Sitting outside its Pacific Coastal base hangar at Port Hardy Airport on the northern tip of Vancouver Island BC.

V185 continued in USCG service until the end of World War II. It was disposed of in 1946 as NC95400. The aircraft is current in 2023 on the Canadian register as C-FUAZ. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Grumman G-21A Goose, C-FUAZ was delivered new to the US Coast Guard in February 1940 as V185 and was sold by the US government in November 1946 as NC95400 and later N95400. The aircraft was registered to three different owners in the Bahamas between 1963-1965, then imported to Canada in December 1965 by Northwest Industries (NWI) which was large MRO company based in Edmonton, owned by CAE. In May 1966, NWI sold the Goose to BC Airlines, a subsidiary, and the aircraft was registered C-FUAZ. It joined the Trans-Provincial fleet in April 1969. With Wilderness Seaplanes in Port Hardy in 2022.

Built as JRF1 V185 for the US Coast Guard. Sold as N95400 in 1954 and then CF-UAZ in 1966 with BC Airlines and later Trans Provincial Airlines. Re-registered C-FUAZ in 1978 and flew with Air BC and a private owner before joining Pacific Coastal Airlines in 1988. Since 2016 the aircraft has flown for Wilderness Seaplanes, a specialist division of Pacific Coastal Airlines based at Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island.

Warming up the Wasps in weather that is not uncommon in the area. Beautiful music.

Sitting on the ramp with sister Goose C-FIOL, all engines running, waiting for the fog to clear which it eventually did and they were off.