The Philippine Mars is back in the water again at Sproat Lake and hundreds if not thousands of people around the Alberni Valley are keeping a close eye on her movements every day. Among them is Craig Erickson of Port Alberni who took his boat out for a closer look on Tuesday.
“It’s a little surreal to know that they’re finally leaving their home and yeah it’s going to be a sad day to finally see it gone,” he told CHEK News.
The plane did several high-speed taxis Monday as crews conducted various tests before possibly lifting next week. The sight and familiar sound of the four engine behemoth turned heads immediately and people started recording with their images soon ending up on social media.
“Our family had property on Sproat Lake for several years and it was a daily occurrence to see these huge planes taking off,” Erickson added.
After sitting on land for years at the Flying Tanker Base on Sproat Lake the Philippine has ran perfectly during the first two days.
“It was quite amazing to watch yesterday when it was doing its taxis. We were one of the only boats out there and I was one of the only people to have a chance to photograph it close up and it’s just an amazing sight,” said Rob Frolic
Frolic runs a Mars water bomber fan page on Facebook called Martin JRM-3 Mars Water Bombers. Frolic said the page had 2,500 followers early last year but exploded to almost 12,000 during the run up to the Hawaii Mars final flight. Coulson said the plane took about 6,000 man hours of preparation before hitting the water and that since many of the tests were the same as what was done on the Hawaii Mars, it was faster this time around.
“The Philippine still has the original engines on it and they fired up after not being flown for 15 years. A couple weeks work on each engine and away she went,” he said.
The World War II era flying patrol boat, long since converted to forest firefighting water bomber will be flying one last time around Nov. 18. It will be headed to the PIMA Air and Space Museum in Tucsan, Arizona. The Hawaii Mars is now at the BC Aviation Museum in North Saanich after what was for many an emotional final flight down the coast in August.
READ PREVIOUS: ‘Emotional’: Hawaii Martin Mars makes final landing at BC Aviation Museum
“We’ll probably take it up on the East coast of the Island again and fly it over the Hawaii, they can say goodbye, they’ve been partners for almost 80 years and then off we go down to ‘Frisco,” Coulson said. The first stop will be in San Francisco before going to San Diego where the plane served in the US Navy, before the final leg to Arizona.
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(Source: CHEK News, Dean Stoltz. Photo/Dean Stoltz)
