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A celebration of Derek Woolley's Life.

Derek left us in 2000, a few memories we like to share. (click on photos to enlarge)

Derek was born in England, joined the RAF, trained on Tiger Moths, was to become a Spitfire pilot, but the war ended and Derek served on Shackletons.

Derek came to Canada, worked at Avro Canada on the CF105 Avro Arrow project.

I believe that is Derek (black neck tie) with test pilot's Jan Zurakowski left leg on Derek's shoulder after the first flight of the Avro Arrow, (clipped from http://tsw.odyssey.on.ca/~dmackechnie/Zurakowski.htm. Derek was an engineer on the Avro Arrow flight test program.

On December 8, 2001, we met over at Frank Deeley's to hoist a few in celebration of Derek, almost a year has slipped by since Derek's passing.

Standing l-R (left photo), Frank Miller, Frank Deeley, Seated L-R, Geoff Child, Tom Whitburn, Ken Kalynuk, Mitch Poitras. Pappy Deeley reminisces about the days Derek and him would hold "Saturday design sessions" in Tex's garage.

A few of the old Brady Road - Grabber Green, Saturday afternoon gang still fly R/C, Frank M, Frank D, and Tex Gehman. Ken joined the group in 1997, Mitch in 1998. Bruce is a guest, he is posted to Winnipeg from CFB Trenton.

Geoff and Tom joined the Saturday afternoon "technical" sessions in 2001. Geoff's first job out of Red River College in 1977 was an electronics job at CAE in Winnipeg, Derek was the President at CAE at that time.  Tom is the C0 of CAF 435 Squadron in Winnipeg.

Modeling Memories of Derek

I first met Derek in the late 80's. Tex and Derek bought  Ozzie's R/C stuff when Ozzie quit the hobby.  The surplus was put up for sale in Derek's garage. I saw the ad in the paper, made the phone call, talked to a modeller with a English accent and ventured over to have a look. The five minute viewing of the r/c stuff turned in to a three hour tale of airplanes, model construction, and propeller design. Derek's stories were all encompassing, he knew a lot about aircraft and aviation, I could have listened for days. Ken Kalynuk