Good morning from Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories! My name is Alex, and this is not a normal flight.
A few weeks ago, Air Tindi, the largest civilian operator of Dash 7s in the world,
reached out to see if I’d be willing to join them on a special charter flight
from Yellowknife to Toronto Downsview Airport.
The reason for that is, De Havilland Canada was putting on a special event at Downsview,
which included bringing all of their still-flying types back to where they
were first built. I’ll talk more about that, and show it, once we get there.
This flight would take place on one of Air Tindi’s Dash 7 Combis,
this 41-year-old example, registered as Charlie Golf Charlie Echo Victor.
‘CEV’ was first delivered to Air Niugini of Papua
New Guinea in 1981, then was sold back to then-Bombardier in the late 1990s,
and flew with Voyageur Airways for a couple of years before joining Air Tindi in 2003.
It’s around 4AM in Yellowknife at this point, and naturally,
the folks at Air Tindi wanted to get an early start because… Well, Canada is big, and as
remarkably capable as the Dash 7 is, it takes just a bit longer to fly it across the country.
Even so, Dash 7s in general are not a common type at all these days, which makes this
even more special. Air Tindi is the proud owner of 11 Dash 7s on the Canadian aircraft register,
with 5 of those flying. They’re based out of Yellowknife and are able to
carry up to 10,000 pounds of cargo or 46 passengers, to some very short runways.
This was such a crazy opportunity to take part in a “long haul flight” on a
Dash 7 with just a couple people on board… Which is why, when Air Tindi reached out,
it really hurt me to tell them that I was actually in Europe at the time.
But, not wanting to let the opportunity go to waste,
I sent my friend Brandon to film this instead.
Yes, I effectively outsourced myself because this was truly a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing.
So, you can also imagine how jealous I was of this jumpseat footage!
I cannot thank the entire Air Tindi team enough for making this possible.
Pretty soon, all the doors were closed and the four Pratt and Whitney PT-6s were fired up.
Here’s the departure from Yellowknife, off of runway 10.
Heading eastbound with this beautiful sunrise, it’s worth mentioning that this is one of two
legs today. Distance-wise, Yellowknife to Toronto is just over 3,000 kilometres.
Even at close to full tanks, with no cargo up front and just a few passengers, that’s a bit
far for an airliner which was originally designed for short city airport runways.
So, the first stop is Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the northwest shore of Lake Superior,
for some more fuel before heading to Downsview.
Even then, this 2,200 kilometre leg took about 6 hours,
leaving plenty of time to get acquainted with the plane.
For today’s flight, this Dash 7 was equipped with 4 and a half rows of seats, for a total of
18 seats. With the Dash 7 combis, the bulkhead can be moved, so it’s possible to have as many
as 46 passengers, or a full cabin of cargo with just two seats in the exit row in the back.
At the rear of the cabin is a lavatory and a small galley,
as well as a door leading right to the baggage compartment.
Up front in the cargo compartment though, is where the Dash 7 combi really shines,
especially when it comes to Northern Canada. With a huge cargo door that’s
nearly 6 feet high by 8 feet wide, plus the plane’s ability to use 2500 foot gravel
or ice runways, it really can deliver almost anything, anywhere.
And Air Tindi clearly likes these planes… So much so in fact, that in January of 2021,
they actually purchased SEVEN Dash 7s from Trans Capital Air,
a Toronto-based airline that flew them on various peacekeeping flights for the United Nations.
Although the majority of those will be used for parts, some of them have joined the flying fleet.
That purchase is a pretty big deal for Air Tindi, not only for the longevity of the Dash 7 in their
fleet, but for the communities that it serves. No other aircraft of its size has the performance of
the Dash 7, and as rare as it is, it’s good to know that they’ll be sticking around.
And as you’ll soon see, that longevity is quite true of most De Havilland Canada airplanes.
Air Tindi’s Dash 7s have a very reasonable amount of legroom,
along with this handy cup holder in the seatback, and this sturdy tray table.
You’ll also find an air sickness bag in the seatback pocket,
as well as the Dash 7’s safety card.
Even though this wasn’t necessarily a normal passenger flight,
the folks at Air Tindi were still kind enough to bring some food along!
Soon enough, the ETA on the GPS read minutes instead of hours,
and here’s the arrival into Thunder Bay, landing on runway 30!
The stop in Thunder Bay was fairly brief, with just enough time for a quick break
and to raid the vending machines in the FBO.
Thunder Bay is the largest community in Northwestern Ontario, and is home to
some surprisingly interesting traffic. As the Air Tindi folks fueled up for the final leg,
Brandon got a glimpse at some of Thunder Bay’s regulars.
Pretty quickly, it was back on board and off to Downsview. Here’s the departure from runway 30!
This final leg was a bit more forgiving,
with a flight time of just under 3 hours. At this point, it’s worth mentioning just
why Downsview Airport is so significant. This seemingly-small airport sits right below the
approach path for runways 24L and 24R at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, and it is full of history.
In the late 1920s, British aircraft manufacturer De Havilland Aircraft established a Canadian
division to build the DH-60 Moth, a two-seater biplane for training Canadian pilots.
In September of 1929, De Havilland Canada moved to what would become their facility
for the next several decades, in what was then farmland north of Toronto at Downsview.
During World War II, DHC produced thousands of aircraft for the war effort, including Tiger
Moths and Avro Anson IIs for training, along with the famous fighter-bomber, the Mosquito.
In the post war period, De Havilland Canada began producing its own original designs,
starting with the DHC-1 Chipmunk, to replace the Tiger Moth in the training role.
Their product line expanded over the following decades, with the Beaver,
Otter, Caribou, Buffalo, and Twin Otter all being produced here. Throughout the 1960s,
De Havilland Canada began shifting their focus towards the regional aircraft market.
The first Dash 7 was unveiled in 1975, and the first Dash 8 just a few years later.
The 1980s and 1990s were an especially busy time at Downsview as the Dash 8-100, -200, and -300
series were all selling very well, followed by the Dash 8-400 in 1998. The Dash 8 would go on
to become De Havilland Canada’s most popular airliner, by far, with over 1,000 delivered.
In 2018 though, the Downsview airport site, now under the purview of Bombardier, was sold,
as Bombardier shed its involvement in the commercial aviation sector.
The Dash 8 program was then acquired by Longview Aviation Capital the following year . Longview
also owns Viking Air, who holds the type certificates for every De Havilland Canada type.
With that purchase, the entire De Havilland Canada product line was under one umbrella once again.
However, it was announced last year that Dash 8-400 production in Downsview would pause,
and the facility began to be decommissioned. It’s not totally clear where production will restart,
but since filming this, the Dash 8-400 prototype now resides in Calgary.
Downsview Airport will ultimately close in 2023 after the last few Bombardier Globals
are built here and that aircraft’s production moves to a new facility at Toronto-Pearson.
In the meantime, De Havilland Canada is continuing to wind down their operations here,
and so bringing all these planes back one last time is a very fitting send-off.
About 10 hours after the journey started in Yellowknife, Downsview Airport was in sight,
and here’s the arrival onto runway 33.
With that, this amazing journey in the Dash 7 came to a close, and just over 41 years later,
CEV was back where it all started, although with a different name on the buildings.
The very next day, De Havilland Canada had set up their event right outside Bombardier’s facility.
In attendance was virtually the entire De Havilland Canada lineup, which included
the DH82C Tiger Moth, the DHC-1 Chipmunk, several DHC-2 Beavers, piston and turbine,
a DHC-3 Turbo Otter, which actually belonged to Canadian aviation legend Max Ward,
an especially rare DHC-4 Turbo Caribou, a DHC-6 Twin Otter, one of the newly produced -400 models,
the mighty Dash 7, of course, and lastly,
the Dash 8-400, one of two painted in the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada livery.
The only type absent was the DHC-5 Buffalo,
which flew its last flight with the Royal Canadian Air Force just in March of this year.
But even then, to have so much aviation history present in one location, and all of them airworthy
no less, speaks volumes to the fine work of the men and women of De Havilland Canada.
These are truly rugged airplanes built to serve the people of this country,
and I do think every Canadian should have a sense of pride
when it comes to De Havilland Canada’s contribution to our aerospace industry.
As the day came to a close, every aircraft took off in sequential order,
with a subsequent low pass in honour of the 93 years of history here.
Farewell Downsview, and thanks for watching.