Philippine Mars towed from Patricia Bay to Cowichan Bay for final repairs

The Philippine Mars waterbomber sits in Cowichan Bay, where it will be outfitted with a new engine taken from its sister plane, the Hawaii Mars, at the BC Aviation Museum.

The Philippine Mars waterbomber has finally left North Saanich's Patricia Bay, but it hasn't travelled very far. On Monday, it was towed across the Saanich Inlet to Cowichan Bay for some much-needed repairs.

Dave Strand – who spent an entire day in the summer of 2005 watching the Philippine and its sister waterbomber, the Hawaii Mars, fight an out of control wildfire near Cowichan Lake – came to visit with an old acquaintance.

"I've seen them working in the bush in the past; it was incredible,” said Strand. “I was getting wet on every dump.”

That’s how close he was to the action.

The answer as to why the Philippine was towed to Cowichan Bay lies back in North Saanich at the BC Aviation Museum.

"We are an organ donor to get the Philippine Mars flying,” said Steve Nichol, the museum's president.

In December, the Philippine departed Port Alberni’s Sproat Lake heading towards its final destination and new home in Arizona. After experiencing engine problems, it turned around near Washington State and landed in Patricia Bay.

"What we've done is we've donated our number four engine from the Hawaii Mars,” said Nichol.

The donated engine will now be trucked to Cowichan Bay.

"They have a barge and a hydraulic lift on the barge where they will change it right there,” said Nichol.

That doesn’t mean the Hawaii Mars that now calls the BC Aviation Museum home will be without an engine.

"We'll give them a good working engine and they'll give us an engine that doesn't work to put back onto the Hawaii Mars, but it doesn't matter, the Hawaii Mars is never going to fly again,” said Nichol.

Once that new engine is on the Philippine, Coulson Aviation – the owner of the plane – hopes to fly it back to Sproat Lake to perform some additional tests. Following that, Coulson Aviation hopes to finally complete that trip to Arizona in the coming months.

"It's neat to see if before it goes and I wish them a safe trip down south,” said Strand.

Once that day finally comes, that is.