DOUBLE THE PLEASURE
In Canada, the Victoria Day long weekend signals the beginning of summer play and the boundless joys of being outside. Gone are the crusted snow banks, the dirty buses, the layered grey skies and the layered grey clothing, replaced by new green foliage rustling in warm breezes, bed upon bed of tulips leaning into the sun, achingly blue skies and a new found need to find some fun.
Ever since I was a boy, this was the first true weekend where winter-pale Canadian boys and girls kicked the screen doors open and gathered excitedly outside in the fresh air to play. Of course, back in the 50s and 60s, this was for many of us the time to play with explosives. Among my friends, this weekend was simply known as “Firecracker Day”, and signalled a quick and destructive end for any airplane models that might have been made during the long, dark winter days. I still clearly remember placing my Revell Grumman Hellcat over a 4 inch “Block Buster” on a mound of sand, lighting the fuse and then just standing there with my pals as it sputtered and smoked. Back then, running to a “safe distance” meant not witnessing the explosion close enough. With an ear-splitting bang, the Hellcat met its end, and we were all blessed with little bits of dark blue plastic shrapnel stinging our legs, sand in our hair and eyes, a ringing in our ears, and the sweet, sweet smell of spent gunpowder. From the collective mouths of the startled huddle of kids came a half frightened-half joyous “Whoa!” Sheba, the free-range neighbourhood German shepherd was already half a block away.
Fast-forward half a century to this past Victoria Day, 2010. A group of “kids” have gathered outside in the perfect Ottawa sunshine under limitless blue skies to once again play with airplanes and make some noise. Today is finally the day. Two beautifully restored and authentically painted former RCAF Chipmunk training aircraft would fly together again as they once did a half century ago – around the time when I was shaking sand and burning paper from my hair.
The two former RCAF Station Centralia-based Chipmunks (CF-RRI, ex RCAF 18025 and CF-BXG, ex RCAF 18074) have similar histories and undergone recent tribulations that make the coming freedom of this day’s event even more delightful.
Major General (Retired) Bob Fassold’s beloved RRI has spent the past two and a half years undergoing a lengthy repaint and refit. Despite the difficulties for all concerned, the result was a Chipmunk of historic perfection – smartly turned out in markings so authentic, so researched, so detailed, so lovingly applied that no other Chipmunk or vintage aircraft (except perhaps those found in museums in their original markings) could claim to be more true to history. CF-RRI was taken down to her bare metal and re-skinned with new fabric, fresh yellow paint and decal markings direct from the RCAF’s drawing boards.
The second Chipmunk, CF-BXG, has also been in the care of Bob Fassold for the past two years. It was previously owned and regularly flown by none other than Paul Soles, Canadian film and stage actor. Soles is a long time broadcaster and voice actor well known to a whole generation of North American children as the voice of Spiderman of the Saturday morning cartoon of the same name.
In recent years, Soles' busy schedule meant he was flying BXG less and less and reluctantly, he put the beauty up for sale.
When John MacIntosh of California purchased BXG from Soles, he contacted Bob Fassold, an old RCAF flying buddy, to make the deal on his behalf. The Chipmunk fraternity, like all aircraft-type communities, is one where everyone knows everyone. In this brotherhood/sisterhood, a few individuals are even better known than others - Bob Fassold is that sort of gentleman. He is not the kind of owner/pilot who depends upon the knowledge and signature of an AME to make his flying possible. Bob steeps himself in the history, people and minutia of the Chipmunk type and in particular CF-RRI. Bob can expound and vividly describe to you every cable clamp, spline, bearing, attachment point, brake line, electrical device or post-manufacture modification from her chrome spinner to her tail feathers. His knowledge and passion for the Chipmunk has won him friends in the community from East Anglia to West LA. His expertise and well-earned peer respect would make him the perfect choice as a go-between for seller and buyer.
Related Stories
Click on image
With BXG’s new owner being in California, Soles and his son Jonathan flew the Chipmunk to Ottawa where Fassold took delivery on behalf of MacIntosh. The aircraft was to have upgrading of some systems as recommended by Fassold and requested by MacIntosh to be done here, winter over in Ottawa and then be ferried to California by Fassold and long-time flying partner Kate Speer. Unfortunately, due delayed acquisition of parts, serviceability, weather periods, and misalignments of availability of the two ferry pilots (Fassold and Speer), this hasn't occurred yet.
In the spring of 2010, both RRI and BXG were serviced, modified, signed off and rarin' to go. It was decided that when and if the weather and people aligned, a team would be put together to fly a photo mission to capture the two Centralia Chipmunks together for quite possibly the last time. Peter Handley was recruited as the photographer and Kevin Psutka (and his Cessna 182) as the photoship pilot.
The plan was for RRI (with Fassold as Pilot and Arlo Speer as co-pilot) and BXG (with Kate Speer as Pilot and Dave Maertens as co-pilot) to launch from CYOW (Ottawa) and for CF-EZQ (with Psutka as pilot and Handley as shooter) to launch from CYND (Gatineau). The pair of Chipmunks formed up and though they flew for an hour, Fassold would see nothing but his alignment points on BXG for the whole time - he never once even saw Psutka who flew around and around them for the entire time. Though the senior pilot in terms of hours and Chipmunk time, Bob's experience as a military flier and formation pilot made him the best choice for Chipmunk No.2.
Kate Speer lead the gaggle north to the Gatineau Hills and then west. From there she headed east again for a couple of passes of downtown Ottawa with flypasts of Parliament. Then it was off to CYOW to show the flag to the tower on a sunny and sleepy Victoria Day morning.
So, that Victoria Day morning, the kids (Little Bobby, Kate, Davey, Arlo, Kevin and Peter) did indeed kick open the screen doors and play in the sun with their little yellow airplanes. They did not, as we did back in the 50s explode them with firecrackers, but they did make a lot of noise and when it was done, they stood back to look at Peter's images and the did say in an exultant voice, "Whoa!" The results are a beautiful study of two classic Centralia stablemates who in the coming months will part for ever, likely to never fly in the same skies again.