COVER N.175 - CANADA

Postmark: Canada Post - Postes Canada - Barry's Bay On  Zurakowsky Park - Home of the Avro Arrow - 27.10.2022  
Posted on the 27th October; received on the 7th November 2022
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It has been a while since my last addition to the blog. A slight perturbation in mail distribution due to a couple of days of industrial action at  CTT, the Portuguese Post, but things are now back to normal, as the "clonk" of the letterbox lid  closing that I again heard today so clearly illustrated.

The moment I heard it, I ran to the door, of course, and rightly so, because amidst other letters of a far less pleasant nature - taxes and utilities accounts - there was this beautiful cover from Jeff in Canada, laden with three very recent stamps dedicated to my theme of choice: aviation. Thanks a lot, Jeff, for a fabulous cover, indeed!

The stamps Jeff used on this cover are part of the second set of the "Canadians in Flight" series, started in 2019, three stamps of  which he  had already kindly sent me on a previous sending.

The 2022 set, equally comprising five P (Permanent) tariff stamps as that of 2019, was issued on 17OCT2022. 

- Ask any aircraft fan to name a bush plane and I'm certain that a unanimous "Beaver" will be the first answer. The DHC-2.. a true Jack of all trades, rugged and capable of operating in all types of conditions from all types of strips, with STOL capabilities, be it land or sea....

Designed in the aftermath of WW2, the Beaver first flew on the 16 August 1947 and throughout its production life, that was to come to an halt in 1967, more than 1,600 aircraft were built, many of which are still flying. Although being decidedly linked with the vast and wild spaces of the American North, many Beavers were used by the military in a large number of countries.

It is fitting that such a landmark in the history of Canadian aviation would be included in a series dedicated to the theme, and this is not the first time that it happens since the Beaver also featured in the 1982 issue of the lovely Canadian aircaft series, which ran from 1979 to 1982.

The current Beaver stamp though is marked by controversy. It so happens that the designers of the stamp chose a photograph that features a DHC - 2 Beaver, indeed, but ... bearing an American registration on the fuselage, not a Canadian.  and this was not that well taken by many a Beaver and Stamp fan..... well, this is not really perceivable upon looking at the stamp with the naked eye or even with a loupe, but the artwork has been shown in much larger supports, I would thing, and that's probably where it all became apparent...

Anyway, registered in the USA or in Canada, the Beaver is as Canadian as the Mounties and fittingly it is shown on the stamp flying over land and sea, juxtaposed to 3-view drawings of it and the  a De Havilland Canada Logo substituting the Beaver for the usual Mosquito, which was issued, I read somewhere, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the former.

- Wallace Rupert Turnbull (1870-1954)... I confess my ignorance as to the relevance of Mr. Turnbull's work in the aviation field., but Canada Post informs me that he was famous for developing the variable pitch propeller, that is, the ability to change the angle of the propeller blades while the prop is rotating , an important step towards maximisation of the thrust generated by the propeller during the various phases of a flight. 

The stamp dedicated to Rupert Turnbull is illustrated by his picture in front of an airplane equipped with his invention, which is also the subject of the line drawing on the left side of the stamp.

- Flight simulators more than learning tools were life-savers. Aviation is not an activity devoid of danger for the initiated and going through what is to be  (un)expected high above the surface, knowing that no matter what you'll be always able to walk back home through the stairs down to the ground and out through the door is ... reassuring, to say the least.

Aviation simulation technology was first brought to Canada in 1947 by Kenneth Patrick (1915-2002) who founded CAE Canadian Aviation Electronics, a concern that would develop simulators for the Canadian Air Force and later for Canadian Pacific Airlines ...(writing this suddenly brought to my mind vivid images of the beautiful DC-8 aircraft in the orange livery of Canadian Pacific that I saw so many times being refuelled at Santa Maria Airport in the Azores, when I was a lad. 

The stamp dedicated to the CAE Flight Simulator is illustrated with a photo of a simulator, and it also features a side view line drawing of one such machine.

- The remaining two stamps on this set, which was issued in souvenir sheet format, are dedicated to Violet Milstead (1919-2014), one of the first female bush pilots, and a member of Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary, during WW2. and Dr. Wilbur Rounding Franks (1901-86) the inventor of the first G-suit,  

Jeff had the Cover fittingly Postmarked at Barry's Bay, for Canada Post issued a special cancellation for that city that features an image of another of Canada's most famous aircraft, the Avro Arrow, a scale replica of which is now gate guarding Zurakowski Park, named after the chief test pilot of the Arrow, Janusz Zurakowski.