Photo #339

Flying home...

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Photo #293

Harbour Air sea plane moored to the dock at Victoria's Inner Harbour...

Someday I hope I get a chance to go for a flight in one of these.

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Photo #224

This is the Royal Air Force's Distinguished Flying Cross medal. It belongs to Megan's grandfather who earned it for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy"* during the Second World War. It's one of the R.A.F's highest decorations for bravery.

It's a little hard to tell, but the diagonal stripes are purple.

During his time in the R.A.F, Megan's grandfather piloted Spitfire fighter planes in the Battle Of Britain in 1940. He also flew Lancaster bombers (such as the model shown below) in other battles over Europe. In many of those cases his aircraft would be shot down and he is very lucky to have survived, and keep flying. All of his stories are fascinating because they are told from a first person view of notable historic events that no textbook could ever fully capture.

I've always been interested in history, and I like hearing stories from people who were actually there when history was being made. This can also be said for the veterans of today's wars who will be telling future generations stories of their time in the service.

Tomorrow, take a moment to honour our Veterans.

Both photos in this post were taken by me in September, 2006.

*Quoted from Wikipedia who quoted it from the British National Archives.

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Photo # 170

Cleared for takeoff...

Photo taken Sep. 5, 2010. Victoria International Airport.

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Photo #159

This is the smallest plane I've ever flown in, a Piper 31 Navajo, on the tarmac at Victoria International Airport Sunday afternoon...

It belongs to a brand new company operating here on the Island and Megan and I were the very first passengers on it's inaugural flight from Victoria to Comox this past weekend. It was such a great flight and so much faster than driving or taking the train. What usually takes about 3 hours took roughly 30 minutes including a quick stop in Nanaimo to drop off the only other passenger. From there to Comox we had the plane to ourselves and the pilot said it was like we had a chartered flight. What a neat experience!

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Photo #124

Seaplane, boss! Seaplane!

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Photo #71

Canada's Snowbirds did a lap over Victoria today to announce their arrival. They have a big show here on Saturday as part of the Navy celebrations.

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Photo #38

Sea King...

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