Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
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SPITFIRE Y2K FLIES BACK TO COMOX

When Trevor and I were in Canada in 2010 were very fortunate to see the Spitfire MkIX that they were restoring being worked on in a small hangar attached to the museum at the Comox airbase. Our friend Frank got us into the building by a bit of “they’re from England, want to see the plane” chat to the restorer. Everything was immaculate and it was a privilege to see a Spitfire at such close quarters. We knew that the project was strapped for cash but heard little more until earlier this year it flew back to Comox from Quebec where the work had been finished.

The Comox Air Force museum contains a wonderful look back at  Canada’s aviation history so it was no surprise that in the year 2000  the museum purchased a World War II Spitfire to restore it.

The plane had been retired by the British after Second World War  and given to the South African Air Force but was sent to a scrap yard  after a crash

So the aircraft was never bothered to be repaired,€� Jon Ambler of the Comox Airforce Museum said. It was pushed off literally into a scrapyard and it just started  gradually over the years in the South African junk yard to fall to  bits. The pieces eventually ended up in a specifically built hanger at 19 Wing Comox and the volunteer effort to restore it began but the years  went by and the money ran out.

 “It was within weeks, we almost lost it”� restoration manager Terry Chester said. “It was to the point we were out of money, out of airspeed, out of ideas”. So in 2008, the project was turned over to Vintage Wings Canada. Crews contended to work on it here in Comox The fuselage which is the main body of an airplane, and its tail  and the cockpit and where the engine mounts was largely finished here in Comox, Ambler said. “It is the only Spitfire restored in Canada and one of about only 20 in the world. 

It was shipped to Gatineau Quebec in 2014 to be completed and now test pilots are putting her through the paces.

The plane is named after Arnold Roseland, a Second World War pilot from 442 squadron in Comox who flew 65 sorties in a Spitfire.

Story by Dean Stolz, ICHEK News, Photos by Mike Roach in 2010 and Frank Jaerschky in 2018

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