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After the No. 9 SFTS opened in January 1941, the Officers' Mess was the location for a series of open house or "At Home" sessions held on Sunday afternoons. The Commanding Officer referred to them in his Daily Diary on February 23 as "an excellent opportunity of expressing their thanks to the citizens of the Town of Summerside for their many kindnesses during the past two months."

There were two open houses held at the General Reconnaissance School in 1943. The first was in June when the Women's Division opened its doors to friends of the airwomen and female members of local service clubs. Admittance to the Station was by invitation and special provision was made for parking and extra bus trips for the afternoon. Over 400 women in groups of 15-20 were guided through the facilities with special focus on the work of the Women's Division. To conclude the afternoon, tea was served in the airmen's canteen.

The sections of greatest interest during the tour were the Log Book Control Room, Flight Timekeepers, and Parachutes, followed by the Airmen's Mess, Barracks, and Canteen.


The Daily Diary entry of the CO had a list of inquiries made by the visitors. "For the sake of interest the following questions were most asked during the afternoon: (1) Do you have much trouble with airwomen? (2) Are airwomen allowed to fly? (3) Did these girls actually take over these jobs from men? (4) Do girls become masculine when they have been in the airforce for some time? (5) Several asked how we kept the men and women apart. (6) A few wanted to know if airwomen went out with married men." He also noted, "it is felt that quite a lot of erroneous ideas were corrected."

The second major open house was held in November 1943 for the male citizens of the area. The Summerside Journal commented that it would be an opportunity to "become acquainted with the branch of the service with which we are so closely allied." Invitations were obtained at the Provincial Bank of Canada or from R. S. Hinton, Secretary of the Board of Trade, the organization that sponsored the tour. The Airways Bus Company provided free transportation for boys attending school who were permitted to leave class early. The poor weather on November 3 curtailed the number of citizens who attended. There were 30 pupils from the Summerside High School in the overall turnout of 70 citizens.

A follow-up article in the Journal praised the station as the only one of its kind in Canada or elsewhere. The writer said that while it was not permissible to give details, there was a wealth of the latest equipment for training reconnaissance personnel. He felt that anyone lucky enough to have toured the facilities "carried away with them a lasting impression of the magnitude, intricacy, and organization necessary to develop and carry on a training centre of this nature."

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