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The 'Spring Has Sprung' and the Hurricane Engine Has Sprung a Leak Edition...

Welcome members and friends. Here be the latest quarterly report of the Calgary Mosquito Society. Mucho on the go with both airplanes, but before we get there, let's take a moment to acknowledge the efforts of our awesome volunteers.

Since moving the Mosquito to the Bomber Command Museum in August 2012, the total number of hours invested by members of the Calgary Mosquito Aircraft Society have now topped 60,000. Board members have also racked up 9362 hours in admin work since we took possession, and we have 4827 hours in the Hurricane for a combined total of 74,361 hours. Even at minimum wage, the value of our volunteer hours now tops $1.1 million. Wowzers, and a big thanks to all!

Hurricane

On January 9, we managed a second start on the Hurricane's Merlin engine. It's amazing how many holes in a block of Swiss cheese have to line up in order to manage an engine start. Even when they do line up and we get the engine started, such events can still generate some drama.

After the first start in early December, Dick S. took the lead in addressing many of the snags and issues that arose from that start. This included problems such as securing the throttle lever, addressing a recalcitrant tachometer, a collapsing radiator hose, loose nuts and bolts, and a number of minor fuel and oil leaks. Even after Dick had resolved all of these issues, in order to attempt another start, we still needed access to a forklift to get the engine outside, as well as the availability of all the people involved and finally, we needed some decent weather. It took a month after our first start before all of these 'holes in the cheese' lined up so we could try it again.

We again owe thanks to Dr. Brian Taylor, the Bomber Command Museum's Lancaster and Merlin engine specialist, for coming to Calgary once more to guide us through the start and run process. We also want to recognize and reward those Mosquito Society volunteers who have invested a tremendous number of hours and considerable expertise in rebuilding the Merlin engine by allowing them the opportunity to be 'hands on' for a start and run on the engine. With that in mind, it was Dick S's turn to be the man on the throttle with Dr. Brian on the primer and fuel valve.

Dick also used the weeks prior to write up a start procedure for the engine and before he flicked the switches and pushed the buttons he talked us through the process, which we recorded on video so that the next volunteers could have an additional learning tool.

Dick S. takes a well earned turn on the throttle for the engine start in early January. Below, 'Ya think we primed her enough?' Just part of the learning and adjusting process. When you see flames like that, you just pray that the battery will keep it turning over until it catches and swallows the fire.

To avoid having to deal with airport security issues, rather than move the engine out to the airside ramp, we used the parking lot adjacent to Jack's hangar for this run attempt. With a handful of neighbourhood onlookers, Dick and Dr. Brian waved their magic wands and after just a few rotations, she fired up and ran for just a minute before a fuel primer line disconnected and started leaking flammable fluid.

We then discovered that the electric priming pump we installed was sending far too much fuel to the cylinders and was flooding the engine. Our next attempt to start the engine resulted in a rather frightening quantity of flame from the exhausts. We decided to let it sit and dry out a little before trying it again.

After half an hours' drying time, and without engaging the primer again, she started easily and ran well -for about 4 minutes before she blew her top and covered Dick and Brian in steam and liquid. They quickly shut it down. As dramatic as it was, which included triggering a nearby car's alarm, it turned out to be a very minor issue as a large diameter coolant hose from the overflow tank to the engine had let go, expelling a sizeable quantity of water and steam. We called it a day and brought the engine back inside. A quick examination determined that there was no damage and that a better hose and stronger clamp would solve the problem.

Thar she blows! With an explosive release, the hose (below, circled in red) from the coolant overflow tank to the engine decided to quit for the day. Thankfully Dick and Dr. Brian were not injured and there was no damage to the engine. A slightly longer hose and better clamp solved the problem.

Unfortunately, in needing to line up all the cheese holes, this was our only start attempt in this quarter. A couple of days after making fire, noise and steam, Jack left for three weeks vacation, then two weeks working in Nebraska, and then the weather went against us for all of February.

In the next quarter we plan to put some significant run time on the engine and create an opportunity for members to come out and enjoy the sights and sounds. After that, we will need to drop it back into the Hurricane airframe. Upon a successful run in the Hurricane, our obligations to the City of Calgary will have been fulfilled and whether it continues to run will be decided by the City and the Hangar Flight Museum.

Mosquito

Jack McWilliam

Things continue to evolve as we plug away through the start of another year. Leading the way, Gary T. continues his work re-skinning the wing and repairing the spar damage in the area just aft of the starboard radiator. Over time, steam and coolant leaks soaked a section of the spar that required us to replace a small section with an insert of new wood.

Above, Alan W. removes the old paint from between the wing stringers. Just above Alan's feet is the area of the spar that required some repairs. Below is Gary T's. newly spliced in section to replace the steam and water damaged area of the spar. (Photo below, Gary T.)

We have also pulled from inventory, our last full sheet of plywood for upper wing skin replacement. We are happy to report that everything is unfolding as planned. With Gary focused on the upper skins, we should complete this lengthy and significant structural repair by sometime this summer.

As noted in the last report, Andy W. is tackling the two 24' long, three dimensional jigsaw puzzles that were once the wing's trailing edges. All the bits and pieces that were in storage are now laid out on boards and tables allowing us to identify what is missing and what needs to be replaced or repaired. This is a complex area of the airplane that incorporates wood structure as well as all the doodads for the flaps and ailerons and all of the mechanical components, pulleys, cables and hydraulics to control the moving surfaces. As previously noted, the trailing edge suffered significant damage in its foray to Cold Lake in 1989. Andy has had some assistance from Steve S. who made replacement aileron hinge pins on his 'at home' lathe.

Steve S. and Andy W. examine a section of the wing trailing edge. These bits were gathered up from many crates. Andy has them laid out on three 8' tables in order to get a good look of this three dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Lots of repairs, replacements parts and new wood will be needed to put this Humpty Dumpty back together again.

With Gary focused on the wing's top skins and Andy on the trailing edge, we have a number of folks working on various projects on the inside of the wing as well. We have crested the hill in terms of work inside the wing in that we are no longer stripping paint and removing components, but are now repainting the fuel and undercarriage bays and have begun to reinstall the metal fittings as well as the fuel tank straps and the copper grounding lines.

A challenging task has been to repair and replace a significant number of nut plates that are mounted inside the wing ribs. The rivets holding the nut plates to the phenolic blocks have corroded over time and had to be replaced. Complicating this task is the fact that one set of phenolic nut plates sprouted legs and disappeared. Thanks to Dick S. we now have a newly manufactured set.

Dick’s newly manufactured nut plates. These fit inside the wing ribs in the “D” shaped holes just above my fingers.

From what seemed like a never ending job, stripping and cleaning fuel tank covers, Joe M. has shifted over to the landing gear attach points mounted in the underside of the wing. The first part of the job has seen Joe clean paint out of the bolt holes and measure each for new hardware. Going through the wood of the wing, most of the original hardware was significantly corroded by the moisture held in the wood, so I have ordered a number of bolts from a supplier down east, as these are critical to the structural wellbeing of the airplane. Jerry M. had been dealing with some of these parts, but he is still on his winter sabbatical down in 'Tariff Land'. Once back from playing snowbird, Jerry can jump in and help Joe with this work. I would like this work to be completed by the third quarter of this year so that we can reposition the wing to its more natural, horizontal orientation, making it easier to deal with trailing and leading edge rebuilds.

Working inside the newly painted fuel tank and undercarriage bays, Joe M. works to reinstall some sizeable metal fittings for the undercarriage. Failure to properly document all the parts removed from inside the wing has led to significant head scratching.

Our undercarriage specialist Jaime G. has been assisted on two Saturdays this quarter by Chris Z. and Seina M. who have spend many happy hours at the bead blaster, cleaning the main components of the second main undercarriage assembly. Don H. has taken the newly cleaned components off for painting and we hope to have them ready for Jaime's return.

Jaimie G. lets me know that having his picture taken while he is trying to sort our main landing gear bits is not necessarily his favourite thing. Jaimie’s U/C work has been aided by Chris Z. and Seina M. along with Don H. (left) who takes the big bits out for painting during the week.

Colette P., Alan W. and assorted gang members continue with the glamorous work of paint scraping between wing stringers and deep cleaning a variety of undercarriage components, and more recently progressing to the original copper grounding strips that run throughout the inside of the wing. Where they are not coated with decades of oil and grease (the strips, not the people), time and tide have turned the copper a lovely shade of green. We thank the team for their considerable application of elbow grease in bringing these back to shiny new condition.

Colette P., Alan W. and videographer Ken C. all applying ample elbow grease to the copper grounding strips that are in need of a good cleaning for the first time in 80 years, prior to them (strips not people) being reinstalled inside the wing.

Michael H. continues his work inspecting and sorting fuel tank hold down straps and the dizzying assortment of hardware both for positions and damage to be repaired. Dick S. contributes to this process by helping to repair the straps as necessary, before they go to Don H. for painting.

Hard working board member, Casino Chairman and regular Saturday volunteer Michael H. displaying some of the fuel tank straps prior to reassembly and installation. Looks like the one in his hands might need a bit of ironing…

Zach M. has been chasing the engine fire bottle positions and lines and then giving them a 'like new' polish, readying them for display before they eventually get reinstalled in the rear of the engine nacelles. Thanks to Andy W. for chasing down the drawings and diagrams showing where they are positioned.

A lot of work, but a great reward. Zach M. spent a few Saturdays cleaning up the four engine fire bottles, which after some rubbing compound and then a disk polisher come out glowing in coppery goodness.

As the fire bottles are not installed on the actual engine firewalls, dare I say Davy D.'s project of restoring the two firewalls is coming to a close after a couple of years' worth of Saturdays. Woo and hoo!

We have long been puzzled by concave depressions on some of the largest wing ribs between the fuel tank bays. Not knowing if they were there by design or were the result of damage made it difficult to know what to do with them.

By holding a ruler on the wing rib we can see the depth of the depression. Speculation was that it may have been designed to allow the large fuel tanks to more easily be fitted into the bay. Supporting this notion was the fact that ribs on the opposing wing had the same concave depressions.

We contacted Ian Thirsk at the De Havilland Aircraft Museum (holders of the prototype and two other Mosquitoes) at London Colney, UK. Ian informed us that they were just about to start work on their B.35 Mosquito and that he could remove the fuel tank panels from it in order to see if they had the same issue with the wing ribs. In short order he sent a copy of the wing rib drawing and photos of their airplane, neither of which showed any sign of a concave depressions as we have on our airplane.. Clearly what we have is damage, not a design issue and we will plan to repair those ribs. Thank you Ian.

Photo of wing rib on B.35 Mosquito TA634 in the DH Aircraft Museum, along with a sheet of plans of the same rib. Neither have a concave feature. Photo by Ian Thirsk.

Courtesy of our Mosquito friends at the Canada Aviation Museum in Windsor, we have a newly manufactured lever for our brake differential unit. This is the first of several items they have agreed to manufacture for us in exchange for our loaning them an undercarriage nacelle and fuel manifold. Thanks Windsorians!

A late Xmas gift from our friends at the Canada Aviation Museum in Windsor: A newly manufactured lever for our brake differential unit. Our thanks to Mosquito project leader Richard Fox and to his crew.

And in the ongoing spirit of 'it helps to have friends', our Andy W. was able to supply the Windsor Mossie gang with photos and diagrams in answer to their question about the precise location of electrical 'Junction Box J' in the nose of their airplane.

We also had a good chat exchanging bits with D'Arcy Barker of the KF Centre for Excellence in Kelowna, BC. They hold another ex-Spartan Air Services Mosquito, and the only flyable de Havilland built Mosquito in the world. We loaned them a tail wheel retract jack and an aileron rod end. Both are headed back our way shortly along with a set of newly manufactured brake lines. Our thanks to D'Arcy and KF.

With so many areas nearing completion, our aircraft should look significantly different by the end of the next quarter. Come down any Saturday to see for yourself, and if you stand still for long enough, expect that we will put you to work.

Events and Miscellaneous

Big thanks to our crew of 23 volunteers who put in some long and late hours at our fundraising casino on March 6 & 7 at the ACE Casino Airport. Special thanks to board member and Casino Chairman, Michael Harrison for all the organizing, paperwork, recruiting and coordinating it takes to pull this off. Everything was in order, everyone showed up and the event went very smoothly. Woo and hoo! As we like to acknowledge to our volunteers, their time is worth something in the neighbourhood of $296 per hour as we expect to see over $80,000 in earnings from this two day event in the next quarter. Thank$$$$ Crew!

Fulfilling legal requirements, we held our Annual General Meeting on March 12. We conducted the meeting by Zoom, which allowed members from Ontario, the UK, and Malaysia to attend and participate. We had a good turnout of 23 members. All board members got a vote of confidence without any drop-offs or additions for the upcoming year. We presented our financial report and attended to other necessaries, finishing off the evening with a PowerPoint summary of the past year in pictures.

With a post on Facebook noting that January 12 marked the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the Mosquito in Calgary, we caught the attention of Tony Harmsworth, News Editor of our favourite British aviation history magazine, AEROPLANE, which then gave us a nice full page update in their March issue.

Above, a clipping from The Albertan newspaper from January 13, 1965 noting the arrival in Calgary of our Mosquito. Thanks to AEROPLANE magazine's News Editor Tony Harmsworth, for his ongoing interest in our project over the years and for another update piece in their March issue in recognition of the 60th anniversary of our Mosquito arriving in Calgary.

Last autumn, we were approached by videographer Ken Cook who was interested in documenting some aspects of our restoration efforts, specifically the personal connections and motivations of our 'hands on' volunteers. Each Saturday for several months now, Ken has come out and interviewed virtually all of our active restoration volunteers. While getting some 'B roll' footage with his small drone, the hovering camera platform tangled with our wooden lady -and lost some prop blades crashing to the floor. Mosquito 1: Drone 0. No serious damage to either, and we look forward to seeing the final edited product in the next few weeks.

Above, video documentarian Ken Cook takes a pic of the new 'kill' marking on the nose of the Mosquito after his drone came to grief tangling with the mighty Wooden Wonder. No damage other than a mildly bruised ego for the drone pilot.

We've been spending some time with the Calgary Public Library's past Historian in Residence, Shelly McElroy, who is writing the biography of Calgary's famous Battle of Britain Hurricane ace, William L. McKnight (of McKnight Blvd fame). We also assisted Shelly in getting some firsthand Hurricane experience so that she might gain some insights into McKnight's fighter of choice. British publishers Pen and Sword have signed Ms. McElroy so we can look for the finished volume, and hopefully a book launch event, next year.

McKnight biographer Shelly McElroy gets some firsthand time in the cockpit of Hurricane 5389 to get a sense of what it may have been like for young Mr. McKnight as he became the highest scoring ace over the beaches of Dunkirk in May 1940. Look for Shelly’s new book within the year. Another opportunity for us to fulfill the 'Honour and Educate' parts of our mandate.

Our hosts at the Bomber Command Museum return to Thursday through Monday opening dates and times as of May 1, with the first event of the year on Saturday, April 26, celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Operation Manna. Operation Manna saw vital airdrops of food supplies by Bomber Command and the American Army Air Forces to starving Dutch civilians in the closing days of World War II.

The 80th Anniversary of VE Day celebrations will be held at the museum on May 10th with all of the usual engine and airplane running activities. And mark your calendars for Mosquito Day at the museum, July 19. Until then...

Richard de Boer, President

April 7, 2025