Greetings -
today sixth leg of the Sentimental Journey from CYEG to CYQL via Red Deer YQF
After departure from Edmonton International Airport, I turned north in direction of downtown to make a fly by on the old airport site, to see by myself how much remains of the original installation.
The airport was originally called Blatchford Field, named for former mayor Kenneth Alexander Blatchford. It later was known as the Edmonton Municipal Airport, then as Edmonton Industrial Airport, and then Edmonton City Centre Airport (ECCA), finally ending as Blatchford Field at Edmonton City Centre Airport. Over the years, the three letter code “YXD” continued to be used for the airport by all of the airlines serving the airfield.
The airport was closed in November 2013, and as of 2018, the land is being redeveloped by the City of Edmonton as a planned community called “Blatchford”.
The remnants of the old airport are still clearly visible from the air, the runways pavements not yet completely removed and some of the old buildings still existing, such as the control tower (well, at least in the virtual rendering of MSFS)
After the fly over, I turned south for a very smooth trip to Lethbridge Airport, located 4 NM south southeast of Lethbridge.
From 1939 to 1948, Lethbridge operated as western Canada’s primary airline hub. According to the Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) system timetable dated January 1, 1940, Lethbridge was a stop on Trans-Canada’s transcontinental flights linking Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina and Vancouver with connecting service to and from Toronto via North Bay (which was one of the stops on the TCA transcontinental flights between Montreal and Vancouver) operated with Lockheed Electras.
Lethbridge Airport hosts the biennial Lethbridge International Airshow.
Wishing you will enjoy the views and happy flights!
