We have had more people through the hangar in the past 30 days then any of us can remember in the past. It is most satisfying to show our visitors the quality of the work that is going into the Y2K Spitfire restoration -- the feed back we get from our guests is wonderful. If you're on Vancouver Island you can visit the project on any Saturday. We open at 10:00am and close about 3:00pm.

Up for a visit from Nanaimo to play in a Lacrosse tournament from left to right, Cohl Nicholson, Chayse Nicholson, Trevor Smith, Bruce Smith, Taylor Smith, and at the far right Donna Banks. We get visitors from all over Vancover Island, families and sometimes small groups. This group enjoyed the visit to our restoration hangar and we hope they won the game and scored many goals!

Also giving our spirits a lift are the number of people that have made cash donations and purchased Spitfire souvenirs. Our fundraising efforts have been well rewarded and each cent we take in goes straight to the restoration project. We need to purchase materials and parts where we can find them and every cent counts. Remember… we are a small museum with a huge project so every cent really does help.

We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to Ken Strong from Campbell River. He is a gifted machinist and has offered to complete some necessary machine work for us. Ken has a strong sense of community and wanted to be part of our project. Ken, we appreciate what you’ve done to date and look forward to working with you in the future. The elevator hinges you worked up for us are perfect.

Ken Strong does good work, these hinges will be part of the elevator structure. We thank him for his support to our project, this is excellant work!

We would also like to thank Hartman Auto Supply of Courtenay for providing us with a very nice donation to help us with our restoration.

We have also been in contact with another family that has a Y2K connection. Don Curtis sent us notice that his Uncle F/S Wendell ‘Curt’ Curtis flew the Y2K Spitfire on June 6, 1944. Don sent us some great photos and several pages of his Uncles log book and informs us that his Uncle was killed in action on November 7, 1944 and is now resting at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. We are restoring our Spitfire to honour the nearly 18,000 young Canadians that died fighting for freedom under the flag of Canada. Lest we Never Forget.

F/S Wendell 'Curt' Curtiss flew Y2K on D-Day, he is just one of nearly 18,000 Canadians that paid the supreme sacrifice for the freedom we enjoy today. Curt was shot down November 7, 1944.

We have completed the fabrication on the horizontal stabilizer. Some riveting is still required but this should be completed by next report and the skinning should be almost complete. The tail wheel is still taking some time as some technical information is required to complete our fabrication. If you happen to have an original drawing of the axel, let us know. We need to machine a new axel and to date we can’t find the drawing we need. We also finished up the tail section, it had been set aside awaiting some interior parts.

The tail section will be attached to the fuselage in time for the open house on May 21.

Still in the assembly jig, the horizontal stabilizer awaits it last few rivets. Final riveting underway on the tail section.

Now the Big News!

This will be the final update prior to our 6th Annual Open House on Sunday, May 21st. If you're anywhere near Vancouver Island, you won’t want to miss this event. Over the past five years, we have always hosted one of the finest aviation events ever held (on a small scale of course). To date, we have received conformation from 7 Spitfire veterans that will attend to share Spitfire stories with our visitors. Last year we were pleased to host at least 800 people. We expect more this year so come early. We open at noon and will not close the hangar till everyone has had a good look at our Spitfire. You are welcome to bring your cameras and take as many pictures as you want. Our restoration team will be on hand to answer all your questions and our engineer will be available if you have any really tough questions. We can’t confirm for sure but we have been told that a few war birds will fly in for the day so let us all pray for decent weather that day. Victoria Day Weekend is notorious for mixed weather if you know what I mean. If the weather is good we also expect a large contingent from the local British Car Club. Imagine if you can Spitfires, MGs Triumphs, Rovers, Austins, Hillmans and Land Rovers all parked in our parking lot, the owners sipping tea and sharing tales of British engineering. Wow, I can’t wait!

The Comox Air Force Museum will again display its collection of historic military vehicles. They will be on display in our parking lot and members of our museum will be available to answer question about these vehicles and share the history of our collection. Let us again work on the weather prayer.

As mentioned in the last update, Wayne Ralph, well knew aviation author, will be in attendance. Also in attendance will be Shirley Walker, whose book ‘From Sailing Ships to Spitfires’ chronicles the life and times of an immigrant family, whose sons fought in the Second World War. Shirley’s book is a good read and tells in part the story of F/L Arnold Roseland history with the RCAF and his service with 442 Squadron and the Y2K Spitfire.

Shirley was kind enough to provide us with two excerpts from her book:
The Prologue (in Normandy) and The Chapter in Vancouver (1942-1943).

The excerpts are in pdf format which require Adobe Acrobat. If you do not have this program, you can download for free at www.adobe.com

Ron Barnes, the son of F/L Arnold Roseland, will be in attendance with his collection of his father's memorabilia. Ron has attended a few of our open house events and has entertained many of our guests with his father's story. Also this year we will have a group of family members from S/L Donald ‘Chunky’ Gordon's family. Both families are traveling from Ontario to attend our event . Merritt Gordon flew with the RCAF and he will be bringing his brother's medals with him. We look forward to meeting the family and having them witness our Y2K Spitfire.

	S/L Donald 'Chunky' Gordon will be represented at our Annual Open House by his brother Meritt and nephew Greg Maslen -- they will be also attending from Ontario.
We are pleased that family members of F/L Arnold Roselnand can attend again this year. Ron Barnes will be sharing stories of his Father. Roseland was Killed in Action on June 30, 1944.

As per usual, our Open House will feature a display of Spitfire art, a large collection of 1:48th scale Spitfire models, all of Canadian pilots. This collection gets bigger every year. We will have raffles and plenty of Spitfire souvenirs for sale. Remember we get no Government support and this is our biggest fund raising event of the year. See you on Sunday May 21st. Come and meet a genuine Spitfire pilot.

Thanks again for your time and support.

Pat Murphy
and the Comox Air Force Museums Y2K Spitfire Restoration Team