the nstar chronicle · north star restoration report bruce gemmill our team of volunteers continues...

The NStar ChronicleProject North Star Association of Canada Volume 7| Issue 3| October 2011

North Star Restoration Report

Bruce Gemmill

Our team of volunteers continues to make steadyprogress on our North Star restoration. We have hadseveral additional volunteers join our group. Thishas allowed us to expand our scope of work to in-clude some preparation work on the fuselage in ad-dition to the continuing work on engine no. 2 andthe cockpit area.

Engines and Propellers

The restoral of engine no. 2 is still on track. Theengine block is complete and the crankshaft, cylin-der heads and pistons have been installed. The aux-iliary gearbox has been completely restored, alongwith most of the engine accessories. Work has nowstarted on the supercharger. Plans are underway toinstall the engine on the engine frame soon.

Engine Frame and Cowl Panels

The engine frame is ready to receive the completedengine block. Then all the accessories and cable as-

semblies can be attached. This work should be com-pleted by December.

Cowl panels continue to be rebuilt, as time per-mits. These will be stored until the engine assemblyis complete, and then will be installed once engineno. 2 is back on the aircraft. Engine no. 2 shouldbe completed sometime in mid-2012. All four pro-pellers have been restored, along with the four spin-ners. Three are installed back on the aircraft, whilethe fourth is in storage.

Cockpit

Over the summer the navigation equipment rackwas stripped and prepared for painting. This provedto be a time-consuming task because of the multiplelayers of paint that needed to be removed, as wellas the position of cables that could not be removed.There also is corrosion on the floor under this rackthat must be dealt with later. Painting of the rack wasfinally completed on September 22nd. Over the win-ter the equipment that was removed from the rackwill be cleaned and restored, then returned to theirpositions in the rack.

The rudder pedal assemblies and the centre con-trol pedestal were installed in July. Several controlcables were also replaced. After this, the control yoke

Contents of this volume:

North Star Restoration Report . . . . . . . . . . 1Operation Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3A Mid-Winter’s Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Volunteering at the CASM . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Notes from the President . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Volunteers’ Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Recent Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Board Members’ Contact Information . . . . . 12

PNSAC Newsletter Vol. 7| Iss. 3| October 2011

was installed. All major flight controls are now backin place in the cockpit. This fall we will be able to in-stall the instrument panels and various assemblies aswell as new insulation and the restored headliners.

Fuselage and Empennage

While the North Star was outside this summer, thehorizontal stabilizers and flaps were removed. Theseare major assemblies and required a great deal of ef-fort to remove without damage. These items mustnow be crated and sent for overhaul as they are toolarge for the existing restoration shop to handle. Thebrake packs have been sent for overhaul. The for-ward baggage compartment is cleaned and readyfor painting. This will be followed by cleaning andrestoration of the belly equipment hold and the en-gine nacelles. Each of these areas must be strippedof cables, conduits, access panels and various pumpsand accessories before they can be painted and re-assembled. As an added challenge, these areas aresmall with limited access, so working in these ar-eas will be difficult. Once the aircraft is back in thestorage hangar, more of the fuselage can be polished.This is an ongoing project, but the effort put into pol-ishing the external aluminum skin will be very visi-ble and helps to show we are making progress on theaircraft.

Planned Restoration Work–2011-

2012

As mentioned, major accomplishments were made inthe cockpit and several flight control assemblies wereremoved. There is now much equipment in need ofrestoration in the main shop.

Over the next year, we plan to complete most ofthe cockpit re-assembly and the installation of engineno. 2, then removal of engine no. 3. This year hasseen a significant step in the restoration of our NorthStar, and this work will demonstrate very positive –and very visible – progress to the public.

FLASH

As we were going to “print”, we heard that engineno. 2 was back on the frame – in half the time it tookto install the first.

PNSAC

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Operation HawkPart Three

Tim Timmins

Flights from Anchorage usually arrived at Shemyalate at night and departed for Tokyo as soon as theaircraft could be refuelled. The ground time variedfrom two to four hours. So the crew duty time be-tween Anchorage and Tokyo could be up to 24 hours.A hard day’s night, indeed. Take-off limits were fre-quently in question, and it was not unusual to parkon the runway and wait until the pilots could see the

requisite number of runway lights for a takeoff clear-ance. On one occasion, the runway was covered ina layer of slush. It was reasoned that the powerfulRolls Royce engines and 10,000 feet of runway wouldallow us to take off. After a lengthy run at full powerand failing to achieve flying speed, plus being car-ried well off the runway by a crosswind, the take-offwas aborted. I had visions of something bad hap-pening as we ripped out several runway lights beforecoming to a stop. Everyone was a bit shaken by theexperience but gained a better appreciation for theamount drag slush could exert on an undercarriage.

The route between Shemya and Matsushima was only a short distance from the Kurile Islands (USSR)

There were few navigation aids on the route be-tween Shemya and Japan. Flying at 10,000 feet or be-low, in cloud most of the time, navigators had to relyon pressure pattern. Using readings from the pres-sure and radar altimeters, at 30-minute intervals, thedisplacement port or starboard of the heading vec-tor could be calculated. On one flight, after severalhours in cloud, we were in the clear long enough forme to take a three-star astro fix. As I was taking thesightings, I realized that my observed altitudes weresubstantially different than my pre-computed read-ings. I completed the observations and alerted thecrew to a potential large error in our position, as the

plot was some 200 miles short of our estimated posi-tion. I quickly established that my calculations werecorrect and that my astro fix was accurate. The pres-sure pattern, as was expected, had shown little dis-placement from the heading vector, indicating a headwind. However, the average wind speed was at leasttwice what had been forecast. More likely, we hadencountered a low level jet stream. The radio officersent out our revised position and requested a descentto the minimum altitude. We were back in cloud andhad no way of determining if we were clear of thejet stream. After a couple more hours in cloud, webroke into the clear over a sea of white lights, the

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Japanese fishing fleet off the coast near Matsushima.Spot winds, found using the B3 driftmeter and boatlights as a reference, showed that we were clear ofthe strong headwinds. We made our landfall at Mat-sushima and were able to continue on to Tokyo. Theweather office there had the low level jet plotted ontheir charts.

We had another bad experience with weatherconditions on a return flight from Tokyo to Shemyain November 1950. Several hours after departure, wewere informed that the Shemya Airport was closeddue to ice-covered runways and winds in excess of100 mph. Our only option was to proceed to ouralternate, the Naval Air Station at Adak. Unfortu-nately the weather reports for Adak were dodgy: lowceiling and high winds. And the forecast for ourarrival time indicated deteriorating conditions. Bythe time we began our GCA approach at Adak, itwas late at night, the ceiling and visibility were atpublished minimum and the wind was 80 mph withgusts. The descent was over rough terrain whichgenerated strong mechanical turbulence. The air-craft bucked, lunged, lurched and rolled making itextremely difficult for Gordon Webb to maintain con-trol and follow the GCA operator’s instructions. Wehad no passengers on board, which was fortunate asanything that was not secured was flying around thecabin. As we passed through GCA minimums, theoperator called for an overshoot. The pilots did notsee approach or runway lights, which did not bodewell for a second approach. It was a repeat of thefirst approach, but Gordon saw a couple of approachlights and was able to identify the end of the run-way and land the aircraft. I have never in my experi-ence seen a pilot so severely tested. The high windsmade taxiing and parking the aircraft difficult, and

the props had to be feathered to keep them from ro-tating in the wind. We were thankful to be in Adak.We had no other place to go.

In October 1950, a few hours out of Shemya en-route to Tokyo, Doc Payne and his crew had a run-away propeller on North Star 17504. They had notreached the critical point (equal time point), so theyturned back to Shemya. The propeller could not befeathered, so there was a risk that it could fly off anddamage the aircraft. Speed was reduced to a mini-mum to lessen the risk and the aircraft made it backto Shemya without further incident.

The International Date Line was located to thewest of Shemya. On westbound flights, the local timewas adjusted ahead 24 hours, and eastbound it wasmoved back 24 hours. This created quite a bit of con-fusion for passengers and some crewmembers. Theexplanation that the lost day on the westbound flightwould be regained on the eastbound flight was re-assuring to most. But what happens if you do notreturn? Have you lost a whole day from your life?

Flights arrived at Haneda Air Force Base, locatedon the edge of Tokyo Bay, early to mid morning.Crews were bussed to their billets at Camp Ebisuor the Maranuchi Hotel in central Tokyo. Everyonewould be dog tired after a very long crew day, so ashower and nap before meeting for dinner was thenormal routine. I didn’t make dinner the first time.When my alarm sounded, I killed it and was back tosleep in a nanosecond. I woke up the next morning,feeling fully refreshed. There was a cold cup of teaon the night table beside the bed which caused me toreflect on how it got there, considering the fact thatdue to the hot weather, I had slept on top of the bedsans pyjamas.

PNSAC

A Mid-Winter’s Dream

Bill Tate

What a night! Weather is marginal, blowing snow,low ceilings along with low visibility and icing con-ditions. To add to the mix, the aircraft we were usingwent unserviceable, which added to our duty day,and the only way to alleviate this was to wait for ourrelief pilot to drive in while we waited for the arrivalfor the new aircraft.

My First Officer and I grabbed a bite to eat at oneof the restaurants in the terminal building in Mon-treal, and after our meal I told him I would go backto the crew room for a "power nap" while this mess

sorted itself out. Prior to going into the crew room,I advised the duty clerk to wake me up in time forflight planning and other duties. Prior to taking mynap, I looked outside and took in the sight of anotherlovely winter night in Canada and mentally kickedmyself for not taking the trip to Santiago where itwas only 33 Celsius and sunny.

Prior to stretching out, I looked at some of the pic-tures in the room and, among these, a picture of thaticonic piece of Canadian aviation history, the NorthStar in a similar winter scene. It did not take long forme to enter the land of nod and I was fast asleep.

"Captain Tate, wake up! Your crew is waiting foryou at Stand Four". Stand four, I though. Where inGod’s name is that at Dorval? Focusing on the face in

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front of me, which I did not recognize, I asked why Iwas not woken up earlier. I was told I had never putin that request.

Groggily I wandered downstairs, and what evenmade it more confusing was that all the passengerswere well dressed. Following the signs to StandFour, I found a sales agent by the door who told meall passengers and crew were aboard waiting for meto board. Opening the door I walked out into, not awarm jetway but outdoors in one of Canada’s bliz-zards. By the time I got to the air stairs going up in-side this strange four-engined airplane, not only wasI frozen but my feet were soaked by the slush on theramp.

At the door I was met by a flight attendant in auniform that I thought belonged in a museum!

Cold and with wet feet, I was pleased with thewarm welcome and coffee to take up front into thecockpit. If I was not surprised by the flight attendantwhen I walked into the flight deck, I was shockedwhen I saw the other three other crew members onthe flight deck.

One had maps and charts all over his work sta-tion, which I later surmised to be a navigator, and an-other was in front of a huge rack of radio gear with aMorse code key. The only crew member I recognizedwas the First Officer in the right seat. Sheepishly, Icrawled into my usual seat, trying to make sense ofall the straps I had to fasten for my seat belts, not tomention the controls I had to figure out.

I made a passing comment to the crew aboutwhat a crappy night it was to go to work, and thenavigator piped up that we had very strong tailwinds to London which would not only have us inearly, but would mean avoiding the technical stopfor fuel in Prestwick. After that I heard an explo-sive exchange of Morse code by the radio officer whotold me that we had our clearance and were goodto leave. Immediately after that, the flight attendantcame up and said the door was closed and passen-gers were seated. I thanked her and looked up at allthe switches and levers and asked myself, "How do Istart this beast"?

Remembering my training in C.R.M. (Cockpit Re-source Management, which should not to be con-fused with: This is the cockpit, you are the resourceand I am the management!), I turned to the F/O,who I had never seen before, and asked him to giveme the checklist and start the engines. He appeared

shocked, but I reminded him that at sometime hewould be the Captain, and now was a good time asany to start. We went through the litany of itemson the checklist, and at the end I said, "Wind themup". In my life I cannot remember so many switchesthrown, buttons pushed to get one engine started -let alone four.

When all four engines were finally running, it re-minded me of being in a large noisy factory - and westill had eleven hours to go! On receipt of taxi in-structions, the only things that looked familiar werethrottles (Push them forward and it gets real noisy!),parking brake, which I released, and a nose wheelsteering wheel in front of me which was very intu-itive in its operation.

Slowly the taxiways sort of made sense to me andeventually I made it to the end of the runway. Iread off more checklists and again I was amazed atall the gymnastics of the exercise - along with howcomplicated it seemed. With the high noise level inthe cockpit - I almost had to shout - I suggested tothe F/O I would be the P.N.F. and he could do thetrip over to London. On that he went right on cuediscussing speeds for take-off (which was low com-pared to what I knew) along with power settings (ofwhich I had not heard in years).

I lined the aircraft up on the runway and told mycolleague that he had control. If I thought it wasnoisy on start up, my ears were assaulted by the rawpower that these strange engines made at take offpower. Acceleration was very slow, and after whatI thought was a very long time, the nose lifted offand we clawed our way into the air.

I remembered our historical verbal calls and said"positive rate" (we were climbing), and the F/Oraised his thumb over the throttles. Using that as mycue I raised the landing gear which went into its bayswith a satisfactory clunk. I could not get over the roarof the engines which sounded as though they weregoing to shake us apart.

Speaking of shaking, why was someone shakingmy shoulder? I groggily turned over. My F/O toldme that our flight plan was completed, then won-dered why I was flying a North Star in my sleep. Imumbled something about lovely airport food andindigestion, but once on my feet, I looked again at thepicture of the North Star on a typical mid-winter’snight in Dorval, and then understood what had hap-pened.

PNSAC

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Volunteering at the CASM

Cedric St-Amour

Museums and volunteers have a long history to-gether in North America. This is a great way forpeople to give back to their community and help pro-mote Canada’s rich history. In 2008, Heritage Canadaestimated that were over 55,000 volunteers in mu-seums across the country and that this number hastripled in the past decade.

The Canada Aviation & Space Museum (CASM)is no exception. In fact, there are currently 150 ac-tive volunteers at CASM. Each year, this dedicatedgroup contributes on average 16,000 volunteer hoursto the projects and operations of the museum. Whereare all the volunteers? About 30 or so are dedicatedto Project North Star (PNS). During the 2010-11 fis-cal year, PNS volunteers dedicated 8,730 hours to theproject, which represents over 50% of the total vol-unteer hours at the museum.

Cedric St-Amour

Aside from PNS, volunteers are also involved inresearch and administration work. Another impor-tant aspect for volunteers is the interpretation theyprovide to museum visitors. Many of you are ei-ther witnesses to history or participants in histori-cal moments in Canadian aviation history. Your pas-sion and knowledge is very powerful and inspiringfor the visitors. You help bring the artefacts to lifeand transmit our nation’s aviation history to youngergenerations.

How do museums benefit from the presence ofvolunteers? The fact is that you are excellent ambas-sadors for CASM. Indeed, every day, you are able torepresent and promote CASM to your community,the museum visitors and other aeronautical associ-ations. Furthermore, you have a passion, skills andexperience that simply cannot be bought and that isinvaluable to CASM’s operations. By generously do-nating your time, you make projects like PNS possi-ble.

On behalf of all my colleagues at CASM, I thankyou for generous contribution in helping us promoteour nation’s aviation history.

Would you like to volunteer at CASM? We arealways looking for passionate and dedicated volun-teers! I invite you to communicate directly with me.

Cedric St-AmourCoordinator, Volunteer ServicesCanada Science & Technology Museum Corporation613-991-6091 [email protected]

PNSAC

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mailto:[email protected]


Notes from the President

Richard Lodge

Summer has now drawn to a close and for those liv-ing in Ottawa, it was a glorious three months. TheNorth Star has been outside the hangar for manyweeks and work on it has not been hindered by badweather.

On Sunday, September 18, Bill Tate, our Vice Pres-ident, and I attended the Battle of Britain commem-oration event at the aviation museum. Having livedin Britain through the Second World War, I alwaysfind the event very moving, particularly if we havea cloudless sunny day as we did this year. Julyto September 1940 were months of continuous sun-shine in southern England while the young air crewsfought the air battle on both sides.

After thinking about the air crews in the SecondWorld War, I got to thinking about the air crews whofought the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s. TheNorth Star is a plane from the Cold War. It is veryeasy for us to forget, when working on the restora-tion of the plane, that we all owe a debt of gratitudeto the air crews who flew long hours in often dan-gerous and very uncomfortable conditions protect-ing Canada in many different ways.

Richard Lodge

We are fortunate that our immediate past presi-dent, Austin Timmins, was such an air crew mem-ber. He flew for many years in the North Star. Timhas kindly agreed to give a talk at our next associa-tion quarterly meeting in December on his time fly-ing with the plane. Tim is sure to give us a very inter-esting presentation. He will help us all to rememberthat we are not restoring just another plane that wasflying in the sky but one that was the working envi-ronment for many people like Tim.

As one who can remember the roar of Merlin en-gined bombers roaring over my home in Englandduring the Second World War, it will be good to lis-ten to Tim bringing another Merlin engined plane,the North Star, to life again, if only verbally and inphotographs.

PNSAC

Volunteers’ Corner

Charles Baril

My first love affair was with trains which went fastand made a lot of noise. That was when I was 4 or 5years old. However, because airplanes went faster, Ibecame more interested in them.

Soon my parents bought me the Time Life videoseries called Air Power. I watched these films in theback of my parents’ archery shop. I was an only childand often had to entertain myself while my parentsworked. My aviation collection expanded to othervideos on air power, individual aircraft, and bookson various aspects of military history.

I was taken to the Canada Aviation and Space

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Museum (CASM) as a small child and this too fos-tered my keen interest in aircraft. I have fond mem-ories of the Lancaster in particular and this broughtme back again and again to visit the museum. Themuseum, even then, hosted sleep-over nights forchildren. I vividly remember sleeping under the tipof one of the Lancaster wings. And for a 10-yearold child this was an overpowering sensation! Myparents admitted that the museum was my secondhome.

Charles Baril

During my high school years I became a volun-teer at the Cesna Interpretation Centre at the CASM.I carried on this volunteer work for over 10 years.

I was also a member of the Royal Canadian AirCadets, 742 Montgomery Legion, now the NationalCapital Squadron. I very much enjoyed my timethere, doing Basic Training, Introduction to Leader-ship, and the Space Camp, both as a participant andas a staff member.

After high school I wanted to study aircraft de-sign and enrolled in mechanical engineering at theUniversity of Ottawa. Around the same time myparents became aware of Project North Star and sug-gested that I become involved. It was then that Imet Robert Holmgren, who also encouraged me tobecome a volunteer. Robert was always welcoming,helpful and friendly. That was over 5 years ago.

In 2007, I embarked on the Museum Studies Pro-gram at Algonquin College. This 3-year program Icompleted in 2010. During the Summer months Ivolunteered for Project North Star. I also workedon other projects, including a 4-month placement atCASM (a requirement for the completion of the Ap-plied Museum Studies Program). This project wasa complete photo and written documentation of theAvro Anson Mark V aircraft’s condition, including atreatment proposal. That report is now part of themuseum’s collection.

Subsequently I had a short term contract withthe CASM to reassemble the museum’s WWI Sop-with Pup Fighter. The aircraft had been on displayat the Canadian Warplanes Heritage Museum andhad been returned to CASM in crates. Subsequently,I also worked on the Bolingbrook as well as on theRV211 turbo fan engine frame.

I am leaving PNS temporarily to work at theCanadian War Museum on contract. I hope soon toobtain full time work in the field of aircraft restora-tion.

Rolf Geiger

My life in Canada began in September, 1960, withone suitcase and $95 in my pocket. But then, youth-ful exuberance knows no bounds!

I got a job producing transformer cores. In thehouse next door to the plant where I worked liveda couple who took me in for room and board. Theyspoke English and French which exposed me to bothlanguages. The lady of the house also taught Englishand that is where I met my wife. Françoise and I gotmarried in 1963, and our son Richard was born in ’65.

Of course, winding transformer cores was nottool-making and I looked for work more closely re-lated to my competence. I soon found a job in a ma-chine shop. The work was varied, but the machinetool park ancient, more like a museum than a manu-facturing plant.

Rolf Geiger

Next I worked for a large company in Granby,Québec, as a toolmaker. I had made steady progressin this company when they offered me a position tolead a large tooling department in Bonn, Germany,which I declined, since arrangements to start ourown company were in an advanced state. A friendand I were in the process of starting up a machine

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shop. We aimed to build sophisticated and preciseproduction equipment. It started out modestly butwas a success from the start. Jean Daniel left the com-pany 3 years later.

Françoise came on board full time to manage thecommercial aspect. She did the bookkeeping, pur-chasing and payroll, while I looked after sales, pro-duction and engineering. Richard joined us a littlelater to develop our information technology. Ourfirst CAD-CAM system was purchased in ’83 andwe obtained ISO 9002 certification in ’92. Amongour customers were IBM, GE, Air Canada, and KraftGeneral Foods. We also exported to several IBMplants in the U.S. When we sold our company in

’96 to a group of engineers, it had become a sophis-ticated and successful operation of about 20 skilledcollaborators.

In 1976 I participated in the Olympic Games asagent de liaison for the German equestrian team inBromont, Québec. It was a wonderful experience.

And now I have the good fortune to be associatedwith interesting and capable colleagues at the Cana-dian Aviation and Space Museum restoring NorthStar 17515. I marvel at the excellence and quality ofthe work being produced. It provides an opportu-nity for me to use practical skills acquired over theyears in producing replacement parts for the aircraftas well as special tools.

PNSAC

Recent Events

Jim Riddoch, Karen Lochhead

PNSAC Quarterly Meeting:

September 24, 2011

Richard Lodge, PNSAC President, welcomed allpresent and congratulated Eric Brown on becominga new member. He reported that this had been anactive year, although public display days had disap-pointing attendances. He also indicated that it hadbeen a reasonably successful financial year.

The President noted that with regard to the pro-posed trip to CFB Trenton on November 4, we arelooking for more participation. If this trip is suc-cessful there is a plan to have another trip to theCanadian Warplanes Heritage Museum near Hamil-ton next year.

Karen Lochhead has issued an E-mail invitingattendees to a presentation by Marc-Andre Bernier,Chief Underwater Archaeologist with Parks Canadahere at the new CASM theatre on October 13th at 7:00p.m. This will be a Public Lecture entitled: “A WorldWar I I Underwater Time Capsule: The Discovery ofan American Plane in Gulf of St. Lawrence”.

The President also mentioned that the next quar-terly meeting will include a presentation by TimTimmins on North Star operations. He also in-dicated that we have approached Christina Lucas,CASM Communications, about participating in themuseum’s Facebook page. Finally the President is-sued a big thank you to Bill Hough for his generousdonation to the PNS Trust Fund to cover the cost ofpurchasing a swaging tool.

Paul Labranche, Treasurer, reported on the PNSProfits and Loss Comparison for the period Aprilthrough August 2011 as well as the Balance Sheet,and he explained the variances from last year.

Bruce Gemmill, PNS Project Manager, reportedon a the extensive work accomplished while the air-craft has been positioned outside. Intensive manualstripping of paint from the navigator equipment rackinvolved four months of work by twelve volunteers.It has now been repainted.

Plans for this winter are to install the cockpit in-strumentation, insulation and the navigator equip-ment. This work will provide an impressive displayon days when the aircraft is open to the public.

Flight control surfaces such as the rudder, flapsand elevators have been removed for restoration.The cockpit rudder pedals and control pedestal havealso been reinstalled and look very good. Futurework includes installing more insulation, panels andhead liners in the cockpit area. It is hoped to havethis work completed before next summer. Work onNo. 2 is progressing well, and the engine should beready to be installed on the engine frame in the nearfuture. This progress shows improvement over en-gine No. 1, some 16 months versus 3 years. It ishoped to have Engine Number 2 mounted on the air-craft next spring. As well, cleaning, paint strippingand masking is being completed in the forward cargocompartment. However, the window of opportunityfor repainting is fast closing due to weather changesand the necessity of returning the aircraft to the stor-age hangar. A full restoration report appears else-where in the newsletter.

During a Q & A, Ted Devey asked if any assis-tance from the Aerospace and TelecommunicationsEngineering Support Squadron (ATESS) in Trenton

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had been requested as they had indicated interest inthe project. Bruce replied the that the upcoming visitto CFB Trenton might be a good opportunity to fol-low up on this question. Bruce added that the MOUwith Aveos is still in the works.

Bill Tate, PNSAC Vice-President, reported onthe monthly meetings that are regularly held withCASM Director General Stephen Quick . Bill re-minded us that the Director General is very enthu-siastic about Project North Star and has been ex-tremely cooperative with our group and attentive toour needs. Bill informed members that Ron Lemieuxhas been asked to take the lead on the board forfundraising issues and to assist museum staff in theirefforts to raise funds for the North Star Trust Fund.Karen Lochhead will assist Ron in this effort. He alsoinformed members that there would be a visit to themuseum and PNS on October 18 by Air Canada Pio-nairs from Montreal. Other information of interest tomembers: The MOU between PNSAC and the mu-seum is approaching a major anniversary, and thiswill give us an opportunity to review and updatethe agreement; The North Star kiosk will be movedto a more favourable/visible location near the frontlobby of the museum along with a donation box sim-ilar to the Beaufighter display; and, The Classic AirRallye will return next year on June 9, 2012.

A visit to Trenton has been arranged for Novem-ber 4. The exact itinerary will be confirmed at a laterdate, but the plan is to leave from the museum, stopin the west end to pick up additional passengers,then proceed to Trenton, arriving at approximately10:30 a.m. Depending on numbers, the party will besplit into two groups, one to the Flight Line and theother to Operations. The group will have lunch at alocal restaurant, complete the tours in the afternoonand return to Ottawa by 8:30pm.

Following a brief discussion, it was suggestedthat the invitation be extended to other groups, suchas staff from Vintage Wings and from CASM.

Cedric St-Amour then delivered a presentationon volunteerism at the museum, and in particular thecontribution of PNS volunteers to the restoration ofthe North Star. He informed members that PNS vol-unteers will have soon logged in 40,000 hours restor-ing the aircraft.

Phil Chrysler gave a personal presentation onvolunteerism and why he joined Project North Star.He said that volunteering not only furthers his inter-est in aviation history, it keeps him active and pro-vides an escape from domestic bliss!

Following the presentations, members were in-vited to comment on these and other matters of in-terest. Bill Hough indicated that he has been a vol-unteer at the museum since 1994, and although he isno longer as active, he still remains very interestedin our project and supports our efforts. Richard re-

sponded that not all volunteers were involved in theactual restoration of the aircraft, but that there weremany other ways in which members, such as himself,are contributing to the project.

Ted Devey remarked that we do not appear tohave much publicity for the project, particularly inthe local news. Bill Tate responded that he hasbeen in touch with members of the media who haveshown an interest in PNS, and that the Retired Air-line Pilots Canadian Airlines (RAPCAN ) Newsletteris planning an article on the project. Phil Chrysler in-dicated that our merchandising efforts during specialevents, not to mention the sale of PNS items in themuseum gift shop, have helped publicize the project.

Garry Dupont then requested Eric Brown, as thenewest member, to draw the winning ticket for the50/50 draw. To the surprise of all present, Eric drewhis own ticket. As there was no further business,Richard adjourned the meeting and invited all to en-joy refreshments.

From notes by Jim Riddoch.

PNSAC

The 2011 PNSAC Open: August 9,

2011

And, the winners were...

Oops – There was a three-way tie!

This amazing coincidence happened at the recent– and, we hope, first of many - Project North Star GolfTournament which took place at the Loch March Golfand Country Club in mid-August.

And away we go

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Critical eyes

For this "Best Ball" tourney, the two-person teamswere (in no particular order) as follows:

Tim Timmins and Ron Lemieux; Bill Tate andFrank Reardon; Bruce Gemmill and his son Mike;Murray Beaulieu and Karen Lochhead; Rolf Geigerand Murray’s brother-in law Henry; and, last but notleast, Jim.

The day started for some with breakfast at theClub House. Tee times started just after 10:00 a.m.– a very reasonable and leisurely beginning.

The first foursome of Tim, Ron, Bill and Frank gotaway in relatively good fashion (as seen by the four-some next up). However, from time to time, therecould from a distance be seen some "lingering in therough" or "hovering above waterhole" behaviour. Ofcourse, none of these activities was observed withthe second foursome, of which the author of this re-port was a member. And the last three players (whostarted a bit late) could not be observed at all becausethey were so far behind.

Jim

Murray

So, to set the record (or scores) straight, the out-come for all 18 holes was as follows:

• Tim and Ron: 87 – Congratulations Team!

• Murray and Karen: Another low of 87!

• Rolf and Henry: By weight of major talent, an-other score of 87!

And, the rest of the good news: All other playersbroke 100.

The game finished through a light Summer rainand the players repaired for a small pint and theusual golf chatter.

Comparing notes.

Agreat time was had by all. Can’t wait until nextyear.

PNSAC

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Calendar of Events

November 4, 2011 Visit to CFB Trenton and to the Royal Canadian Air Force MuseumNovember 24, 2011 Board of Directors’ MeetingDecember 3, 2011 PNSAC Quarterly MeetingMarch 22, 2012 Board of Directors’ MeetingMarch 31, 2012 Quarterly MeetingMay 31, 2012 Board of Directors’ MeetingJune 9, 2012 Annual General Meeting

Board of Directors’ MeetingClassic Air Rallye

July 1, 2012 North Star on display on Canada Day

Board Members’ Contact Information

PNSAC Executive

Richard LodgeDirector, [email protected]

Bill TateDirector, Vice [email protected]

Bruce GemmillDirector, Membership; Project [email protected]

Jim RiddochDirector at [email protected]

Garry DupontDirector at largeDeputy Project [email protected]

Ronald LemieuxDirector at [email protected]

Roger Button, BA. MA. LLB.Corporate [email protected]

Paul [email protected]

Newsletter

Editor: Karen Lochhead

Typesetter: Drew Hodge

If you would like to contribute an article to the NStar Chronicle, please contact

[email protected]

Your comments on the contents of this issue are also appreciated.

PNSAC Newsletter1 email address:[email protected] – Attention: Editor

Web site: www.projectnorthstar.ca

1This newsletter is typeset using LATEX. The style package used for the newsletter (PNSAC.sty) is a modification of GRASSnews.stybelonging to the Geographic Analysis Resources Support System (GRASS). The modification was made possible by kind permission ofthe Editor-in-Chief of GRASS-News.

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