Bush Sedans – Canada’s Bush Plane MuseumRead Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Read this entire feature FREE with photos at http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/sports02/adventure/flight/bushplanes/bushplane.html
I found a gem of an aviation museum while on a Hapaq-Lloyd German Cruise Lines voyage of
Great Lakes.
The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre is located in historic former Ontario Provincial Air Service hangar at edge of St. Mary's River in downtown Sault Ste. Marie (often called Soo), Ontario, Canada. The original hangar dates back to 1940s; this is where bush piloting started, as well as firefighting using belly drops of water and chemicals.
Sault Ste. Marie is actually two cities separating USA and Canada, split by St. Mary’s River and also is industrial hub for lock system that raises and lowers ships from Lake Huron to Lake Superior. The C. Columbus, Nassau, Bahamas registered ship that I was cruising on, was not due to channel locks until late that night, so a stroll a few blocks down Bay Street on Canadian and larger of two Soos (100,000 plus) found me piloting my way to "Yellowbird" museum.
The bush planes are all in original 1948 era hangar, and I have chance to stop and visit with renovation crew and mechanics clanging away on steel and aluminum. They perform superb jobs to bring new life back into rare and often still serviceable and flyable relics.
The Beaver was built around blueprint of a pickup truck, or so I learned from a fun film presentation at Wings Over The North Theater, adjacent to hangar. The Beaver is still flying bush patrols throughout Canada and world, and it is one of most rugged, dependable, and famous of bush planes. A Beaver turboprop version rests a few yards away, and it still works, too.
The Canadian built deHavilland DHC-2 Beaver is a classic plane first constructed in 1948 and it is second Beaver to ever be built, and first of 44 purchased by Air Service, and oldest Beaver still flying, located near Fire Camp, a replical of a typical 1940s fire crew camp, complete with tent, radio, and gear.
The deHavilland Mk III Turbo Beaver, when compared to standard Beaver, has a turbine powered engine that carries additional passengers, climbs and cruises faster, and has a higher service ceiling. The turbo’s snout is more tapered than blunt nosed Beaver, and engine is hundreds of pounds lighter, thus needing a bigger tail, according to one of bush plane engineers. Engines are still to this day ground tested after overhauling and before bolted back into use on planes within hangar.
Many of planes were used to deliver medicine and supplies, air ferry fishermen and hunters into hinterlands, or to spot forest fires.
The story of Beaver unveils in theater through Pilot Ron and his canine co-pilot Charlie's adventures, a story that is brought to life through objects and artifacts right in theatre, and with use of special lighting and environmental effects that make for an unforgettable flight.
The Centre honors work of bush pilots, a necessary wilderness career that opened up Canadian north, while Ontario Provinicial Air Service or OPAS played a major role in protecting Ontario’s forests. The Air Service was established in 1924 and first hangar was erected that year. The present hangar was built in 1948 on same spot, replacing older building, but it too was declared surplus in 1991 when newer technology and bigger planes were housed at a new facility across town at Sault Federal Airport.
