Flying season begins this weekend in Brandon

BRANDON — The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum will host the first public heritage flight of its new warplane — the 1943-built Boeing Stearman Kaydet — with the launch of the flying season this weekend.

The museum has announced it would allow members of the public to book flights for Saturday and Sunday.

The opportunity allows the museum to showcase the sights and sounds experienced by Second World War pilot trainees, said museum director Zoe McQuinn.

“When visitors climb into the cockpit of the Stearman, they are stepping into a small piece of that world. The noise, the wind, the smell of oil and fuel, the open Prairie sky — it becomes very real,” McQuinn said.

“This aircraft represents the very beginning of the journey for so many young people who passed through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan during the war.”

The Stearman Kaydet was a doorway to more difficult airplanes, as Canada worked to train up pilots who could serve in the war, the museum said in a news release.

The Stearman was cleared for the public heritage flights alongside two other wartime aircraft — the museum’s 1940 Fleet Finch and 1940 Harvard Mark II.

McQuinn said the museum may add one more plane to the lineup before the weekend.

Members of the public have booked at least four flights already, McQuinn told the Brandon Sun on Thursday afternoon.

The flights limit space to one pilot and one passenger, and last about 30 minutes. They cost between $330 and $430, depending on which aircraft is chosen and will be conducted by the museum’s flying committee, headed by Jeff Bell.

The flight fee covers the cost of running the planes, such as fuel, oil, maintenance and inspections, McQuinn said.

“It’s not about us driving revenue,” McQuinn said. “Everything we charge is put back into the plane. It’s just the cost of operating.”

Visitors who do not take to the sky will still be able to experience the airplanes come to life, observe flying operations on an active apron, check out the 1941 original hangar and meet volunteers and pilots, McQuinn said.

The museum in Brandon is located in a hangar that was once operational as part of a military base.

It is dedicated to preserving and promoting the story of the air training plan, which trained more than 130,000 crew members.

The Stearman plane at the Brandon museum was acquired in October.

— Brandon Sun