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Places to Fly – East: Havelock
COPA Flight 27 – Havelock Flying Club is holding its Annual Fly-In/Open House, its 27th, this coming weekend (August 10-11). The event is being held at the Havelock airport (CCS5), located between Moncton and Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Breakfast and lunch are being served both days. There is an auction on Saturday at 14:00, followed by a steak barbecue at 17:00. Everyone is welcome.
Arriving pilots will find two turf runways: 11/29 at 2860 feet by 235 feet, and 07/25 at 2090 feet by 260 feet. The flying club is also the airport’s operator.
Consult the club’s website for further information.
Places To Fly – West: Abbotsford
The famed Abbotsford International Airshow returns this weekend to British Columbia’s Lower Mainland on Friday through Sunday, August 9-11
The airshow began in 1962 when the Abbotsford Flying Club put on the first airshow at the former military airfield in order to showcase the potential as a civilian airport. The airshow grew in stature quickly, with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau giving it official recognition in 1970 as ‘Canada’s National Airshow’.
The airshow is now run by a dedicated not-for-profit society.
Today, in addition to exhilarating aerobatics and fly-bys, the airport grounds host dozens of aircraft, from giant military cargo planes to jet fighters to unique light aircraft – and everything in between.
Fly-in attendees are welcome, but during restricted hours only. Check out the show’s website for further information.
Parachute Saves Cirrus Pilot – Who Then Videos His Own Rescue
A Cirrus SR22 pilot deployed its Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) over the forests of Quebec’s Côte-Nord region late last week when the plane’s engine failed – and lived to video his surroundings, his demolished aircraft and even his own rescuers.
American Matt Lehtinen, 37, was flying his Cirrus from Wabush on the northern tip of Labrador to Quebec City when he ran into engine trouble.
“Sounded like the engine was trying to grind itself into pieces,” Lehtinen told CTV Montreal.
All Cirrus aircraft are equipped with the parachute system, and it has been used numerous times and saved the lives of, or minimized injuries to, dozens of people over the last few years of this model’s existence.
Lehtinen used a Garmin inReach device to send an SOS message, leading to his rescue a few hours later. Lehtinen also lit a signal fire so smoke would help pinpoint his exact location.
The apparently social media-savvy Lehtinen has posted his video on YouTube, accessible by clicking here.
Canadians Take Home AirVenture Prizes
Each year the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) hands out awards at AirVenture to entrants in various competitive categories, and this year a number of Canadians were recognized with an award, plaque or a highly sought-after Lindy Award. Named after legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh, the Lindy Awards are given out to only the best of the best.
The categories include Homebuilts, Warbirds, Vintage, Ultralights, Seaplanes and Rotorcraft. Although physical appearance of the aircraft is important, the EAA also stresses that the quality of workmanship is a crucial factor as well.
In the Vintage category (sub-category Bronze Age – 1937-1941), Buck Korol of High River, Alberta won runner-up with his 1938 Luscombe Model 4.
Scott McFadden of Thunder Bay, Ontario won a Gold Lindy – Grand Champion in the Classic category for his 1946 Taylorcraft BC-12D (pictured above).
The award for the Best Primary Trainer in the Warbird category went to Dan Garyfalakis of Mono, Ontario for his de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk.
Canadians also took home prizes in the Seaplane category, with Oakville, Ontario’s Ron Bekkers winning a plaque for Outstanding Metal with his Cessna 180. Still in Ontario, Paul Wild, from Sault Ste. Marie won a plaque for Best Fabric with his PA-18.
Although not a Canadian person, a Canadian-built plane earned its American owner Bill Culbersoal a Judges’ Choice award in the Jet category with his Canadair CT-133 Silver Dart.
Hypoxia Cited in TSB Report of Navajo Crash
The Transportation Safety Board released a report last week into the crash of an Aires Aviation International PA-31 Navajo last August in the Rocky Mountains, with the loss of its pilot and the sole passenger.
The twin-engine Navajo was equipped with a JPI EDM-790 engine-data monitor and an Appareo Systems Vision 1000 flight data monitoring system (FDM). Both devices allowed investigators to obtain extensive data that allowed them to perform a more detailed analysis of the flight’s history and final moments than would normally be the case in small aircraft accidents.
For example, the investigators were able to review a cockpit video recording that revealed the pilot was not using the available supplemental oxygen system during the roughly 38 final minutes of the flight, despite being at altitudes over 13,000 feet and up to 15,400 feet for over half an hour. CAR Section 605.32 requires flight crews to be on supplemental oxygen at those altitudes.
Prior to losing control of the aircraft, the pilot encountered an anomaly with one of the engines that resulted in asymmetric thrust. The flight path of the aircraft then began to deviate from straight and level. After abrupt climbs and descents and a heading change, the Navajo entered a spin that resulted in the fatal crash.
In its investigation, the TSB team determined that after entering the spin, the pilot carried out only the first step (close the throttles/power to idle) in the seven-step procedure TCCA recommends for recovering from a spin in light aircraft. The second step, to neutralize the ailerons, was not acted upon. After seven and a half rotations, the Navajo impacted terrain at 10,000 feet near the peak of Mount Rae. The aircraft’s 406 MHz ELT was activated by the impact.
The full TSB reported is appended below.
Feature image source: Appareo system data via TSB website
a18w0116-enSkyGrazers – A Flying Farmers Story
Los Angeles-based filmmakers Annmarie and Chris Aronoff have produced a 73-minute documentary on the International Flying Farmers (IFF) association, featuring Manitoba farmers Colette Pierce and her husband Ken.
Annmarie Aronoff, who is originally from Regina, was inspired when she read about the organization. Through her Saskatchewan network of friends and contacts, she learned more about the IFF, which then led to her being connected with the Pierces. Aronoff was intrigued by the story of how Colette Pierce learned to fly in her late 50s, after a lifetime of dreaming about it.
“It’s about dreaming big,” Aronoff told the Regina Leader-Post. “That’s what our main characters did and that’s even what we did by making the film”. She added “It was great to see really powerful women doing some things that you don’t always see them doing on screen.”
As active farmers, the Pierces used their own planes and grass strips to check on livestock movements, transfer supplies and travel around their agricultural world. One year, Collette even became ‘Queen of the IFF’, as her leadership and influence in the organization grew.
Aronoff, who graduated from the University of Regina’s film department in the late 1990s, also tells the story of the IFF and how it is dying away as there are fewer and fewer family-run farms, having been replaced by corporate-owned large farm holdings. This in turn has led to fewer people owning and operating planes as a tool in the management of their farm business.
The documentary was screened recently at the Regina Flying Club and is now making the rounds at film festivals. Although not currently showing in any theatres, a DVD version is available for purchase on Amazon’s U.S. website for $25.
View the trailer here.
Places to Fly: Lachute
COPA Flight 118 and the Lachute Airport Owners and Pilots Association (APPAL) are celebrating 100 years of aviation at Lachute airport in Quebec with the Aviators’ Flea Market and Fly-In this coming Saturday, August 3.
Lunch, including the giant hot dogs and roasted corn their fly-ins are famous for, will be served from 10:00 to 14:00. There will be live music playing in the afternoon.
All profits will be donated to a local charity.
Lachute airport (CSE4), operated by Lachute Aviation, is located between Montreal and Ottawa. It sports a 3,989-ft by 100-ft runway, and both 100LL and JA-1 are available.
Contact RVA-Lachute for more information.
Ottawa to Pump Millions Into Winnipeg Aviation Museum
The federal government recently announced that it will contribute $8.8 million for the construction of a new home for the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. Fifteen million dollars had already been raised in donations and provincial funding. The entire project cost is expected to be $35 million.
The 8,000 m2 (86,000 ft2) facility will solve the problem the museum had been facing since last October, when their lease of a privately owned facility expired.
As reported in an earlier edition of eFlight months ago, the museum’s collection had to be distributed in various locations around the province, including in private hangars until a solution was found.
In addition to a workshop, the new facility will include nine exhibition galleries, a children’s zone and a library.
“Inside its walls will be the story and the rich traditions of aviation in Western Canada, and how in so many ways it led the world,” said Winnipeg MP Jim Carr when he made the funding announcement.
The museum’s collection, the second-largest for an aviation museum in Canada, includes Canada’s first helicopter, the Canadair CL-84 tilt-wing aircraft, many historic military and commercial aircraft and bush planes.
Britain’s Red Arrows to Grace Canadian Skies
The Royal Air Force’s Red Arrow Aerobatic Team is about to embark on a Canadian tour that will bring their precision flying routine to spectators coast to coast.
On Sunday, August 11, the Red Arrows will join with the RCAF for a flypast over the historic waterfront in Halifax. On August 13 there will be another flypast over Parliament Hill in Ottawa, followed by an aerobatic display in Gatineau. August 28 will see the team overfly Niagara Falls.
On the Labour Day weekend in September, the Red Arrows will make an appearance at the Canadian International Airshow in Toronto. They will finish their Canadian appearances with a flypast over Vancouver harbour and over Victoria.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have the world famous Red Arrows in Canada this summer. This tour is an excellent opportunity to not only showcase the Red Arrows’ aerobatic expertise to Canadians from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but also to celebrate the close and enduring relationship between our two countries,” said British High Commissioner to Canada Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque in a press release issued this week.
Wing Commander Andrew Keith, Officer Commanding, Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, said: “Tours by the Red Arrows have always been an important role of the team – aiming to demonstrate RAF expertise, helping to highlight UK excellence across a range of sectors and celebrating close connections with friends and allies.”
The Red Arrows are comprised of nine BAE Systems Hawk advanced training aircraft. Incapable of air-to-air refueling and with limited range, the jets will locate to Canada via a route that will include several stops in Scotland, Iceland and Greenland.