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PUFA NEWSLETTER
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March 16, 1996
Jeff Rochon, President
Bernie Strotmann, Vice-President
Ken Buck, Treasurer
Glenn Ursel, Secretary
Mail to: Pacific Ultralight Flying Association
102-16071 82 Avenue
Surrey, B.C. V3S 2L6
PUFA Newsletter published by Glenn Ursel
Several PUFA members and myself flew to Kamloops on March 2nd. We left Airflow at about 9:15 am weather CAVOK, -5 Celius and sunny. I had to top off my fuel at Hope (the price of being the thirstiest), before we entered the Coquihalla Pass. We were speedy to Quilchena Ranch, compliments of a 20 to 25 mph tailwind! A quick coffee and then on to Kamloops. Lunch at the airport cafe after a lengthy wait for fuel. Minor injury to one of our party while aiding another flyer load a large hydraulic ram into his plane enroute to Williams Lake.
We took the Fraser Canyon route past Ashcroft, Boston Bar and Yale on our return flight. FSS at Kamloops had advised winds at 7,000 feet ASL to be 25 K's from the northwest. Sounded like a tailwind after Ashcroft. Well it wasn't!
I've had my GPS toy for some time and have enjoyed tinkering with it on several trips, although I've never placed all my faith in it. Just past Ashcroft, I noticed not only no tailwind but, indeed, a headwind touching 25 mph. Information compliments GPS. Two of us were flying at 4,000 feet ASL, while two others 15 miles ahead down canyon, were at 6,500 feet ASL. They reported no headwind. Also gratis GPS.
Obviously we had to climb! By the time we reached 5,500 feet ASL, the headwind had petered out. It was comforting to have the GPS quickly point out that climbing had rectified the situation. I would have had to put down in Boston Bar to top up my fuel from a container if we had continued fighting the headwind.
Mountain flying can be tricky and even with an FSS report telling us of a tailwind at 7,000 feet ASL, we had headwinds at 4,000 feet ASL - a complete reversal! A GPS may not be for everyone but, in this particular flight, I found it an extremely valuable navigational aid.
After a refuel in Hope (me again), we arrived back in Surrey 15 to 30 minutes before down time. We were fortunate to have a nice window of opportunity in the weather, especially at this time of the year. Was it cold in my open biplane? ----- Well...
PUFA Executive Action on Lottery
Following the motion carried at the February 28th PUFA meeting, the Executive met with Fred Glasbergen on March 11th to discuss the prize options and details of the proposed application for the necessary licence. It was decided that the B Licence was the only practical alternative due to the stringent requirements for the A Licence category and that Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. would offer 3 prizes as follows:
1st prize - flight to Gulf Islands, value $300.
2nd prize - one hour fan flight, value $100.
3rd prize - half hour fan flight, value $50.
Application would specify ticket sales at the Guildford, Surrey Place and Scott Town Shopping Malls. Costs include the $10 application fee, costs of printing tickets and 25% of proceeds to go to a charitable organization. Donations would be solicited as an integral part of ticket sales.
At last month's meeting attendees were offered a Transport Canada "Hazard Observation" form for the purpose of writing to protest the altitude restrictions across the Strait of Georgia. It has since been made known to me that this is an improper use of the form since it is intended to report such new hazards as a recently placed tower without warning lights or a cable across a river. It is not to be used to protest changes in policy or procedures.
For your information, we have learned that an ultralight pilot can obtain permission to exceed the 2,500 foot elevation restriction without a transponder if he or she phones the Aircraft Traffic Controller for Vancouver Terminal at least a half hour before the flight and asks for the Shift Manager to request such permission.
Ken Buck would like me to make it known that our computer equipment is available for sale to any party. It consists of a Hewitt Rand computer, Packard Bell Monochrome Monitor and Star Micronics Dot Matrix Printer. Anybody interested should contact Bernie Strotmann who, as Vice-President of PUFA, is keeper of PUFA equipment.
On this note, it has been suggested that the PUFA Newsletter could be utilized to display ads of ultralights currently up for sale. PUFA Executive have agreed to this in principle, providing that the proposed sale does not conflict with an existing agreement for sale of the plane by another party. We would welcome the input of PUFA members into this proposal at the meeting on March 27th.
At Marilyn Parson's suggestion, I am enclosing a copy of the minutes for the last meeting to members whose annual dues have been paid. I am also enclosing a copy of the complete membership list to all persons on the list to assist in reminding those whose dues are still outstanding.
A recent letter to the Editor of the Surrey/Delta News Leader is reprinted in this issue of the PUFA Newsletter for your interest. Obviously, there are people out there who appreciate the recreational value of the ultralight industry! I personally think she is right on with her remark about the hidden agenda and no doubt the answer to her question about who is responsible for the recent helicopter activity is developers!
Leading on from this thought, it seems highly appropriate to insert an article published in the Leader's competition, the Surrey/Delta/White Rock Now, which details Fred Glasbergen's current battle with city hall. Also included is Fred's own letter to the Editor of the Surrey/Delta News Leader, published on March 9, 1996.
And following that, what else but a reprint of Fred Baron's very poignant
tale of the
Vanishing Airfields of yesteryear.
Golf Course Hidden Agenda?
Editor, Surrey/Delta News Leader
I see that we have returned once more to the controversy over the ultralight field below Panorama Ridge. I live on Woodwards Hill overlooking the airport and simply cannot understand what all the fuss is about, unless there is some hidden agenda regarding the development of the golf course.
I thoroughly enjoy the activity of the airfield and never find the noise of the aircraft to be intrusive. The advent of hang gliders of late just adds to the entertainment.
What I would object to in the past several weeks is the number of helicopters which pass to and fro. They are incredibly noisy as they hover and swoop about, sometimes making four or five passes in one afternoon. I feel a notice to the public regarding their agenda would be appreciated by residents in this area - are they traffic control, map makers, developers or surveillance of some kind? It would be nice to be informed.
Sheila Gair
March 2, 1996
No Place For Airflow Ultralight
Strict guidelines have made it impossible for a local ultralight company to find an alternative location in Surry, says the business's owner. Surrey requires that ultralight operations must be outside a one-kilometre radius from existing and designated residential areas and away from poultry farms and wildlife conservation areas. "It's impossible to meet", says Fred Glasbergen, owner of Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. "I don't think you'd find an airstrip in any major city or town in Canada that has those restrictions."
Glasbergen has been running an ultralight operation off Surrey's lowlands for 15 years,contrary to city zoning and Agricultural Land Reserve regulations. Glasbergen, through the King George Airpark Committee, submitted a report to the city's planning department that compared other local airfields. The report says:
- Langley's airport has 390 residentially zoned houses, as well as a
secondary school and two
churches, within one kilometre. There are 100 townhouses
within 1/2 kilometre from the two
airport runways.
- Chilliwack's airport has more than 500 residentally zoned houses
and townhouses within one
kilometre from the airstrip.
- Pitt Meadows has more than 600 residentially zoned houses with one
kilometre of the airstrip,
and a new subdivision is under construction with 1/2 kilometre
from the three runways.
- Vancouver International Airport has about 1,500 residentially zoned
houses within one kilometre
from the airport.
- Within 200 metres from the Seaplane area, there is a huge townhouse
development being
completed.
The report also states that Vancouver International Airport, Boundary Bay Airport, Delta Airpark, Courtenay Airfield, Fairmont Hot Springs Airfield and Puntzi Mountain Airfield all have neighbouring wildlife sanctuaries. None of these airports would meet Surrey's criteria.
Glasbergen is fighting to keep his ultralight business airborne after the city gave him 60 days to ground his operation, located just south of Panorama Ridge. Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. has operated an ultralight airport from a 78 acre farm on this site at 4981 King George Highway since 1981.
The ultralight facility rests on land within the Agricultural Land Reserve, overseen by the Agricultural Land Commission. The Commission says landing strips are permitted on properties within the ALR provided they are ancilliary to farming activities of the property. The Commission says ultralight operations are non-farm uses and aren't permitted. Surrey has since served Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. with a legal injunction to force the company to shut down because it's violating the permitted uses for agricultural lands. Glasbergen is fighting the injunction.
By Doug Alexander, Staff Reporter for the Now, published in the Now on March 2, 1996
Ultralight Arguments "ridiculous"!
Editor, Surrey/Delta Leader
With regard to your article on the legal action facing the Ultralight Airfield on the King George Highway, I find the reasons that Councillor Gary Watkins gives for trying to close a small business and destroy a sport which obviously many people enjoy, becoming more ridiculous all the time. He is now worrying about explosions. To my knowledge, no ultralights have ever exploded. An ultralight carries less gas than the average size car, and there are a lot more cars on the road than ultralights in the sky.
I understand that Mr. Watkins is a school teacher. Surely teachers research material before sharing it with their students. Maybe I could suggest Mr. Watkins does the same when referring to aviation. He refuses to take up my offer to meet to discuss the issue, when he could also inform my employees that his actions are threatening the loss of their jobs.
Councillor Watkins refers again and again to a shooting incident, even though he was told that his very likely never happened. Both the RCMP and Airflow Aviation Ltd. management feel that a marital problem was behind the assumed mysterious shooting. If we presume for a moment that the shooting did take place, are you suggesting, Councillor Watkins, that anyone who does not like a small business is at liberty to take a shot at them and can then expect your support in closing them down and running them out of town? I thought that kind of mentality went out with the wild west days. Surrey prides itself as the City of Parks. Could this not include an Air Park as the public has shown their desire for, and enjoyment of one for the last 15 years.
Fred Glasbergen
March 9, 1996
The Vanishing Airfields
Do you remember your flights in your brand-new real ultralight to all the local ultralight fields? You might have flown to Lorna's field in Tsawwassen for a visit or dropped in at the Extraordinair Field near Pitt Lake.
Too many problems there. We need the traffic to get our government subsidy, but all those ultralights with all their training, too many problems! So off they went to Pitt Lake way.
The boys all got together with Gord Denham's initiative and built the dandiest, greatest hangars in the world. Then came along the old almighty dollar and the hangars are gone! The 3,000 foot runway is gone and we have a golf course instead. The boys tried to move to the other side of the road across the way but "Big Brother" said "we don't want ultralights in our district" so the majority moved to Fort Langley and the planes sat in the open and rotted in the sun because the local residents don't want any more hangars. A lot of pilots sold their ultralights or moved on.
Then, if you go back, away back, but not that long ago, you might have landed at the southwest side of Fry's Corner (176th Street and Fraser Highway) and visited with Martin Dennis and the local entrepreneurs, starting out in the aviation business. They put their heads together and came up with a great new plane, the "Beaver". I guess they retired to Hawaii and are living happily ever after, but the field died and the cows moved in.
Airfield after airfield, where have they all gone? Lorna moved away from the freeway in Delta, near the exit to the Alex Fraser Bridge. That died then! But you could always go to the "Cross-Winds International"! You never heard of the "Cross-Winds International"? That was Craig Smith's field in Yarrow. After Craig died a few years ago, his wife decided that only planes that are tied down there can use the field. So that is gone too.
And then there was Ed and Maureen Van Gools' Hazelmere field (complete with office and lounge) and two of the longest runways around. It was home to a half dozen or so planes for a number of years until local politics and legal hassles made the operation impractical.
If you were really brave in your Kasperwind, Quicksilver or Lazair, you could have flown to Agassiz and landed at Jim's, the fellow in the wheelchair. But, alas, another field is gone. Or, you could have gone to Bert and Connie Sanders' field for a visit and listen to the "barkless" Shetland collie's bark, but it is gone too... Bert and Connie moved to Aldergrove and have not been active in the Pacific Ultralight Association for over a year. It was one of my favourite sights to see Bert coming into the King George field in his Lazair with two 6 hp engines, no rudder pedals, sling seat and wire wheels. I will always have that memory of those late evening flights after Bert had parked his Air Canada L-1011 at Vancouver International. I wonder if that airport is still there...
Did you know that the present King George field in Surrey, called "Airflow" was not its original location? We used to be able to go to the "Delta Air Park" and then we weren't. I think the present situation is, if you look like an ordinary plane, you can go there but you have to have a VHF radio.
Then, of course, there was the number one runway anywhere, the Anderson Sod Farm. 150 acres of new sod. Just close your eyes and put it down. They put on a big fly-in for us. Those were the days! We aren't welcome there anymore. I guess we were a novelty at first. The places to land are getting fewer and farther between for us old Quicksilver and Lazair pilots.
But there are encouraging words! After 10 years of being banned from Langley Airport, Langley might be having a change of heart because they need the traffic to keep their standing for the Government tower. Not that they want you, they need the traffic!
Where are those planes of yesteryear, the Kasperwing, Terradactly, and others? We should list the names before we forget. Whatever happened to that old Beaver they used to make not so long ago? My Lazair is still going strong. Now there are less and less true "old" ultralights, good and bad, and less places to land. Places to land should be nurtured and not taken for granted. Especially if we go places and don't pay for the gas that is offered to us, or don't bring a pound of coffee once a year for the kitchen.
Fred Baron
June, 1992
My Early Years of Ultralighting
I haven't been around as long as the Baron, nor am I going to be as eloquent, but... okay, here I go with some of my story about ultralighting!
I got into ultralighting quite by accident nearly nine years ago when my brother invited me to come along with him to that ultralight field on the King George Highway down by the Serpentine River after his wife bought him a fan flight for father's day (we had been interested in it for years).
I tagged along and, after the introductory flight, decided almost immediately that this was for me!
So I signed up for Fred Glasbergen's flight training which cost the princely sum of $600 that included the minimum 5 hours dual flight training requirement of the day. I remember seemingly endless rounds of circuits with a fellow called Dave Bachand who wouldn't let me solo until 12 hours of dual training had passed. Lucky for me I think!
As part of the pilot training, Dave and I flew a cross-country circuit. We landed at Glen Valley where Dave cautioned me to observe the power line east of the runway when coming in...
After passing my exam (the second time) for the "Private Pilot Licence - Ultralight Aeroplane", I joined forces with another fellow student pilot (Parke Esposito) and we decided to invest in an ultralight together for the mutual benefit of reducing the capital cost to something we could afford. We quickly located a nearly new Spectrum Beaver owned by Steve Humen who had flown it only 25 hours.
It was a beauty with black and yellow wings with yellow painted wheel hubs and cost a total of $9,000.
At first I stayed pretty close to the home base, but soon I was venturing further afield. I started visiting the local airfields - The Baron's airfield, Intergalactic, and the Collector's field on 176th and Apex and Sun Fun on 152nd.
Then, I decided to try a cross-country flight and flew out to Glen Valley to try my hand at landing there. It was a beautiful sunny day and I flew past the Fort Langley strip, sans radio, and along the river to Fred Glasbergen's field where I banked in a gradual turn east of the field to line up with the grass strip. As I descended, I noticed that the field had been recently cultivated and I dropped lower to savour the rush of apparent speed when flying low over the ground.
I was enjoying this for some seconds when I noticed the blur of telephone poles along the road I was about to fly over to land on Fred's runway. It took me another millisecond to digest the fact that, where there's poles, there's wires! Sure enough, a moment later, I could see the wires and the intrepid pilot had to do something to avoid an untimely demise.
I briefly, ever so briefly, considered pulling back on the stick and going over the wires but, the closer I got, the riskier that seemed. Seconds later, I flew under the wires and landed safely.
Of course I told Fred and the boys when I returned to King George and had to endure well deserved ribbing for weeks afterward!
Later, I started flying out near Pitt Lake to a field called Extraordinaire and later still I flew out to Craig Smith's field at Yarrow. It was on my first solo flight to Yarrow that I had my first "incident".
It was a fairly hot day about noon when I rounded the east point of Sumas Mountain and headed south to the Yarrow field. It was very turbulent (or so it seemed to the novice pilot) and I flew along searching for the field, not sure where it was. Finally, I spotted it and flew over mid field looking for the wind sock to determine which way to land.
I banked around to the east and came over Bob Bambrick's field to line up with Craig's runway. As I came in the plane pitched violently to and fro in the heat waves and I kept the speed high to avoid an unintentional stall - too high as it turned out when I landed (half way down the runway). As soon as I landed, I knew there wasn't enough runway left to stop but I was reluctant to take off and re-enter that maelstrom above...
I thought I could swerve the plane around at the last minute so I feinted left and then a right in preparation for a hard right rudder to swing the plane around and stop it. Unfortunately, half way through this manoeuver, I hit the bank on the west end of the runway. Disaster had struck; I had bent the left wing strut!
Glenn Ursel
March, 1996