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George Schembri
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Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum – Tiger Moth Flight and Visit #1

July 8, 2020 · in Aviation · · 22 · 2.9K

As things start opening up, I was lucky enough to be able to book a flight as a passenger on a de Havilland at The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario - First time taking a flight other than being an airline passenger.

Amazing experience, tough part was selecting an aircraft, which ended up being the Tiger Moth.

Talk about agile - I was able to bank a few times and do a few turns, amazing how sensitive the controls are. If I am lucky enough to book a second flight (whenever that will be) I will probably select the /Texan.

Also lucky enough to see the taken out for an engine run - apparently only 2 Lancs flying these days.

Also was able to see an actual windscreen from one of the original CF-105 AVRO Arrows.

Many others will be in a second post.

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

26 additional images. Click to enlarge.


22 responses

  1. Looks like a great museum, lucky you on that ride!

  2. Well done George, nice pic's, thanks for posting.

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    CJ said on July 8, 2020

    Fantastic pics, George. I hope I can visit that museum eventually. The T-6 would make for a great ride. At least half the air forces around the world adopted it at some point or another.

    • Amazing I haven't visited the museum earlier - only 45 minutes away. Always drove by when I worked in the area, even took a few commercial flights from YHM Hamilton.
      My pilot told me that if I thought I enjoyed the Tiger Moth flight then the next flight should be the T-6

  4. What a great opportunity, George (@georgeswork). I had a similar experience many years ago in a Stearman biplane. You will probably remember this flight forever.

  5. Great pictures, thanks for sharing.
    Nice to see this Dambuster bomb as well

  6. Looks like you had an excellent time there, George!
    Loved the pics too!
    Thanks for sharing, and wishing you a near future T-6 great flight!

    • Thanks Spiros, my booked flight was delayed due to the pilot needing to complete CoVid training.
      No problem filling up the 45 min delay, lots to see.
      Thinking of maybe booking the T-6 for my BDay in October.

  7. Great choice to have a go in the Tiger Moth! I'm sort of hoping there will be some pictures of the Bolingbroke in the next post 🙂

    Thank you for sharing, George.

  8. Great pics George, and I'm sure the Tiger Moth flight was a bucket list experience that will last forever. I had a former Blue Angel member take me on a ride in his Pitts Special where we did stunts. i still savor that memory.

    • Thanks Tom, Bucket list #15 checked off!
      Pitts Special doing stunts with a Blue Angels Pilot? I can't imaging!
      We did some wing overs and tight turns - so awesome moving in 3 dimensions.

  9. Way cool . By the looks of it this museum is on the bucket list of aeronautical museums To visit now !
    I made a Airfix tiger moth In 1/72 Last year. Not easy to make these bi-planes!
    Thank you for sharing.

    • I'll be returning to the museum in the future - planning on taking my Dad.
      Actually had the Airfix Tiger Moth kit in my hands at the Museum gift shop, and also thought - ahhh, biplanes might be a bit tough.

  10. TY for sharing the pics. That Lancaster looks great. Really liked the shots of the CF-105 Arrow, always thought that was a mistake they didn't pursue that further. Also noticed a really neat Catalina in the background on one of the pics!

  11. My father trained pilots in the RCAF on that Harvard and a variety of other planes.

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