Warbird Registry
Aerial Visuals
Early History
United States Navy. TBM-3S AS Mk. 3. 1945. Construction number 2279. 1945-1950.
In 2003, Forest Protection Limited requested copies of Aircraft History Cards on seven former U.S. Navy Avenger aircraft currently in the FPL fleet from the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Some of the cards were poorly microfilmed, and are presented below as received.



Royal Canadian Navy. Delivered to RCN as #346. BOC: July 22, 1950. SOC: July 5, 1960 [1957?].

Richardson Aviation? Registered as N7032C, 1960? Crashed on take-off, Idaho City, ID, July 9, 1961.
“In 1957, three surplus TBM-3s were modified to TBM-3Ss by Ben Wiplinger at Fleming Field [St. Paul, MN]. They were converted to water bombers. … N7032C also served as a tanker in Idaho, went to Israel, then Greece as a sprayer and finally to New Brunswick, Canada …” Source: ‘TBMs at Fleming Field”, by Noel Allard, a short note in The Aero Historian, Vol. 45 (1), January 2011.



Richardson Aviation, Yakima, WA
#112 N7032C 1963-1972
Aerial Spray Program – NB, Newfoundland
1969 – Flew in NB and Newfoundland. Pilot Richardson. 1970 – Pilot Richardson. 1971 – Pilot Watson. 1972 – Pilot Richardson.
Hillcrest Aircraft, Lewiston ID
#112 N7032C 1976
1976 – Hillcrest Aircraft sold N7032C to Forest Protection Limited.
Forest Protection Limited, Fredericton, NB
#E32 / #3 C-GFPS 1976-2004
Aerial Spray Program – NB
1976 – FPL purchased #112 in 1 Mar 1976 for $35,520 from Hillcrest Aircraft, Lewiston, Idaho. It was dry leased from Evergreen Air Services of Montreal and operated by FPL because FPL had not yet obtained its Operating Certificate. Pilot Crocker. 1977 – Pilot McIlwaine. 1978 – Repainted and renumbered (#E32 to #3) to fleet standard prior to 1978 spray season. Pilot Wells. 1979 – Pilot Guidon. 1980 – Pilot Foote. 1981 – Pilot Guindon. 1982 – Pilot Tall. 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 – Pilot Lavigne. 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 – Pilot McKinnon. 1991 – Pilot Haden.
Fire Suppression – NB
1992, 1993, 1994 – Pilot Wilkie. 1995 – Spare. 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 – Pilot Wilkie. 2000 – Pilot MacNeil. 2001 – Pilot Fournier.
Inactive/Sold – NB
2002-2003 – In storage at FPL. 2004 – Sold to company in USA.












Post-spray History
FEW TBMS LLC, Rio Grande, NJ, Jan. 18, 2005. Registered as N145WB.
“I own #85460 N145WB . The airplane is flying now. I have kept it as a water bomber even though it is not doing water work.” Edward Wuerker, from a comment posted to Post-War Commercial Use of TBMs.
