Milestone for the Y2K Spitfire - Horizontal Stabilizers

If you are a frequent reader of this monthly update you know that we have been reporting large increases in visitations to our Spitfire restoration hangar since the beginning of the year. August was no exception; more Spitfire enthusiasts and supporters have passed through our hangar this month then any other month in the projects 6 year history. We can attribute this to the large number of people that have discovered our project through word of mouth, the internet or from articles in local newspapers. Many visitors have commented,” I’ve been following this project for years”. Those that live close by often visit monthly just to view our progress, discuss Spitfires or to meet the many Spitfire veteran pilots that also drop in on a very regular basis.

Picture below: Two Wartime Spitfire veterans meet in the Y2-K Spitfire hangar,  RCAF/RAF veteran James "Stocky" Edwards and Royal Navy vet Jimmie Rankin exchange stories next to Y2-K. Jimmie Rankin and Stocky will be attending the open house in May 2007.

It’s not often you get to meet a World War II veteran that has flown as many different aircraft types as Jimmie Rankin. This Royal Navy veteran has accumulated almost 1,900 hours in the air and flown over 40 different front line aircraft. He joined the Royal Navy in May of 1939 and served on several aircraft carriers including HMS Ark Royal and HMS Argus. Jimmie and his wife Irma paid us a visit in August and left a copy of his life story with us. Jimmie made several runs to Malta with Hurricanes and Spitfires during the siege of Malta. Just to list a few of the types he flew during the war and post war during his test pilot phase. Spitfire II and Vb-Seafire I, IIc,III, XV, VXII, 46 and 47. He also flew the Seafang, Sea Hornet, Sea Mosquito, Sea Fury, Avenger, Martin Baker 5, Firefly, Hellcat, Martlet and the list goes on. As Jimmie lives in the Vancouver area we hope to have Lt. CDR (P) J.F. Rankin (retired) at our next open house in 2007. Jimmie spent some time in the hangar sharing stories with W/C Stocky Edwards

Picture below: 6 Years makes a difference. Chief engineer Bonn Svensson looks over the pile of Spitfire junk in the Y2-K hangar in August 2000. After 1000's of hours of painstaking fabrication and dedication, Bonn can take special pride in the restoration to date.

Six years ago In August 2000, the restoration hangar was in it’s final stages of construction, the parts had been spread out on the workshop floor and as you scan the attached picture one can just imagine what Bonn Svensson our engineer was thinking, he later confessed that he wondered what the hell have I got myself into. Compare that scene to a recent picture of TE294 - it’s obvious that much progress has been achieved yet; we still have considerable work to do to get Y2-K back into the air.

After four months of fabrication, the horizontal stabilizers were fitted this week, Bonn and Tom will make a few adjustments and minor tweaking then bolt and lock them on to the fuselage. All that remains to be done to complete this phase of the tail section will be to fabricate the fillets that link the stabs to the tail fin.

Pictures below: August 26, 2006 TE 294 is beginning to look very much like a Spitfire. The horizontal stabilizers are now attached, after some minor adjustments they will be permanently  attached to the fuselage.

Pictures above:Tom and Dave look for imperfections on the new stabs, Tom is a former RCAF technician and spends 3 days each week working with Bonn, Dave is a computer analysts and also spends many hours machining and fabricating parts for TE 294, both are volunteers and both have been with the project for 6 years.

You can display your Spitfire Support with pride…Buy a Y2-K Spitfire T-Shirt

The Klaholz family from Nanaimo paid a visit to the project hangar on Saturday August 26th. Ray, Katja, 4 year old Cameron and 4 month old Shonn left completely outfitted in Y2-K T-Shirts, Mom and Shonn decided they would put there shirts on when they got home. T-Shirts inform your aviation friends that you are a supporter of this Canadian heritage project and have made a donation in support of the work we are doing…display your support with pride, T-Shirts can be obtained with a $20 (CAN) donation at the hangar or we will ship your selection to you plus $5. Shipping.

And speaking of out of town visitors, special thanks to Portia Lau, of Hanson Lau Tours from Vancouver. Every two weeks throughout the summer Portia has brought her tour bus to the Comox Air Force Museum and the Y2-K Spitfire project for a visit. On each visit Portia would inform her Chinese speaking group the history of our project and the story of the Y2-K Spitfire. When her tour group entered the hangar they would ask questions and Portia would translate, with each answer the group would take pictures and you guessed it ask more questions. It was a treat to see the bus pull up into our parking lot as each visit was anticipated with delight by our group and we look forward to seeing Portia and her tour groups next year.

Picture right: Portia Lau from Hanson Lau Tours explains the Spitfire history to her bus tour customers. Portia visited the hangar with her tour bus every 2 weeks throughout the summer.

And finally, if you’ve ever considered making a donation to our project we urge you to do it now… the biggest challenge to restoring a heritage aircraft is raising the necessary funds to continue with the work. We are looking for a corporation to help us pay tribute to the memory of the nearly 18,000 Canadians that were killed in the Second World War in RCAF service. Once back in the air the Y2-K Spitfire will do just that.If you own a business your donation has positive tax benefits for you or, if you work for a business that has expressed an interest is supporting projects like ours, please let them know about what our project is doing and have them get in touch, we will explain how a cash donation can help put the Y2-K Spitfire back into the air.

Thanks again for your time and support

Pat Murphy
And the Y2-K Spitfire restoration team.

“The Y2-K Spitfire will Fly Again”