These images were all shot at Abbotsford Airport in British Columbia during the Celebration Flight of the 50th Anniversary of the DC-3 over the Expo Canada grounds in Vancouver, B.C. in the summer of 1986.

Bill Bailey took almost all of these photos except for a couple that were captured by a friend of his.

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“I was working for the Museum of Flight in Seattle,” says Bailey, “and I used a few friends’ contacts to get ride passes for my best friend and  ‘Brother from another Mother’ W.R. (Bill) Downing and his son Garrett. The three of us were assigned to N3FY owned by Salair, along with a couple other airplanes in the group.”

There were 23 planes involved, says Bailey. “There were supposed to be 24, but the last one (another Salair airplane) was held up waiting for freight; it is shown making a flyby among the last few images after we had landed. There is also the Canadian aircraft ‘Odyssey 86’ that was heading out on the start of a successful around-the-world flight.”

“After we were driven out to the flight line from the terminal area we had some time to wander about and shoot photos of the various airplanes before an assembly call to mount up on our assigned airplanes. After start-up and then sitting for a few minutes, we waddled out in line and took off in a line astern formation with a 30-second separation. They had applied for a formation flight weeks before, but Transport Canada said NO WAY!

We could barely see each other in the cloudy/foggy sky. After takeoff we flew around for a few minutes to get everybody in line and then headed over to the EXPO site and did the flyover, then from there it was over Vancouver Island, then a left turn to the San Juan Islands and descend to minimum altitude and we buzzed Ernie Gann’s house. I couldn’t see him, but the guys in the cockpit could and they said he was jumping up and down and waving like crazy.”

“From there another left turn over to Bellingham, then inland and another left to head north back to Abbotsford. After landing it was all grins, backslapping, and ‘Man, that was fun, let’s do it again,’ until it started to rain, so then the party was over. Most of us got soaked getting back to the terminal area since our transportation was the same as it had been going out — in the back of an open pickup truck.”

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This post and photos are from Bill Bailey, who describes himself as a “hardcore certified airplane nut.” He says his specialty is seaplanes and flying boats, “but if it has wings, I’m interested. My computer/backup hard drives have over 500,000 images of aircraft including firebombers. My dad was a pilot starting in the early 1930s, building time, flying for a number of small outfits, and he got his seaplane rating in a Gulf Oil Co. Grumman Goose in 1939. On December 1, 1941 he started flying for Pan American Airways during WWII as an instructor training Army and Navy pilots on flying boats in the Sikorsky S-40s and S-42s and then later he switched over to the DC-3 / C-47, still training military pilots — and later still the DC-4 as a Check Airman for PAA, giving check rides to PAA line pilots. Before PAA he had been a corporate pilot with a company in New Orleans, and after leaving PAA in January 1949, he returned to the same company  and started flying Grumman Widgeons, which is where I got my interest in them. I’m now known as ‘Mr. Widgeon,’ a handle my wife first gave me when I was looking for my first email name, but has since grown to be a lot more.”

“I have a pretty large collection of Widgeon images, over 220 of the 317 Grumman and SCAN-30 (a French-built Widgeon) airframes. I have ridden on over 14 different Widgeons, flown eight of those, and helped rebuild two of them. I also helped two authors with their books with Widgeon information. I’ve ridden in all of the other Grumman Amphibians except the Duck (Goose, Mallard and Albatross), so if anyone has a Duck and gets near the Twin Falls, Idaho area, please let me know — I’d like to check that last box!”

Thanks ever so much to Bill Bailey for the photos and history!!