29 June 2015

Smiths Falls Fly-in Lunch

The Smiths Falls Flying Club, COPA Flight 100, will host a fly-in lunch on 18 July 2015, in conjunction with a Transport Canada training session.

Everyone is welcome to attend! Fly-in or drive-in.

The Transport Canada recurrency training session will start at 1300 hrs, following lunch at 1100 hrs.

Here are the event details:

  • Date: Saturday 18 July 2015
  • Time: Lunch starts 1100 hrs, Transport Canada recurrency training session starts 1300 hrs
  • Location: Smiths Falls-Montague (Russ Beach) Airport, Smiths Falls, Ontario (CYSH)
  • Radio: Unicom 122.7 Mhz within 5nm and 3400 feet ASL
  • Food: The Ad Mare Seafood Truck will be at the airport. Ad Mare’s famous fish and chips or fish tacos will be served. Price will be $12. Indoor seating will be available.

External links

28 June 2015

Iroquois Flying Club’s 49th Annual Fly-In Breakfast

The Iroquois Flying Club will hold their 49th Annual Fly-In Breakfast on 19 July 2015 at the Iroquois Municipal Airpark and everyone is invited to fly or drive in.

Here are the details:

  • Date: 19 July 2015
  • Time: 0800-1130 hrs
  • Location: Iroquois Municipal Airpark (CNP7)
  • Frequency: Unicom 122.8 MHz
  • Information: 613-657-1646
  • Menu: Eggs, Ham, Baked Beans, Roll, Coffee and Juice.
  • Price: $6.00, Children 6 and under $3.00
  • Note: There is a separate breakfast line for pilots and their passengers

Canada Day Fly-In 2015

by Brenda Reid

On 01 July 2015 Canada Day, The Rockcliffe Flying Club will host its Annual Fly-In Breakfast from 0730-1100 hrs. Cost for breakfast is $6.00/per person. This year we are serving pancakes and sausages, baked beans, rolls, coffee, tea and juice. We will be serving bacon and eggs for those who prefer the traditional RFC breakfast.

Sightseeing flights in a Cessna 172 will be available from 0930-1630 for $35/per person. Registration is based at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. The flights will be based at the RFC. The customers will be shuttled back and forth from the Museum to the RFC.

If you have any questions you can contact Brenda Reid or call 613-746-4425.

External links

23 June 2015

Book Review: Air Canada - The History

  • Air Canada - The History
  • by Peter Pigott
  • Published by Dundurn Press, Toronto, Ontario, 1 March 2014
  • 10" X 7" soft cover, also available in PDF and ePub digital formats
  • 328 pages, including notes, further reading and index
  • $35.00 in hard copy and PDF, $16.99 in ePub

Peter Pigott's recently published history of Air Canada is surprisingly readable, and while not as gripping as a mystery story whose ending is unknown, this book will keep you reading right to the end.

Pigott has researched his subject well from original sources, archives, interviews and papers and presents it in chronological fashion, starting from the formation of Trans Canada Airlines in 1937. Not a commercial enterprise when it was conceived, the fledgling national air carrier was created as a part of Canadian National Railway and as a policy instrument to establish something that Canada lacked, a national airline. In those days there were lots of small air carriers, but none provided more than local service; no one was flying passengers or freight coast to coast.

It had actually been the short-lived Conservative government under RB Bennett that started the construction of a national series of airfields and navigation facilities as a Great Depression relief effort, to provide work for unemployed men. The Trans Canada Airway was inherited by the Liberal Mackenzie King government in 1935, almost complete. All it lacked was an air service to use it. TCA was born as a result and given a monopoly on the airway. It was to be a "social instrument - an essential service like the provincially owned electricity companies or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, designed to bind the country together...." The first minister responsible was the irrepressible CD Howe. The first flight was flown from Vancouver airport in a Lockheed 10A Electra to Seattle, on 1 September 1937.

The airline went on to fly a wide variety of aircraft including the Avro Lancastrian, Canadair North Star, Vickers Vanguard and Viscount and the jets, the Douglas DC-8 and DC-9, the Lockheed L-1011, the Boeing 747 and 727 and the Airbus A320, A340 and A319.

Pigott goes on to detail the airline's life in a good level of detail, including the decisions made in the executive suite, the political interference suffered, the aircraft purchased and sold, the organization, uniforms, the strikes and other challenges. Much of the tale is told with the spectre of privatization hanging over the whole endeavour, something wholeheartedly supported by most of the leadership over the years and only completely achieved in July 1989.

The author divides the story up by company president, with chapters on the years dominated by Gordon McGregor, Yves Pratte, Claude Taylor, Pierre Jeanniot, and finally the Americans, Hollis Harris, Lamar Durrett and Robert Milton. The book ends in 2002, leaving the newer tales for a future volume.

Pigott includes pretty much everything, the crashes (including the "Gimli Glider" incident), the national and regional politics and the politics of routes, the early computer reservation systems, finances, cabotage and rights granted, competition with Canadian Pacific, Pacific Western, Wardair and WestJet, customer complaints about poor service, the takeover of the ailing Canadian Airlines, even the "Airbus Scandal" of the Mulroney years. The book is illustrated with many photos of the aircraft, the designer uniforms, aircraft paint schemes and the key people involved. He also covers the regional and budget air services Air Canada started: Air Canada Connector, Jazz, Tango, Zip and even AeroPlan, the customer loyalty "points" system. Even though he shows obvious keen interest in the subject, Pigott is a consummate historian and the reader never feels like this is a "fan" work, but always a passionate, but unbiased history.

I have to admit when I picked this book up I thought, "how interesting can a history of Air Canada really be?" But the author tells a story worth relating and he makes it engaging, if not gripping. I think this is a book that anyone interested in aviation or just general Canadian history will enjoy and find hard to put down.

The book's publisher, Dundurn Press of Toronto, is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

External links

18 June 2015

COPA Announces New President & CEO

By Trekker Armstrong, Chairman, Canadian Owners and Pilots Association

June 15, 2015

COPA’s Board of Directors today announced that Mr. Bernard Gervais has been appointed as the next President and CEO of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. He will officially begin his term on July 1st, 2015.

The Succession Committee of the COPA Board, went through a structured and disciplined recruitment process and was fortunate to have attracted numerous qualified applicants. We wish to thank and acknowledge those applicants who sought to contribute to the success of the Association.

Mr. Gervais is the Past Chairman of the Board of the APBQ (The Quebec Aviators and Bush Pilots Association) and is an outspoken advocate for personal aviation. He has actively collaborated with Transport Canada, NAV CANADA and Community stakeholders on numerous cases. Mr. Gervais has been instrumental in organizing air rallies and provincial air tours to promote general aviation and flight safety. He holds a Private Pilot’s license with a Night and Seaplane endorsement. He flies a 2008 Maule MX-7 on wheels, floats and skis.

As President and CEO, Mr. Gervais’ duties and responsibilities are wide ranging. Mr. Gervais will be responsible for providing valuable membership services, contributing to the corporate strategy and business plan, leading and integrating corporate goals and deliverables, while influencing government bodies. He will be the liaison and primary contact person for entities such as Transport Canada, NAV CANADA, other Canadian Aviation Associations, AOPA and EAA, as well as US and Canadian border agencies. Mr. Gervais will work with the COPA Board regarding corporate governance, while leading and managing a small team of dedicated professionals at COPA's national office in Ottawa.

Mr. Gervais will attend COPA’s Annual General Meeting on Saturday, June the 20 th at St. Andrews Airport (CYAV) in Manitoba. He welcomes the opportunity to meet with COPA members and with others in the broader aviation community.

External links

17 June 2015

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Fly-in - 09 August 2015















The L'Association des Pilotes et Propriétaires de Hangar de St-Jean-sur-Richelieu (COPA Flight 160) are holding their 11th annual fly-in on Sunday 09 August 2015 and everyone is invited to come!

The event features free hotdogs, corn on the cob and soft drinks plus a one day pass for all pilots and passengers to the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival which is held at the same time and place.

Pilots can check for NOTAMs on the club web site for last minute updates.

Details

  • Location: St-Jean Airport (CYJN)
  • Date: Sunday, 09 August 2015
  • Time: All day, except runways closed 1800-1900 hrs for balloons
  • Frequencies: Tower 118.2 MHz, Ground 121.7 MHz
  • Contact: Nicole Legault

External links