The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was a temporary wartime measure that ended on 29 March 1945.

6 SFTS opened 25 November 1940 and closed on 1 December 1944, and during this time 2,436 airmen received their wings at Dunnville.

6 SFTS was located in a sparsely populated rural area close to rail lines, highways, and a town.

It had a primary relief field, or R1, at RCAF Welland just five or six minutes flying time away, and within twenty four minutes flying time there were more RCAF airfields - Brantford, Burtch, Cayuga, Dufferin, Hagersville, Jarvis, Mount Hope, St. Catharines, Tillsonburg, and Willoughby.

This gave the pilots and trainees at Dunnville many places to land if they got lost or had a mechanical problem, but it also meant there was a lot of air traffic in the area.

The airfield used the standard Canadian equilateral triangle layout with double runways, five hangars, and a fifty-acre camp.

The sports and recreation fields were on the east side of Port Maitland Road, across from the main entrance.

At the peak of activity in 1943 roughly 1,400 people were stationed at Dunnville, and sixty four Harvard Mk.

Five months later, on 12 March 1944, McLean was taxiing his aircraft when he saw a Harvard crash on another runway and catch fire.