The Norseman Bush Plane                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

 This page is a tribute to the machine Robert Noorduyn built, and the men who flew it

From Fabric To Metal

Posted: 07/02/2010

Posted By: Ed Zaruk

This is the first in a series of articles I will be running about metalizing Norseman aircraft  -Ed

Buffalo Airways’ Norseman, CF-SAN, was registered to Saskatchewan Government Airways, in 1947, the same year Ontario Central Airlines came into existence. It was damaged at Ile-A-La Crosse, Saskatchewan on June 16, 1960.  Aircraft was taxied downwind for takeoff.  Turning back into wind the right wing dipped into the water and the aircraft tipped forward and capsized.  It was salvaged, repaired and put back in service, and sold a few years later.  In 1965 this aircraft was on a charter flight to Brochet Manitoba on Raindeer Lake, returning home a Native family and their dog team after participating in the dog sled races at the Trapper’s Festival in The Pas.  Upon landing, an oleo scissor broke allowing a ski to turn crossways.    When the aircraft flipped on its back, nobody was hurt, but there was the damnedest dogfight in the airplane that one could ever imagine. Everybody scrambled out, leaving the dogs to settle it among themselves. Ontario Central Airlines bid on the salvage, and Barney Lamm bought it, as is, where is, upside down on the ice.  Ken Race and his brother Dave flew to Brochet in a J-3, dismantled the wreck, and shipped it by tractor train to Lynn Lake.  From there it was loaded a box car and sent to OCA’s maintenance facility at Redditt, Ontario. The top wing attach structure was very badly damaged.  OCA had the remains of another wrecked Norseman, EZK, which had belonged to Echo Exploration, kind of a fore runner to Riverton Airways.  It had burnt and Barney had also bought that salvage.  The upper portion of the structure was cut out of EZK and welded it into SAN.  “We were getting tired of doing repairs to the fabric bellies on our Norseman,” said Rollie Hammerstadt, Chief Engineer for OCA at the time.  “Ice crystals were forever shredding the material so Sid Green and I decided to metalize the belly.  This was the start of our metalization of Norseman.”  (Two more, KVB and OBE would follow, and Rollie did JEY for Sabourin Air, while operating Redditt Avaiation.) OCA designed an aluminum stringer to replace the wooden ones originally supplied by Noorduyn.  Standard Sheet Metal in Winnipeg, who actually was the original owner of Standard Aero Engines, did the bending of these stringers in twelve foot lengths.  They were a hat shape and the brim of the hat            CF-SAN at OCA's Second Street dock in Kenora  1969     section was what riveted to the former. 2024 aluminum was riveted to the new stringers, and there were no more problems with ripped fabric flapping in the wind.  Metal doors were also built for this airplane.  It remained in service with OCA until the spring of 1971.  Bouncing around in Northern Manitoba for years, the aircraft overturned for a second time in its history on December 15th of 1981, crashing at the Fort Simpson, NWT airport after taking off with frost on the wings.  The wreck was shipped to Calgary, Alberta for rebuild but found to be beyond economical repair and donated to the Calgary Aerospace Museum.  In 1993, Joe McBryan (Buffalo Airways) bought the wreck, had it rebuilt, and registered to Buffalo Airways, Hay River, NWT .  It is one of the few Norseman in Canada with a current C of A and can often be seen in the back bay at Yellowknife   (If you watch Ice Pilots NWT, look at the background.  Occasionally there is a quick glimpse of Joe’s legendary airplane.)legendary airplane.)   Contact author with a comment    Comments:

Norseman CF-Big Hearted Sam

Posted: 16/12/2009

Posted By: Conrad Lamb

CF-BHS was purchased by Tom Lamb in October of 1945. It remained with Lambair for 21 years performing yeomen service throughout Canada's Arctic, while at the same time giving all of Tom's six sons the flying experience they needed to operate Lambair in Canada's remote north. As a tribute to the contribution the family made to Northern Manitoba, BHS was re-built and mounted on a pedestal in Thompson, Manitoba. The following was sent to me by Conrad Lamb, the youngest of Tom's sons. He has graciously allowed me to share it with you -Ed

Dad knew very well the price of a new Norseman but always liked to add a bit of humour to a situation. Dad respected the people at the top but was never intimidated by them. He always felt comfortable in his striped overalls, and although he did have a suit with him that day in 1945 when he walked into the Noorduyn sales office in Montreal, he decided to pull his little scam. When the nervous salesman hummed and hawed trying not to offend Tom, but was curious as to how he was going to pay, Dad said, "Well now how much does one of these Norseman planes cost?" When told the price would be in the neighbourhood of fifty-five thousand dollars, Dad said, “Oh, I thought that it was a bit more than that but here you go,” and Dad handed the shaken executive a role of bills covering the total cost. He then had them extend the exhaust pipe so as to keep the exhaust stains away from the belly of the plane. I spent many an uncomfortable Saturday on my back on the snow with a gassy rag trying to wipe off the oil and dirt from the belly of that old plane. I remember sitting on dad's knee and grabbing hold of the control wheel. In the fall dad would load the six of us boys and fly to his favourite goose hunting spot with BHS. We would lay a tarp on the ground and all sleep together in a row. He would land BHS about a mile away so as not to scare away the geese. We would all have a bundle and happily hike through the bush to where we had the blinds set up.   One winter day dad had warmed up old "Big Hearted Sam" and was just moving to take off when my older brother Doug, started to wave frantically. Now dad wasn't the most patient man and glared at poor Doug out of the window. He stopped and demanded what is going on. Well it happened that the bolt on the scissors on the undercarriage had come out and one ski was towing in.  When Keith Olson (one of our pilots ) was getting married in Island Falls, Dad told him to take BHS there, get married, and bring his wife back to The Pas. One spring day I had to take a body to Cumberland House. The coffin was in what we called a rough box for shipping. They were too big to go into the door of the plane so we would dismantle the outside rough box and put the coffin inside and the boards from the rough box layed along side. There was a lot of open water on the shore of the lake and after circling the village I landed quite far from it. The natives went from shore to the lake with a canoe and a sleigh on top. When they hit the ice they unloaded the sleigh and proceeded on. Dad had great love for the natives and when a particular native friend would die he would, on the way to Moose Lake, take his old friend on a tour of the man's trap line and talk to him and give his dead chum a running comentary (in Cree of course ) on his last tour of his old trapping grounds. CF-BHS a spectacular monument to bush flying.  Jack and Barbara Lamb and family members pose beneath his old bird.                                                Photo: Lamb Family Archive        Meanwhile the moccasin telegraph would be red hot and half the village             would be down at the lake shore to receive him.   All us boys put many hours in old BHS.                                                                                                                                      Cheers Connie      More about Tom Lamb and his family LAMBAIR   Contact author with a comment    Comments:   By Fred Palmer,CSA Thompson, MB   The Norseman we rebuilt as a replica of CF-BHS painted in the Lambair colours most people will remember. It was owned by Riverton Airways & leased to Northland Fisherman’s Co op at Island Lake MB. In June 1971, it crashed on the early stages of a flight loaded with fish.  The pilot only was not severely injured. Most of the front 50% of the air frame was still intact.  We obtained drawings from the Western Aviation Museum in Winnipeg. The engine and prop came from a second aircraft that crashed 2 years earlier in the same area. That aircraft was destroyed by fire but the engine and prop were saved by the swamp it was in. It took a group of 9 dedicated individuals, & 34 others who helped or did things in other communities to make this project happen over a period of 27 months with approx. 9400 man hours. This was also made doable by the additional work and donations provided by some 30 plus companies coupled with intense community fund raising and belief it would happen. Using the drawings to give all the correct dimensions, the wings were constructed from laminated plywood spares as Sitka spruce is not easy to find, and I did not want to use any parts that could be restored for use on an airworthy rebuild. This project was completed by mostly non aviation related volunteers.      By Ed Zaruk Here is a slide show of pictures taken during the rebuilding of BHS.

Fish Guts Story 

The following story came to me from Stan Vander Ploeg who used to work for Fred and Ann Chiupka in Lynn Lake.  Fred ran a small fleet of air planes in conjunction with his fishery in Northen Manitoba.  CF-EPZ, an ex Ontario Central Airlines Norseman that Hank Parsons bought in January of 1959, was leased to Fred before he bought it.  As an operator, Fred wanted his planes in the air, not sitting at the dock being loaded or unloaded.  To that end, he had lots of help available to assist his pilots.  Stan was one of them.

As the tubs of fresh fish were brought in from the north they would be unloaded at the filleting plant and the guts from the previous load would be put on the plane.  I would be called from the main dock to go to the filleting plant to assist.  The pilot (Ernie) would start up the engine, I would untie the aircraft and stand on the left float and ride the aircraft to an island across from the main dock and dump the guts there, and ride the float back to the main dock reload and refuel the aircraft for the next flight.

It was at one particular time, as I stepped on the float of EPZ after dumping the guts, that Ernie detailed me to hang on because he suspected a magneto problem and that he would carry out a high power run on the way back to check out the mag problem.  He turned the air craft into the wind and revd her up, checked the mags, then he throttled back and taxied back to the start point. It was a bit breezy hugging the float struts but I toughed it out any how.  After turning into the wind, again he reved her up.  This time it was balls to the wall.  I pounded on the side of the fuselage to remind Ernie that I was still there, but to no avail.  The big Norseman was about to get on the step, and as I thought she might get airborne, I crouched into ball and rolled off the side of the float.  I rolled at least one rotation on top of the water before going in.  After surfacing and getting my breath back I watched the aircraft lift off the water.

As I was wondering if he would come back to get me I heard a racket from the dock, Sal (Stan Warschuck, I think), came out with a motorboat to rescue me.  Ernie came back after a test circuit and apologized up and down for his part in this.

This of course was the talk of the dinner table.  They concluded that I probably could have hung on for the entire circuit.  Now that might have been exiting but I'm glad I got off when I did anyway.  As a result of this ordeal I still wear a scar on my right knee where I hit the chine above the step of the left float on my way down.  Today there would be a hell of an investigation over this, and an episode like this would be called an incident wouldn't you think?  Back in those days, stuff like this was quite common.  We are today so cautious and safety minded that there are few stories left for the next generation.  Maybe that is just as well.

Contributed by Stan Vander Ploeg

Uwe H A Ihssen
    

Flew EPZ for Fred for one summer out of Lynn Lake. Fred was one of the better operators like you say. Had a cook house, Lots of help on the dock.Ernie Gorman was the Chief Pilot. Great place to fly out of. Flew mainly fish out Big Sand, South Indian Lake and several Other places, also to Arctic Lodge on Reindeer Lake Fred Lockhart was the manager very nice guy.Left Chiupka when Carl Moberg owner of Calm Air took over and got rid of most of the Chiupka Staff with Norm Carsely the last to leave after a year of working for him.
    

All Metal Norseman

Posted: 5/7/2009

Posted By: Ed Zaruk

In Canadian Aviator’s latest Tales From the Lakeview, Bob Grant had little success convincing old-time pilots that CF-UUD was a MK VIII Norseman.  It’s a shame because this truly was an innovative concept for the venerable freighter.  Metalizing Norseman in Canada was started in Redditt with the rebuilding of CF-SAN.  Ontario Central Airlines replaced the fabric belly with aluminium as this area that was prone to ice damage.  Next, when CF KVB was rebuilt, the sides back to the cargo door were done in metal.  As Bob describes in his article, a mysterious pilot flew away with the airplane and it turned up in Canada, owned by Bud Mallory, who operated it in Fort Francis, ON.  When Barney Lamm, who also owned OCA, acquired Canadian Voyager Airlines, this unique aircraft came to Redditt where Ed Hanratty had Rollie Hammerstadt give it a thorough going over.  The airplane didn’t preform that well, and during his inspection, Rollie found the entire structure had a slight down bend.  The conclusion both engineers reached, was that at some time during its life prior to Ursell metalizing it, the aircraft had flipped over on its back.  Rather than strip the skin and straighten the frame, they opted to start from scratch.   Another fuselage, CF-OBE was selected and plans laid out to completely replace all the fabric with metal and use UUD’s wings.  After replacing the metal stabilizer, but leaving the vertical fin intact, UUD was given a pair of good wooden wings and later sold to Dave Harvey, who operated it out of Red Lake for years.    It was the only Norseman ever to have the big door as seen in the photo below taken by Charlie Ursell in Texas, and well described by Bob in his article.  CF-OBE, which became the only all metal Norseman rebuilt in Canada, never had anything but standard size cargo doors, although they were one piece.  UUD bounced from pillar to post until Glen Crandall bought it, restored it, and has it in a private antique collection, in Panoka, Alta.                                                Incidently, I would highly recommend you subscribe Canadian Aviator     Contact author with a comment    Comments:

How Tough is a Norseman?

A Legend is Created

Posted: 11/2/2009

Posted By: Ed Zaruk

JACK LAMB was one of the bush pilots who opened up the vast wilderness known as Canada. Many were the Native men and women Jack flew in his Norseman.  All became his friends.  With Jack's passing on January 11th, our country's folklore can now elevate him to the status of a true legend.      John (Jack) Armstrong Lamb                 April 12, 1934 - January 12, 2009              Jack's obituary           Please follow this link and read the entire article.        It's a Nice Day For Flying   Contact author with a comment    Comments:

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