Martin Bull:

Yes, it is costly to fly the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster, and this year, 2008, it will fly 22 times, from May to November. But, I must point out that the Canadian War Plane Heritage Museum has 22 other aircraft that we ALSO fly, on a regular basis. Most of them are licensed by Transport Canada, to carry paying passengers.

Each of the individiual aircraft in our collection have a "supporters club " who do the maintainance, provide the pilots and raise money for "their " aircraft. In addition, there are major funds contributed by private individuals, and Canadian corporations, such as Air Canada, who provide aviation fuel to us, at their cost. In the main entrance to our building, there is a wall that holds the recognition plaques, for our sustaining contributors. The lowest level is $ 100,000, up to one million dollars. Because CWHM is a registered non-profit group, we can write tax receipts for donations, either in cash or in goods.

A good example would be our building. All of the steel, for the frame, was donated by Stelco, while the concrete floor was donated by Canada building materials. All of the machine tools and equipment in our restoration shops were donated, as was the kitchen equipment for our cafe. Intruments for cockpits are re-built by a professional shop, at no cost to us. Painting is done by a mobile spray paint booth, mounted on a tractor trailer unit. Paint is donated by CIL, and Goodyear makes us tires, from the original WW2 moulds, at cost. Engines are re-built on site by our own volunteers, and we also do work fore others, to raise money for the museum.

We run a summer camp for teenagers, two weeks at a time, to teach military history and basic flight education. We have a number of onsite meeting rooms that are rented out to local groups for their meetings, and we have a full calender of events that are held in our building, such as trade shows, weddings, and musical shows, all of which generate money for the museum. We also have one of the largest gift shops anywhere that sells everything to do with aviation , such as books, movies and clothing, and it is now available, online, so people from all over the world can buy from us.

With our two sets of huge doors open, we can move all of the aircraft out to the apron, leaving about 180,000 square feet of display area. We have two local catering companies that can feed up to 5,000 people a day, buffet style, or feed up to 500 guests at tables. We have our own sound systems, and big screen tvs for multi media presentations. Our outside parking lot has over 1,000 vehicle spaces, and we can use other parking lots at the Hamilton International airport, 300 metres away, if needed.

So Yes, it is a huge operation, but we ONLY have four paid employees, a special events manager, a building manager, and two full time cleaning staff. All the rest are un-paid volunteers, about 400 of them, plus our general membership of all most 6,000 people. We have some retired mechanics, and machinists, who come in every day of the week ,to work on aircraft restoration. We currently have a Westland Lysander, and a Bolingbrooke under restoration. Both were built in Canada, under license , during WW2.

Un-like some American organisations, like the "Confederate Air Force " where the individual aircaft are privately owned, all of ours are owned by CWHM. So no one person has any rights, to fly them or decide what to do with them.

BTW I'm just a member, not a director.

Jim Bunting. Toronto.

Jim Bunting.