by Barneydhc82 » Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:48 am
In 1947 the RCAF was operating a Cold Weather Proving Establishment, testing aircraft under severe weather. The main base was at RCAF Station Namao, north of Edmonton. One of the aircraft taken on strength was a Spitfire XIV. One of the other bases used for the testing was Churchill, Manitoba, one hell of a cold dismal place. Because of a lack of navigational aids, the Spitfire had to fly in VFR conditions.
Enroute to Churchill, the weather deteriorated and running low on fuel, the pilot looked for any airport that was in the vicinity and The Pas, Manitoba soon popped into view. There was no snow removal available, but due to fuel critical, the pilot elected to land anyway and hope for the best. The Spitfire landed in 18" of hard snow which gave way and the aircraft ended up on its nose destroying the prop.
A maintenance crew with a spare prop was flown in, the aircraft repaired but the take-off was not going to be possible due to the deep snow. A very resourceful crewman found a pain of Tiger Moth skiis behind a hangar, knocked the centre pedestal off and replaced it with a box into which the wheels were fitted. The Spit was taxied out and away it went. The skiis fell off on lift-off and were last seen tumbling across the snow and the Spit flew back to Namao.
The Spitfire was sold by Crown Assets Disposal after only 19 hours of flight testing and ended up with the civil registration of CF-GMZ. It was raced at the Cleveland Air Races, placing third. The pilot, pissed off with the owners took=off in the wee small hours, flew to Florida and sold the aircraft. It led a very unusual life until purchased by a Canadian in Vancouver
The model is an Academy 1:48 scale finished with Alclad II over Tamiya TS-14 Gloss Black