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.