Tuesday, December 22, 2020
I have many happy memories of time spent with Russ and Vaughan building, flying and talking airplanes with my father Jack back in the 1960s, before I moved to the West.
Russ and Jack were long-time airplane pals and Vaughan and I got our pilot’s licences at age 17 through Air Cadet Flying Scholarships. Along the way, Russ guided us in the building of a downsized ground display replica SE-5, and he taught me how to fly a tailwheeler, a Piper J-3 Cub.
Russ had an amazing knowledge of aircraft construction and I enjoyed many hours helping build his and Vaughan’s Corben Junior Ace. We had great fun one summer as volunteers with Cole Palen’s Flying Circus when he visited the Hamilton Air Show with his Bleriot, Fokker D-7, and rotary-engined Nieuport 28 and Fokker Triplane. Russ also manned the wheel for a drive to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the famous EAA fly-in.
Russ and Vaughan helped my father and myself, and fellow aviator George Rogers, with our McKimmon Monoplane restoration project. And many happy hours were spent at each other’s homes talking airplanes over cups of coffee.
All the best to Vaughan and the family.
Jim McNulty
Victoria, B.C.
