Our regular club meetings commence on the last Thursday of each month at the terminal building of the St.Thomas public airport.Starting time is 7 P.M. with a guest speaker at 8 P.M. Commencing April 2001 our monthly meetings are suspended due to many club activities.Starting june 13th we will have our weekly barbeque at the St.Thomas municipal airport Wednesday evenings at 6p.m. serving hamburgers,soft drinks and roasted corn (in season only). The fee for dinner is a donation to St.Thomas Flight Line. All welcome
Feb 22nd 2001�Our guest speaker was Mr.Fred Green.Mr. Green reminisced about getting his pilots licence in 1933,becoming an instructor for the commonwealth air training plan,chasing submarines in the north atlantic,delivering sqadrons of B-24 Liberators and all the numerous types of aircraft he had the chance to fly and instruct in.Mr. Green is a wonderful link for us to have to the past aviation achievements that most of us can only read about in books.Fred also designed the terminal building that he was a guest speaker in on this evening.Many thanks to Mr. Green for taking time to talk to us slack jawed pilots yearning for a taste of aviations past.
March 29nd 2001--- Our meeting was held at Tom Martin,s shop with Tom explaining to all about the process of building your own personal aircraft.We were able to look at Tom,s latest project,a Harmon Rocket about halfway through it's construction process.Tom fielded a barrage of questions from everyone in the room and all came away with a bit more insight as to what it really takes to build an aircraft.Much to our great surprise Tom had a rivoting demonstration and then a rivoting competition that was won by Mark Hindly.As a prize for best rivot Mark has won a ride in the Harmon Rocket when it's complete.Gary Wilcox had the distinction of worst rivot although we never found out what the prize was for that.Good work Mark.Our monthly 10 point quiz was won by Jim Ray.Good work Jim.A good time was had by all.Many thanks to Tom Martin for a fun and informative evening.
PHOTOS OF MARCH 29TH MEETING
October 25th 2001---Our guest speaker was Detective Constable Mike Scott. Mr.Scottgave a presentation and slide show on the ongoing war against drug growing operations and how air travel has helped in the fight against it. The slide show showed how the police spot the plants from the air as well as how they cultivate and destroy the product. Mike opened many eyes to what most of us thought was a small problem in ontario. Thank you for your very interesting and informative show.
November 28th 2001---Our guest speaker was Mr. Fred Gladding. Fred talked about his experiences from the time he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in WWII till he came back home after the war. Mr. Gladding enlisted as a navigator and completed his training here in ontario and then recieved his commission and a posting overseas. Fred flew on 20 bombing missions over Europe excelling in his craft and was then posted to the 405th Pathfinders Squadron and then the 415th Pathfinders Sqadron where he flew another 20 missions over Europe. Fred brought with him pictures from training as well as his postings and part of a survival kit that he was issued including a silk map of Germany and France as well as two compasses (one disguised as a coolar button and the other as a pencil clip. When asked what he feared most,the fighters or the flack Fred amazed us by saying that in 40 missions his aircraft never fired a single weapon at an enemy fighter and was never attacked by an enemy fighter.Fred then went on to tell us that his favorite flight into Europe was two days after the war was over to pick up POW's in Germany and of an actual sightseeing flight (at very low altitudes) back to England. POST LOG --- After the meeting Ian and Roger did a little research about the pathfinders and found out that they were in fact only the very best in Bomber Command and led the bomb runs into enemy territory lighting and or marking the target for those to follow. While talking to Fred's son Mark I also found out that because Fred's crew flew a Lancaster back to Canada they arrived about two months ahead of most others and unfortunately not to a very warm welcome as those at home did not know whether they would see their loved ones again.The first two months after the war were hard for them because of the peoples reaction to seeing them in uniform.Mr. Gladding in his typical style was much to modest to boast of his accomplishments and achievements during this period in his life but to this end I know his family is very proud of Fred and we are very happy to have had the opportunity to here his story. Thank you Fred Gladding and all the servicemen who fought so we may have all that we have today.
February 28th 2002---The February 28th meeting was held at the St.Thomas Airport Terminal building and featured an excellent presentation on the migration of both the Sandhill and Whooping Cranes. The evenings' speakers were Don and Paula Lounsbury of the Brantford Flying Club ,who have spent their recent fall months working with "Operation Migration' to establish new migratory flight paths for the last few hundred whooping cranes on the planet. Several VHS tapes of "The flight of the cranes" were purchased by club members in support of Operation Migration , and a cash donation will be made on behalf of St.Thomas Flightline to this worthwhile cause.
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