Aircraft Information
Douglas C-47A, serial #42-23951 began life with the United States Army Air Corps in 1943 after leaving the aircraft factory at Long Beach California.
She was then transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force and moved supplies and soldiers into Pacific islands to fight against the Japanese. This aircraft would many years after be registered in Canada as C-FCQT.
In October of 1943 the aircraft was part of one of the biggest parachute drops in WW2. CQT flew against the enemy in numerous actions and received a few well-patched holes for her effort. At the end of the war CQT was based on several captured islands moving wounded soldiers to Australian hospitals. In late summer of 1945 CQT was based in Japan as part of the occupation forces.
CQT was sold and changed hands many times over the next few years. In 1970, the aircraft arrived in Canada and flew oceanographic missions out of Prince Rupert, then carried cargo and passengers for Ilford Riverton Airways in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After a major accident at Gimli, Manitoba, the aircraft was eventually repaired and served Buffalo Airways in Yellowknife, NWT.
Points North Aviation then bought and operated CQT for many years as a freighter during the northern construction boom of the early nineties. By this time CQT was getting tired and expensive to maintain and sat in outside storage for several years.
CQT was donated to the Saskatchewan Aviation Museum and Learning Center in 2007. Moved to Saskatoon in 2015. The restoration process is underway, however will take a while to complete.
DC-3 “C-FCQT” 2015 Project & Recovery Story
THE AIRCRAFT IS HOME!
A BIG Thanks to: Points North Group for donating this aircraft along with the facilities to prepare the aircraft in for its journey and covering fuel costs with Northern Resource Trucking.
TransWest Air for providing air transport for our volunteers and to Northern Resource Trucking along with their drivers and support staff for bringing the aircraft home to Saskatoon.
A great show of support by all those involved and we would like to express its thanks and gratitude to everyone involved.
Now comes the work of getting it restored to show condition so everyone can enjoy it at the museum!
Randy, one of our volunteers wrote:
On Monday Oct 19, 2015, 4 volunteers traveled to Points North to disassemble our DC 3 so it could be trucked back to Saskatoon for display at the Museum. The volunteers were Dorrin Wallace, Howard Wallace, George Eickel and Randy England. Howard and Randy flew courtesy of TransWest Airlines who donated the seats. Dorrin and George drove, as they had to bring tools and would accompany the Dakota on her return to Saskatoon.
When we arrived on Monday afternoon the weather was sunny and beautiful but Tuesday morning brought clouds, wind and freezing rain. So we cleared the front of the hangar and got the doors opened and pulled the plane inside. Suddenly no one cared about the weather. Of course the rain turned to snow and we got about 6 inches of the stuff.
As the wings were already off as were all the control surfaces so we only had to remove the horizontal stabilizer. Of course we weren’t sure of the procedure so we scratched our heads for a little while then came up with a plan. There were about 150 bolts per side holding the stab to the fuselage.
Dorrin squeezed into the tail section of the plane to hold the nuts while I unscrewed the bolts with an impact driver. It wasn’t a bad job at all although Dorrin might not agree. There was a moment or two where he thought he might not be able to get out.
After getting all the bolts out and unhooking some small cables etc, the tail slid right out the back.
Next we moved to the front where we removed the pitot tubes and antennae and rigged the plane to lift it off the ground so we could retract the main gear when loaded onto the semi-trailer. The plane was pretty much ready now. We even got some time to go watch the Blue Jays get their butts kicked by Kansas.
Wednesday we found a shed and packed up more parts. There were 2 propellers, spare ailerons, a rudder and countless other items. Howard and I flew out that afternoon on TransWest and Dorrin and George stayed waiting for the truck.
It was a busy couple of days but one heck of a lot of fun. Thanks to the staff at Points North for the awesome meals (you don’t eat there if you want to lose weight!!) and the hospitality of TransWest for the flights and to Northern Resource Trucking for bringing it home.
Douglas C-47A DC-3 C-FCQT “History”
- Purchased by the Commonweal of Australia / D.C.A. – August 1944.
- Entered onto Australian Aircraft Register as VH-AFA – August 28, 1944.
- Registered to Commonwealth of Australia.
- Leased to Qantas Empire Airways.
- Commenced operations with Qantas – September 1944.
- Operated Qantas’s first service between Australia & New Guinea – April 2, 1945.
- Route was Sydney-Brisbane-Rockhampton-Townsville-Cairns-Port Moresby-Lae.
- Sold and registered to Australian National Airlines Commission. Sept 11, 1946.
- May 1958 operated by the Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) as VH-AFA VH-AFA ‘Hume’.
- Aircraft was named ‘Hume’ and later ‘Collins’.
- Operated its first revenue service with T.A.A. – September 14, 1946.
- Operated its final revenue service with T.A.A. – August 21, 1957.
- Sold to Australian Aircraft Sales – October 31, 1957.
- Cancelled from the Australian Aircraft Register – November 29, 1957.
- Sold to West African Airways Corporation – becoming VR-NCO .
- Ownership transferred to Nigerian Airways – October 1, 1958.
- Re-registered as 5N-AAO – 1961.
- Sold to Aer Turas in Teoranta, Ireland – February 27, 1964.
- Entered onto the Irish Aircraft Register as EI-ANK – March 9, 1964.
- Sold to K.W. England, Jersey, UK – became G-ATBE – February 23, 1965.
- Sold to Handley Page Ltd – June 13, 1967.
- Cancelled from the U.K. Aircraft Register – April 1, 1970.
- Sold to North Coast Air Services, Prince Rupert, BC. Became CF-CQT – May 8, 1970.
- Sold to Ilford Riverton Airways Ltd, Winnipeg, Canada – 1975.
- Sustained major damage in a crash at Gimli, Manitoba – March 24, 1975.
- Left in a derelict state at Winnipeg Airport until repaired. Returned to service – March 1979.
- Sold to Air Manitoba Ltd, Winnipeg, Canada – July 9, 1991.
- Sold to J. McBryan, Yellowknife, Canada – January 25, 1994 Buffalo Airways is a family run charter and scheduled airline based in Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada. It was established in 1970 by Joe McBryan (also known as Buffalo Joe) and operates
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scheduled passenger services and cargo and passenger charter services, as well as firefighting and fuel services. Its main base is Hay River Airport (CYHY) and two other bases at Yellowknife Airport (CYZF) and Red Deer Regional Airport (CYQF). - Sold to Points North Air Services Inc t/a Points North Air – July 21, 1994 Operated as a freighter Withdrawn from use and cancelled from the Canadian Aircraft Register – March 21, 1996 Airframe still in existence as of 1998.
Obtained by the Saskatchewan Aviation Historical Society
