A Personal Remembrance

Fred Courtman

My father, Fred Courtman, was a veteran.  He joined the British Royal Air Force as a young man before the Second World War.  He was trained in electronics and avionics.   He spent much of 1938 and 1939 patching up RAF planes broken by over eager student pilots, or later shot at by Germans.  He witnessed the Battle of Britain from the tarmac of airfields around London.

Shortly after that he was sent overseas to Canada to become a part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, or BCATP.  Now he spent his days patching up the brightly painted yellow training aircraft of the training schools around Calgary.  He spent much of his time posted at what is now the Calgary International Airport (YYC).  He told me stories of he and his RAF colleagues marching around the drill hall which is now home to the Hangar Flight Museum (formerly, the Aerospace Museum) .  He met and married my mother while he was stationed here.

He was shipped back shortly after the war ended.  My Mom followed as soon as civilians were permitted to sail.  My Mom told us that she was in the very last convoy to leave Halifax. That makes my Mom a "reverse" War Bride!  She went to Britain, at the same time thousands of British girls were coming here after marrying Canadian soldiers, over there!

Life in Britain was hard after the war.  Factories that would have hired my Dad with his electronics and avionic skills had been bombed into oblivion.  Shortly after my birth my parents decided to return to Canada.  We three sailed back to Canada as part of a shipload of immigrants and refugees.  My Mom loved to say that she was one of the few immigrants to arrive in Canada carrying a Canadian passport!

The rest they say is history.  My parents settled in Calgary after they came to Canada, and Dad worked at the Calgary Brewery on Blackfoot Trail for many years until he retired.  Although he didn't talk about it often, my Dad was always very proud of his eight years in the Royal Air Force.  He wore a poppy every year, and he loved his adopted country.

My Dad passed away sixteen years ago.

I will be attending  the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Acme on Friday morning.  I will be placing a wreath on behalf of the Village of Beiseker, but I will also be thinking about my Dad!

Great 2016 Show at Abbotsford!

Last Wednesday, my doctors gave me the OK to attend the Abbotsford Air Show this past weekend.  I was very pleased.  What a super show! 

The show and the Abbotsford Airport were celebrating the 75th anniversary of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.  That airport was actually built as part of the BCTAP along with hundreds more located mostly across Western Canada.

The Royal Canadian Air Force joined in by painting it's demonstration CF-18 Hornet in that yellow and black color scheme of those old Second World War trainers.  Even the folks from our present training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, got involved by painting up a couple of the new training aircraft in those same colors from WWII.  They were all in the sky over Abbotsford making for a most memorable show. 

Of course a couple of the highlights for me was the flight of the Snowbirds and Alberta's own Team Rocket!  Ken Fowler from Rock Mountain House and Eric Hansen from Cold Lake make up the team.  They did a night show Friday evening that has no equal, then their exciting day show each day over the weekend thrilled everyone!  It was good to see Ken's son Kyle join the fray as a new upcoming aerobatic pilot in the morning show!  Way to go Kyle!

I missed not seeing Canadian Bud Granley and his son Ross at this year's show.  Obviously scheduling conflicts were preventing them from attending.  Bud has always been a huge part of the Abbotsford show.  Many of us missed him there this year.

Overall it was fantastic show and it leaves me anxiously waiting next year's show; the 54th by my count.  As my website gets its much needed update, I will have a complete write up on the 2016 edition of the Abbotsford Air Show there with some of my photos!