There's an old saying in Western culture that states, “You can't go home again.” This somewhat unhappy chestnut can be traced to an excerpt from Thomas Wolfe's novel of the same name .

Nearly all the wonderful things that make living in your home town not only bearable, but worthwhile and enjoyable – the music festivals, the kids hockey tournaments, the botanical gardens, the air shows, …

Over the past two years, Vintage Wings of Canada has travelled from coast to coast using the Yellow Wings program to tell the story of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). In terms of scope, the BCATP was by far…

I know many pilots who fly with Air Canada – some for thirty or more years. Sometimes, I would ask one of them: “Do you know my friend Jeff Foss?”, “Have you ever paired with an old buddy of mine, Karl Kjarsgaard?”, “Did you ever run into a guy named Dave Hadfield?” Inevitably, the answer is no….

I don’t remember if my path was decided that day or whether it took me some time to think about it but I asked lots of questions and soon learned that young boys were eligible to join the Air Cadets when they turned 13 …

If there is one person you should introduce yourself to at Vintage Wings of Canada this year, make it Todd Lemieux, our new Chairman of the Board. You will be glad you did, for your life will be the richer for it. …

It had been a long week at work. My wife and I and Wallace the border collie were jammed into the truck with a weekend’s worth of gear, headed to the cottage. Ramping up onto the 417, westbound into the sun, we found ourselves in…

There are not many man-made objects more awe-inspiring and more emotionally and physically impacting than the sight and the sound of a Second World War Rolls-Royce Merlin engine running flat out just thirty feet from you…

In late January, I received a Facebook message from WestJet Captain Dave Maric, with whom I flew as an Air Cadet and Cadet Instructor List Officer. I hadn’t seen Dave much in the last 13 or so years, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear from him. …

If you take a stroll through the Vintage Wings hangar you will notice the distinctive shape of the Westland Lysander, currently undergoing refurbishment. The crew is making excellent progress…

I remember as a boy watching Ba Ba Black Sheep on television riffling through my father's Warbird magazines and going to Oshkosh, walking in the warbird section, marvelling over the magnificent aircraft of the past…

One of the most legendary and charismatic machines ever to fly. One of the last generation of face-to-face aerial gladiators. These are some of the superlatives that come to mind when the Supermarine Spitfire is mentioned. ..

As I walk up to the WACO on a sparkling day in June, light reflects off the rich, crimson, and glossy paint. This airplane is a jewel flashing in the sun! …

The Hurricane first flew in November, 1935 and was the RAF's first monoplane fighter with an enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage and the first capable of level speed in excess of 300 mph. …

“Achtung Spitfire”, I heard in a ridiculous German accent. I smiled. The voice was my own. My head swivelled within the tight confines of the Bf-109 cockpit, looking for the attacker. There it was, above and behind, …

After more than two years of planning and thousands of hours of hard work, Vintage Wings of Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces and Discovery Air are set to bring to centre stage, …

Ground loops result from the loss of directional control. What flight control is most critical for directional control? The rudder you say! What if I told you that the reason Harvards ground loop is because of a lack of aileron usage?…

The Supermarine Spitfire: has there ever been a more universally admired airplane in the history of flight? Perhaps I reveal a personal bias – after all, I was born in London in 1944 …

Parked on the ramp, the Hurricane evokes a mixed sense of frailty and terrific solidity. Beneath a fabric covered exterior is a tubular truss structure like a bridge. The wings are not just thick, but seemingly fat, as if it had just eaten something….

The Fox Moth presents some interesting challenges to the pilot, but overall it is a very pleasant airplane to fly, quite controllable on grass surfaces if the crosswind is kept below 8 kts [less than 5 on pavement ,,