What Our Members Are Building/Restoring — Ontario Bowers Fly Baby Biplane | Aviation

This piece originally ran in the August 2024 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.

I am writing this on behalf of a small group of aviators in southern Ontario, Canada. We call ourselves the “Flambros” — a reference to the small grass strip we operate out of called Flamborough Centre Aerodrome (CFC8). We are a diverse collection of characters — Brian Kenney, a retired engineer and aircraft builder; Kirk Tilley, EAA 1213044, a businessman; Olivia White, EAA 1417190, a young new professional pilot; and me, a longtime airline pilot and homebuilder. What we all have in common is our collective love for open-cockpit, fabric airplanes and a passion for barnstorming and camping out with our homebuilt or vintage aircraft.

We can often be found at one of our many surrounding airports in the warmer summer flying season, typically peering inside open hangars at unfinished projects or derelict aircraft after a belly full of bacon and eggs or pancakes. One such Saturday in the spring of 2022 saw our crew in the hangars of the Guelph, Ontario, Tiger Boys. Tom Dietrich and Bob Revell were two collectors of a multitude of vintage aircraft both certified and homebuilt. Tom had passed on, and Bob was becoming a little more motivated to move some of the fleet along to new owners. The airplane that caught our eye this particular morning was a faded yellow Bowers Fly Baby biplane,…