Fokker F-28-1000 C-FTAV – Restoration and Beyond

Hello, this is Rik from the Time Air Historical Society.

Against all odds, we at the Time Air Historical Society were finally able to relocate Fokker F-28-1000 s/n 11106 C-FTAV from Saskatoon to Lethbridge during the last week of April 2024. This was an epic journey of over 800km involving three trucks, five pilot cars, two support vehicles, and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

This all started in 2018 with the seemingly crazy idea of acquiring one of the many Fokker F-28s that had been sitting in Saskatoon since the early 2000s. Through prior funding campaigns, we purchased C-FTAV, Time Air’s “Silver Anniversary” aircraft and got her ready for transport. Through your generosity, we are thrilled that she is now HOME in Lethbridge.

Thanks to our previous experience, we successfully removed C-FTAV’s wings and got them and the fuselage loaded onto their respective trailers and off the Saskatoon Airport property with just two days’ worth of work. This was all done with a team of volunteers and the expertise of the many professionals that we worked with.

C-FTAV departed Saskatoon, her home for the last two decades, for the last time on April 26th. The aircraft officially arrived at Lethbridge Airport the following Monday, April 29th, and was sitting on her own wheels within the next 48 hours.

C-FTAV now has her own spot at Lethbridge Airport, and this is where the next stage of her restoration can begin. Through this campaign, we’re aiming to raise funds to do just that.

The very fact that TAV is now back in Lethbridge, and, most importantly , 100% SAFE from the scrapman’s axe, is the culmination of years of work, and we are immensely grateful for everyone’s generosity over this whole journey.

The funds from this campaign will allow us to carry out these next steps of bringing the aircraft back to life for everyone to enjoy. Specifically, it will allow us to:

- Reattach the horizontal stabilizer (requires a crane and an all-terrain lift)

- Restore the exterior condition of the aircraft (repainting will come later on)

- Deep cleaning the interior of the aircraft (including seats, carpets)

- Restoring cabin lighting

- Potentially sourcing timed out RR Spey engines to mount on the aircraft for display purposes

- Assess options for future repainting of the tail and polishing of the fuselage

The team at the Time Air Historical Society is exclusively made up of volunteers who have dedicated their time to the preservation of this aircraft and our cause of preserving the history of Time Air. All funds will be going directly to TAHS.

When complete, the exterior will be repainted in the delivery "Silver Bullet" colours worn during Time Air's 25th Anniversary. We will be honouring every airline that flew this aircraft, with appropriate vintage logos to commemorate C-FTAV's entire history: Garuda Indonesia, Piedmont Airlines, US Air, and Canadian Regional/Canadian, Canadian Regional/Air Canada.

C-FTAV is the second of four aircraft acquired by the Society – any remaining funds will go towards the return of Convair 580 C-FTAP from Montreal, as well as Short SD-330 C-GTAV (which we’ve nicknamed “Baby TAV”) from Milwaukee. The preservation of these historically significant aircraft is also of the utmost importance, and it still remains our goal to bring all four of these planes home.

Thank you for taking the time to consider donating to the restoration of C-FTAV and to our future plans for preservation. We appreciate everyone’s support throughout this entire project and we can’t wait to share more with you all!

Onwards, and upwards!