October
2008 Newsletter.
Next meeting: Thursday, October
9, 2008, at 7:30pm.
Location: Clubhouse, Blair Field, Knutsford.
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President's
letter
Hello everyone:
I have been a bit tardy in
my writing duties for the newsletter! But then I
have been tardy in a lot of jobs around the acre
as well! There just isn't enough time to
accomplish everything, I think even in a
lifetime! Hopefully I will have a few more years
to work on that one!
The Knutsford strip has been staying quite active
over the summer. With club members flying to
Quilchena for lunch regularly, Bill Huxley
putting on lots of flight hours,Camille's regular
adventures, it has been busy. I am sure that
Camille will have some stories for this issue!!
I have been way too busy, as I have not been able
to fly my Beaver since the end of August. I am
still hoping for nice weather for a while yet, so
you never know. I finally installed my new fuel
cap in my tank, so the plane is ready to go when
I am. I found a product at Lordco called
POR PATCH Filler and Seam sealer. It is
impervious to gasoline, hardens rock hard but
remains flexible. It is produced by the makers of
POR 15, which is a line of amazing rust
protection and stopping products. I think it will
work excellent for the fuel cap install. It is
difficult to find products that gasoline does not
affect at a reasonable price. I think this was
under $20.
It is time to start thinking about our annual
gala Christmas party!! The dates should be out
next month, so make sure to check next months
newsletter and mark your calendar.
Well that is about it for now, happy flights,
Dick Suttie.
Editor's
Notes
In
the past month, quite a few flights have departed
Blair Field, and fortunately all came back
safely!
September
4, I flew to Sorrento. By Chase, as I was
throttling up to gain some altitude, my engine
coughed twice, so I turned around and looked for
a place to land, while waiting for the engine to
do it again. I throttled down and back up, but it
kept on running smoothly. I stil went for a
cautionary landing on the North side of the
river.
Checked
every thing over, could not see anything amiss,
so up I went again on my way. West of Sorrento I
landed on a gravel road and taxied right out to
my nephew's driveway. Sure gives me a thrill to
be able to do that stuff!
Saturday
September 6, Dennis Seib flew to the Club Meeting
in his Piper.
September
10, Bill Huxley gave me a ride in his Challenger.
It was nice to relax in the back seat and enjoy
the ride!
House
on the hill South of Knutsford strip.
September
14, I missed the Fly-In Breakfast at the Kamloops
airport, but Dan sent me a few photos
I
missed the breakfast because I forgot... I was on
a flight to Savona Mountain and beyond! Landed to
refuel in a field West of Deadman Creek. The
horses had never seen such a big bird.
I
flew by the Savona Compressor Station, where
Spectra Energy has installed a co-generation
system to use the waste heat from the compressor
exhaust stacks to produce steam and drive some
electrical generators.
September
19, I flew to the Salmon River Road area to look
for Geocaches. Here is a shot of the meanders in
the creek West of Falkland.
September
28, I went for a landing on an old road on the
South side of Strawberry Mountain. My left
landing gear failed again.
It
was an original piece, from the days when basic
ultralight aircrafts were restricted to 554
pounds, and people probably landed only on nice
grass strips! Grossly underbuilt, from 1.125IN
O.D X .058 with a 1.0 insert going in only some 3
inches above the bend. Of course, that's where
the weak point was, and that's where it broke!
I
was some 6.5 miles from home... I called Judy on
my cell, and she brought me some pieces to fix
it, but that did not work, so I removed the
broken pieces and went home to get another
original axle, which was good enough to take off.
The next day, Dick Suttie bought a hydraulic pipe
bender at KMS Tools, and I used it to bend new
landing legs. This time I used it to bend a piece
of 1.125in X .059 chromoly pipe inside an
aluminum tubing, seems to be very strong. Now
installed and working fine..
On
September 30, Dan Berwin came in from Cache
Creek, but had to return for work. When I took
off I spotted some large birds flying below me,
and I followed them for a while, at 50mph. They
looked like pelicans... What do you think?
I
headed out to Quilchena and flew straight and
high: by the time I went over Stump Lake I was at
4300', which is very unusual for me! When I came
to Nichola Lake, I spotted Bill Huxley flying
below me; he told me later that he was looking
down for me!
Bill
over Nicola Lake. (Zoom X12)
I
was first to land, followed by Bill, and shortly
later by Bill Ross. Then came Bill Davidson in
his 185, he had picked up Tony at Knutsford. We
had lunch outside, and had to move the table a
few times to stay out of the direct sun. Great
Fall day!
Bill
Ross and Renegade
Bill
Davidson and 185
On
October 2nd, I left early for Savona Mountain. A
while back I had spotted some cave on the North
face of the cliffs, and I wanted to get a GPS
waypoing in order to hike there later. By the
time I got there, there was some turbulence, and
I decided it would not be wise to fly too close,
so I returned to Knutsford. By the time I got to
the Cherry Creek area, the headwind was keeping
me down to 31mph... And by Jacko Lake I was
getting tossed around a bit more than I like!
That is a problem with the Beaver single- seater,
it is very light and thus very susceptible to
turbulence.
I
landed just after Bill Huxley had taken off, and
he came back to see what I was up to. he offered
to give me a ride back to the mountain, and Larry
followed us in his Kitfox.
Cave
at center, near top of cliffs.
Bill's
Challenger is powered by a 582 Rotax, and with
two on board it easily climber over the mountain
where I could plan a possible route to the cave.
Then Bill and Larry decided to go by Tunkwa Lake
and cut through a valley to Helmer Lake and over
the ridge into Quilchena for a coffee. Headwinds
of 20mph would have kept my Beaver grounded, but
the Challenger and the Kitfox were only slowed
down.
We
flew back to Knutsford with a tailwind at times
giving us a ground speed of 95mph.
On
Sunday September 5, I hiked on Savona Mountain
with Dan Berwin, going to look for that famous
cave. There is no way to get to it unless you
have ropes, as the terrain is way too steep. We
only looked at it from 100 feet away, and it's
not much to see. But my curiosity is satisfied!
Pretty
steep terrain... Careful, Dan!
I
have been teaching Alex how to levitate. Not four
yet, but she's a fast learner!
RIDING A
HIGH PRESURE RIDGE ACROSS CANADA
By Dave Jones and Dan
Nelson
(Part 3of 3.)
Day#8
Hoping
for a nice clear morning when we got up but
instead it was so foggy that we could not see
across the river, which might have been only
200’ across. The idea of leaving early was
out of the question so we again we walked into
town thinking we could get some breakfast. Only
to find out the store did not open until 10:00AM.
So it was back to camp and we cooked up a hearty
can of Habitant soup.
Once
the fog started to breakup we took our tents down
and hung them on the airplane to dry, Dave
decided to walk back into town for some groceries
and I kept taking down our camp. By the time, we
got all loaded up it was11:00, time for the walk
around and a quart of oil was added. Our takeoff
for La Tuque was good and the skies were clear.
We got too the St Lawrence river and visibility
was hazy and there were low clouds and some cloud
hanging on the Laurention Mts. We had no problems
getting through to La Tuque and decided to land
at the charter base south of La Tuque only to
find that they were out of fuel until that
afternoon, so we took off again and went to the
main float plane dock to the north of the airport
at Helibec Seaplane Base. After a short lunch and
rest we were ready to head out for Val-D'Or
Quebec but maybe we should check the oil before
we go and file a flight plan, this is when we
found the oil dip stick still laying on the
engine mount. This explained the small mist of
oil on the windshield enroute to La Tuque. Just
shows you how smooth the Aero Sport engine runs,
right Bart. The other small detail that came to
light as we got close to Val-D'Or was that we
could hear the tower, but they did not answer us
until we were about on top of the airport and a
Navaho going underneath us, we found out at the
dock that our antenna lead had come apart so we
had to take off the wing root cover and re-attach
it. A short stop and refuel we were off on our
last leg of an already long day, to Timmins Ont.
160 miles west. We landed at South Porcupine Lake
at 8:45 PM an 8 hr. day and it was good to be
down. There was no restaurant open so we had a
quick dip in the lake to wash off a couple days
dust and created our own supper from our box of
goodies. After the owner of Radcliff Air came
down and refuelled us for morning we set up our
tents for the night. It was the next morning that
we found out we were only a few yards from the
Airport Hotel and we could have stayed there and
had a good meal, Oh well maybe we were tired.
Sunset
on Porcupine Lake
Day
#9
After
a good breakfast of eggs and bagels, while the
tents dried out, we were off South Porcupine Lake
for Thunder Bay Ont. The weather was clear and
the air was calm for a little while then it got
rough, so we climbed up thinking it would calm
down but we had a head wind so we came back down,
and took our lumps in trade for a better ground
speed. It took us 4.6hrs. to get to Thunder Bay
but the time went by fast just looking out at the
beautiful countryside below.
We
got fuel from Lake Head Aviation and then they
gave us a ride into town for lunch. After lunch
we walked back to the float base and filed our
flight plan to Nester Falls Ont. After a
much-delayed take off from Thunder Bay we were
off, this leg was a short 2.6hrs Again, the
people at North West Air were great, this is the
third time I have stopped there for fuel on my
way home to B.C. We had arrived just at
suppertime but they filled us with gas and gave
us a place to tie down for the night. After
walking over to the Motel and getting a room we
found out from North West that our flight plan
somehow had not been cancelled, by the time I
called they were just about to launch the Buffalo
to come looking for us. It is reassuring that the
system works. My apologies were accepted and we
were off the restaurant for dinner.
Day#10
The
weatherman agreed that it would be wise to stay
put for the day, thunder storms and hail across
southern Manitoba made it a no go. Therefore, we
spent the day walking around Nester Falls and
seeing what we could see. We bought some
groceries in town and we made our own meals in
our motel room, after that. When we found out, we
were not going anywhere soon we went to move BOO
over to a small bay by the maintenance hanger and
found out that the master had again been left on,
we decided it was Dave’s turn to leave it on
this time. We took the battery out and took it in
to Jim and he charged it for a couple of hours at
the hanger. Because we had little to do, we
stayed and talked to Jim and he told us that he
would take us fishing on Lake of the Woods later
that evening if we wanted to go. That meant a
trip back to the bait shop for a one-day licence,
but it was fun fishing and we got a few small
perch. After we got back, it was time to go to
bed.
Day#11
Dawned
with low cloud and rain all around so again we
decided to stay another day. After a bagel and
cream cheese, Sherry [Sherry is Jim’s wife
and she works at the Motel] gave us her truck to
go into town for some more groceries, Dave
thought it best we get lots because we were still
a ways from home, we went back to motel and made
lunch. Needing something to do we walked to other
Charter operator in Nester Falls called Nester
Falls Fly-In Outpost, Dave Beaushene is the owner
and when he found out we were from B.C. told us
that he knew Trevor Air-Hart and Dave Barron,
Dave had bought Trevor’s Otter and it is in
his charter. We caught a ride back to the
airplane and got our maps it was looking like
maybe the next day we might get on our way.
Day#12
Waiting
out the storm at Nester Falls
Again
we got up to rain and low cloud, but all the
weather people made it sound like maybe later in
the day we could be on our way. After breakfast,
we walked back to the Nester Falls Outpost and
each bought an oilskin jacket to keep dry in the
rainy weather. We went back checked out of the
Motel loaded out stuff in BOO and headed out for
Shoal Lake Manitoba, only to have to return to
see Jim, so that our throttle cable could get a
little WD40 it had gotten hard to push in because
of all the rain. Our departure was all OK! We had
filed to Selkirk and then west to Shoal Lake ,
there was some low cloud left over from the rain
in our path over Lake of the Woods but we had it
beat this time with our shinny new floats on. It
was not long before we were out in the sunshine;
we arrived in Shoal Lake at 5:00PM local time,
just ahead of another rainstorm. Once tied down,
a couple of the local flying club
members…Len and Elmer …helped us get
fuel from the airport.
Refueling
at Shoal Lake.
Once
we were all topped up it off to a local
restaurant for supper. By now, it was raining
good so Len and Elmer took us back to the airport
and we stayed in the flying club building for the
night. This was great accommodation and sure was
better then setting up our tents in the rain. If
you are planning on a trip to Manitoba be sure to
include Shoal Lake as one of your stops, these
are great people and so willing to help, Thanks
again guys.
Day#13
Up
at 5:30AM, low cloud, rain and wind were the
order of the day by the looks of it.
Nevertheless, there was a promise of better
weather later in the morning, so when Len got
there we went to the local coffee shop for
breakfast. We drove around the town to the
machinery dealers and out to the country looking
for old combines, which Len found for Dave. Once
we were all back at the truck Len told Dave he
should check for wood ticks because he had been
walking in the tall grass. So Dave quickly jumped
out of his pants and found about six ticks in
undisclosed locations on his torso. By know the
wind had died down so we filed a plan to Moose
Jaw . Just after we were airborne Bill Nyman [who
we met on the way down at Moose Jaw ] phoned my
cell phone wondering where we were, so we said we
would be at Buffalo Lake Provincial Park in 3hrs,
Bill said he would meet us there with fuel.
Refueling
at Moose Jaw.
While
Dave and Bill put in the fuel I went up to the
Park gates to close out our flight plan, and
check the weather to Strathmore Alberta. The
weather was OK but there were TCU’s on both
sides of us most of the way. Our trip to
Strathmore took 4.5hrs and when we got there,
there was a cell right over Eagle Lake where we
wanted to land. It only took a few more minutes
of flying around and the cell moved off to the
east and we were able to get down. I phoned my
daughter and she came down to the lake and picked
me up. Dave stayed with the airplane and was able
to sleep in the back for the night.
Day#14
After
breakfast we moved the airplane to a private dock
owned by Peter and Charlene Jensen, again great
people, Peter was not home but we were able to
talk to him and got BOO tied down at his dock
ahead of another summer storm that was forecast
for the evening. We spend the day doing some
light maintenance to BOO and then we were about
to go back to town for supper at Bev’s when
a squal line came through and so we rushed back
to the dock. Dave ran out and hung onto BOO while
it rained and hailed a bit, there was no damage
thank goodness, so once the storm was by we went
back to town.
Day#15
This
day was spend doing wash and driving around
looking at some of the local sights, Dan had
farmed at Strathmore for 25 years, so it was time
to look around and reminesce, it was also still
raining, so not a good day to think about leaving
for Kamloops.
Day#16
Again
a no-go day due to weather in the mountains to
the west, so after breakfast, we drove around the
area to the south of Strathmore and then back to
get thinks in order to depart for Kamloops the
next day.
Day#17
After
three days in Strathmore, it's time to head for
Kamloops.
The
weather had cleared in the mountains and it was a
go for Kamloops, all went well until we got to
Exshaw and our ground speed went to 65mph, at
this point we were wondering if we would make it
to Golden BC before needing fuel. However, we
still had the fuel that Ed Peck and Dave had put
in the floats, it was going to get us home if we
needed it. The good thing that happened was the
wind died down and our ground speed came back to
normal. The flight took us 4.1hrs and so no extra
fuel was used.
It
was great knowing that we had made it all the way
to Bear River and back but also left us with a
feeling that our great trip was ending. We met
some great people and without their help, our
trip would have been a lot less enjoyable. In
addition, the day we spent with Ed Peck and his
family installing the floats was unreal, I’m
sure that without there great knowledge and
expertise we could not have done that all in one
day.
Home,
Kamloops, trip of a lifetime over.
AIRPORTS
USER FEES
By Barry Meek
“Those guys from the newspaper come in here
every day looking for an announcement.
They’re expecting I’ll tell them soon
about throwing my hat in the ring for the
mayor’s chair. I’m the logical choice
to run the show here. After all, it was me
that got the MLA elected, and I’ve
been in this town for 30 years, so I know
what’s going on.”
The barber rambled on and on about his
accomplishments, mostly in politics, as I sat
there a prisoner in his chair one afternoon in
July. The rain was falling in this
northern British Columbia town where I was based
while flying on a seasonal forestry job.
The conversation was one-sided, and as time
passed, I began to wonder how much hair would
remain on my head by the time another customer
came in to save me from this guy.
He could talk up a storm, mostly about his
thoughts and ideas of how the town should be, the
world should turn, how bad the kids are today,
the economy, fuel prices, the weather, and how
much better it would all be if he became the
mayor in the next election. Yup, he would
make the perfect politician. I thought
“with talk like that, everyone would vote
for him, except perhaps the other barber in the
shop, who heard it all before on a daily
basis.”
At one point, there was enough of a break in his
blabbering that I was able to squeeze in a
question about the user fees his town had slapped
on at their airport. It happens to be one
of the towns that inherited the facility from
Transport Canada several years ago. Faced
with the cost of upkeep, their natural reaction
was to start collecting more money from the
businesses and aircraft owners, as well as
implementing landing and parking fees for
itinerant pilots. He immediately jumped to
the defense of the council, re-stating the
short-sighted reasoning they all use about how
the rich people with airplanes should pay for it
all. There was no listening to the
indirect benefits brought to a city by aviation.
The obvious extra traffic in hotels,
restaurants, even in his barber shop simply
didn’t compute in his mind with people using
the airport. If it were not for the
strategic location of the town, I suggested even
the government, forestry and mining flight
operations would seek out a base offering lower
costs.
The local municipal government in that town as
well as many others, will sometimes hear none of
the reasoning or the facts uncovered through
economic impact studies that have already been
done. It is quite simply a matter
of paying directly for the use of that runway and
parking area by the pilot who uses it. The
comparison of a direct charge for the city street
that a motorist drives on just doesn’t occur
to these people.
The
company that employed me to fly was charged a fee
close to $14 each time I landed at that airport.
There was also an $8.00 fee to park on
their ramp overnight. We used the airport
for the better part of three months. Do the math
and see why a company flying even a small plane
like a Cessna 182 would choose to utilize another
location if it were available. Meanwhile,
I was living at a motel and eating at restaurants
in the town. With the taxi to and from the
airport, the daily cost not including the
landing/parking fees, totaled $154.
Consider the people employed in just those
services. The motel and restaurant staff
and the taxi driver are all tax-paying residents
of the town.
Obviously,
the money from our company didn’t totally
support the entire industry of that town, but
there was a forest fire operations base there,
along with a couple of helicopter providers, an
air freight/courier, and two charter/schedule
airlines. The fuel dealer was also paying
several cents to the municipality from every
liter he sold. A rough estimate of the
people involved in the work from that airport
would be one hundred. If each employee
shoveled out the basics of $150 daily as I was,
it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see
the economic benefit of that airport to the town.
This is all very unscientific of course.
But impact studies have been done for many
municipally-owned airports around the country
which show results that an open-minded person,
even a politician could not brush aside.
It’s a matter of listening to the facts
before making up their minds.
The
barber who wants to become the mayor was too busy
talking to be listening to anything. His
little town’s airport is doing well only
because of the strategic location it enjoys.
However, there is already evidence of
pilots and companies avoiding it as much as
possible. They find other places to
purchase fuel, make do with slightly longer
flights, and change with the times to keep
operating expenses down. For almost the
entire summer, my 182 sat alone on that huge
ramp. But what hurt most about my
encounter with the barber was the next morning
when the fuel dealer asked me, “Where’d
you get that HAIRCUT?!”
bcflyer@propilots.net
New
in the Buy&Sell
Wanted:
Helmet with Headset
Must have regular 2-pin plug
for use with intercom. Dick Suttie at
250-384-6136 or richard-suttie@telus.net
There are a few new aircrafts for
sale, and some others have been sold. Have a
look!
http://www.ocis.net/tvsac/buyandsell.html
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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