Airplane abandoned in Highway 6 field for 40 years finds new home at the Eva Rothwell Centre

When he found the aircraft, it looked nothing like it does today. Faded white with a black stripe, the abandoned twin-engine's cockpit was filled with parts and its wings, which together spanned 40 feet, weighted down with cinder blocks.

It was buried in a field for 40 years," said Don MacVicar, founding director of the Eva Rothwell Centre, who spotted the 1950s Piper Apache in a farm field off Highway 6 near Safari Road on a routine drive in 2018.

The raccoons, the mice and the birds, it was their own Airbnb."

It was the last of 200 airplanes destined to be sold for valuable parts. Instead, it was given a second chance at life as a long-simmering idea of MacVicar's took flight.

The shiny restored red-and-white plane has found a new home at the Eva Rothwell Centre, a beacon of imagination and inspiration for neighbourhood kids. It was unveiled Saturday at a sunny outdoor event at the centre on Wentworth Street North.

Executive director Sam Campanella said he hopes the plane inspires young people to follow their dreams."

You have a little girl walking by and just seeing the plane and going, Wow, this is amazing. One day I want to be a pilot,'" he said.

The plane's transportation to Mohawk College's Stoney Creek campus for restoration - all which was valued at $100,000 in cash and kind - was a team effort. Mohawk aviation students, with the help of Mount Hope-based KF Aerospace, spent years restoring the plane and making it kid-friendly, with a railing and flight simulator.

Initially, I just wanted to get a gallon of paint and a roller," MacVicar laughs.

The plane is a piece of Canadian history," he said. Built by Canadian brothers Robert and Tommy Wong, it was the first twin-engine to fly into Toronto's Central Island airport. The year was 1956.

Now, more than 50 years later, several members of the Wong family - including a niece and two of Robert's daughters, who learned to fly under their father - came to Hamilton to see the brothers' legacy unfold.

Evelyn Wong shared that her father got his start building planes in the 1930s when a department store manager offered him free five-cent kits to assemble in store in store in front of customers.

Building model airplanes was the craze," she said.

Several other pilots who flew the plane were also there.

The unveiling of the plane was just one part what MacVicar called the triple-crown" event, which also included a celebration of Fox 40 inventor Ron Foxcroft and his wife, Marie, and their 40 years of community contributions, and the first-ever Tyquan Brown Memorial Basketball Tournament.

Tyquan, who MacVicar described as a go-getter" with a contagious smile," played basketball at the centre before he was killed in 2019 while celebrating the Raptors' first NBA finals win on Sherman Avenue North.

The event, the first since the beginning of the pandemic, was attended by more than 200 people, including Hamilton Centre MPP Andrea Horwath and mayor Fred Eisenberger, each gifted a brightly coloured Fox 40 whistle.

We're proud Hamiltonians, we're proud Canadians, and we're proud today to be part of Canadian aviation history," Ron said to a clapping audience.

Tyquan's mother, Donna Brown, tipped off the first youth basketball game on Saturday alongside the Foxcrofts. One of the four teams was from Toronto, made up of Tyquan's family and friends.

They won actually," MacVicar said. It was kind of neat having that group come in and win."

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com