Page 3 - July 18

It took us a week to take KDN apart and get packed
securely in the container. Graham and his crew
were there to help whenever we asked. We had
some stress when we found out the tail brackets we
borrowed from Tom did not fit. Our prototype
aircraft turned out to be a lot different then
production RCAF Chipmunks that Tom is familiar
with. After some creative thinking, and scrounging,
we managed to turn a satellite dish bracket into a
Chipmunk tail support fitting.

De Havilland Canada Chipmunk DHC-1 G-
AKDN — 2016 United Kingdom Tour Pt 5

By Dave Gillespie
Time to fly this airplane. My first impressions as I climbed
up the wing and slid the canopy open was that this was a
real vintage airplane. The cockpit had the smell of metal,
fuel, oil, leather and old electrical wire. Years later I
visited the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier docked in San
Diego Harbour. When I walked into the lower hangar
deck I was hit with exactly the same smell. This was the
smell of aviation history. Strapping into the cockpit that
fit like a glove, I realised how much smaller the pilots KDN took 17 days to travel by truck to Liverpool,
must have been back in 1947. Even still, everything in the ship to Montreal, (through an Atlantic storm) and
cockpit fell to hand. I felt right at home. It felt like I was train to Saskatoon. It arrived by truck at Saskatoon
strapping on my Pitts Special. The starting procedure was airport. When we opened the container.........it was
a bit different than I was used to, but the Gipsy Major in perfect condition. It hadn’t moved a fraction of
engine fired right up and felt powerful. Taxiing was hard an inch. Our hard work with Graham and his crew
because you really need 3 hands to control it on the paid off. We all breathed a sigh of relief.
ground. A steep learning curve, but after a simple run up I
was ready to fly.
It flew like a fighter. The engine rattled the window panes
in the canopy while under full power, but as I throttled
back at altitude the engine just hummed with very little
vibration, and the airplane just kept accelerating. This
was a very light and fast example of a Chipmunk.

I couldn’t help but feel I was in a time machine. I was
holding the same set of controls all the famous test pilots
held. As I sat there turning and soaring over the lush
green countryside it could have been 1940’s again. It was
a very surreal experience to be there doing that. My first
landing was to be one of the best I ever made in KDN.
To be continued!
Beginner’s luck, or maybe test pilot John Derry was
watching over his KDN, making sure she was in good
hands. As I shut down I realized, I had just fallen in love.