At 101, WWII veteran Spitfire pilot gets another spin in Harvard trainer
Flying Officer Ken Raven returns to the cockpit for special flight over Tillsonburg
It's been more than 80 years since former Second World War Spitfire pilot Ken Raven was last at the controls of a Harvard Mark II trainer, though you wouldn't know it by the way he flew Thursday over skies above Tillsonburg, Ont.
"He's a great pilot, everything seemed to come back to him," said Allan Paige, who piloted the flight but turned the stick over to Raven for about 10 minutes once they were airborne.
Raven, a former Flying Officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force, celebrated his 101st birthday earlier this month.
"It was like riding a bicycle for him," said Paige. "He's smooth on the controls and he seemed to enjoy it."
Ken Raven is a humble man, not one to expound about his own skill or his service during the war. He made a point of telling CBC News that he was not a hero, just one of so many others who did their wartime duty.
"Brings back a lot of memories," he said after returning to the hangar. "It was great. Very nice."
Ken's flight was arranged by the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association, a group of volunteers who maintain eight of the wasp-yellow, single-engine planes that were a mainstay of training programs for Allied pilots during the war.
Master of the 'Yellow Peril'
Known as the "Yellow-Peril," the Harvard had a reputation for being cumbersome and a challenge to fly.
An 'unforgiving' aircraft
Terry Scott is a member of the Harvard association. He said it was a plane that provided a good test for prospective pilots. If a recruit could fly a Harvard, it was a good sign to RCAF brass they might have the skill to fly in combat situations.
"It was a very unforgiving aircraft," said Scott. "Once you were able to master it, you were good to go."
As a young man who enlisted right out of high school, Ken Raven proved himself in the Harvard enough to go on to fly Spitfires on photo recognizance missions, taking photos of enemy positions in Europe toward the end of the war.
He arrived in England as the D-Day invasion was being prepared. He remembers seeing Allied gliders heading out over the English Channel on their way into occupied France.
"There was so many tanks there, it was a wonder the island didn't sink," he joked.
Ken chose the path of a pilot in part because his brother chose the same path. Unfortunately though, his brother didn't come home. He was part of a bomber crew shot down near the Heligoland archipelago, off the coast of Germany. Their plane crashed into the ocean and was never found.
At 101, former pilot says 'life is good'
Ken's daughter Dee Howell was one of a handful of family members who made the trip from Huntsville on Thursday to witness the flight in the Harvard.
"This means a lot to him," she said. "It just brings back so many memories. He's such a happy fellow. He was excited to come down here today."
Howell showed CBC News a video of her father skiing last winter doing wide, graceful turns down the mountain. At his 100th birthday party last year, he danced late into the night.
"He loves life, and he says 'life is good' all the time," said Howell.
Next year is the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association's 40th anniversary. The group offers flights for a fee, but also does plenty of special events such as Ken's flight.
You can visit their website to learn more about the Harvard, a training aircraft that played a critical role in training pilots like Ken Raven.
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