It was worth the wait!
F-I-N-A-L-L-Y, on November 18, 2025, twenty-five of us from the NW Bay Probus Club descended on the BC Aviation Museum near Victoria International Airport for a long-awaited tour of the museum. That is to say: 25, plus a wayward Norm…. If you ask him, he’ll tell you he knew exactly where he was, well at least most of the time; it was just the tour-organizers who couldn’t keep track of his whereabouts. I’ll leave it to him to explain, and you can decide. Fortunately, the museum staff hadn’t quite gotten to the stage of calling in the RCMP.
And what a tour it was! It lasted an hour-and-a-half and could easily have lasted a full day.
Most of the exhibits are housed in two large hangars, which, despite their size, are dwarfed by the colossal Martin Mars water bomber. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIZ6PJmjWM0&t=41s
Each of us had our favourite aircraft, but the Martin Mars likely would have drawn the most votes. (Myself, I was completely engrossed by a heavy Russian-built helicopter – the Kamov Ka-32, with coaxial, counter-rotating rotor blades. Stable as heck and built like a tractor!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_Ka-32
The tour could not have been the success it was had it not been for three very knowledgeable volunteers who were passionate about aviation. And they sure knew their stuff.
By the time we got to the restaurant, Mary’s Bleue Moon Café, we were all very hungry. The options were many and the portions large. I expect very few of us ate dinner that evening, and most of us likely slept very well.
And for those of you wondering, Norm was successfully escorted the 30-or-so feet from the door of the restaurant to the bus. Another successful out-and-about!
Terry Kelly