THUNDER BAY — The Northwestern Ontario Aviation Heritage Centre has announced that this weekend's scheduled event, ‘Wings of Time: A Homecoming of the Harvards,’ has been canceled.
A media release from NOAHC stated unpredictable weather in southern Ontario, where the aircraft are stationed, has caused this event to be cancelled.
The scheduled rain date for the weekend of Aug. 17 has also been cancelled due to the unavailability of several of the Havards.
NOAHC thanks all its volunteers and members for all the time and effort put in to organize this event, as well as local businesses and individuals for their support.
Denise Lyzun, who’s on the board of directors for the Northwestern Ontario Aviation Heritage Centre, said they had to make a difficult decision.
“Yesterday morning we got a call from the crew and pilots of the aircraft in Southern Ontario and said they could not come up for this weekend because of poor weather conditions.
“These aircraft are over 70 years old.
"They're very delicate, and they would have to make a lot of stops along the way, and the weather was not conducive; they can't fly like our modern aircraft at all.”
Lyzun said they also tried to arrange the rain date.
“We quickly scrambled all day yesterday to see if that would happen. But they said looking at the following weekend, they were short of a pilot or two and they may not be able to come up. We're not going to do it this year.”
It was extremely difficult to come to that conclusion, Lyzun said.
“It takes a lot of people to put these events together. The Heritage Centre is a very small nonprofit group, and we rely on volunteers.
“We had over 40 planning to work at this event and a lot of people calling us saying, ‘I can't wait to come.’”
Although it was disappointing to have to cancel this event, NOAHC is planning to host the event next summer, Lyzun said.
“Right now, we're still scrambling from this one. But certainly, next summer, we are planning to start bringing in more aircraft. We hope to bring in more aircraft during the next few summers, for sure.
“It'll be maybe even better, now that we've got some experience behind us, knowing what's going to happen and what can happen. I think it'll fly, literally," Lyzun said.
