THOMPSON VALLEY
SPORT AIRCRAFT CLUB |
DECEMBER 2020 NEWSLETTER


Dec. 06,
2020.
Previous Newsletter
November 2020
Next meeting: How about September 2021? That virus
problem seems to get worse every day, looks like we are in for the long haul...

EDITOR'S NOTES
When I emailed everyone asking for contributions
to the newsletter, what I meant was:
"I am looking for
photos, stories and articles. I myself
am running out of ideas! Anything would
be totally appreciated! Just email me
anything you have.
I am very grateful that many of you responded within a few
hours! Thank you! I
find the help very encouraging in keeping on producing the newsletter, and hope
the same can happen in the future!
I've sworn an oath of solitude until the pestilence
is purged from the lands. Yeah OK, that's my attempt at humour for now...
But seriously we keep hearing all the time how bad the situation is; if the
virus doesn't kill you, it might leave you with damages to your system that will
degrade your quality of life.
Actually, BC has declared a state of emergency.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/driving-and-cycling/traveller-information/travel-affected-by-covid-19
At this time, stay local and avoid non-essential travel within B.C.
Do not travel outside of the province unless it is essential.
That is a guideline, not a as drastic as an order, but if we are careful and
responsible it might bring a very quiet holiday season. As my sons live in
Vancouver and Delta, it might be smarter for them to stay there rather than take
the risk to bring me the virus. I am sure that most people here will face a
similar situation. That's what is called "the new normal"! See what is
happening elsewhere: In California they have a stay-home order starting today...

FROM GARY WOLF
I am sending the bones of an upcoming
article and think that you should make your members aware of the situation.
There is a serious threat to our continued use of unregistered aerodromes, that
threat being the drone industry. In the past five years they have been lobbying
Transport Canada for more access to airspace and they want more freedom to fly
beyond line of sight. They have had great success in these approaches and they
want more. The latest is that they are proposing to have dedicated airways for
their exclusive use, to provide courier services and perhaps passenger traffic.
Last Spring they asked for an increase in gross weight to nearly that of a
Cessna 150.
At present the industry is laying out
possible airways and it is assumed that they will not interfere with normal GA
and commercial flights. To this end they are using the CFS are the document that
shows the locations of registered aerodromes. The problem is that they have no
way of knowing the location of unregistered aerodromes of the type that many of
us have on our own property, so they will go ahead with whichever routes are
most efficient for their operations. This problem already exists for
unregistered aerodromes where commercial entities seek to install wind farms or
communications towers that conflict with our use of our own aerodromes.
Once these airways go into effect it is
entirely possible that a pilot could find that he can no longer take off from
his own runway, and that his hangar has become in effect a storage unit for an
aircraft that can no longer fly.
The regulations governing aerodromes
changed in January 2017 but an aerodrome in operation before that date can
easily be registered. The process is explained in Transport's document AC
301-002. I encourage all aerodrome owners to get moving on this quickly. Most
of the work can be done by email.
Transport estimates that there are
some 6000 airfields of all types in Canada, but only one third are registered.
There could be a lot of aerodromes rendered unusable if pilots do not take
action to register. If we all register our aerodromes the CFS might have to
become three volumes...
Gary Wolf
RAA Canada

FROM BILL HUXLEY
Not much happening out here at
Ross Creek Landing. My Challenger has been put into storage for the Winter and
is now fast asleep.
The only thing I can think of
for a picture is to go back in history to July 2nd, 2008 when a Flight of 3 "Knutsford
Air Farce" flying machines was sent to patrol the skies above. A Challenger
(camera plane), The "Bigfoot" Kitfox and a Renegade with the smoke on
for the folks at Logan Lake.


FROM GORDON ISAAC

The recoil starter on my
MZ34 broke a part that the retailer wanted
$135. US plus shipping to replace the whole
unit as they would not sell the little plastic
retainer alone . Turns out that part is for
sale on Amazon for OLD snowmobile recoils for
less than $12. Cdn. Total guts can also be
bought for about than $40. Cdn .
I robbed the guts from an OLD 377 snowmobile Rotax motor . Totally
compatible .
** I now will place a " decompression valve " on the
MZ34 head ,, as there was a plug I could remove next to the spark
plug . ** The Cisco 2 - cycle motor on my other ATF trike ( like they
use in parasailing ) has a decompression built into its configuration
,and makes it much easier to start . The valves are on Amazon as
chainsaw replacement parts.
LeRoy Procter has moved his single seat Falcon
canard ultralight into the hanger space beside my trike(s) and I am
looking forward to a possible restoration of his ultralight in the
springtime .Very few of these canard wing ultralights are for sale
or even flying these days .
**If you have any ultralight aircraft instructors for "
stick " or " trike " viewing your website ,, it would be helpful to our
hobby if they were to advertise where they are located and their average
cost to train interested future pilots for ultralight aircraft . I trained
for 8 hours on a farm outside of Spokane Wash., did my "solo " on the
airstrip in Tonasket to fly ( FARR 103 ) in the USA in my first " Cadet "
ultralight . When John M/c Dermott started his UL school in Salmon Arm ,,I
finished his course and wrote my UL pilot licence in Kelowna . Some
years later it took me another 8 hours of " trike " flying to fully
transition to this unique type ultralight as the mind has to convert
to a "push " to land rather than " pull " which has caused many "stick
' pilots grief !! My trike instructor was Kamron Blevins of North Wing
in Chelan , Washington. He insisted I fly without the ASI to fully be
attuned to the trike aircraft's flight. He saved me several times
from the results of a "pull " instead of " push " ! The transition
time was worth the effort .
Yes, Cam , i would enjoy hearing some stories from
other ultralight pilots and try to get a " feel " as to the interest
for this hobby presently and where folks are flying ?? The once very
active club out of Salmon Arm of 60 plus active ultralight pilots has
dwindled to about 6 active flyers I have knowledge of now .
Thanks for keeping the ultralight interest /
community alive with your website ,
Gordon

JERRY LIEUWEN
I talked to Jerry lately; he was a Club member a few years ago.
he since moved to Williams Lake, sold his power parachute and is now driving a
truck. A while ago he had sent me a picture from when he had been riding
in Northern BC (or the Yukon...)
Next time you come thru Kamloops, you are invited to drop in,
Jerry!


FROM WALLY WALCER



RETIREMENT! This is what happens when you sell your Rans, take over a
bedroom and call it your hobby room. The motorcycle I got for my 65” birthday,
I’m now 72, at least it’s done. The planes bought one from brother in law, he
gave me the second one. I’ve ordered a Citabria from SIG Manufacturing, 69” wing
span, balsa construction, but it’s on back order. Anxious to get that one, need
something to do this pandemic Winter! You guys stay safe you hear! A guy I know
would end with “talk to youa”.
Wally

FROM WILLY TRINKER
Here's a link to my latest Blog post, maybe
this helps your newsletter. Only a year overdue :-))
Working on another topic concerning flying the
classic ultralights, hope it won't take another year too! Sorry to hear about
Bill, but we also lost Hans Wilhelm my 701 flying partner due to a brain tumor
in Colombia. As we all get older, eh...
https://fly-bc.blogspot.com/2019/09/flying-on-cheap.html
Best Regards, Willy T.

FROM CRAIG MEREDITH
Ha Ha! I thought that you were looking for
money to fund the newsletter!🤗
I enjoy it and would love to see it continue. It is a value to the aviation
community. And, the Buy & Sell is a huge asset ...one that I plan on using to
sell my Bushmaster 160 in the Spring. It helped me to sell my Full Lotus floats
a couple of years ago (I see that they are listed again!).
I fully understand how tiresome that it must
be for you to come up with content. Would it help to reduce the frequency of the
Newsletter?
I hope that you can find a way! Thx for what
you have done for so long now!
Craig😎

FROM DAN BERWIN
Taken in the Spences Bridge area.





FROM PAUL VILLENEUVE

Flapping my wings. Fernie 1973.
Spring had taken all the snow out of the valley and with the birds and the bees
singing and buzzing their joy at the heat I found myself not too far behind.
One night stepping out of a car with heavily steamed windows I took my very new
girlfriend’s hand for a walk into what I thought was an empty field. Out of
the three am mist, a pale shape appeared and resolved into a small plane. We had
parked on the edge of the Elk Valley Flying School airfield.
Returning there a few days later I enrolled myself in to learn
how to fly.

FROM JOHN EATON
I really enjoy the aerial shots of the country
side and I miss getting up myself to see things. What about feedback from pilots
on strips, especially emergency ones, with updates on conditions, maybe approach
and departure photos, proximity to help, things that could be done to cleanup
and improve them ( with owners permission if on private proper). In Faro, Yukon,
the Airport has a comment book that pilots fill in after using a strip for
others to use
Keep up the great work, Cam
John

Jan's Latest Videos
Watch at least my so far the
most popular flying videos, #314 and #317. Thanks
for visit!
Jan's Latest
Pictures

Interesting
clouds formations above Mt Peter.
Looking North, Nov 28, 2020

New Cannabis
farm (green roof) in Westsyde.
Flying North, Nov 28, 2020

Interesting
formation near McLure. Flying
North above N Thompson River, Nov
28, 2020

FROM DENNIS SEIB
TAYLORCRAFT FLIGHT



Some pictures that Dave took of the aircraft's
first flight in 20 years. The flight was an adrenaline kick as I had not done a
takeoff in a tail dragger in many years. It didn't help that there was a bit of
crosswind and the tailwheel would swivel every direction but straight. The
brakes are old cable brakes and require lots of heel pressure while also trying
to use the rudder at the same time. Some interesting history of this Taylorcraft
is that it is a 1953 model 19 and was the first aircraft of Dick Turner. He
wrote about it in his second book "Wings of the North". He also wrote "Nahanni".
His third book never got published but I read the manuscript. It was called
"Mackenzie".
The Taylorcraft has twice the wing and half
the power of my last aircraft.
I hope to get to a few more local airports
before the snow flies. It does have skis but I have never flown it on skis.
I purchased CF-HAL back in 1987 and flew it
for 10 years. The annuals were too expensive, so I stopped flying it and built
an Avid Flyer and installed a Subaru engine. I had paid 8 thou for the aircraft
but the first annual was 2 thou and the second was 6 thou.
It now is completely rebuilt and in owner
maintenance.

FROM WAYNE FULLER
Years ago, flying
my Beaver RX-550 amphib, I was flying with the first-generation Spot device. I
had taken off from my home field (Fred Glassbergens' 900-foot grass strip) in
the Glen Valley area near Fort Langley in the lower mainland and it was a
beautiful sunny day so I flew to the north end of Stave Lake where there is an
old logging camp and an old road to a log dump on the river. I landed in the
river and beached near the site on the river and then hiked up the old road
towards the old camp and when I came to the main road, I headed down the road to
Roaring Creek and hiked up that old decommissioned logging road until I came to
my game camera site whereupon I changed video cards and then powered up my Spot
device and sent an 'I'm Okay' message from that point. Usually, I powered down
my unit after sending my message, but this time I left it powered up, put it in
my breast pocket and went back down the road to the main road, once there I
decided to bushwhack it to the old log sort on the river. Once at my plane I
took off and flew down the lake and off towards the Fraser River, once there I
flew up the Fraser to the Mission bridge and then back down the river to my home
field.
The field is right
across the road from a large practice area where it is common to have many
aircraft flying about. As I was turning downwind, I noticed a search and rescue
Hercules air craft heading towards me but off to my left, I continued to land
and noticed the Hercules kind of circling my position. As I pulled into my
hangar apron and got out Fred came out towards me telling me to call Conny (my
partner) as my Spot was sending a 911 signal. As I cancelled the signal and
called her, Fred radioed the Hercules to let them know that, 'pilot was down and
safe'.
As it turns out ,
somewhere on that bushwhacking portion of my hike I had an activation of my 911
button and search and rescue then sent out a Cormorant helicopter to look for me
at the ping site, but by the time they got there they were getting moving but
erratic sites through the rest of my trip and so they sent the Herc.
I called search and
rescue headquarters in Victoria and they said not to worry that it was better
than a practice run because they actually were expecting problems, and he asked
if I had a hard landing (there is an old strip) up there but I told him that it
was an accidental Spot activation but I do not think he was aware of the unit I
was referring to. I then called Spot about the 'pocket dial' but they denied it
being a problem and yet the Gen. 2 unit has a cover over the 911 button to
prevent such a thing.

THIS BUCK STOPS HERE.

This has nothing to do with flying, just another one of those
things that makes life interesting!
Rutting season started a few weeks ago, and this young buck is
very eager to do his part for the survival of his species! With four females to
look after, he is very persistent and does not seem to run out of energy! Taken
by my trail cam, in the green belt at the edge of my back yard. I have a
front-row seat to the show, looking out the window from my computer chair, as
they come within thirty meters.
This morning (Dec. 1st) I observed two does and two young bucks
(not yet two-pointers) looking for something to eat on the slope, and they
stayed for hours.
One of the does I have seen for a few years now, as she has an
injured front-left leg she can hardly use; but that did not stop her from
nursing her fawn two years ago. I must say I was surprised and happy to see her
still around!
Even though the original picture captured by the Tasco trail cam
is a 400X300 JPEG, the image quality is definitely not great. But what do you
expect when you buy 2 for $99.97 ? :-)
Maybe I should write a nature blog...


To go to the BUY&SELL section,
click here.

Editor: Cam villeneuve@shaw.ca

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