Another BCATP Base in Alberta

Here is another aerodrome that I have kept a close eye on over the years. It was the home of #7 S.F.T.S. or Secondary Flight Training School and it was located on the western edge of the historical town of Fort Macleod (though it was called "Macleod" for many years including the years of WWII). I think my best mental image of what it must have been like to fly and train at this base comes from Author Murray Peden who wrote one of my absolute favorite books about his experiences in the RCAF during WWII. Though he didn't actually fly at this base, he did spend an entertaining several weeks there on guard duty (busy work given to sprog trainees to keep them occupied while waiting for posting to their Initial Training School) which he describes in great detail.

This is an aerial view of #7 S.F.T.S. taken only short years after WWII had ended and training was beginning to be something of a distant memory for people in this community. There are still quite a few of the original buildings at this site today, though at least two of the hangars are missing now. The concrete pistol range backstop still stands at the western end of the hangar line. Just like the Airdrie BCATP aerodrome, developers have built a single new runway that crosses and covers the original triangle of runways and taxiways...the old pavement left to slowly be reclaimed by the prairie on which it stands.

I had the chance to walk and drive among the many structures still standing at this facility and took as many photos as I could. Several of the hangars are being used by a fertilizer company to store their products and I was allowed to enter what had once been the steam heat plant for the base...the machinery was more than a little coated by the new residents of the building in their "calling cards" but one had to be impressed with the massive boiler making one wonder what it sounded like when it was operational and thinking of the poor souls who were tasked with keeping that behemoth stoked!

This is the first former BCATP base at which I was able to see what I believe to have been one of the original barracks buildings. I have a feeling that structures like these will soon disappear to either the elements or to the wrecking ball as they have far exceeded their original lifespans.

You can almost see the young trainees filing out of that set of doors on their way to learn their exciting new trades. How busy and vibrant this place must have been at that time filled with men from around the world, many of whom had never been outside their home town let alone on the other side of the globe away from everyone they knew. I have often wondered if that slide on the right side of the photo was an emergency escape of sorts.

Can't you just imagine the activity on this busy apron, filled with bright yellow BCATP training planes like the Cessna Crane and the Avro Anson? The scurrying of the ground crew as they ready the aircraft with fuel bowsers, battery carts, ready to pull the wheel chocks when given the command? Imagine the near constant drone of all these hundreds of planes filling the skies of southern Alberta...what was known as the "yellow peril"...all those aircraft dashing across the skies with nary a radio to help them keep from colliding with one another!

It is really easy to spot this aerodrome when you pass through Fort Macleod. All the hangars are readily visible from the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 3. You may want to make a stop to check it out sooner rather than later as it seems places like these are disappearing faster than ever these days.

The Destruction of #3 S.F.T.S. Calgary

I must start by saying that witnessing some of the destruction of hangar #3 at what was once #3 Secondary Flight Training School in the BCATP was one of the most difficult things I have had to do in a very long time. The smell of the old, slightly musty wood all piled up in a pile of splinters made for a very sad sight. This is apparently just the latest round in the complete elimination of any evidence that a massive aerodrome ever existed here in the southwest of Calgary and the elimination of a tangible connection for future generations to the role the home front played in WWII.

This is probably going to be the last of the north hangars demolished. The Calgary Farmer's Market has been an excellent social component for Calgary since it opened here. The Farmer's Market will be relocating to a new premise in the fall of 2010. Gone will be a very community focused building where people in surrounding neighborhoods could walk to and enjoy live music, fresh produce, meat, and homemade food items.

And here is what the future holds in store for the Calgary Farmer's Market, the rest of the former hangars from the once proud BCATP and RCAF station among other buildings. I arrived here a little late as the great majority of the destruction was essentially complete. The white shingles on the sides of the hangars were apparently composed of asbestos so they had to be very carefully removed long before the wholesale demolition could begin. I met a very interesting fellow named Luc who had worked in this very hangar from 1985-1989 when it was part of Canadian Forces Base Calgary. He told me that he used to work as a mechanic on 5 ton trucks and other vehicles in this building and that he had memorized every single crack in the floor. He came to witness the destruction to part of what he said was, "the best time of my life."

This hangar had most recently been a very busy building, home to indoor soccer, ball hockey and  indoor lacrosse. We found the evidence of its most recent tenants as there were ball hockey and lacrosse balls here and there in the debris and Luc told me that he found a completely unscathed soccer ball. We had a nice chat with one of the fellows from the environmental company who is handling the demolition. He said that the timbers are very dry (70 years of southern Alberta's dry climate would do that to a wooden structure) and that they splinter really easily. Anyone who has ever seen the inside of one of these hangars will have been impressed by the extensive system of wires, metal plates and bolts that held the massive wooden beams together. I was told that they believe the wood for the massive beams were old growth fir. Apparently, a craftsman is interested in some of the wood in an attempt to make flooring from it. Nice to know that not every last scrap of these once mighty buildings is going to spend eternity in a landfill somewhere.

It is nice to see that there does seem to be a recycling effort being made with some of the materials. The metal is all being selected out of the rubble. The way the buildings are being dismantled doesn't lend itself to preserving a whole lot of the wood but at least they are saving what they can. One must give a tip of the hat to the original workers and the architects who designed and built these impressive structures as the Second World War began. These buildings were only designed to last for 10 years, the amount of time that the powers that be felt the conflict would last. Obviously, these were very well crafted buildings and even though they have been showing quite a lot of wear, 70 years seems like a pretty good life span for something expected to be functional for 1/7th the amount of time.

Both Luc and I thought of the history that these timbers could tell if only they could speak. If you look earlier in this blog, you will see photos I acquired from an Australian who trained at #3 S.F.T.S. during the war. They range from photos of the aerodrome from the air, some of the buildings and hangars and even snowball fights between the wannabe aircrew, most of whom were from places where snowball fights were the stuff of fiction.

The plan for this area is for a high end residential development. I wonder if the new residents will have even the slightest notion of the history of their new neighborhoods? I guess time marches on and progress keeps us supposedly moving forward but this destruction leaves me feeling sad that we are erasing so much of our once proud past.

Pearce Aerodrome- Pearce, Alberta

I thought I would do a story about the place that got my passion for the BCATP ignited. This is the place that I could never physically see when my father would point it out in the middle of the prairie. All buildings had been completely demolished long before I came along in the 1970's. I think that was the reason that the aerodrome held such a magical appeal for me...I always had to use my imagination to wonder what the place had looked like in the midst of WWII, when the field was a bustling place of youthful activity as boys developed into men who would bring the fight to Hitler and his cronies.

Pearce Aerodrome was located about half way between Fort Macleod and Lethbridge, six miles north of the hamlet of Pearce which is just north of Highway 3. The Canadian Pacific Railway had passenger service that ran through the hamlet which would bring the various aircrew, instructors and civilian workers to the base. The traditional BCATP triangle of runways complete with associated parallel taxiways was built here at a spot selected by Archie Sommerville, an Airways Inspector with the government of Canada. There were a few hangars and what looks like a drill hall (built in the same manner as a hangar but about half the size of a hangar), various "H" huts and all the other associated buildings like a motor transport building, mess halls and such. The only reminder that there was ever such a substantial endeavor going on at this site is a stone marker placed by the Lethbridge Historical Society on the site of the old guard house and a few concrete foundations from the buildings. The old runways are still visible from the air (the aerodrome is still listed on Aeronautical maps to this day as "Abandoned") but if you were to walk along them, as I have, you would discover that the pavement is really a collection of pieces of pavement all about the size of dinner plates and the runways have been bisected by several barb wire fences. In typical post war habit, someone planted trees down the middle of the East/West runway in what I believe to be a measure to prevent modern day pilots from attempting to land here.

As you can see on the plaque above, the aerodrome was host to three different schools in nearly 3 years of action. It must have been quite an eyeopener for recruits of the Royal Air Force to step off the train after their very long journey across this massive nation and to arrive in the prairie with the near hurricane-like winds for their Elementary Flight Training. I spoke to a pilot who was trained in nearby (and every bit as windy) Lethbridge during the war and he said that pilots who were waiting for their turn to fly were expected to standby at the approach end of the active runway to "catch" the Tiger Moths trying to land in the gale force winds...he said they would grab the wings of the Moth and then several of the airmen would attempt to sit on the wing to bring the plane to the ground! So light was the Tiger Moth that is was quite possible for one to hover over the runway with power on, even to float backwards when the wind gusted strongly enough. That would be the reason that # 36 E.F.T.S. (RAF) lasted only 6 months here.

Now if you look really closely at the above photo (which was taken in 1951, six years after the base was closed) you can see at the top right above the buildings several planes....those were war scarred Avro Lancaster bombers that were flown to Pearce for storage! I have seen a great many photos of kids playing on these former warbirds in the 50's and 60's. It looks to me that they removal of buildings had not yet begun when this photo was taken. I imagine that the government was being cautious in dismantling these facilities in case they were needed for yet another war. I also heard a story from a good friend who told me that his father, who worked in road construction in the 50's, remembered scavenging old Lancaster hydraulic pumps to use on their equipment. I can imagine there is a chance there is still a plow somewhere out there still outfitted with a hydraulic pump from an old Lanc!

This is a photo of Pearce that I took back in 2000. You can see the farm (they call it the "Airport Dairy") that now occupies the land where the aerodrome once was. The four substantial concrete pads that once supported the hangars are visible in the middle of the shot along with some of the concrete stands that allowed for aircraft to be parked outside. At the top right of the photo you can see some of a remaining taxiways and the extreme left of the photo you can see the outline of one of the three runways. The farmer who owns this land is slowly breaking up the concrete from the hangar pads for use as gravel for roads. It won't be long before the prairie, with the help of human hands, reclaims all evidence of this once bustling place. I have heard tales that there are still Lancaster parts to be unearthed here as the old warbirds were dismantled and cut into scrap here. I have also heard that nearby Orton, AB (directly south of Pearce, south of Highway 3 about 4 or 5 miles) was a storage place for these old bombers at one time.

I did as much aerial photography of southern Alberta's former BCATP bases as I could when I was working towards my commercial pilot's license. I took a great many friends and relatives on tours of the great many aerodromes that dot the landscape across the prairies here. You can see that the pavement for the runways and taxiways are mostly still intact but there are barely visible barb wire fences strung across them and there are also cattle to be seen hanging out on the strips! I did part of my commercial flight test over the aerodrome, the part called a "precautionary landing" where you make several slow and low passes over a field to see if it is suitable as a place to set down. I think the examiner was surprised to hear me tell him that I knew personally that the pavement was little more than a multitude of small pieces of pavement and that the fences and the cattle would make for an unpleasant landing! I thought it was very fitting that we were still using the aerodrome for the purposes of instructing pilots, even though not in the original capacity for which it had been planned and used over the years!

The photo above was taken about the same time (2000 or so) and shows some of the remains of a hangar. I think the steel rail would have been from the hangar door system. There were concrete tunnels for steam heating, I believe that concrete "box" near the top left of the photo would be one of the steam outlets. I would like to know when the demolition of the hangars took place. I know they were long gone by the time my father drove us down the gravel road to where the base had stood, which would have been in the late 70's or so. It won't be too long before even these concrete pads will be nothing more than a distant memory of the history that took place here.

After #36 E.F.T.S. (RAF) closed in August 1942, the base then became temporary home of  #3 Air Observer School which was a privately run school (Canadian Pacific Airlines were in charge of running the operation). It has originally been located in Regina but was moved here from September 1942 until June 1943. Apparently, the school was never fully moved from Regina and it moved back to Regina in 1943.

Next up for Pearce was #2 Flight Instructor School which moved from nearby Vulcan, AB in May 1943 and operated here until the base closed for good in January 1945. It must have been sad for the community when the end was announced as the aerodrome had to be one of the largest if not THE largest economic forces in the area. Driving into Pearce today, there is almost nothing left of the hamlet to let you know that it had once been a bit more dynamic than it is now. There is one building that looks like it had once been a store and there are several houses but no sign of the old train station or elevators that once stood here.

Take another look at the above photo...on this one you can clearly see the outline of about 20 four engine aircraft...those were the Lancs! There are times when I really wish I could have been alive back then just to see this place the way it had once been, not the collection of crumbling concrete and forgotten history it portrays today.

Sad news from Calgary

Hi all,

I just received an e-mail from someone who told me that demolition of the north hangars at #3 S.F.T.S. Calgary is underway. I am going to go see the site for myself tomorrow but if this news bears out, then this is indeed very sad news.

I attended Mount Royal College (now Mount Royal University) in the early 90's and was slow to clue in that the area the campus was located on had been a very active military air base until the mid 1960's. I did notice that the hangars that surrounded the college were the same ones that I had grown up seeing at my hometown of Lethbridge, home to # 8 Bombing and Gunnery school.  I later learned that I used to park my car in an open field that had once been the middle of the triangle of runways at # 3 S.F.T.S.

The hangars that are being demolished are the ones that you see on the top (North) part of the photo. The ones at the south end of the field are located where ATCO builds mobile buildings and for the most part are all still intact.

Mount Royal College moved to their Lincoln Park location after the RCAF station closed in 1966.

This is a look from the east to the west down the hangar line at #3 S.F.T.S. taken in the fall of 2009. I don't know exactly which hangar is in the midst of being demolished but I have heard that the whole collection will be falling to the wrecking ball in short order. These buildings were built in record time at the beginning of the war when no one was sure of the war's outcome. They were built with the idea of lasting about 10 years in service and it is obvious that they were very well built. They are 70 years old now and still in great condition...that is, until they are rendered into kindling....I have few words to express how sad this is.

This is what I consider an excellent use of these old hangars...a vibrant community minded farmer's market that served the citizens of Calgary while allowing a proud historic building a new lease on life while at the same time preserving a tangible memory of our World War Two local history. I managed to grab as many photos of this building as I could during a visit to the area in the fall of 2009.

The Farmer's Market was an excellent idea for the use of this massive space while still preserving some of the proud history of this aerodrome. I think we are losing a big part of our heritage and I am not sure that we are trading it for something more meaningful. I will very much miss this place when all the reminders of its proud history have been erased.

I know that in recent years these hangars had played home to such diverse uses as an indoor soccer center, the farmer's market and as television and movie production spaces...I find it hard to believe that these buildings have finished their days of usefulness and should be wiped off the map of consciousness. I am very glad that I managed to get the photos I did of this once proud military installation.

I really hope that they are going to save some of these buildings...this one holds a wine merchant on one end and the Wild Rose Brewery and pub on the other end. Time will only tell I guess.

Airdrie, Alberta Satelllite Airfield

Hello all and a great big apology for the lack of new posts here the past two weeks.


I thought I would share with you some photos I have taken at the Airdrie Airport which began life as a satellite airfield for #37 S.F.T.S. Calgary and in the last years served as a place for pilots to rig up practice bombs for the bombing range which was on a lake about 5 miles northeast of the airfield.

If you look on the corners of the map above you can see that Airdrie was considered a "Relief Airfield" from 1942-44 and then was called RCAF Station Airdrie from 1944-45.

This is the hangar from the airfield which was used as a repair depot during the war. Just after the war, ATCO Trailers used the hangar to build mobile buildings. Today, the hangar houses a wood pallet manufacturer. The airport is still active though it is now private and the new owners have paved a new runway across the original BCATP triangle. There are a few new hangars at the airport and there are several storage businesses at the airport as well.

The above photo shows a detail of the few buildings that were here during the war. The hangar is the southernmost black object. The "H" shaped building was likely barracks. The other remaining buildings were used for arming planes that were heading to the bombing range for practice runs.

This is a detail of the three buildings associated with "Bombing up" an aircraft for a bombing run. It looks like they kept the powder distant from both the bomb storage and assembly site...I can't imagine they were carrying very substantial bombs but I am sure that the threat of explosion was every bit as real and dangerous.

The "H" building was indeed a barracks building. Building #3 was an 8 bay garage for the "MT Section" or Motor Transport. You can see that they had a 1000 gallon underground storage tank. Buildings 8 and 9 were a pumphouse and a reservoir respectively.

That "mobile air traffic control truck" is sure interesting looking. I wonder what ever became of it? It kinda reminds me of the "Popemobile".

Here you can see one of the original buildings from the BCATP days and to the left is one of the storage units from one of the modern day businesses on the field. The old building is probably not long for this world as it is starting to fall down and it appears that no one is trying to stop it from doing so. Looks like they are storing some pallets in here in the meantime.

This final shot is the lake where the bombing range was. It is about 5 miles to the northeast of the airfield and it appeared to me that there used to be a plaque explaining the significance of this field but it had been stolen from the large rock it had been attached to. I have heard a few people say that there are still bombs in the lake. The majority of the area surrounding the lake is oilfield sites but there are a few areas being used for agriculture. It is amazing to think of all the history that surrounds us, most of which we know so very little about.