Documentary

Seventy-One Years - ThE Loss and Discovery of Avro Anson L7056

This award-winning 47-minute documentary, co-produced with filmmaker Nick Versteeg of DV Media, relates the wartime loss and discovery in 2013 of an Avro Anson trainer and its four-man crew. Presumed to have been lost in the ocean off Vancouver Island, the wreck was found by chance in a heavily-treed ravine near Port Renfrew. Documentary highlights include the discovery, the quest to connect with relatives of the crew members and their ultimate interment in a Victoria cemetery.

Seventy-One Years received a Platinum Remi Award at the 2015 Houston International Film Festival. 

Selection of images taken at the crash site of Avro Anson I L7096

Ready to hike to the crash site. Left to right: film-maker Nick Versteeg, Tom Weston, project historian Robert Stitt, Walter Van Hell and Dennis Cronin

Entering the ravine containing the crash site.

One of the first artifacts on the trek to the site.

Signs of impact.

Aileron with hand-applied camouflage over trainer yellow.

Cheetah IX engine.

Cockpit remains and the first of a number of wreaths.

Grey and green maritime camouflage applied to engine nacelle upper surfaces.

Rudder mass balance (centre) and weighted trailing aerial in its fairlead (left) - see next section.

Pilot-side opening skylight.

'Type B' upper wing surface roundel.

Forestry engineers Dennis Cronin, Walter Van Hell and Tom Weston re-enact discovery of the first Anson artifact. 

The following images of artifacts from L7056 were taken at CFB Esquimalt.

Dinghy compartment cover and inflation bottle (top left), propeller blades from the port Cheetah IX engine and circular portholes from the modified fuselage glazing.

Clockwise from top left: Practice bomb carrier, R.1082 radio receiver, battery, pilot's nose-mounted bead gun site, first aid kit and Mk.I Navigator's Chart Plotter. 

Corroded throttle quadrant and radio trailing antenna winch with lead bead end weight -- this is the spare end weight rather than the operational one depicted in the section above. It consists of fifty 1/2" diameter lead beads with stainless steel end stop.

Air tank for pneumatic braking system. It was mounted in the nose compartment, just forward of the instrument panel.

Harness quick-release buckle.

Control wheel and rudder pedal tubes.