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Blake's baby finally finds a forever home (7 photos)

Found on eBay many years later, restored biplane is Bushplane Museum's newest exhibit

It was a special evening at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre.

The Bushplane Museum officially celebrated the addition of a  MacGregor MG65 biplane as its newest exhibit Thursday.

The unique biplane was flown across Canada on a free-spirited adventure during the autumn months of 1967 and 1968 by Blake James, a retired artist/animator and lifelong aviation enthusiast.

James, now 88, travelled from his home near Beausejour, Manitoba for the occasion.

As reported earlier by SooToday, the MacGregor biplane reappeared after many years as an item for sale on eBay in 2015, purchased and transported in two pieces by car by an American aviator to the Bushplane Museum in September, where it was lovingly restored by museum volunteers.

“I was fascinated by flight,” James told SooToday Thursday, recalling times from his childhood when he saw Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) trainers flying over his home in Manitoba during World War II.

James purchased the biplane for $2,000 from Wilmer MacGregor, an aircraft engineer who worked for the Ontario Provincial Air Service on Pim Street, where the Bushplane Museum is now situated.

“It feels wonderful, it’s like a rebirth (to see the biplane restored),” James said.

“It’s not just about seeing the airplane again, it’s the people and the managers here who have been relating to it, they’ve been wonderful.”

“It encourages me to see this airplane here at the Bushplane Museum, I know this airplane’s going to be here for a long time because this is a permanent museum.”

“Parents are proud of their children, but never having been married and having that responsibility, this plane is my baby,” James said.

A National Film Board short subject film entitled Blake, filmed during his 1967 and 1968 cross-Canada flights, was released in 1969.

Directed by James’ friend Bill Mason, the film was shown widely in cinemas as a trailer before main attraction films were screened.

The film, which was nominated for an Academy Award, portrays James as a bachelor weary of the daily office grind, much more at ease strumming a guitar in a log cabin, who finally takes to the skies across Canada in the MacGregor biplane for a great aerial adventure.

At night, James would land his plane in fields and sleep under the fuselage.

He later sold the plane.

The film Blake may be viewed on a touch screen beside the MacGregor biplane at the Bushplane Museum.

A larger screen viewing of Blake was seen Thursday at the museum with several key players in the MacGregor restoration saga present.

They included Andy Gelston, the Grantham, New Hampshire pilot and aviation mechanic who noticed the MacGregor on sale on eBay in 2015.

Having viewed and enjoyed Blake, and familiar with the MacGregor biplane, Gelston was able to locate and contact Paul and Becky Mason, the children of now-deceased Blake director Bill Mason.

Gelston contacted Blake James, who was eager to see the airplane again. 

Gelston purchased the MacGregor for $7,500 from its newest owner in Indiana in the spring, transported it to property he owns in Vermont, then eventually to the Bushplane Museum in September.

Gelston attached the plane to the top of his car and towed its wings in a trailer.

Gelston and Becky Mason (a Chelsea, Quebec artist, filmmaker and canoe instructor), also in attendance for Thursday’s special occasion, had pitched the biplane to various museums as a potential exhibit before discovering the Sault’s Bushplane Museum.

“It’s very fulfilling (to see the biplane restored and on display at the Bushplane Museum)…when I first saw the plane I thought she needs to get back home to Canada.  I had to bring her home,” Gelston said.

“I’ve been to probably 50 aircraft museums in my lifetime…here you really get to see airplanes as you would experience them out there in the field,” Gelston said.

“It feels fantastic..the plane lives on,” Becky Mason said.

“Canadian history is being preserved, it was meant to be here among all these planes, it has a presence here.”

“I’m so pleased that Blake is here to see this,” Mason said.  

“It’s great to have it here,” said Todd Fleet, Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre curator.

“It all started out with an email from Andy…I had never seen the Blake film but it doesn’t get any more bush pilot than that, it’s perfect for us, the plane fits here,” Fleet said.


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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