Air Enthusiast 1998-07
R.Stitt - 'Hotel Mike Lima'
Spartan’s first Mosquito, CF-HML, was converted to a two-pilot trainer in the late 1950s. The dual controls required a forward-hinged canopy modification to allow crew access to the cockpit.
A Spartan engineer tends to the starboard Merlin of Mosquito CF-HML at Frobisher Bay during the 1958 operating season.
The scene at Mission, British Columbia in the spring of 1984 as devoted volunteer, Mark Mohan, fits a side panel lapping plate, shortly after the wing of CF-HML had been mated with its fuselage. When work stopped a few months later, the restored horizontal stabiliser, fin and rudder had been installed.
Scene at Fort Smith, Northwest Territories in 1955, the first year of Mosquito operations, as the flight crew prepares CF-HML for a high-altitude sortie. Spartan’s chief pilot, Sam Taylor, is about to descend from the starboard nacelle. The trailing antenna and fuel jettison outlets have yet to be installed in the tail fairing.
The rigours of northern aerial survey operations resulted in close and lasting friendships between Spartan crew. A three-man ‘Mossie’ crew poses in front of CF-HML prior to a mission from Frobisher in 1958. Left to right: navigator Ray Lachance, pilot ‘Mac’ Macintosh and camera operator ‘Ed’ Kozytsko.
Pictured at Downsview in June 1960 in its operational prime, CF-HML rests where every Mosquito belongs when not flying: indoors.
The restored instrument panel as completed at Kapuskasing. The numerous bumps on the cockpit wall are plywood discs which cover the phenolic and brass inserts used to attach controls and junction boxes to the ply and balsa fuselage structure.