Al Rubin Has Departed the Fix...

[tsgarp]

My chats with Rockie on another thread made me think of Al Rubin for some reason

I looked up Al to see where he was at. He passed away a few months back.

For those who aren’t familiar, Al was the operator of the Markham Airport. With his departure, I wonder what will become of Markham, and the ‘Museum’ there. Might be able to get a good deal on an F5 or 104 to park on the front lawn....

[lownslow]

I don’t believe any of that stuff was actually ever his.

[tsgarp]

The whole set up was a bit convoluted. I’ve seen bits and pieces come up for sale on Barnstormers. If I had the space....

[waterdog]

So I’m at Markham and have watched all this unfold....... The story was that Al was trying to clean up his estate before he passed. But, although some stuff has sold, all of the intact fighters and all of the trailers that are stuffed full of parts and his office, which has all of the ejection seats and stuff is still there.
The family is still going to sell it off, but, no movement yet.
The best thing to do would be to hold an auction on the runway and get it over with, we’ll see. There is sure a lot of stuff!

[bodyflyer2]

An old 2014 Toronto Star article on Al and Markham airport (NU8) is still online:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/1 ... plans.html
(If the paywall stops you after looking at too many Toronto Star pages, turn off javascript and reload)

For anyone not familiar with Al, it does give some background and his big plans for the airport, big plans that have been around just about forever but never happened. I guess Al did get to use the place for a bunch of landfill, that old dodge / money maker for small airports, and the old military aircraft with no barriers around them were fun to look at.

I have barely visited the airport in the last couple decades so I'm not really in the know.
Just learned to fly there in the 1980s, my dad & partners owned a Champ there, and I had a decades old verbal permission from Al to fly into the PPR airport!

Al was quite the character.

[jschnurr]

I met Al around 2007 when I was at the flight school (Canadian Flyers, I think... not sure if they're still there or not). Al was a memorable character, for sure. One time he fixed a pothole on the runway with a piece of plywood, then just told everyone "don't land on it".

+RIP