Timothy Allan Johnston
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  • Travel Journals
    • India 1986
    • Swaziland 1989
    • Lesotho, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe 1993
    • Mozambique 1996
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    • Stubb Ross
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    • A Decade of Faces
  • Contact
  • Cambridge
​Grumman Goose CF-UAZ
 
I attended the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton from 1964 to 1966 studying photography. This brand new school at the time was situated on the southeast corner of the Edmonton Municipal Airport and just across the airfield fence from the wartime hangars built by the US Army Air Force. At the time, the most southerly of these hangars was occupied by the civil division of Northwest Industries where everything from Pacific Western DC-4s to RCAF Hercules aircraft were overhauled.
 
Looking for a subject for my second year “Industrial Photography Book” required for graduation, I hopped the fence and asked inside the hangar if there might be an airplane that I could follow to photograph its renewal. The general manager who spoke to me said that a Grumman Goose was soon to arrive and it might make a good subject for my project. He gave me the go-ahead to visit the hangar occasionally to make pictures. Airport security in those days was just a tad different than it is today, although the Municipal Airport and its old hangars are no more.
 
The Goose arrived soon after following a flight from somewhere in the Caribbean. This aircraft first served in 1941 with the US Coast Guard and was sold sometime after the war ended. Sold eventually to BC Airways, the aircraft was flown to Edmonton for overhaul by an obviously needy pilot. My photo project nearly stopped before it began because the old plane was in such very desperate condition. Serious consideration was given to just scrapping the old thing where she sat at the front of the hangar.
 
But the decision was made to press on. Taking down the engines, it was found that they were beyond repair and were scrapped. The fuselage contained a lot of corrosion and the pontoons were fixed in place and thus wonderful sources of drag. Instruments, interior and controls all needed either replacement or serious repair.
 
The craftsmen at Northwest took the old bird apart and piece-by-piece either restored or replaced everything. The planning hull was reshaped and the pontoons were made to be retractable into the wingtips. New engines and propellers were installed and a shiny grey and white paint job with red speed line was applied. I believe well over $250,000 1965 Canadian dollars were expended on this major rebuild.
 
And so, here are the pictures from my Industrial book with a few captions included. The old aircraft still flies today as noted by the last picture in the slide show, taken by Vince Crooks, pilot for Wilderness Seaplanes at Port Hardy, BC.
 
Tim Johnston 
March 31, 2021