2007 Open House, Biggest event ever!

Our first open house back in the year 2000 attracted about 300 visitors and we were happy with that turnout; our May 20, 2007 open house attracted over 1,700 Spitfire enthusiasts and needless to say we are very, very happy with the that level of support. It seems that every year the support grows for our project and that is very encouraging for our restoration team.

Eric Marsh

We had 9 of the 10 Spitfire pilots that were scheduled to appear at this year’s event, sadly Eric Mash former F/L with the RAF passed away on Friday May 18th, he will be missed. Eric flew Spitfires out of bases in England number 1 Squadron in the early part of the War then posted to Ceylon and India with 132, 17 Squadrons during the later stages of the Second World War; Eric attended our open house in 2006 and was looking forward to attending our 2007 event.

Visitors started arriving well before the advertised start time of noon and they just kept on coming. The 386 Squadron, Comox Air Cadets formed an honour guard for the Spitfire pilots and provided an escort for each Pilot into the hangar. As the 9 Spitfire pilots entered the hangar they were received with a standing ovation.

Left to right Jim O'Toole, Hart Finley, Jim Rankin, Jan Pomielartz, Stocky Edwards, Duke Warren, Art Sager and Kit Carson

The Air Cadets also provided an excellent band and the music they played was very well received by our many visitors. The Air Cadets provided a nice touch to this open house, many people passed on very positive comments on the roll the Cadets played this year. The Air Cadets escorted the Spitfire pilots into the new annex wherethey signed hundreds of autographs in aviation books, on Spitfire prints, on Y2-K Spitfire T-Shirts; they spoke to hundreds of visitors, posed for pictures and shared stories of Wartime Spitfires to those that attended this spectacular event. Thousands of dollars were donated to the project and as a result of the generosity of our visitors we will be able to carry on with our historic restoration throughout the summer. It would be impossible to conduct an event of this magnitude without the support of many “extra” volunteers, special thanks must go out to Calgary Realtor, Ben Eby who has attended the past 2 years to help out with our event, Ben also made the largest cash donation to this years open house event, thanks for your help Ben and for your financial support.

Thanks also has to go out to Brad Main who for the 4th year in a row has driven Squadron Leaders Art Sager and this year Hart Finley up from Victoria to our event, Thanks to Susan and Bob Murphy and to Tom Burkett who drove up from Nanaimo to help out with security and to take cash and write tax receipts. Thanks to Linda Gourlay who drove up from Duncan to work with Margaret Quibell on the souvenir table, thanks to Susan Quinn from Port Alberni who took pictures of the event. And special thanks to the Spitfire pilots who support us each year with their attendance and for the motivation our restoration team gets from them.

In May, the restoration project had some help from Senior Aircraftsman, Henry Crankshaw of the USAF. Henry was part of the Joint Forces event “Exercise Trident Fury” Henry is from Anchorage Alaska. The exercise included air elements from Canada and the USA that staged out of 19 Wing Comox. It was the one of the largest exercises of it’s kind ever held of the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Henry has had an interest in Spitfires for some time and we appreciate his help and support, come back and see us any time Henry.

We must acknowledge the generous donation to our historic aviation project from the “Union of British Columbia Municipalities” Community Tourism Program. This funding will clearly help our efforts and with this donation help us promote “Canada’s most significant aviation project.” During the past 7 years we have attracted well over 33,000 people to the Y2-K Spitfire restoration project, these visitors come from all over Vancouver Island and from almost every corner of the globe, our website is visited daily by web browsers from some of the remotest corners on Earth. We expect our hangar visits on Saturdays to increase this summer over previous years. Thanks to everybody that attended our open house and assisted us with our fund raising efforts and special thanks to 97.3 The Eagle for all the help they gave us.

If you want to visit the Spitfire project we are open every Saturday from 10-3, the hangar is closed to visitors during the week.

Thanks for your continued time and interest

Pat Murphy
And the Y2-K Spitfire restoration team.

“The Y2-K Spitfire will Fly Again"