Photos from Old RAF 2000 Calendar

[enewbold]

I found an old RAF 2000 year 2000 calendar. Do you remember any of these machines and pilots? =Ed=

[enewbold]

Continuing with the rest of the photos.

[gyroplanes]

Don Lange, who's orange and red RAF (shown with skis and landing on the ALCAN highway) was a SnoBird customer of mine.

Don was as rugged an individual as I've ever had the pleasure to meet.

Don was (or is) a fur trapper by trade. Don would leave his home and spend the bulk of the winter tending his trap lines via dog sled. Don slept out in the open and often had to form a snow cave or windbreak.

Don eventually switched to "snow machines" (snowmobiles) and said he missed the company of the dogs. I'll bet ! I imagine it's quite lonely at the top of the world in the Winter.

[Harry_S.]

Ed;

I have that same calendar hangin' on the wall in my workspace. Those were the heydays.

That young fella in the lower R/H corner in the group picture, is none other than ...the one and only...:drum:... Pat McNear....sans the facial hair.


Cheers :)

[enewbold]

That young fella in the lower R/H corner in the group picture, is none other than ...the one and only...:drum:... Pat McNear....sans the facial hair.That's fantastic! I spoke with Pappy at length down at Bensen Days this year. Whatta nice guy he is!

=Ed=

[StanFoster]

I have that calendar as well. Pat Mcnears black RAF is in the back...


Stan

[Aussie_Paul]

I love the pic of Mark Lermette flying over the Castle. We met Mark, his brother and Dave Fairbrss at Bensen Days 1999.

Aussie Paul. :)

[StanFoster]

Paul: That castle shot is cool. I have seen that picture elsewheres and it always caught my eye.


Hey...got any castles down under that you could make a Firebird pass over?


Stan

[Hognose]

Here's what I could find out about those featured gyroplanes.


N296G -- George Wenschof. Deregistered 2002 (http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=296G) as destroyed. There is no NTSB record of a mishap.

N28TA -- Jim Logan. Still flying, probably the high-time RAF. Go Jim!

(yellow on black) C-GNAW. RAF Factory ship, flown by Duane Hunn (maybe the high-time RAF pilot if Jim isn't). This plane had lots of controversy around it, beginning with false entries in its logbook that led to a three-month suspension (http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilAviation/Regserv/Appeals/Juris/amend/amend5/haselohA311.doc) [note, .doc file] for RAF head Dan Haseloh (RIP). Forum member Chuck Ellsworth plays a part in that case. Registration canceled in 2001 (http://www.tc.gc.ca/aviation/activepages/ccarcs/en/HistorySearch_e.asp?x_lang=E&x_typeofaction=3&x_aircraftid=25093&x_flag=Y). It crashed at Sun-n-Fun in 1995; rebuilt as an agplane. I'm not sure if this is one of the demonstrators that midaired later?

The little picture (white w/red stripes) is Enzo Sanchez, Argentina. Unknown.

Purple and Yellow (ow, my eyes) -- N42981 built by Jurg. Furrer reported sold to Herb Remer, reg. not valid.

Red-Gold machine. Could not make out the N number.

Silver and black, N1234U. N number shows as assigned to an FAA project. Not in NTSB database (at least, not as an RAF).

Jim Helgeson's taxi. The little pictures are Alexander Mochkovsky, Clarence Taylor, Jim Buie and Bill Strickland's RAFs. Strickland's was registered to Carlyle Buxton of Oregon this year. Mochkovsky was in Argentina, so I don't know about him. The remaining ships are still actively registered to their original builders.

The red plane over the castle is G-BWTK. It was substantially damaged in a landing accident on July 12, 1999. The two on board were uninjured.

B-530L. Chinese registration, I don't know anything about this ship.

C-FXGL. Still registered to Don Lange.


Looking these up reminded me of the RAF Registry I suggested someone do, a while ago. So I started digging around in the records and databases I have, as well as those online.

cheers

-=K=-

[rgraffeo]

I think the red & gold machine is Dolfin Fritts, I took some instruction in that gyro.

[Chuck_Ellsworth]

Finally I understand where the story that I had tried to extort $5000.00 out of RAF came from.

He further stated that Mr. Ellsworth attempted to secure five thousand dollars from Rotary Air Force Inc. to obtain a licence in the United States. The Rotary Air Force refused; this is the reason that Mr. Ellsworth reported Mr. Haseloh to Transport Canada. The attempt to secure money in exchange for not reporting was in the form of a fax. This fax was not presented at the April 6 Review Hearing and was not, therefore, submitted as evidence.

Yeh, that makes perfect sense, I had forced Dan to falsify log books and once I forced him to falsify the books I sent him a fax demanding money or I would turn him in to Transport Canada. Perfectly logical and believabe.

That story was mentioned several times on Norms forum and I never did know who started it.

I had no idea that Dan Haseloh had appealed his conviction and claimed that I had tried to extort money out of him.

Interesting that he would claim he had a fax he couldn't produce about something as important as that.

Ahh well at least now I know where the story came from.

By the way I had to take time off work to go to Kindersley because I was supboenened by Transport Canada to testify.

Just another loss of time and money dealing with RAF.

[route66]

Chuck, Inquiring mind want to know why a 20,000 hour pilot would falsify his own log book! What were you thinking? That is how high time pilots crash and burn in the RAF without proper training. Rather than hijack this discussion maybe a new thread should be opened.

"Mr. Ellsworth stated the false entries were recorded in his pilot log by himself, at the request of Mr.Haseloh, and were certified as correct by D. Haseloh on March 23 or 24 "

[dragonflyerthom]

Oh the tangled webs we weave.

Thanks for the pics Ed. Kinda wish I had a calender with those pics.

[Harry_S.]

Some info that applies to your post above, Kevin.

Item #5...Is N1718B. This is Dofin Fritts' first machine. I flew in it.

Item #6...Is N7234U. This is Chuck Feil's machine. I believe Duane Hunn is piloting while Chuck takes this fine photo from another ship.

Item #9...Is one of the machines that Curtiss Patten helped the Chinese build during one of his trips to China. That is Curtiss in the seat.


Cheers :)

[Heli-Davidson]

Silver and black, N1234U. N number shows as assigned to an FAA project. Not in NTSB database (at least, not as an RAF).


K,

The actual N number is N7234U (I'm a former satellite imagery and photo analyst, among many other previous jobs :spy: ), which shows up as a 2000GTX with serial number 219485352-1 (?) belonging to Charles W Fgil III (spelling is correct), Aries III Productions LLC, in Scarborough, Maine.

All the Best,
Jim