VICTORIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: At just after 9pm in the fading sunset under pink and grey clouds on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, Nickel Brothers Moving special transportation service delivered the Hawaii Mars water bomber expertly and gently without a scratch onto the BC Aviation Museum property.
The Mars was securely held seven feet above the ground on a 360-turning trailer as it crawled across the active Victoria Airport taxiways just like the Space Shuttle, which all made for an amazing sight both from the ground and happily surprised passengers arriving on local airlines.
The museum warmly congratulates Nickel Brothers, especially Tim Nickel who has been the mastermind of the whole move from the de-watering last week to the transporting of the Mars.
For sure some moments of passing fences, poles and a large grassy knoll were done with only an inch or two to spare, but all those nail-biting seconds for onlookers were planned out and just another day at the office for our movers.
The public are warmly invited to come visit the museum to see the Mars as a closed display, and future access to the aircraft will evolve in stages as the exhibit is prepared. From August 26 to 28, the Mars will be lowered into its concrete pads outside in the museum’s airpark to take its crown jewel place of honour beside our other iconic water bombers in the growing BC Wildfire Aviation exhibit.
The grand opening date for visitors to tour inside the Mars is still to be confirmed and this will be announced with a press release. We can say now that the museum is trying to aim for September 28 on-wards to have the first open stage ready for everyone to explore inside the aircraft, but the extent of the first open display stage has yet to be decided since museum staff and crew still have to wait until late next week to get 24/7 access to the aircraft in order to determine the many preparation tasks required.
We greatly appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm for this rescue project and how people understand the museum will take its time properly preparing the Mars over the next coming months and years for everyone’s benefit and the plane’s conservation.
If the Hawaii Mars aircraft and the rescue story have meant something to you, that’s wonderful. If you would like to donate to the project to help us keep it going, please visit free the rescue’s GoFundMe page.
