From Bill Cameron: (Source: CAHS magazine October 2017)

tmb canso cf crpI enjoyed the article in the CAHS Summer Newsletter by Gord McNulty, about his visit to the North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander, Newfoundland.

It was a delight to see the photo in the story of Canso CF-CRP, and to re-visit an old friend, CF-CRP. The Museum in Gander is rather outside regular tourist itineraries, and I was pleased to see important and iconic aircraft preserved there.

tmb crew at prince rupertThat aircraft was flown by Canadian Pacific Air Lines from Prince Rupert Harbour to Sandspit, BC, from 1954 to 1960. A connecting flight of a CPAL DC-4 operated from Vancouver to Sandspit, daily – and cargo and passengers were exchanged at that airport. The runway at Prince Rupert, on Digby Island, was not constructed until the early 1960's.

I was assigned as Flight Dispatcher for that operation in 1955 – and with another Canso CF-CRR (that went on to have further adventures in France). The pilots, engineers, stewardesses, and myself were all in our mid-twenties in 1955, and Prince Rupert was a very happy base!

tmb nina youngmanThe photo of Nina Youngman with CF-CRP was taken at Sandspit in 1955. Nina was a local Prince Rupert girl, and both Nina and her sister Madeleine went on to have long and successful careers with Canadian Pacific Air Lines.

Both ladies were exemplary flight attendants, and greatly respected by all us in that airline. Nina later became Nina Morrison, and on her retirement from CPAL at mandatory age she was interviewed on CBC Radio by Peter Gzowski.
Consolidate 28A5- Canso CF-CRP CPAL timeline
  • Canadian Vickers – Cartierville, QC – Works No. CV271
  • Sepember 7, 1943 – Taken on Strength, Eastern Air Command, RCAF Serial No. 9837
  • October 21, 1944 – No. 162 (BR) Squadron, RCAF – Reykjavik, Iceland
  • June 2, 1945 – No. 6 RD – to Storage
  • November 29, 1945 – Struck off Strength RCAF - To Aircraft Industries, Montreal
  • November 29, 1945 – Canadian Pacific Air Lines, Vancouver, BC as CF-CRP No. 231
  • Operated from Seven Islands to Knob Lake, QC, 1946 to 1953
  • Operated from The Pas to Flin Flon (Schist Lake), 1953 to 1955
  • Operated from Prince Rupert (harbour) to Sandspit (runway), 1955 to 1957
  • May 9, 1957 – Trans-Labrador Airlines, NL
  • 1970-1973 - Eastern Provincial Airways – Halifax, NS
  • 1979-90 – Government of Newfoundland & Labrador
  • 1990 – North Atlantic Aviation Museum