The Little World

CF-ACL is ready for service. The Spirit of Lodgepole is named after a small town in the Pembina that serves the oil industry and was once the main service town for the Brazeau Dam project. It had an RCMP post, a hotel, a school, and a general store, as well as repair shops for the oil wells in the area. It was no Mariposa, but a serviceable little village nevertheless.

The Beech 18 model  reminds me of an old girl dressed up in new clothes. Some of them are tawdry and a little soiled at the edges, but she makes a brave show amongst the younger and richer aircraft. If there are parts askew or patches of pitting, it is only to be expected with an airframe of this age.

The build has convinced me of something that I might have realised a long time ago; the use of a gloss overspray at the end is something that should be undertaken with care – if at all. We can’t deny that certain aircraft are currently glossy, but in this scale that gloss is closer to stain in most cases. I think in the future I will use the semi-matte, semi-gloss, or satin…call it what you will…as the default overspray for most modern aircraft. It will be more to scale.

This is not to take anything away from the poor old weathered time-expired aviation messes that sit outside all day at CORRIGAN AFB in Montana or or Schmattarim in the Negev. These are special cases that need special treatment and that is frequently very matte indeed.

The Spirit of Lodgepole doesn’t fly many work crews out to Brazeau Dam any more – the project has long been completed and it’s just maintenance operators for the flood control gates now. Still, there is a lot of oil activity and there’s space aboard for crates of spare parts as well as four passengers. So the dear old Beech 18 will still be flying out of Wet Dog Regional for a long time to come, even after this new coat of paint is rubbed and stained off.