Canadian forces in the air

[Malcolm]

7:02 AM · Jan 3, 2024

Lancaster bomber from Hamilton’s warplane museum to join tour marking RCAF centenary

By Don Mitchell  Global News

Posted January 6, 2024 8:56 am

A photo of an Avro Lancaster Mk. X bomber that makes its home at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ont. Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

 

A handful of vintage warplanes owned and maintained by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ont., will be a part of a cross-country tour celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Airforce.

In all, the tour will hit eight airshows between mid-July through August with a Lancaster bomber as one of the headliners.

Museum president and CEO Dave Rohrer says a D-Day Douglas C-47 skytrain, PBY Catalina amphibious aircraft and TBM Avenger torpedo bomber will also make a few appearances on the trip which includes a Canada Day flyover in Ottawa.

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“It’s about an 80-hour venture for five of our airplanes this summer,” Rohrer explained.

The museum planes haven’t been on the road in several years including the vintage Lancaster bomber which last ventured away from Hamilton to England in 2014.

• A flight crew of four as well as eight specialists will participate in the legs featuring the bomber which hits Quinte, Ottawa, Manitoba and Alberta.

 

 

2024 Air Show Appearances

 

In celebration of the RCAF 100th Anniversary, our aircraft will be appearing at several air shows, coast to coast across Canada.

More additions and details coming soon.

 

 

• May 18 - Comox Armed Forces Day - PBY CANSO (based in Victoria)
   
• June 22-23 - Bagotville International Air Show – DAKOTA
   
• June 29-30 - Quinte International Air Show – LANCASTER, B-25 MITCHELL, & DAKOTA
   
• July 1 - Canada Day Mass Flypast over Ottawa – LANCASTER, B-25 MITCHELL, & DAKOTA
   
• July 20-21 - Cold Lake Air Show – LANCASTER
   
• August 3-4 - Manitoba Air Show – LANCASTER
  August 9-11 - Abbotsford International Air Show – PBY CANSO (based in Victoria)
• August 24-25 - Air Show Atlantic - PBY CANSO, DAKOTA, & AVENGER

[Kip Powick]

Will be very surprised if there are not incidents with one or two  of the 4 aircraft.

[Malcolm]

4 minutes ago, Kip Powick said:

Will be very surprised if there are not incidents with one or two  of the 4 aircraft.

 

Fingers crossed that will not be the case. 

[st27]

What are you expecting Kip? Is it the age of the aircraft your concerned with?

[Kip Powick]

1 hour ago, st27 said:

What are you expecting Kip? Is it the age of the aircraft your concerned with?

Yes, it seems when ancient craft hit the road something always goes wrong....sitting for as long as they do prior to "lift-off" is never good for any aircraft, especially ones that are basically relics 

[GDR]

1 hour ago, Kip Powick said:

Yes, it seems when ancient craft hit the road something always goes wrong....sitting for as long as they do prior to "lift-off" is never good for any aircraft, especially ones that are basically relics 

But Kip, they are all younger than you. 

[Kip Powick]

58 minutes ago, GDR said:

But Kip, they are all younger than you. 

That is true.......but many think I am a relic and as one, I know I have problems almost everyday 

[deicer]

1 hour ago, Kip Powick said:

That is true.......but many think I am a relic and as one, I know I have problems almost everyday 

Rest assured Kip, we won't be riding you across the country

 

[J.O.]

2 hours ago, Kip Powick said:

That is true.......but many think I am a relic and as one, I know I have problems almost everyday 

I am not enjoying the transition from the time when I used to occasionally wake up and notice something that hurts to now, when I wake up and celebrate whatever doesn't hurt.

[st27]

5 hours ago, J.O. said:

when I wake up and celebrate whatever doesn't hurt.

Or as been pointed out…..

”waking up on the right side of the dirt”

[Malcolm]

The Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds will headline the airshow at EAA AirVenture (Oshkosh) in July 2024. The Canadian Forces Snowbirds have unveiled their 18-city performance schedule for the 2024 season, highlighted with a Canada Day fly-past in Ottawa and a return to the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh fly-in for the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). The Snowbirds begin their schedule May 18 in Comox, B.C., and will zig-zag across the country, with a July stop in Oshkosh, Wis., as well as a stop at Airshow London SkyDrive in September, before ending the season Oct. 6 in Reno, Nev. They last performed at EAA AirVenture in 2016. This year they’ve scheduled a public practice session over the grounds of Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh on Friday, July 26, followed by afternoon performances during the daily airshow on Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28. The Snowbirds will be a key part of a year-long celebration of the RCAF’s centennial. April 1, 2024, marks 100 years of service for the RCAF as an independent military element. Source: Skiesmag.comSkiesmag.com Click the image below to view a YouTube video

[Malcolm]

Neat lineup from the recent past.

[Malcolm]

Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2h-3 Banshee fighter jet no. 104 on HMCS Bonaventure in 1957

[Malcolm]

Sadly things have much changed.

At the end of the Second World War, Canada had one of the largest navies in the world with 95,000 men and women in uniform, and 434 commissioned ...

Second World War - The Canadian Navy - Canadian Armed Forces - History - Veterans Affairs Canada

[Kip Powick]

JMHO......Not sad at all. There is no need for aircraft carriers in the RCN as well as no need for excessive RCN  personnel employed in duties that are not really relevant for todays global politics. Yes, we have ships employed to assist in "free" shipping transport and that is a great contribution but where else can they be of much service?

Canadians  have to understand that the Atlantic was a battle zone during WW 2 but not now, we don't need corvettes  and submaries, and the subs we do have  are bottomless  cash pits.  From GOOGLE.....While talk of nuclear replacements has been just that—talk—only one of the country's four Victoria-class subs, HMCS Windsor, has hit the water operationally since 2021, logging 43 days in 2022 and 14 in 2023. Want to guess how much that has cost us??

The USN have nuclear subs that do what we "attempt" to do. We have no need for "escorts" (destroyers), now.

Why do we keep insisting on more military hardware and cry about the decline in employment within the CF?? We did our duty and did it well in WW 2,  but there is no need to be "guns ready" now. Time for a government reality check.

Obviously I am in favour of being a member of NATO but rather than spread the low DND budget to all sections of the CF, let us contribute in one major  way.......Air Transport to anywhere NATO wants us...Get bigger and better and more transport aircraft  and better aircraft for SAR...that should be our mandate. As stated, JMHO...

PS....In life.....change is inevitable, but for some, change is deemed as unacceptable.

 

 

[Malcolm]

Gee kip, any student of history knows why our navy was so large at the end of WWII, the same student knows why the current state of our navy is a disgrace and needs to be addressed. 

 

AAn Admiral’s Take on the State of the RCN – Canadian Naval Review

Published 23 August 2023-Updated 23 August 2023|14 Comments

By Dan Middlemiss, 23 August 2023

Former Vice-Admiral Mark Norman has provided another informed, yet disheartening, assessment of the current state of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). (Mark Norman, “Striking the Right Balance,” Canadian Defence Review, Vol. 29, No. 4, August 2023, p. 43.)

A few excepts:

“The recent cabinet shuffle has clearly signaled, in my opinion, the relative insignificance of defence & security as a priority for this government.”

“The material state of the RCN is at best troubling, arguably near crisis.”

“The reality, however, is that there are insufficient personnel to effectively crew the fleet...”

“...training is often an early victim to budget cuts as it is easily stopped yet the effects won’t normally materialize until long after implementation...”         

“Regrettably, I contend that the CAF is severely out of balance at the moment and no amount of cheer-leading or hollow policy proclamations is going to repair the underlying structural imbalances.”

I will not put words in the Admiral’s mouth, but clearly his message is that, somehow, Canadians need to be better informed about the true state of the Canadian Armed Forces, and of the RCN in particular, and they need to elect leaders who demonstrate a real intention to take defence matters more seriously. Alas, I do not see much evidence that such leaders-in-waiting exist at the moment. Neither the Conservatives nor the NDP have said much at all lately about how they might alter Canada’s foreign and defence policy priorities in future.

[Kip Powick]

 

Malcolm...

Did you expect any other attitude from an Admiral ??? Certainly he is going to "defend" his turf.

Student of history ??? we should ALL be students of history but sadly many of the youth of today don't even  know the names of the Axis powers, where Dieppe is, and probably don't even know, or care who was in charge of "D Day".

Time marches on, things change  but those of the higher echelon want to remember what was,and tend to think this country needs to spend billions on  men and equipment that IS NOT NEEDED.

Give me one good reason we bought "lemon" subs from the UK???? Give me one good reason why we need F-35s....in all honesty I don't think we need any fighter aircraft.....how many CF 100s , CF101s, F5s, CF 104s have we  had and they have not been in combat

The  CF-18s have done bombing missions but no air to air combat.

Do you think the end result in the sand-box and/or  afghanistan would have turned out different if we did not have F18s over there ??

It is time our Government looked closely at DND's role and modified it, much to the chagrin, of the old timers  but it is time  for DND to move into the real world and be COST EFFECTIVE..

[Malcolm]

2 hours ago, Kip Powick said:

 

Malcolm...

Did you expect any other attitude from an Admiral ??? Certainly he is going to "defend" his turf.

 

 

Ki;

Likely more than a that of a retired pilot (who at one time was an RCAF officer but not likely guilty of any Interservice rivalry      ). At least the Admiral is very familiar with the current difficulties facing our navy.  

[Kip Powick]

1 hour ago, Malcolm said:

Ki;

Likely more than a that of a retired pilot (who at one time was an RCAF officer but not likely guilty of any Interservice rivalry      ). At least the Admiral is very familiar with the current difficulties facing our navy.  

Spent almost a  year at Canada's Naval college. (HMCS Venture in Victoria), and then they changed their syllabus for us students to commence pilot training so  I opted to resign and applied to RCAF. 

Short story....

After a month at HFX RCC  as a controller I was made CO . Previous CO had a  beverage problem. Down the hall was the office of  MARCOM ops  and there was always friendly rivalry between Navy and RCAF as both  were housed in the Admiralty building.

Shortly after my "upgrade" we had a search going between HFX and NFLD as a vessel with about 8 souls onboard  went missing. My immediate boss was a full Colonel, (RCAFNavigator)., and he phoned me to tell me tha Admiral was coming into the RCC and wanted me to  brief him on the search.

The Admiral arrived, my boss behind him, and I took the Admiral over to the plotting board to brief him with  what was going on. I pointed out that we had scrambled  an Argus out of Greenwood  and some Helos out of Shearwater and were waiting for a C130 from Trenton. Another Argus would join the search soon. I mentioned that the aircraft  could cover more area in a shorter time and obviously had an excellent visibility even at 200-500 feet .

I then stated we had his "boats" doing shore crawls because their visibility was restricted by their  height above water. ((When I saw him give a slight grimace with the word "boats" , I knew I had him))

I mentioned that two of his "boats" were shore crawling the East coast of NS and we had one of his "boats" doing the same thing on the south coast of NFLD. More grimacing but he turned to me and thanked for the briefing and my boss and the Admiral left the plotting room.

My boss returned shortly after, trying to look stern through his smile and suggested I stop using "boats" and use "Ships" when briefing  the Admiral.

BTW, the Colonel was a really good fellow and the morning HMCS Assiniboine  ran aground when proceeding out of HFX harbour he came down to my office and suggested we go to the Stadacona Officers Mess and have a drink and then lunch......I wasn't going to turn that down.... We arrived,and the Officers mess was full of Navy officers, just us two in CAF uniforms with wings showing....The bar was crowded but my boss, who  was about 6' 4",  pushed through the crowd and said to the Steward " We'll have two of those new Navy Drinks" 

The Steward looked puzzled so the Colonel said to the Steward, a bit louder than necessary ," You know...we'll have a couple of Assiniboine on the rocks".

The mess got a bit quiet and we departed with our drinks for the dining room. Real cool guy and he made sure I got C130s after my RCC tour.

[Malcolm]

• More 

Military was warned some Cyclone helicopter blades are defective, could rip apart in flight | CBC News Loaded

Politics

Military was warned some Cyclone helicopter blades are defective, could rip apart in flight

Report says Cyclones' 'unmitigated risk level' now 'extremely high'

Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Feb 02, 2024 2:00 AM MST | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

A CH-148 Cyclone helicopter on the deck of HMCS Ottawa in 2023. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC News)

Air force technicians are being forced to perform more frequent inspections of Canada's trouble-prone CH-148 Cyclone helicopters after the U.S. manufacturer found a defect related to the main rotor blades, says an internal report.

CBC News has obtained a copy of what's known as a Record of Airworthiness Risk Management report for the maritime helicopter — basically, the military air safety branch's plan to manage the aircraft's critical deficiencies.

The unsigned, undated document says the CH-148's maker Sikorsky alerted the military on June 6, 2022, to a potential "debonding" problem with the main rotor blades installed on some Cyclones.

Debonding happens during the manufacturing process when moisture gets into the adhesive holding together the thin layers of metal that make up the blade. It leads to microscopic cracks that can cause the blade to rip itself apart under pressure.

WATCH | Report warns of dangerous flaw in some Cyclone helicopters: 

 

Canada's Cyclone helicopter blades could rip apart in flight, report warns

 

14 hours ago

Duration2:05

Technicians are stepping up inspections of the Canadian military's fleet of Cyclone helicopters after an airworthiness report warned of a dangerous flaw that could see the blades disintegrate in midair.

In the worst cases of debonding, the skin of the blade peels off while the helicopter is in the air, causing severe vibration and violent shaking that can force the pilot to set down immediately — or even cause the helicopter to crash.

None of the Canadian Forces Cyclone blades have failed in flight.

Sikorsky alerted the military to the problem in June 2022 and provided additional specifics in November 2023 about similar blade failures involving U.S. UH-60 Blackhawks, says the nine-page internal report.

The new information "raises the unmitigated risk level [on the Cyclones] to A-1 — extremely high," says the airworthiness report, obtained by CBC News.

Concerns about the Cyclone's main rotor blades surfaced only months after air force technicians repaired vibration-induced cracks in the tails of at least 19 of the maritime helicopters in late 2021 and early 2022.

They also emerged years after a Canadian air force Cyclone crashed into the Ionian Sea on April 29, 2020, killing six members of the military — the biggest single-day loss of life for the Canadian Armed Forces since the Afghan war.

The crash was blamed on a gap in the flight control software that prompted the aircraft to plunge into the sea.

• Estimated life-cycle cost of military's Cyclone choppers rises to $15.9B

• Air force worried about keeping new maritime helicopters' weapons systems operational

• Families sue U.S. manufacturer over helicopter crash that killed 6 Canadian military members

Despite two decades of development, the air force has never given the CH-148 its final operating capability sign-off — an important designation that declares the military got everything it paid for.

Last week, the Department of National Defence (DND) revised its estimate of the lifetime cost of owning and operating the Cyclone to $15.9 billion, including taxes. CBC News reported last week on 2021 internal documents that projected the full life-cycle cost, including purchase, operations and sustainment, was expected to be $14.87 billion.

The latest figures project higher operating and sustainment costs over the decade and a half the aircraft is expected to remain in service.

In a media statement, Sikorsky said inspections found at least four blades on Canadian Forces Cyclones potentially were affected by debonding, while seven other blades which may be compromised are undergoing tests.

"The inspection process is nearly complete and to date Sikorsky has provided four replacement CH-148 blades," the company said.

DND says suspect blades will be replaced by maker

When the problem was first identified, an initial flight risk assessment concluded in the summer of 2022 that "in total, 19 [main rotor blades]" on Canadian Forces Cyclones are considered suspect, and as many as 10 of the helicopters could be affected.

DND said it expects that all of the suspect blades will be returned to the manufacturer for replacement by the summer.

CBC News showed Defence Minister Bill Blair a copy of the internal airworthiness report during a recent interview. He said it raised important concerns.

"I think my first priority is making sure that the men and women who serve the Canadian Armed Forces can do their job safely and that the equipment that we send them out [in] is fit for purpose," he said.

Defence Minister Bill Blair says the Cyclones are still safe to fly. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Blair said he's convinced the Cyclones are safe to fly and the air force is managing the issue.

"I rely on the advice we receive from DND and from [Canadian Armed Forces], the people that operate them and also those who are responsible for their maintenance and procurement," he said.

None of the Canadian Forces Cyclones have encountered a blade failure, according to the report. The air force is, however, pursuing a stepped-up inspection regime that sees technicians conduct "coin-tap tests" on the blades once in every 50 flight hours or three months, whichever comes first.

A coin-tap test allows a technician to evaluate the integrity of a part by tapping it and listen to the resulting tone.

While it's not common, helicopter blade debonding has been blamed for both civilian and military helicopter crashes over the past three decades.

WATCH: Air force worried about Cyclone's weapons systems becoming obsolete: 

 

Air force worried 'new' helicopter's weapons systems will be obsolete

 

24 days ago

Duration2:45

A leaked internal report warns the Canadian Armed Forces Cyclone helicopters have weapons systems that are becoming obsolete, even as the military waits for delivery of the final two helicopters from the manufacturer — almost 20 years after they were initially procured.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada pointed to debonding in its reports on the 2005 crash of a Bell helicopter and the more recent fatal crash in 2019 of a Robinson Helicopter Company R44 Raven near Lac Valtrie, Quebec. Robinson Helicopter disputes that conclusion.

Debonding has also been the subject of airworthiness directives from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. It issued a warning in 2015 about Airbus EC225LP helicopters and cited several different models of Eurocopter for potentially defective blades in 2013.

Jeremiah Gertler, a former military aviation analyst for the United States Congress Congressional Research Service, said the main concern for the Canadian air force is how long the required inspections are keeping the Cyclones out of service.

"They should be concerned about this because, with the more frequent inspections, it's possible that they'll be able to use the Cyclones less," said Gertler, now a fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"They'll spend less time in the air and more time getting checked out, until there's a solution."

Of equal importance to Canadian military planners, he said, is the amount of time it's taking to get the suspect blades replaced.

[conehead]

9 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

None of the Canadian Forces Cyclones have encountered a blade failure, according to the report. The air force is, however, pursuing a stepped-up inspection regime that sees technicians conduct "coin-tap tests" on the blades once in every 50 flight hours or three months, whichever comes first.

A coin-tap test allows a technician to evaluate the integrity of a part by tapping it and listen to the resulting tone.

A pretty simple solution. If there are any defects noted, then other more sophisticated NDT devices can be used to further investigate. The "tap-test" is a long accepted technique, which I'm sure some of us have used while trying to locate a stud inside a wall.

[Kip Powick]

We fixed wing jockeys have always questioned any flying machine where the airfoil spends 50% of its time going backwards...

[Vsplat]

I still remember my first walkaround on the 206/Kiowa, the salty IP introducing me to the Jesus nut.  'if this lets go, that's the next person you will meet'.

Loved flying helicopters, never loved the many ways a single failure could ruin your day.

Vs

[IFG]

9 hours ago, Vsplat said:

.... the Jesus nut.  'if this lets go, that's the next person you will meet' ....

Optimism's always good! Sure wouldn't want it called the Lucifer nut 

Cheers, IFG -