Special Report found!!!!! by

The Port Asbestos Daily Movement:
Local Boys Brew Race Plane, Go Forth To Forth

by Hank Kruize, Aviation & Maritime Reporter - Sept. 10, 1949

Members of the Possum Lodge down the way have once again demonstrated their unique handyman skills. They're out to challenge the major companies and air forces of the world in the International Schneider '49 Trophy Seaplane Race, starting next week in Forth, Scotland.

Organizer Red Green Sr. explains: "We had that old Tiger Moth, "Bomber" Sherwood used to buzz around in, skilled handymen, and a lot of duct tape. Of course we can do as well as any of those overpaid big city weenies, particularly the foreign ones!

When asked about the decidedly large, non-standard engine cabled (or whatever) to a large plywood plate bolted (or whatever) in front of the little Moth, Mr. Green smiled enigmatically and said in his gravelly voice, "All good things come from above!"

He wouldn't elaborate, but this reporter has a theory. Possum Lake may be remote by ordinary peacetime standards, when one needs a pretty good reason to come out all this way, it's certainly not for the fishing at Mercury Creek. But during the Big One it was well within range of the large bomber and transport planes fledgling Allied aircrewmen were constantly flying over northern Canada. According to the Daily Movement's archives, one was heard over this area late at night on April 1, 1944, flying low and making more noise than previous overflights. Residents near Possum Lake swore they heard a tremendous splash before the airplane noises faded away to the south. Fred Smith claimed that next morning, his canoe and several other members' boats were swamped at their moorings.

Could a large military plane have lost an engine, literally? (This was during the period when "Pinky" Peterson and Will Smith were in the Canadian Air Force, training as A&P mechanics, but that's probably just a coincidence.) Could it be that under the pressure of war, nobody ever came looking for it?

The other parts of the 'Possum Plane' are more readily identifiable. Light, frail wooden struts and wires - so characteristic of De Havilland's design - have been replaced with strong sewer pipe donated by Winston Rothschild Jr. "Gittin' Up There" Sedgewick loaned his relic World War I DH9 bomber propeller. No one seems to know where the duct work came from that the men have reconfigured into floats, but various other bits and pieces came from Milton Humphrey's General Store. A tremendous boost to the project came when 3M's Regional Distribution Centre agreed to provide a whole case of duct tape.

Mr. Green and friends depart Tuesday for Scotland aboard the Asbestos Maru. They seem confident of victory. Says Red: "If the women can't find you handsome, they can at least find you handy!"