Mosquito Bytes
The official eNewsletter of the CALGARY MOSQUITO SOCIETY
Retain, Restore, Honour and Educate

Welcome to Volume 17 (December 13, 2009)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! To you, your family and your loved ones. And my thanks for the many gifts so many of you have given over the past year. I mean your interest in our goal to save the Calgary Mosquito; in your willingness to join and in your commitment to support. For some your gifts have been your considerable time at events over the summer, for others it has been generous cash donations. For the likes of Betty, Bob, Barry, Peter, Robyn, Scott, Trevor, Stephane, VJ, Robert, David and so many more, it has been your experience and expertise. For others it has been as simple, and as powerful, as your standing up to be counted by joining us. All of these and more are gifts for which I am grateful and for which I thank you in this season of giving and sharing.

A SPECIAL WELCOME to our newest members, especially to Alison McDonald and the students of Ecole St. Cecilia whom we visited and spoke about the F for Freddie story and extended the conversation into citizen participation in democracy. Thank you to all and especially those who signed up and joined us.

OUR FIRST ARTIFACT IS NOW IN HAND! A very big 'Thank You' to Bob Ayers for donating to our society a flare cartridge from the wreck of F for Freddie, which was recovered by his father Harvey Ayers on the day of the crash, May 10, 1945. Harvey Ayers was a civilian employee with the USAAF at the airport and was part of the crash crew at the time of the tragedy. He raced to the scene of the crash only to discover that there was little to be done and salvaged the flare pistol cartridge from the scattered wreckage of WWII's most accomplished bomber aircraft. In meeting with Bob he related to me his being just 5 years old at the time, yet being in awe at seeing the flying display that pilot Maurice Briggs put on through downtown Calgary upon their arrival. See attached photo. I will bring it to the next couple of meetings as well if you would like to see it. Having such an attachment to the story and having researched it for years, it is a little eerie for me to finally hold a piece of this phenomenally historic aircraft.

CMS Artifact 09-001, "F for Freddie" flare pistol cartridge

SPEAKING OF MEETINGS, Our regular schedule is to meet @ 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at the Phoenix Foundation, #1, 2821 - 3 Ave. N.E. So the next two are on Dec. 16 and January 20.

WHERE ARE WE AT? No the City has not yet issued its Request for Proposals. We are working to find out what is going on and when it may be issued. It seems very unlikely, given the time lines, that the City will be able to stick to its previous stated deadline of making a decision by early March 2010.

CHECK YOUR LOCAL MAGAZINE STAND for a special edition of FlyPast magazine devoted exclusively to the great de Havilland Mosquito. They contacted us a few months ago to see if we wanted to advertise. Sadly they already had all of the articles in place and could not include a story about our efforts, Spartan Mosquitos or F for Freddie.

BIG THANKS to Betty Campbell, Bob Bolivar and Robert Stitt, who over the past six weeks have put in a tremendous amount of time and toil in preparing a section of the proposal that we will submit to the City of Calgary. Betty and Bob worked for Spartan Air Services in the Mosquito era and Robert has researched and written extensively on the history of the company and its famous aircraft. All three contributed their considerable expertise and firsthand experience in putting together a short and powerful write up on the significance of Spartan, its work in Canadian aerial Survey and the place of our Mosquito, CF-HMS in this story. In the process, Betty came through Calgary and I had the great pleasure of spending just a couple of hours with her learning about some of the technical aspects to aerial survey. Betty also has an article due for publication early next year which is an extremely well researched and written overview of some of the challenges faced during this time. Thank you to all three, and Betty, it was a real pleasure to meet you.

QUICK THANKS ALSO to another great supporter and warbird devotee, Karl Kjarsgaard of Halifax 57 Rescue, who stopped in at the RAF Museum at Hendon and provided us with a photo of the original Form 78 on F for Freddie, detailing its official transfers and sad ending as noted by the official record keepers of the RAF. Thanks also to Jack McWilliam who put together a lunch time opportunity to tell our story to employees of Trans Canada Pipeline and Esso aviation departments. And thanks also to Barry and Diane Davidson who invited us out to the Phoenix Foundation for a Remembrance Day presentation to the students, teachers and parents. Remember, passionate speaker available for your group as well!

AS THE FREDDIE STORY CONTINUES TO SPREAD, more and more people and businesses are taking an interest in it. Over the past month we have had extensive exchanges with William Burns of CANMILAIR which has produced a set of 'F for Freddie' modeler's decals, available in any scale you desire. The exchange has been educational for me as well in that William's research helped to clarify a few points on the markings and nose art of the airplane. Check them out at canmilair.com

We have also had some excellent exchanges with Dr. Brian Freer of Farlam Airframes of the UK which produces a series of replica nose art panels; including a half scale F for Freddie. This too has assisted us in clarifying some details on the marking of Freddie. farlamairframes.co.uk

May the coming year grant us the first pillar in our purpose: Retain. Thank you.

Richard de Boer
President, CMS
403-235-1350