Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum - Upcoming Remembrance Day Service

The Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton was a great destination for myself and my two mechanically-minded and tactily-inclined kids.

We planned to see some planes which in itself, would have been pretty cool.  What we enjoyed instead was a wealth of war memorabilia, stories of adventure and heroic deeds, and at least an hour for two kids with loads of imagination in a flight simulator.  (What is it with kids and buttons? and dropping bombs?).  They sat in the cockpit of a warplane while a volunteer, who knew an awful lot about piloting a warplane gave them a tour.  He happily answered a barrage of questions about the ejection button and shared more stories of heroics that hinted at personal experience.

I was awed by these aircraft - the beautiful craftsmanship, the expert restoration, and the sheer size!  I watched mesmerized as the museums' PBY-5A Canso Amphibian backed up (very slowly!) into the hanger.  Its 104 foot wingspan cleared the doors with barely a foot to spare.  Later I stood beneath the open 33 foot bomb bay of the museums Avro Lancaster and imagined the power of this aircraft - one of only two airworthy Lancasters left in the world.

The Warplane Heritage Museum will honour our history and the people who where a part it with a Remembrance Day Service in the hanger on Sunday Nov 11, 2012.  I can`t think of a better way to show that we remember the contributions of so many.