John Hart, who served as a Squadron Leader in Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF), has died at the age of 102. A Spitfire pilot, Hart shot down a German Messerschmitt 109 and participated in the downing of two Junkers Ju88 bombers. These accomplishments earned Hart the RAF’s Distinguished Flying Cross, which is awarded for “…an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy.”

Hart was born on September 11, 1916 in New Brunswick and attended that province’s Mount Allison University, studying engineering. He learned to fly at the Halifax [Nova Scotia] Flying Club. Looking for adventure, he moved to the United Kingdom and joined the RAF in January of 1939, before the outbreak of the Second World War.

After training on Spitfires with the RAF’s 54 Squadron, Hart transferred to 602 Squadron in September, 1940. A month later his aircraft sustained serious damage when he assisted with the shooting down of a Ju88 of the East Sussex coast. On another flight during another battle, a Ju88 shot a hole in his plane’s radiator at 20,000 feet over the English Channel, but he was able to make it back to base.

“I know I have the Battle of Britain medal with a star on it, but I really didn’t have that much to do with it. You were posted to a squadron and you did your job,” said Hart later.

Hart went on to command the RAF’s 67 Squadron in Burma in 1943 and 112 Squadron in Italy in early 1945. After the end of the war, Hart returned to Canada, initially to Vancouver before retiring in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.

Battle of Britain historian Andy Saunders told Britain’s Daily Mail in an interview “The debt that the nation and the free world owes to those heroes of the ‘Few’ can never be underestimated and it is terribly sad that the ‘Few’ are yet fewer.”

With the passing of Hart, there remains only four battle of Britain veterans still alive.

Photo above: RAF Squadron Leader (Ret’d) John Hart at the Penticton Regional Airport (CYYF) with RCAF Major Denis Bandet of 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron. Courtesy of the RCAF.

The pilot of a remotely piloted aerial system (RPAS) is complaining to Transport Canada (TC) about a near-collision of his drone with a passing helicopter.

Jim Turnbull of 12 O’Clock High Drone Services was operating the drone over a gathering of boats and people who were attending a fundraising event on Glenwood Wharf Road near Caton’s Island, New Brunswick. Turnbull says that his drone was almost hit earlier this month when a helicopter passed by at treetop level, under his drone.

“There was a near disaster,” said Turnbull.

According to CBC News, Turnbull said he had obtained the required Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) a few days earlier, which entitles the holder to ‘own’ a specified section of airspace for a specific period of time as described in the SFOC.

The issuance of an SFOC normally results in the issuance of a NOTAM, as appropriate, by Nav Canada.

With the Bell JetRanger approaching fast at about 200 feet above the water, Turnbull recalled “I had seconds to decide what my options were going to be.” He ended up remaining stationary, at about 280 to 300 feet above the water, and the helicopter passed by under his drone.

“The whole purpose of the special flight operation certificate is to remove such hazards,” Turnbull said.

However, TC sees the situation differently. “Drone pilots are responsible for being aware of other traffic and must yield to other aircraft,” said Alexandre Desjardins of TC, whose enforcement division is investigating the incident to determine whether charges or fines are warranted.

Photo credit: William Daigneault

Briton James Ketchell is not one to shrink away from challenges in life. After surviving a motorcycle crash in 2007 that resulted in a broken leg and a broken and dislocated ankle, an accident that doctors said would likely leave him with an impaired walking ability, he went on to live a most adventurous life.

In 2010, Ketchell rowed single-handedly across the Atlantic, from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean, in 110 days. The a year later, he scaled Mount Everest. Yet another adventure lured him abroad, this time in 2013, when he headed out on a global bicycle ride, pedalling 18,000 kilometres through 20 countries, averaging 100 km per day.

2015 saw Ketchell embark on another adventure, this time to row 5800 km across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa, with funds being raised for charities. However, his rowing partner sustained a head injury requiring medical attention only 320 km into the journey, leading to the cancellation of the attempt.

Not one to sit at home watching television, Ketchell came up with a new fund-raising scheme, this time to circumnavigate the globe in a gyroplane. In March of this year, Ketchell took off from Popham airfield (EGHP) in England on another fund-raising adventure. His journey has taken him to a number of European countries before entering Asia over Russia.

Ketchell crossed into Alaska by traversing the Bering Strait, and entered Canada for the first time in the Yukon. From Whitehorse, he piloted his open-cockpit gyroplane down through British Columbia and re-entered the United States in Washington. He has zig-zagged across the U.S., pausing in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to display his aircraft at AirVenture 2019.

According to his route-tracking website, Ketchell is now in Quebec, flying northeast towards the greatest challenge of his journey, crossing the North Atlantic.

Photo of James Ketchell and G-KTCH on the ground in Tok, Alaska was taken by the author on June 22, 2019. Note the open cockpit and the fuel bladder that occupies the tandem passenger seat.