The plane's new owners Doug (far left) and Walter Sand (far right) pose beside Doug Wilson (second left) and its original owners, Wayne and Lorraine Saam. (submitted photo/Doug Sand)

By Alison Sandstrom

Old craft reaches new heights

Seventy-year-old aircraft to be reinvented as roadside landmark

Dec 29, 2020 | 5:57 PM

A Prince Albert area pilot has just bought his thirteenth aircraft, but he has no plans to fly it.

Instead, the 2,000-pound plane will be hoisted 30 to 40 feet in the air and mounted on a pole overlooking Highway 3, in front of father and son, Walter and Doug Sand’s business, Sands Drag Hose Systems.

“It’ll make a really good landmark,” Doug Sand told paNOW. “Somebody says ‘how do I find your shop?’ ‘Well, drive down the highway until you see an airplane.”

Sand purchased the 1947 Sea Bee from a friend in Mount Nebo and hauled it around 70 kilometres back to his shop just west of Prince Albert on Christmas Eve day.

“I had vehicles passing me, going up the highway, pulling over and taking pictures of me going by,” he said. “I thought, that’s fun.”

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Sand hauled the plane from Mount Nebo to his home eight kilometres west of Prince Albert on Christmas Eve. (submitted photo)

If people were surprised to see the Sea Bee on the road, they’ll be shocked at what comes next. Sand explained over the next two weeks, he and his father, along with an eight-person crew from his shop will paint the aircraft and install an electric motor to power the propellor and lights. The plane will then be mounted on a bearing so it can pivot.

“It will weather vane,” Sand explained. “We live right here, so in the morning when my dad looks out his window he can tell which way the wind is blowing because that’s the way the airplane will be pointed.”

Sand is also putting out a call to the public for two mannequins to place in the cockpit as pilot and co-pilot.

The plane’s past life

The 70-year-old craft itself has a storied history. The friend and fellow pilot who Sand purchased it from, Wayne Saam, bought it in Manitoba in 1996. The engine of the craft was totally shot when Saam got it, so he replaced it with a motor from a 1994 Oldsmobile. Though he was able to get it off the ground for a few short test flights, it was ultimately decided that the Sea Bee was too slow and it’s been grounded ever since.

When it came time to move it to its current location, Sand said they actually had to dig it out of the earth as it had been sitting in the same field for over a decade.

The Sea Bee is loaded onto a truck for transport. (Submitted)

In a letter, Saam and his wife Lorraine thanked Sand for purchasing the plane and “giving the Sea Bee a new life.”

Sand plans to restore the plane’s original paint job to “exactly the way Wayne had it.”

“That way it’s kind of a tribute to him,” he said.

Asked about his broader motivations for giving the plane a next chapter, Sand named his love of antiques and his interest in flying. He’s been a pilot for 35 years.

“Aviation just excites me,” he said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom