The Philippine Mars is on its way back home to Port Alberni Ï㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥” for now.

The Martin Mars waterbomber, which has been sitting in Pat Bay near Victoria since Dec. 15, 2024, was towed to Cowichan Bay several days ago. In the meantime aircraft maintenance crews were at the B.C. Aviation Museum in Victoria, removing the No. 4 engine from its sister plane, the Hawaii Mars,

"Our plan is to bring it home," said Coulson Group owner and CEO Wayne Coulson. "(We will) pull it out of the water and we're now considering changing the other two engines so it would go down to Arizona with all four of the Hawaii Mars motors on it."

The Philippine Mars left Sproat Lake on Dec. 15 en route to its final resting place, the Pima Air and Space Museum. However, a problem with the No. 4 engine caused pilots Capt. Pete Killin and Capt. Todd Davis to turn around near Friday Harbour and conduct a precautionary landing in Pat Bay.

This was the second bout of engine trouble that interrupted the plane's flight: it had already had one false start leaving Sproat Lake and crews had to switch the No. 2 engine for one from the Hawaii Mars.

"The first problem we had was it dropped a valve and we took out a piston," Coulson said of the No. 4 engine. They attempted a high-speed taxi and the engine started to smoke. "We just thought we're not going to continue to fight with the motor; let's just replace it and move on," he said.

The plane was towed to Cowichan Bay after a Christmas break because working around the Coast Guard was challenging for the air maintenance crews, he added.

The Hawaii Mars engines have two and a half times more hours on them than those of the Philippine Mars, which were not used for flying for 17 years. "We've replaced two of the motors so we thought well, with two on it we might as well throw the other two on it. Then we know we'll be great to move it down there rather than take a chance on having an engine problem with the other two."

After nearly 50 hours of taxiing and test flights the Hawaii Mars was flown to Pat Bay in August 2024 then pulled out of the water to go on display at its new home, the B.C. Aviation Museum.

Coulson said the company would like to deliver the Philippine Mars to Pima Air and Space Museum by the end of January. "We wanted to have it delivered by the end of the year, but now we've got until early February to get it there," he said.

The plane would ideally leave Sproat Lake and fly to San Francisco to clear customs. Then the next day they would go to San Diego for at least a flyover before turning inland to an undisclosed lake near Tucson, Arizona.

The Philippine Mars was one of seven built by the Martin Company between 1942 and 1948. It was originally a cargo transport flying boat used to ferry cargo to Hawaii and other Pacific Islands during the Second World War. It regularly flew from Naval Air Station (NAS) Alameda in San Francisco to Honolulu until 1956. The four remaining Martin Mars were purchased in 1959 to Forest Industries Flying Tankers and brought to Vancouver Island.

The wildfires currently ravaging parts of California could change the Philippine Mars' flight plan, depending on smoke and other issues. (The water cowls on the Philippine Mars have been decommissioned so diverting to help fight the fires would not be considered. Coulson has three CH-47 Chinook helitankers and one S-76 Sikorsky intel helicopter deployed.)

"We had a bunch of headwinds that we were concerned about, so the best option would be we'll target around the third week of January to move it," Coulson said.