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August 2008 Newsletter.
Next meeting: Saturday, August
2, 2008, at 10:00am.
Location: Clubhouse, Blair Field, Knutsford.
This
site hosted by OCIS, On Call Internet Services.
376-3858 Check their Website
here: http://www.ocis.net/
Due
to the limited space available on the server, the
archives will not contain anything older than one
year. For members only: If you need to look at a
specific newsletter from previous years, please
let me know, I will e-mail you the file. villeneuve@shaw.ca
Flyer's
Reunion
Dennis and Linda Seib have
organized a flyer's reunion and dinner for this
coming week-end. This saturday, August 2nd @
the Kamloops Flying Club: Appies @ 5pm and
dinner @ 6:30pm Cost for dinner is by
donation. Coffee/tea/punch are provided but
if you'd like to bring your own beverage
(alcoholic or otherwise) you are welcome
to. Please come enjoy a good dinner and a
great time of memories and making new friends as
well as seeing old acquaintances.
Please let
Dennis or Linda know if you plan on attending.
Editor's
Notes
Thanks
to Dan Nelson for his story of his trip across
Canada. Following is the first instalment. The
other two will be published in the next month's
newsletters.
We
do not request any fee to place ads in our
Buy&Sell section; so lately I was a bit
surprised when a gentleman insisted on sending us
a cheque to show his appreciation after his power
parachute was sold. Dick Suttie told me that he
had done the same for a previous ad... Thank
You, Mario! You are a gentleman! Friends,
please check his new ad for an aircraft engine in
the Parts
section.
A
few weeks ago, I flew over to Highland Valley
Copper (where I worked for five years) to look at
the geodesic dome they are building over one of
the stock piles. Very impressive!
RIDING A
HIGH PRESURE RIDGE ACROSS CANADA
By Dave Jones and Dan
Nelson
(Part 1 of 3.)
Let’s start with the most
frequent asked question as we flew across Canada
-------Why would you fly all the way to Bear
River Nova Scotia to buy a set of floats, when
you live in Kamloops BC?
Well it’s a story we would
like to share with you.
Maybe first I best introduce you
to these two; Dave Jones is a logger who divides
his time between logging on the North end of
Vancouver Island and his farm at Monte Creek east
of Kamloops. Dan Nelson is a flying instructor,
retired DFTE and former charter operator who
lives in Kamloops.
I guess our story starts when
Dave decided to sell his Stinson 108 and build
his own airplane. In 2000 he decided to build a
PA14, so he had a frame made at Vernon BC by John
Mitchell of Interior Pacific Flight Systems and
got a set of North Star wings from, Morgan
Williams of Custom Flight Components in Perkins
field Ontario. The engine an, 0-320-A2B was built
by Bart Lalonde of Aero sport in Kamloops. The
project was completed in 2005 and all test
flights went well, but Dave had always had his
Stinson on floats so of course he now needed
floats for his new airplane. He did not want to
start out with an old set of floats so with a
little shopping he learned that Ed Peck in Bear
River Nova Scotia would build him a new set of
2250’s, so a deal was struck and Dave
started to save his money.
So the day came, Eddy will have
the floats ready by June [of 2007] but Dave is
not sure how to get them home with out damaging
them.
That’s when Dan said “I
know how to do that, lets fly down to Bear River
and get them It could be a real adventure!”
“You have to be kidding, how
do we get across the prairies on floats” was
Dave’s reply. Dan [having done it twice
before] assured him that it wouldn’t be a
problem. It was decided that we would leave
around the first part of June, so a route was
planned and a new set of maps were ordered.
There had been a high pressure
ridge sitting over southern BC for the better
part of a week but it started to show signs of
weakening so we decided to leave on June 03rd.
The morning dawned bright and
clear and Dave arrived at the Kamloops airport to
pick up Dan and all the stuff needed for the
trip, the tanks were topped up and we left
Kamloops at 9:45am with a flight plan to Okotoks
Alberta via the Rogers Pass.
Leaving Kamloops!
With clear skies we were able to
fly east at 7500ft, this was a help because the
Revelstoke flying club had held a fly in
breakfast and there were many small airplanes
leaving about the time, we got there.
We did a position report with
Kamloops FIC and on up the pass we went, once at
the summit of the Rogers Pass we climbed to 9500
ft and headed over the Dog Tooth range to Golden.
Another check in with Kamloops FIC and east to
Lake Louise and then to Exshaw Alberta, where we
turned and headed for Okotoks. By now we were
learning that a little more padding in the seats
would have been a good thing. We saw a few TCU
build ups south and west of Calgary but posed no
problem in our 4 hr trip to Okotoks It was also
imperative that we stay clear of Calgary’s
control zone and all other zones along the way
because we did not have a transponder.
After
refuelling and a much needed rest at Okotoks we
checked the Edmonton FIC for weather and a
decision was made to head for Moose Jaw
Saskatchewan, there were some TCU’s building
near our destination, but we were flying across
the prairies in a Cub so if we had to stop it was
no problem. We filed a flight plan and headed
east, our track took us past Brooks and just
north of the Suffield range. All looked very flat
after coming out of the mountains. By now Dave is
starting to realize the prairies do have quite a
bit of water, we had just flown all the way to
the Saskatchewan border with the Bow and Red Deer
River out the window, not to mention Lake Newell,
Crawling Valley and Diefenbaker Lake in
Saskatchewan.
We
made it to Moose Jaw just behind a TCU moving
east; it had been 4.2hrs since we left Okotoks
and again time to get out and walk around. The Moose
Jaw airport has a very small Quonset type
building that is used for passenger waiting area
and as we found it works well to sleep in. It
also comes equipped with a phone.
Pilot's
lounge in Moose Jaw
Cooking
supper in Moose Jaw
After
a hardy dinner of fried sausage, bread and
butter, it was off to bed.
Day
#2
Next
morning dawned bright and sunny we heard someone
moving around out side and we went over and met
Bill Nyman of Provincial Airways; Bill has an
aerial spray business out of the Moose Jaw
airport, and sells fuel. Bill was getting ready
to go spraying so we moved our airplane over and
got it filled up so he could get away. He was
kind enough to let us in the hanger to wash up,
but by the time he got his airplane ready to go
spraying the wind had changed and he had to wait,
that was when Bill asked us over for breakfast in
his trailer.
Breakfast
with Bill Wyman
Bill
was very interested in our adventure and was a
great help to us on the way back. That story
later.
We checked the weather for
Steinbach and Atikokan Ontario, filed our flight
plan and headed east. We left at 8:30am and had a
good trip to Stienback; most of the way with tail
winds, showing a ground speed of 109mph pretty
descend for a cub there was low cloud in the
Brandon to Winnipeg area but remained VFR. It was
4.2 hrs to Steinback and a very strong wind was
blowing, when we arrived, but luckily, it was
straight down the runway.
Steinbach has a very nice
airport, and friendly people to help with
fuelling. We took a break and had some lunch,
checked the weather guy again and he said the
weather was good to Atikokan Ont. We filed our
plan direct to but had to stay a little north of
track over the north end of Lake of the Woods. Lake
of the Woods is a very large and beautiful body
of water with many islands and coves. Our track
took us over the town of Nester Falls, another
great spot and a must see, we will talk more
about it on the way home. We had some scattered
cloud and light chop to Atikokan, with the sun
behind us we could see a large smoke stack north
of Atikokan and would find out later it was a
coal powered hydro plant.
We arrived at Atikokan around
5:30pm and there was 5 turbine air tractors
sitting waiting to spray bugs, the weather had
been holding them up for a week, but the high we
were riding was about to get them in the air.
They had a crew of 15, which included the pilots,
loaders, dispatch and security. Most of the Air
tractors were from Saskatchewan, Battleford
Airways, also some from Alberta. After refuelling
and setting up our tents we decided it was time
for supper, one of the pilots gave us a ride into
town, when we were done, the restaurant owner
gave us a ride back to the airport; he said the
taxi was not running at that time.
Day#3
We were up early at 4:00 the next
morning; the air spray crew were already there
loading to start spraying. Once the sun was up
and our tents were dry, we checked weather east
and found out the high had moved just east of Lake
Superior so the plan is to go to Wawa Ont. With
everything loaded, we were off at 7:00am. Some
low clouds, but no bad weather or winds forecast
for our route.
There was some light rain near
Marathon but we decided to go on, the trip along
the north shore of Lake Superior was great.
It was 3.5hrs to Wawa but we had
to stop for the day and again let the high move
east. It was cloudy and windy in Wawa when we
arrived so we refuelled and tied down when the
gas bill came there was an extra $8:00 on it for
landing fee’s but with a couple of questions
directed to the airport manager it was decided
they had over charged us. The weather lady was
great help and gave us a ride into town where we
got a motel. Wawa is a great little town to have
to wait out weather. There is an old general
store on Main Street with a stuffed moose and
lots of antique stuff, also a very large Canada
goose statue near the airport and entrance to the
town.
Wawa Ontario
(To be continued next
month)
Flight
to Barriere
Greg
Peterson had invited me to fly to his airstrip
just North of Barriere, and this last Monday
morning, July 28, I finally got the chance to do
it; the air was fresh, and the wind had stopped
blowing for a while; Bill Huxley was getting
ready to fly to Salmon Arm. I was airborne by
eight, heading over to the Rose Hills area; a
beautiful day, with low clouds around the
Kamloops area.
I
made my descent into the valley East of Juniper
Ridge, with the throttle down to 5000rpm so the
noise would not aggravate the residents.
I
flew low over the South Thompson by Dallas, where
an aircraft was just touching down on the river.
I
climbed back to make it over the ridge and into
the Harper Ranch Valley,
and
North to Paul Lake road where I kept on going all
the way to the Heffley Lake road.
I
turned left for the North Thompson Valley, and
for a minute it looked like it might be blocked
by low clouds. Fortunately, they were few, and
scattered at 2000 feet on the hillsides; it was
quite nice to fly right by them, but it was
getting cold inside my insulated flight
coveralls.
By
the time I reached Barriere, the sun was shining.
It was easy to find Greg's strip, just past the
golf course. According to Greg: "It
is approx. 1300' end to end. The best
approach is from the north. From the north
end to where the strip passes through the
fenceline, there is a gentle dip, so I try to
hold off for touch down just after the fenceline
(and windsock) . The approach from the
south is more challenging. I slip it in
hard to make things work out. The coordinates for
my strip are 51' 13.85N 120'
10.54W elevation 1560'."
Seen
from the North: (Photo by Greg Peterson)
I had plenty of fuel left.
(Photo by Greg) Greg's Yarrow Arrow in the back.
I did not want to stay too
long, afraid that the wind would start again and
make it for an unpleasant flight back to
Knutsford. But I still took the time to fly an
extra mile North to circle over Bill Nelson's
farm. I could see him busy on the lawnmower, so
he did not realize that I was around until I flew
in front of the sun and gave him a start! He
thought that shadow was an eagle until he spotted
me...
Heading back (Photo by Greg)
Going over the saddle, West
of Harper Ranch. The South Thompson and Dallas
below.
The flight back was fairly
smooth, except when I gor to the top of the hills
above Juniper Ridge, where the turbulence got
pretty nasty all the way to the strip. Bill Ross
was working on his Renegade:
I landed in a crosswind that
was still easy to handle. It was a great trip,
and I hope to do it again, this time with a few
of my friends. I was the first to land on Greg's
strip, and he would be happy to see others come
for a visit.
HIGH COST OF FLYING
By Barry Meek
Why
is it so expensive to fly? Every aircraft
owner could answer that. It used to
be the cost of parts, repairs, government
regulations, insurance, hangar fees and so on.
More recently, it’s the price of fuel
that’s on everyone’s mind.
In North America, we’re
paying close to $7.00/gallon, while in European
and other countries, they’re being hosed for
well over twice that. Somehow, there are
still planes in the air.
It’s remarkable too that small charter and
training operations keep flying. The
regulations forced upon these guys by Transport Canada
and the FAA are enough to choke the life out of
anyone. To run an air service, the operator
requires permission from the government in the
form of an Operating Certificate. That
“O.C.” outlines just about everything
the guy needs to do from when he gets up in the
morning until he goes to sleep at night, usually
about 16 to 20 hours later. He’s told
where and when he can fly, who he can hire, what
and how to train his employees, how much he can
charge, what insurance to buy, how to outfit his
aircraft, and faces so many other on-going and
new regulations, it would be impossible to list
them all in any single document. It’s
enough to make almost anyone throw up his arms
and walk away from the mess.
Fortunately,
there are those who have the stamina and the
drive to push ahead to keep an air operation
going, until he runs out of money anyway. For
the traveling public, that is a good thing.
The smaller operators in remote areas provide a
service for which there is no alternative. Several
of the major airlines are in trouble, some
will fold, but we’ll never run out of ways
to get around the world by air.
This
is all worth thinking about because ultimately,
the customer and the non-flying public have some
control over the costs involved in flying. For
example, who do you think is responsible for most
of the regulations that force up costs? The
government for sure, but it comes from people
like a California woman, Kate Hanni, who is an
advocate for airline passenger’s rights.
She has her case against American Airlines before
a Federal judge in Oakland, because American left
a planeload of passengers stranded on a tarmac in
Austin, Texas, for nine hours in December 2006.
This woman formed the “Coalition for an
Airline Passenger’s Rights” to take her
case to the courts.
This group of people, numbering over 21,000 and
growing, seems to be packing a big stick. They’ve
got several influential members of government on
their side. They circulate petitions and
run active membership drives through websites.
They will undoubtedly succeed to some degree with
their goals. But at what cost, and more to
the point … is this the right way to deal
with the situation?
First of all, the incident that got the ball
rolling was an American Airlines plane being
diverted around dangerous thunderstorms. They
were sent to Austin, Texaswhere apparently gates
and services were already stretched beyond
limits. Consequently, although safely on
the ground, the airport and American were simply
unable to accommodate the passengers with
anything close to first-class service. I
can’t see where it’s much different
from a driver in a Saskatchewan snowstorm being
forced to spend the night at a farmer’s
home. He wouldn’t get a feather bed
and four-course breakfast for sure, but he would
be warm and safe. You’d never hear of
the traveler forming a coalition to force all
prairie farmers to prepare their homes and
accommodate unfortunates who are stranded by
weather.
It seems to me that the whole system could be
cleaned up, the poor, inconsiderate,
money-grabbing operators could be culled by the
simple process of supply-and-demand, and the
world would still be a happy place. If
American Airlines deliberately mistreated their
customers on a regular basis, it wouldn’t be
long before they had no customers to treat.
Meantime, it would open the door for an airline
that could see the opportunity for their own good
service to succeed.
Maybe this is all too simple. What’s
missing here? What this Coalition for
Airline Passenger’s Rights is attempting to
do, is force even more regulations on the air
service operators. They want government to
wade in and dictate rules, many of which would be
beyond the control of the airline, such as
assuring no plane sits on a tarmac for more than
three hours without having a gate to dock at.
Isn’t that at least partly the
responsibility of the airport? Many delays
come from the stuffed air traffic control system,
a major problem that could be seeing
breakthroughs with the next generation of air
traffic control.
Their “bill of rights” goes on,
demanding personnel immediately available
to move passengers from one area of a terminal to
another, to ensure their baggage shows up when
and where it’s supposed to, compensation of
150% of a ticket price for those who are bumped
by postponed flights (for any reason). There
is a lot more, and you can see their website for
details.
I may be cynical, but if we demand the government
to come in and start enforcing even more
regulations on all air operators, isn’t this
ultimately going to push ticket prices up even
more? It doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to figure it out. The free market
always has, and will continue to weed out the
poor and greedy business operators. The
result of more and more regulation can only mean
a higher and higher costs for all air operators
and all customers.
If American Airlines is truly negligent and
greedy, or is just inefficient and needs a
business plan overhaul, then it will ultimately
face the market and make the changes needed.
Or, it will simply disappear. Adding more
regulations will eventually ensure the demise of
all air operators.
bcflyer@propilots.net
New
in the Buy&Sell
http://www.ocis.net/tvsac/buyandsell.html
1992 Murphy Renegade $23,000.
Professionally built and
maintained. Excellent condition, powered by Rotax
618. Still flown by retired Air Force pilot Tony
Bellos from his own strip in Knutsford, near
Kamloops, BC. 250-374-6591 or tbellos@telus.net
We
welcome your feedback. Do you have any
contributions for the newsletter? Photo would be
great! So would flying stories, project updates
or tall tales... Contact me: Newsletter Editor:
Camille Villeneuve 1-250-374-4181 villeneuve@shaw.ca
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