Well, the highlight of the year is behind us. By this I mean that we have successfully survived the 2005 19 Wing Air Show. In preparing for the Air Show, we gave the fuselage a quick paint job. Here is a picture of it out in the sunlight for the first time before going on display.

Speaking of sunshine we had plenty that day. The weather was perfect in that not a cloud was in the sky, however this also caused too many sunburns. Along with the fuselage on display we also had a tent set up to allow people to donate to the project. We raised approximately $2,300 dollars during the day. I would like to thank those who donated to the project. I only wish we could have raised more for the restoration project as we were looking to raise at least double that. The monies raised will go towards rebuilding the tail section later this fall providing we can raise another $15,000 between now and mid-October.

One of the other things we did in advance of the show was start selling raffle tickets for a Robert Taylor Print, St Croix-Sur-Mer. This print shows Wing Commander Johnnie Johnson leading a flight of Canadian Spitfires from St Croix-Sur-Mer the first operational airfield in France after D-Day 1944. The winner of this print is Bill Trueman from Prince Albert Saskatchewan. I would like to congratulate him on his win. Shown here is a Air Show spectator pulling out the winning ticket. We sold around 980 tickets and raised approximately $1,650 dollars that will be used towards the project.

I would also like to thank the people at Advanced Processing of Toronto for CAD plating some or our items. These were items we had machined or refinished and will be installed later this fall. We look forward to working with this company again when we start working on the engine mounts.

For those interested in viewing our project, just remember we are open Saturdays from 10am-3pm and Sundays from 12noon-4pm. We would love to see you come and view our work and possibly leave a little donation in the money jar.

As we are not working on the project over the summer, the next update will be near the beginning of October.

From all of us have a wonderful summer vacation!