Armed Forces Day this Sunday

A local museum is hosting a day of celebration to share its significant Second World War and air crew training history with the Brandon community.

The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum is hosting family-friendly events for Armed Forces Day on Sunday.

With doors open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the day will be an opportunity for visitors to learn about the history of the site, and honour service — past and present.

“One of the best things about here is the experience of multigenerational families,” said Zoe McQuinn, the museum’s director general.

“When people come, often it’s grandparents with kids and grandkids, and they’re talking about stories that are attached to their family history. Or, they’re exploring Canada’s history in a new and unique way.”

Located at McGill Field, the museum is housed around a hangar that was built to train air crew for the British Commonwealth’s Second World War efforts through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Signed in 1939, the plan resulted in 131,000 crew members sent from across the globe to train at the site’s location that is now preserved just north of Brandon.

“You are walking on history,” McQuinn told the Sun Thursday, while approaching the historical planes parked in the hangar’s garage with original sliding doors.

Visitors will be able to walk the grounds and explore the site’s collection of historic aircrafts, with opportunities to speak with mechanics and pilots during the Sunday event.

Weather permitting, visitors with an annual membership will also have the opportunity to fly with the museum’s pilot crew through its Heritage Flight Experience program.

Costs for flights vary depending on the cost of fuel each plane uses, plus the cost of an annual membership, said McQuinn.

Jeff Bell, the museum’s chief pilot, who has been licensed for 32 years, plans to fly passengers on Sunday and knows the back stories of how each plane arrived at the museum as part of the heritage collection.

“There is something incredibly powerful about seeing these aircraft fly again,” said Bell. “These were machines built to train young aircrew during wartime, and when people step into one of these aircraft today, they are connecting directly with that history — the sound, the movement, the open sky. It becomes very real.”

If visiting museum members don’t get the chance to fly on Sunday, the museum is planning two more weekends this month for passengers to get airborne in its historic planes. Bell and more museum pilots will be available to explain the cockpit to visitors, and share their personal stories and expertise on the museum’s collection.

No scheduled guided tours are planned for the museum’s Armed Forces Day events. Volunteers will instead be stationed throughout the museum to assist and answer questions while visitors explore at their preferred pace.

The museum will also host a garage-sale fundraiser featuring tools, workshop equipment, hardware and materials from the John Balushak estate, with all proceeds supporting the museum.

A scale model builders meet, greet and share event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Models will also be available for purchase at the event, with proceeds going back to the museum.

The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum is a non-profit private museum that does not receive government funding, McQuinn told the Sun.

“We do it through passion and a lot of support from community members,” she said.

» jmurray@brandonsun.com