Published in the September 2018 issue of the Kerby News
Clark Seaborn’s Airplanes
By Tim Johnston
Watching Harvard training aircraft over my rural Lethbridge home in the early 1950’s might have been the start of my life-long fascination with aviation. It was certainly reinforced by my first-ever airplane ride with Emanuel Cohen, now of Calgary, when, years ago, he flew me in his Piper Pacer from Lethbridge to Vauxhall and back. Later on there were flights with Stubb Ross, founder of Time Air, before he established his very successful regional airline. And, of course, there was my one and only ride in a Stearman biplane out at Villeneuve Airport near St. Albert.
But circumstances never aligned that might have seen me become an aviator or, even more unlikely, the owner of a private airplane. Instead, I indulged my interest by way of reading history, conversations with pilots, and occasional visits to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) annual fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Airplane heaven, that place is.
Driving east from my home in Mackenzie Town, I often pass by the little airport at Indus. It has two grass runways and perhaps 50 hangars that shelter aviation treasures belonging to serious aviation aficionados. One of this number is Clark Seaborn, a civil engineer, now retired, and airplane restorer. We met quite by chance, after I had asked others at the airfield about who a good candidate might be for a story for the Kerby News. Clark’s name was offered up almost immediately. And with good reason. Clark has had, and continues to have today, two of the most unique airplanes on the field.
Clark’s interest in aviation began early on and was expressed through model building. He obtained a private pilot license at the Calgary Flying Club following graduation from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta. The engineering background proved to be important because it would provide Clark with the ability to consider choosing airplanes to own and fly that others might have consigned to the junkyard.
Taking model building a giant step forward, Clark ordered plans for a home-built Pietenpol Aircamper aircraft with open cockpit and parasol wing. When completed, the Pietenpol provided lots of hours of “tail dragger” experience. Hearing of the availability of a derelict 1933 Waco UIC four-place cabin biplane, Clark thought it would make an excellent family airplane. He purchased it in 1972. After restoration, the Seaborn family recorded over 800 hours of flying time in it including a trip to EAA at Oshkosh in 1979.
Always interested in new challenges that combined engineering with aviation, Clark learned that Winnipeg’s Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada had salvaged parts from a 1928 Fokker Super Universal aircraft that had crashed long ago near Dawson City, Yukon. Clark undertook with the museum to restore the aircraft to flying condition provided he could have use of it for a few years afterward. He told me there were 28 Super Universals operating in Canada in the early days of bush flying and that one of them, flown by Punch Dickins, made the first flight from the west coast of Hudson Bay across the Barrens to Lake Athabasca. That aircraft and Clark’s were at one time owned by James A Richardson of Canadian Airways fame.
Clark’s saga with the Fokker really began in 1982 when the Winnipeg museum delivered a trailer load of aircraft parts to his home south of Calgary. Included in the shipment were the remains of three different Fokkers including the one from Dawson City. Prior to this, Clark had spent countless hours searching for additional parts and information that would be needed in the restoration. His search even took him to the crash site of another Fokker west of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He learned that Wop May had been sent in to burn that hulk so that it would not be visible from the air to passengers on other Canadian Airways flights. Eighty pounds of parts were salvaged on that expedition with many of them being restored and incorporated into the composite aircraft.
And so the construction of a functioning historic aircraft began. Over the course of 16 years and the investment of 10,000 hours of shop time, a re-born aircraft was ready for its first flight. Along the journey, many skilled aviation craftsmen gave time, knowledge and skills to help see the project completed. As components were fabricated, Clark tested and validated their reconstruction using computerized structural analysis. When completed, a 25-hour test flight program was carried out to measure performance and adjust flying characteristics. Then came the day that Transport Canada sent its inspectors to issue or deny a certificate of airworthiness, depending on their judgment of the condition of the aircraft and its ability to operate within regulations. The inspectors issued only stipulation: that a “No Smoking” sign be installed in the cockpit.
After 16 years of restoration, it was finally Clark’s time to go and fly this new jewel, a fully reconstructed Fokker Super Universal with registration letters CF-AAM from the original aircraft. Over seven years, CF-AAM flew across western North America, staged commemorative flights for early prairie airmail services, and in 2001 visited six communities in the Yukon, once the stomping ground for CF-AAM in its earlier life. There it was given the nickname “Yukon Gold”. One elderly gentleman who visited the aircraft recounted the arrival at Mayo by Fokker of his mail-order bride on a -56 degree Fahrenheit day. On the 100th anniversary of flight in the United States, Clark piloted the Fokker on a 4,000-mile trip around America in company with other vintage aircraft.
For nearly 25 years, the building and flying of the Fokker was a big part of Clark’s life. He spoke fondly of the hours that went into the reconstruction and especially of the 320 hours he spent in the air flying all across the continent. But the time for parting was imminent. On September 29, 2005, “Yukon Gold”, with Clark at the controls, made its final flight to Winnipeg for permanent exhibition in the Royal Aviation Museum. It can be visited there today.
Clark’s hangar at Indus, where the Fokker came to life, now has three aircraft inside. The newest is a 1948 Fleet Canuck, manufactured in Fort Erie, Ontario. This is Clark’s aviation equivalent of a “daily driver”. Employed when new as a training plane for civilian pilots at the Lethbridge Flying Club, this high-wing aircraft has accumulated over 4,500 hours of service. He bought it shortly after turning over the Fokker to the Royal Aviation Museum. “I had nothing to fly,” he told me. Next is a 1942 Cornell, built by the same company as a basic training plane for World War II pilots. This isn’t Clark’s airplane but it is certainly at home here with its veteran hangar mates.
The third aircraft came into Clark’s hands as, what else, a collection of bits and pieces salvaged from a wreck that happened a long time ago in the mountains near Fernie, British Columbia. This aircraft is a de Havilland DH60 Moth biplane, originally manufactured in the late 1920s. With experience gathered over the course of restoring the Waco and building the Fokker, Clark made new fuselage and wing parts, constructed a new engine firewall and fuel tank and re-engineered a
de Havilland Gypsy engine to operate in the “upright” position. Most of these engines, manufactured for Tiger Moth training planes of World War II, operated “upside down” with the crankshaft on the top of the engine. This allowed greater ground clearance for the propeller and permitted shorter landing gear that aided stability on the ground. Clark flies the Moth only on very calm and clear days and stays reasonably close to the airfield. It’s a beautiful and flyable historic artifact.
I wondered about the registration letters for this aircraft: CF-ADU. As in “adieu”? Would this be Clark’s last aircraft restoration? I asked him if another project was in the wings. He smiled gently and his gaze focused somewhere out on the horizon.
-30-
1330 words
Cutlines for Photographs
1. Clark’s first aircraft, a Pietenpol Aircamper home-built kit plane
2. The Seaborn family with the unrestored Waco
3. The restored Waco resplendent in red, yellow and black livery
4. The reconstructed Fokker lands at Indus Airport
5. The Fokker at Mayo, Yukon with Klondike Dancers on the wing
6. Clark with the reconstructed de Havilland DH60 Moth
7. Instrument panel of the DH60 Moth
8. Clark’s hangar today with Fleet Canuck (left), DH60 Moth (right) and Fleet Cornell (at rear)
Clark Seaborn’s Airplanes
By Tim Johnston
Watching Harvard training aircraft over my rural Lethbridge home in the early 1950’s might have been the start of my life-long fascination with aviation. It was certainly reinforced by my first-ever airplane ride with Emanuel Cohen, now of Calgary, when, years ago, he flew me in his Piper Pacer from Lethbridge to Vauxhall and back. Later on there were flights with Stubb Ross, founder of Time Air, before he established his very successful regional airline. And, of course, there was my one and only ride in a Stearman biplane out at Villeneuve Airport near St. Albert.
But circumstances never aligned that might have seen me become an aviator or, even more unlikely, the owner of a private airplane. Instead, I indulged my interest by way of reading history, conversations with pilots, and occasional visits to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) annual fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Airplane heaven, that place is.
Driving east from my home in Mackenzie Town, I often pass by the little airport at Indus. It has two grass runways and perhaps 50 hangars that shelter aviation treasures belonging to serious aviation aficionados. One of this number is Clark Seaborn, a civil engineer, now retired, and airplane restorer. We met quite by chance, after I had asked others at the airfield about who a good candidate might be for a story for the Kerby News. Clark’s name was offered up almost immediately. And with good reason. Clark has had, and continues to have today, two of the most unique airplanes on the field.
Clark’s interest in aviation began early on and was expressed through model building. He obtained a private pilot license at the Calgary Flying Club following graduation from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta. The engineering background proved to be important because it would provide Clark with the ability to consider choosing airplanes to own and fly that others might have consigned to the junkyard.
Taking model building a giant step forward, Clark ordered plans for a home-built Pietenpol Aircamper aircraft with open cockpit and parasol wing. When completed, the Pietenpol provided lots of hours of “tail dragger” experience. Hearing of the availability of a derelict 1933 Waco UIC four-place cabin biplane, Clark thought it would make an excellent family airplane. He purchased it in 1972. After restoration, the Seaborn family recorded over 800 hours of flying time in it including a trip to EAA at Oshkosh in 1979.
Always interested in new challenges that combined engineering with aviation, Clark learned that Winnipeg’s Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada had salvaged parts from a 1928 Fokker Super Universal aircraft that had crashed long ago near Dawson City, Yukon. Clark undertook with the museum to restore the aircraft to flying condition provided he could have use of it for a few years afterward. He told me there were 28 Super Universals operating in Canada in the early days of bush flying and that one of them, flown by Punch Dickins, made the first flight from the west coast of Hudson Bay across the Barrens to Lake Athabasca. That aircraft and Clark’s were at one time owned by James A Richardson of Canadian Airways fame.
Clark’s saga with the Fokker really began in 1982 when the Winnipeg museum delivered a trailer load of aircraft parts to his home south of Calgary. Included in the shipment were the remains of three different Fokkers including the one from Dawson City. Prior to this, Clark had spent countless hours searching for additional parts and information that would be needed in the restoration. His search even took him to the crash site of another Fokker west of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He learned that Wop May had been sent in to burn that hulk so that it would not be visible from the air to passengers on other Canadian Airways flights. Eighty pounds of parts were salvaged on that expedition with many of them being restored and incorporated into the composite aircraft.
And so the construction of a functioning historic aircraft began. Over the course of 16 years and the investment of 10,000 hours of shop time, a re-born aircraft was ready for its first flight. Along the journey, many skilled aviation craftsmen gave time, knowledge and skills to help see the project completed. As components were fabricated, Clark tested and validated their reconstruction using computerized structural analysis. When completed, a 25-hour test flight program was carried out to measure performance and adjust flying characteristics. Then came the day that Transport Canada sent its inspectors to issue or deny a certificate of airworthiness, depending on their judgment of the condition of the aircraft and its ability to operate within regulations. The inspectors issued only stipulation: that a “No Smoking” sign be installed in the cockpit.
After 16 years of restoration, it was finally Clark’s time to go and fly this new jewel, a fully reconstructed Fokker Super Universal with registration letters CF-AAM from the original aircraft. Over seven years, CF-AAM flew across western North America, staged commemorative flights for early prairie airmail services, and in 2001 visited six communities in the Yukon, once the stomping ground for CF-AAM in its earlier life. There it was given the nickname “Yukon Gold”. One elderly gentleman who visited the aircraft recounted the arrival at Mayo by Fokker of his mail-order bride on a -56 degree Fahrenheit day. On the 100th anniversary of flight in the United States, Clark piloted the Fokker on a 4,000-mile trip around America in company with other vintage aircraft.
For nearly 25 years, the building and flying of the Fokker was a big part of Clark’s life. He spoke fondly of the hours that went into the reconstruction and especially of the 320 hours he spent in the air flying all across the continent. But the time for parting was imminent. On September 29, 2005, “Yukon Gold”, with Clark at the controls, made its final flight to Winnipeg for permanent exhibition in the Royal Aviation Museum. It can be visited there today.
Clark’s hangar at Indus, where the Fokker came to life, now has three aircraft inside. The newest is a 1948 Fleet Canuck, manufactured in Fort Erie, Ontario. This is Clark’s aviation equivalent of a “daily driver”. Employed when new as a training plane for civilian pilots at the Lethbridge Flying Club, this high-wing aircraft has accumulated over 4,500 hours of service. He bought it shortly after turning over the Fokker to the Royal Aviation Museum. “I had nothing to fly,” he told me. Next is a 1942 Cornell, built by the same company as a basic training plane for World War II pilots. This isn’t Clark’s airplane but it is certainly at home here with its veteran hangar mates.
The third aircraft came into Clark’s hands as, what else, a collection of bits and pieces salvaged from a wreck that happened a long time ago in the mountains near Fernie, British Columbia. This aircraft is a de Havilland DH60 Moth biplane, originally manufactured in the late 1920s. With experience gathered over the course of restoring the Waco and building the Fokker, Clark made new fuselage and wing parts, constructed a new engine firewall and fuel tank and re-engineered a
de Havilland Gypsy engine to operate in the “upright” position. Most of these engines, manufactured for Tiger Moth training planes of World War II, operated “upside down” with the crankshaft on the top of the engine. This allowed greater ground clearance for the propeller and permitted shorter landing gear that aided stability on the ground. Clark flies the Moth only on very calm and clear days and stays reasonably close to the airfield. It’s a beautiful and flyable historic artifact.
I wondered about the registration letters for this aircraft: CF-ADU. As in “adieu”? Would this be Clark’s last aircraft restoration? I asked him if another project was in the wings. He smiled gently and his gaze focused somewhere out on the horizon.
-30-
1330 words
Cutlines for Photographs
1. Clark’s first aircraft, a Pietenpol Aircamper home-built kit plane
2. The Seaborn family with the unrestored Waco
3. The restored Waco resplendent in red, yellow and black livery
4. The reconstructed Fokker lands at Indus Airport
5. The Fokker at Mayo, Yukon with Klondike Dancers on the wing
6. Clark with the reconstructed de Havilland DH60 Moth
7. Instrument panel of the DH60 Moth
8. Clark’s hangar today with Fleet Canuck (left), DH60 Moth (right) and Fleet Cornell (at rear)