Thank you to those who joined us for the 2025 Warbirds Canada AGM and Conference. Our hosts, the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, did a fantastic job of putting on the conference. It was a great success!
For those who were unable to attend, here is a re-cap of the conference.
We started the AGM with the Presidents report summarizing Warbirds Canada’s (WC) activities of the past year. Highlights include: updating three exemptions with Transport Canada; engaging TC in discussion regarding memorial fly-overs; transitioning WC’s documents to a dedicated WC google drive; WC’s website and Facebook page are updated and functioning; a discussion on sharing operational and maintenance best practices and compiling resources that can be shared; and concluded with a brief history on why WC was created and a discussion on how WC can further benefit the community.
Treasurers Report. As of September 30th, there was $7462.99 in the bank, and thanks to the generosity of the conference sponsors, the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, PropWorks, and Maple Leaf Aviation, the conference will be cash neutral.
Elections. Four board members completed their terms this year. Three agreed to stand for re-election. Graham Rowlinson retired from the board. The board thanks Graham for his years of service to Warbirds Canada. Ken Mist, representing the Jet Aircraft Museum, was added to the slate and was elected to replace Graham. The current board members are:
Dave Hewitt – President
Dave Watson – Vice President
Ken Mist – Treasurer
Glenn Goldman – Secretary
Jeff Bell – Membership
Dan Fortin – Director at large
Richard Mrazek
The BOD elections completed the AGM portion of the conference.
Our first Speaker was Dan Fortin. Dan gave us an informative talk on Threat and Error Management. (TEM) For those who fly commercially, TEM has been incorporated into CRM training. For those not flying commercially who may want further TEM training, King Schools has a 1 hour course, “Practical Risk Management for Pilots” that is time well spent.
Ludovic Masson, Chief, Flight Standards, joined us from Transport Canada. Having TC attend in person gives us the opportunity to better communicate what our concerns and issues are and hear from TC what they can and can not do in addressing them. Ludovic mentioned that having WC as a voice for many in the warbird community makes his job easier and puts WC requests higher in the que. He gave a short talk and then answered questions. We were glad he was able to attend in person.
Our key-note speaker was Murray Palmer. Murray is from the Brandon/Winnipeg area and now lives in Victoria, BC. His talk was an entertaining look at the life of a crop duster, fire bomber pilot, including flying the Martin Mars, cargo pilot flying DC-3’s and C-46’s, AME, and AME structures instructor.
Mike Hudec of PropWorks Propeller Systems, talked about the issues he sees with the Hamilton Standard props that a lot of us use. Mike also agreed to serve on a committee with WC to provide data to TC to support an AMOC request to the 10 year prop overhaul requirement.
After closing remarks, Museum members were available to show us around their facility, including a look behind the curtains.
With the 2025 conference now behind us, we will soon be making plans for the 2026 AGM and conference. While Brandon may have been a bit challenging for some to get to, it was well worth the trip. We look forward to seeing you at the 2026 AGM and Conference.
Warbirds Canada would like to thank our sponsors for their support in making the 2025 AGM and conference a success. In addition to the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, our host, PropWorks of Winnipeg and Maple Leaf Aviation of Brandon
2025 CONFERENCE & AGM