Piper PA-22-135 TriPacer CF-HTB

CF-HTB was built in December, 1953 and was one of the earliest 1954 models (construction number 22-1767). It was delivered originally to Old Town, Maine as N3495A, before being imported into Canada in 1955, and flying from Moncton. It was moved to St. Eleanors, Prince Edward Island and flown by Reg Pope, who logged only 133 hours in the next eleven years. When I bought it on 18 March, 1967, in partnership with three others as the Slemon Park Flying Club, it had only 1,100 hours total time. It was in a two-tone green scheme, as delivered from the factory. While visiting Greenwood, one of the search and rescue technicians came over to me and said, "If that sonofabitch goes down, we aren't looking for it." The temporary expedient was to apply "dayglo orange" to the wing and tail tips, but we ultimately repainted the whole aircraft. I designed the scheme using the 1963 Piper Comanche as inspiration. The scheme then became Pontiac Red, with Cab Black on a basic white aeroplane. In 1970, we (I'd got married in the meantime) bought out the others and moved the aircraft to Greenwood, Nova Scotia. A subsequent move took it to Shearwater, Nova Scotia, in 1973 where we sold it in 1976. Don Bates, who bought it, still has the aircraft at Stanley, Nova Scotia.

We owned CF-HTB for nine years and accumulated about 380 hours on it. We flew it to Oshawa, Ontario, a number of times and covered the Maritime Provinces extensively. Our younger son, Malcolm, had his first flight in this aircraft and we reported a forest fire to the authorities on the same flight. CF-HTB took the EAA Chapter 305 Efficiency Rally Trophy in 1974, for the lowest cost per ton-mile - not bad for a 21-year-old aircraft!

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