Page 3 - January 2019

Until this flight KDN’s longest recorded flight was
less than 150 miles. England is a small country
compared to Canada, and KDN had a trip of a
lifetime ahead, as did we.

Chipmunks are not known for luggage space. This is
a good reason to wear a flight suit, so you can put
all your personal belongings in the multitude of
pockets.

Even then we needed to carry extra oil, spark plugs,
tools and survival gear.
De Havilland Canada Chipmunk DHC-1 G- As we prepared to launch James and I were excited
AKDN — 2016 United Kingdom Tour Pt. 10 and nervous. KDN was about to prove herself or
By Dave Gillespie
not, over the next 3 days of hard flying, over some
of the most beautiful yet remote countryside in the
We're on our own. We've been playing for time. And it's
world.
running out!
Master on. Mags on. Clear prop. Start.
This quote from the movie, The Battle of Britain, came to
me as we furiously finished up the fabric job and KDN is on her way home.
collected all the parts for painting. We had to get the
airplane back together, tested, and ready to fly 3,000 km
from Saskatoon to Toronto to attend the 60th
Anniversary of the Chipmunk on May 22, 2006.

The time was a blur, but soon the airplane was sitting
outside in the spring sunshine. Time to test fly and we
arranged for George Neal to come to Saskatoon to do the
honours, 60 years after his first test flight in it! George
said it was the smoothest and fastest Chipmunk he’s ever
flown. It flew straight and true. How relieved we were
after all that work.
Dave ,George, Graham, James ,in front of KDN after
The final job was to bring the polish finish and color test flight by George.
scheme up to the factory standard. After all the paint
stripping we didn’t want to add any more paint except for
the silver finish on the fabric. I designed, produced and
applied the green and cream color markings using 3M
vinyl. I was able to match the exact positioning and color
as the original. When the final touch, a de Havilland
Canada logo over a Chipmunk silhouette was added, we
stood back and were amazed and proud of how great the
finished airplane looked.

We didn’t have much time to reflect on that shiny finish,
we needed to get it halfway across Canada. KDN almost ready to leave on the 3000km flight
home.

to be continued...