Posts in category: Uncategorized

Our BRCM Club has some very interesting members. Brian Harrington is one of them. Brian is an up front, direct, no nonsense type of a guy with a military stature, friendly and
approachable.

I first met Brian in 1996 at our Bronte Field as he assembled his Gypsy Moth model. After our introductions, he asked me if I knew Don Pritlove. a fellow recreational parachutist. I said that he is my brother, then we connected. Well, Brian and I were in the RCAF Reserve 424 Squadron at Mount Hope. I was trained as a Munition and Weapons Technician and Brian was an Airframe Mechanic. We then began sharing stories of people we both knew.

A little history: Brian was born, raised and educated (Mohawk College) in Hamilton. He became a MAAC member (2738) in 1956, and built his first model, a Goldberg J-3 Cub. While in the air force (1959-1964), he learned to fly full scale in a PA-18 Super Cub. Also, at this time, Brian was a founding member of the Hamilton Sport Parachute Club. A busy guy!

After the air force, in 1964, Brian became a member of the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Chapter 65 and began to build a Corben Junior Ace in his basement. He never finished the Corben and sold it because his wife needed a car for work. Incidentally, Brian bought this same Corben in 2022, then did some upgrading work to make it airworthy. Brian then sold the Corben and bought and is still flying a Vans RV3A. All this time he was still building and flying R/C models with the Hamilton Flying Tigers.

A new interest was offered —- restoring and test flying full scale aircraft with four other guys in Hanger #4 at Mount Hope Airport. These aircraft included Harvards, a Tiger Moth, Boeing Stearmans and other trainer type aircraft.

Brian decided to go BIG TIME and joined Warplane Heritage and began flying Beach 18, Harvards, Chipmunks and other A/C types.

A milestone in Brian’s log book: In 1986, an Air Canada employee, vacationing in Florida, saw a Lockheed L10A airplane with very vague Trans Canada Airlines signage. Upon returning home, he alerted Air Canada management. An investigation determined that this aircraft was one of the first three Trans Canada Airlines planes that flew from Victoria, BC to Seattle, Washington in 1937. It was purchased, flown to Winnipeg and underwent a million dollar renovation. Air Canada contacted Warplane Heritage who recommended Brian to test fly this airplane because no Air Canada pilot was current on this type. Brian spent a week, all expenses paid, in Winnipeg and successfully completed 10 test flights to certify the L10A. WOW!

In 1985, Brian joined our BRCM Club and built some big complex models, i.e., 112 inch Beach 18, 90 inch Hawker Hurricane, etc. He was also instrumental in the 1987 building of our first

paved runway and in 2021, the repair to remove the infamous runway dip.

In 2015, Gary Arthur told Brian I was ready to sell my Turbine Powered Boomerang model. We met at the field, then Brian flew the Boomerang—–he was hooked. Since that flight he has had about 15 turbine models!

Brian builds fast and is a meticulous scale modeler; however they don’t seem to last too long in his hanger. We often see a new model at our field, then hear it has been sold or traded within a couple of weeks. He has lost count of the number of models he bought, built, sold or traded.

So playing pool in his recently renovated games room the other day, it was lots of fun chatting with someone who shares your interests and memories of aviation life!

Good stuff, Brian—–Thanks. Cheers, Ted Pritlove

Pictures from the Wingham jet event on 08/27//22

Bill Cliffe is our most senior Senior at 87 years young to graduate from the BRCM Wings Program, under the careful mentoring of Barry Parkinson.  

In his working life Bill was with the RCMP for 22 years then in security with Texaco and Esso. Unlike many of us, he has had absolutely no interest in airplanes, model or real, untii now. He was casting around for ways to keep himself active and saw some clips of RC models on Youtube. And the rest is history.

Congratulations Bill. And thanks, Barry.

Some great pictures from John Ham

Ted completed his 1000 flight today with Miss Martha. This was his first electric powered plane, its maiden was Nov 20/09.

For the BRCM record, Ted keeps a log of every flight, of every plane, on every day…

Habu Jet– Jan.17/10 to present—-757 flights

Venom Jet–Nov.27/12 to present—138 flights

Hawker Hunter–May12/16 to present—83 flights

F-18 Super Hornet– May26/18 to present– – 143 flights

Yak-130 Jet– July2/18 to present– 65 flights

Avant S Sport Jet to present– April25/19 to present– 91 flights

Well done Sir Ted!!

The club is looking for 2 to 3 volunteers to man the B-B-Qs for The Top Gun EDF Fun Fly 16 July you can contact me on this Facebook page or the club website.

Contact me through facebook or at

Ian Brown ian.brown3344@gmail.com