Fort Erie, Ontario. There were a number of variants mainly based on engine variations. Over several years beginning in 1939, a total of 447 Finches were built, nearly all (431) of them for use as elementary trainers in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) during the Second World War.

The Finch was a mainstay of the RCAF prior to and during the early part of the Second World War, flying at the Elementary Flying Training Schools (EFTS) in parallel with the better known de Havilland Tiger Moth, also produced in Canada. The earlier Fleet Model 7 (Fleet Fawn) was also in use for primary training. During 1940, initial production problems were solved and timely deliveries were made to the RCAF, allowing the first training programs to start up. In the following year, the Portuguese Navy purchased ten Model 16Ds (ordered as 10Bs but changed to the higher powered variant) and later a further five 16Ds were delivered in 1942.

A total of 606 Fleet Finches were produced as Model 16s, the majority for the RCAF. They were used as initial trainers in the BCATP at no fewer than 12 Elementary Flight Training Schools across Canada. Both the Fleet Finch and Tiger Moth were later replaced by the Fairchild PT-26 Cornell. The Finch was progressively phased out of service from October 1944 with the last of the Model 16s struck off strength from the RCAF inventory in 1947.