 |
| Loading 60 lb ground attack rockets on a FR I (DND photo) |
 |
| Loading 11.5 pound practice bombs on a Firefly FR I. (Photo by Fredrick Polishchuk DND/Archives Canada PA-136507) |
 |
| Routine maintenance (DND/Archives Canada photo) |
 |
| Checking the guns. (DND/Archives Canada photo HS-5572) |
 |
| Close up of crutch-type bomb carrier under the port wing of this Firefly AS 5. This view was taken from HMCS Magnificent during fleet manoeuvres with Task Force 21 on 17 March, 1950. In the background on the left, is the battleship USS Missouri and to the right is the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea. (Photo by Edward O'Neill. DND/PAC PA-142032) |
 |
| The unserviceable FR I is being struck down to the hanger deck of HMCS Warrior on 31 March 1946, the day the ship and her squadrons arrived in Halifax for the first time. The FR I and IV variants had manually folding wings so it took a fair amount of manpower to fold the wings in and out of position. (Photo by George Gadde/DND/PAC/PA-141233) |
 |
This photo sequence captures a wheels-up, emergency
landing on HMCS Warrior in 1946. Charlie Bourque was pilot and Dave Gill
was the observer. Click to enlarge. (From the collection of Ralph Fisher)
It has been jokingly stated that the story about naval aviation is that of "thousands of takeoffs and hundreds of landings". |
 |
825 squadron practice Firefly FR I landings on HMCS Warrior while the ship was off the Mexican coast enroute from Halifax to Esquimalt in 1946. This illustrates a more conventional landing with the aircraft rolling forward to the deck park with Ted Davis "batting" in the next Firefly. Click to enlarge. (From the collection of Ralph Fisher) |
Ralph Fisher comments on this emergency which occurred on "Warrior's" run from Halifax to Esquimalt in 1946. "An emergency landing took place just after catapult launch of a Firefly. The forces from extremely rapid acceleration to flying speed caused an electric relay to malfunction. This short-circuited a battery under the pilot's seat, drastically heating it up just as the plane hurtled over the bow with the pilot screaming on the radio for approval of an immediate emergency landing. The rush at which this was executed can only be imagined as the pilot held his stern parts off the searing seat while desperately working to bring the fired up Firefly 'round to a fast hook up landing on the arrestor wires. This was only exceeded by the pilot's speed in leaping from the cockpit as his smoking steed ground to a halt short of the steel barrier. Such was the droll and ho hum life in the dinosaur days of naval aviation".
 |
| Aboard HMCS Warrior 1946. Lt. Cdr. James H. Hunter urgently waving off a "low and slow" final approach. (From the collection of Ralph Fisher) |
 |
 |
 |
| Various views of Warrior in her RN configuration . (From the collection of Kelly Walker) |
 |
 |
 |
| Firefly operations aboard HMCS Warrior. (RCN photos from the collection of Gerry Curry) |
Credits and References: 1) Leo Pettipas <lpettip(at)mts.net> Associate Air Force Historian. Air Force Heritage and History 1 Canadian Air Division.
Winnipeg, Manitoba.
2) Ralph Fisher <r_fisher(at)shaw.ca>
3) Kelly Walker <kwalker@mymts.net>
4) Gerry Curry <gerry(at)currysystems.com>
Dec 13/10