Fairchild Cornell

Fairchild Cornell Mk. II
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

In early 1942, an agreement was signed between the Canadian Government and Fairchild Aircraft, which licenced Fleet Aircraft of Fort Erie, Ontario to construct the PT-26 Cornell in Canada. The first 800 Cornells used by the RCAF were supplied from Fairchild, until production commenced at Fort Erie in November 1942. By the end of the war in 1945, 2,853 Cornells had been built by Fleet - 1,565 for the RCAF and 1,288 for the RAF.

PT-26 Cornells were flown at many of the Elementary Flying Training Schools (EFTS) of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, where they replaced the Fleet Finch and the de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane trainers. After the Second World War, many Cornells were sold to the civilian market, but some were retained by the RCAF, where they were finally retired in 1948. CWPHM

Cornell Trainer

Wikipedia Cornell Trainer

Harold A Skaarup Web Page

Cornell Mk. I FJ689

31 EFTS- Elementary Flying Training School (RAF) (31 Elementary Flying Training School)

An Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) gave a trainee 50 hours of basic flying instruction on a simple trainer like the De Havilland Tiger Moth, Fleet Finch, or Fairchild Cornell over 8 weeks.Elementary schools were operated by civilian flying clubs under contract to the RCAF and most of the instructors were civilians. For example, No. 12 EFTS Goderich was run by the Kitchener-Waterloo Flying Club and the County of Huron Flying Club.The next step for a pilot was the Service Flying Training School.

For More Information on RCAF Station DeWinton see here

No. 31 Elementary Flying Training School was formed on 18 June 1941 and was located at De Winton, Alberta. No. 31 EFTS was originally under the control of the RAF as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan within No. 4 Training Command. The Toronto Flying Club also known as the Malton Flying Training School Limited, took over operations from the RAF on 13 July 1942. No. 31 EFTS was to have been disbanded on 25 August 1944 but under Organization Order No. 407, dated 13 July 1944, the date was amended to 25 September 1944.

1941-06-18 Primary Location DeWinton AB Canada Currently location of DeWinton South Calgary Airport CEH4
1941-06-18 Relief Field Shepard AB Canada Now part of SE Calgary
1941-06-18 Relief Field Gladys AB Canada Aproximate location based on RCAF Aerodrome manual.