Hundreds of visitors came through the hangar doors at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum just north of Brandon.

Executive Director, Stephen Hayter, says the summer went very well with a resurgence of people out travelling and touring through their museum.

"We've done a few things to help attract people to the museum," explains Hayter. "We've done a new kids' display, and we had a travelling exhibit that just finished up here called 'Ace Academy' where people could pretend to be a WWI flying ace. This was a lot of fun!"

"There's always challenges attracting people but we're doing things that bring people to come out and visit us," he adds.

The children's area is modelled on material that was donated to them out of Winnipeg's Royal Aviation Museum, called the Skyways Exhibition.  "We've restored some of it and put some of it on display and for young families it's a great attraction!"

The CATPM has always had a flying committee where retired private and commercial pilots take to the skies with restored aircraft unique to the museum and the times they showcase through their displays.

Hayter says this special group of pilots fly all over the province, and even into Saskatchewan to share the invite to the museum located near the Brandon airport.

"This is where our flying aircraft is able to attend different events," he explains.  "It's a good way to have outreach and let people know about us and tell the story as well."

Please listen to Stephen Hayter below to share more about this very special flying committee!

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, Discover Westman encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the DiscoverWestman app.