The Canadair CT-114 Tutor served as lead aircraft when the Canadian Forces Snowbirds started flying in 1971.
One of Canada’s iconic aircraft is charting a course for the B.C. Aviation Museum in North Saanich. A Canadair CT-114 Tutor, the type of plane still used by the Canadian Snowbirds and deployed for decades to train air force pilots, will be added to the museum’s collection by the end of the month. But this isn’t just any Tutor.
Since the small jet’s introduction in 1960 for pilot training, 190 were made, and this aircraft — number 175 — was selected as Snowbird 1, the lead aircraft when the Canadian Forces Snowbirds started flying in 1971. Before that, it served as the lead solo jet with the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Golden Centennaires, the Snowbirds’ aerial acrobatic predecessor, during Canada’s centennial celebrations in 1967. That makes this Tutor a remarkable piece of Canadian history, said Steven Hale, president of the B.C. Aviation Museum.
It’s also the Tutor that Hale used as a young air force pilot earning his wings. He flew it twice, including a round trip from CFB Moose Jaw to Ottawa.
“As a young pilot, and as an old pilot now, everybody should have one in their driveway,” said Hale. “They’re just a brilliant airplane, hard-working and just an awful lot of fun to fly. It’s a kind of airplane that, if you can let your mind wander a bit and you look outside and see a lot of puffy clouds, you just sort of go up and you carve around the clouds having fun. It’s a brilliant airplane for flying in formation, perfect for what the snowbirds do.”
Getting a Tutor CF-144 for the museum wasn’t easy. The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada in Winnipeg says most Tutors have been retired. The Snowbirds, based in Moose Jaw and wintering in Comox for the season of air shows ahead, keep 25 in operation with the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment in Cold Lake, Alta. Several other CF-114 Tutors are privately operated, but most are gone. Hale said the museum’s project lead, retired Lt.-Col Dan Dempsey, worked tirelessly to track a Tutor down. Dempsey is also a former Canadian Forces pilot and commanding officer of the Snowbirds. He flew airliners with Hale for Cathay Pacific for 20 years and had been looking for a museum Tutor for nearly two decades.
They found the 175 Tutor in two places — the wings in Toronto and the fuselage at CFB Trenton. Hale said an agreement was made with the Canadian Forces to donate the plane, unite the pieces, put them on a tractor-trailer unit and truck the aircraft to North Saanich, with a forces technical team to assist in reassembling the plane. He said the aircraft doesn’t have its original engine, but the museum will procure a General Electric J85 to display outside the aircraft when the plans for display are finalized. There are also plans for 443 Squadron, the museum’s neighbours at Victoria International Airport, to help repaint the Tutor in its original colours.
The museum is currently fundraising to cover the costs of transporting, reassembling and restoring the aircraft, with a goal of raising $80,000.
“The fact that it’s the very first Snowbird … if you’re a car enthusiast, it’s like getting the very first Rolls-Royce,” said Hale. “We’re very excited to have such a historically significant aircraft coming to the museum.”
The museum plans to host an open house when the aircraft is finished that will involve current members of the Snowbirds signing autographs, along with likely dozens of alumni, Hale said. Among the planned guests are Maj. Gen. Glen Younghusband, who was the first team leader of the Snowbirds in 1971 and 1972, and Maj. George Miller, who in 1973 began nine-plane aerobatics, and implemented formation changes during aerobatic manoeuvres and the annual preseason deployment to Comox. Miller also introduced new team uniforms and social dress for air and ground crews, and a new paint scheme for the Snowbirds’ Tutor jet aircraft. Both Younghusband and Miller are B.C. residents and in their 90s, said Hale. “We’re really hoping to have them here to see this.”
No dates have been officially set for the unveiling. The plane will be housed inside one of the museum’s hangars on display. The CF-114 Tutor marks the third major acquisition in as many years for the volunteer-led B.C. Aviation Museum, which acquired the Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber last fall and the Cold War-era CF-104 Starfighter jet in 2023. Museum officials said everything has “doubled” since the arrival of the Martin Mars, including attendance, revenues, merchandise in the gift shop, demand for meeting and event space, and the volunteer base.
“I thought after the initial bubble of having the Mars arrive that things would sort of slowly move back a little bit to where they were before, but they haven’t,” said Hale. “Our numbers are continually increasing. The people are coming from all over the world to see what we’ve got. Everybody seems to be walking in the door aware and excited to see the Martin Mars. And then their jaws drop when they see whatever else we have.”
The B.C. Aviation Museum is home to more than 40 vintage aircraft, and has an impressive collection of art, hundreds of models, propellers, engines, flight suits, radios and mock bombs. It has a library with more than 9,000 books, collections of flight logs, 700 videos, 30,000 digitized and catalogued photos and reams of historical data. It has a Memorial Room for fallen airmen, a tribute to the Snowbirds and the B.C. Aviation Hall of Fame, honouring 22 individuals, three organizations and two aircraft — de Havilland’s Beaver and Twin Otter.
The museum is at 1910 Norseman Rd. in North Saanich and is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
(Source: Times Colonist, Darron Kloster. Photos/Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum)
