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

Welcome to Volume 7 (January 11, 2009)

So, what happened?

OPEN HOUSE: Held at the Aero Space Museum on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings of this past week. Lots of media attention: 3 TV, 4 radio, 2 print and an aviation website. Approximately 125 people turned out Tuesday evening to offer their input. There were no presentations and participants were expected to just fill out the questionniare and call it a night. With media coverage, numbers swelled significantly on Wednesday to between 300 and 400.

Not knowing quite what to expect, members of the Calgary Mosquito Society attended in good number. We ended up talking to all of the media and to anyone interested in our goals and perspectives. I think we got to a lot of people and we were certainly greeted with a lot of support from those who came to fill out questionnaires. Thanks to Dennis, Karl, Scott, Trevor, Jim, David, Hal, Keith, Bonnie, Tricia, Barry, Chris, Dave, Don, John, Gary, Rick, Roy, Ramona, Tom, Peter and more; all of whom came out, filled out questionnaires, stopped to talk and then ended up talking to members of the public and the media for the night. An extra big thanks to those who came out two nights running. I know we generated a lot of support and helped to balance some of the city staff and museum board members' negative and very limited perspectives and options.

Special thanks to Trevor McTavish for his great work with the Calgary Herald. Check Sunday's paper for the full two page, colour story on the issue, or online at this link. Robert Remington of the Herald did far more research and background work than did anyone else in the media. My only concern is that all of his costs refer only to restoration to flying condition. Some big numbers there.

Another very big thanks to Scott McTavish. Scott showed up on Wednesday evening with a roll of poster sized printouts of our web pages. We got some evil eyes from city and museum staff when we posted them around the museum for the public to see during the open house. That aside, this is the kind of risk, courage and initiative which can give our goals a real boost.

Alderman Lowe attended both evenings and continued to tell the media that restoring the Mosquito would cost at least $7 million. At least that is down from his statements in November that it would cost $15 million. Thankfully, Alderman McIver, a friend to our cause, also attended on Wednesday.

THANKS ALSO to all who sent me copies of your questionniare responses. It can be very useful for us to have copies of what people wrote when this information is summarized and presented to council in November.

HELLO AND THANKS to those of you whom we met at the Open House and asked to join our mailing list and to those who signed up as new members. Welcome! Numbers will be a factor. The bigger we get, the more political power and resources we wield.

SPEAKING THIS WEEK: I'll be presenting our purpose and goals to the Calgary Vintage Sports Car Club on Wednesday evening. Thanks to Chris Durtnall for the invitation. Lets see,... folks with sexy old machines that make cool noises.... Sounds like our kind of crowd. If you know of a group or organization that may be interested, let me know. I have a Powerpoint ready to go.

UNRELATED BUT INTERESTING: Join the Calgary chapter of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society on Thursday, January 15 for a presentation by Handley Page Halifax salvage expert Karl Kjarsgaard @ Art Smith Aero Center of SAIT, 1916 McCall Landing NE, 7 p.m. No cost. No politics. Just cool airplane people.

As always, my thanks. Miles to go before we sleep, but it was a good week for the society and our goals.

Richard de Boer
Prez (pro tem), CMS
403-235-1350