Martin Mars water bomber ready for final flight

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Thousands of people are expected to watch the final flight of Hawaii’s Martin Mars water bomber Sunday from Port Alberni to the BC Aviation Museum in North Saanich.

The water bomber is expected to leave its home base on Sproat Lake on Sunday afternoon and arrive in Patricia Bay between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., depending on the weather.

Coulson Aviation, which donated the Martin Mars to the museum, is not announcing the exact time of takeoff for security reasons, hoping to avoid drawing crowds of boaters looking for a last glimpse before the plane leaves its longtime home.

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The final flight plan will include circular flights over several cities on the island, likely Port Alberni, Campbell River, Powell River, Courtenay, Nanaimo, Duncan, Ladysmith and Crofton.

In Crofton, the Martin Mars will be joined by the Canadian Forces Snowbirds — flying in from the Abbotsford Air Show — and escorted in style to its final landing at Patricia Bay.

All nine Snowbird aircraft will participate in the event and perform a flyover over Greater Victoria.

“We expect thousands of people to witness this final flight and say goodbye to this incredible aircraft,” said Richard Mosdell, project manager at the BC Aviation Museum.

Major Brent Handy, Snowbird 1 Team Leader, said the Snowbirds are proud to fly alongside the Canadian forest air warfare icon as he makes his final journey to his new home.

“The Snowbirds honor the courageous firefighters, in the air and on the ground, who work to protect our country from wildfires and we are thrilled to see this piece of aviation history preserved and displayed to honor and inspire aviators past, present and future,” Handy said in a statement.

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Fans of the 36-metre-long, 60-metre-wingspan aircraft will be able to track the Martin Mars on Flightradar24 using its registration code CFLYL. And the roar of the plane’s massive 10,000-horsepower engines will be hard to miss.

The museum’s Facebook account will also provide live flight details ahead of arrival, and its website will feature a map of the best water viewing spots for the public to see the final landing, as well as areas that are closed.

Only seven Martin Mars aircraft were built by the California-based Glenn L. Martin Company, all for the U.S. Navy as ocean patrol and long-distance transports during World War II. Most were used for naval cargo transport on the San Francisco-Honolulu route until 1956.

The last four, sold as scrap, were purchased by a British Columbia forestry consortium and later converted into water bombers. One Mars crashed while fighting a fire in Northwest Bay, near Nanoose Bay, in 1961, with the loss of four crew members, and another was badly damaged in a storm.

The two remaining Martin Mars bombers were acquired by the Coulson Group in 2007 from Timberwest and its subsidiary, Forest Industrial Flying Tankers. The Philippine Mars, painted blue and white, was retired from service in 2012 and was recently sold to an aviation museum in Arizona.

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The red and white ship Hawaii Mars last saw fires in British Columbia in 2015, when it was awarded a 30-day contract with the province.

These massive tankers fought fires in British Columbia and other provinces for more than half a century. They were the largest fixed-wing water bombers in the world, with a capacity to dump about 6,000 gallons of water.

In a statement, Wayne Coulson, CEO of Coulson Aviation, said the company was proud to see the large aircraft being taken to the BC Aviation Museum.

Coulson said between 6,000 and 7,000 hours were spent on final testing of the plane, and pilots and engineers were brought out of retirement to fly it one last time.

“Our dedicated team has worked tirelessly to prepare the aircraft for this important moment,” Coulson said. “The enthusiastic response from the local and aviation communities has been incredible.”

Mosdell said the Hawaii Mars probe’s latest flight attracted international attention, with more than five million views on the museum’s social media account.

Museum chairman Steve Nichol said work was underway to move the Martin Mars from Patricia Bay to the museum site at the eastern end of Victoria International Airport.

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Museum officials say they worked closely with Nickel Brothers Moving, Nav Canada and the airport authority, First Nations, the RCMP and municipal, provincial and federal governments to get the plane out of the water and across West Saanich Road to land on airport property.

Fences, light poles and utility poles will be moved. Wheels will be attached to the plane while it is in the water Monday, Nichol said.

The “dehydration” process will take place Wednesday afternoon, when the Hawaii Mars will be maneuvered through the breakwaters of Patricia Bay and slowly hoisted up a Canadian Coast Guard ramp onto a concrete deck.

“This moment brings the Hawaii Mars full circle, as this was the original ramp and location used in 1960 to bring the aircraft to land to convert it into the state-of-the-art water bomber of the time,” Nichol said.

The dewatering will involve Nickel Brothers Moving, Coulson Aviation and Cold Water Divers.

Between August 19 and 23, Nickel Brothers Moving will lift the Hawaii Mars onto a heavy-duty trailer and, when airport operations cease for the night, move the aircraft across the airport grounds.

Nichol said the move takes about four days to complete, with the plane placed on a new concrete slab at its outdoor display location.

The day after the move, visitors will be able to walk around the plane’s exterior while crews complete several weeks of exhibition preparations, Nichol said.

The exhibit is scheduled to officially open on September 28. The museum is planning an “open experience format” so that anyone can explore the interior of the plane and have the opportunity to sit in the pilot’s seat four stories above the ground.

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