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April 21, 1999

Daryl Hegyi, President
Tobias Kreisz, Vice-President
Mario LeBel, Treasurer
Debbie Major, Secretary

Mail to: Pacific Ultralight Flying Association
102-16071 82 Avenue
Surrey, B.C. V3S 2L6

PUFA Newsletter published by Glenn Ursel

From The President
by Daryl Hegyi

Bill Wong died tragically last week when his homebuilt plane crashed while he was performing "taxi" tests. Evidently, this was the first time he was flying from water on new floats which he had just installed.

Witnesses reported his plane "spiralling in" from about 400 feet.

Although we should wait for the Transport Canada report, we can't help to speculate on what went wrong. In doing that, we can come up with a few "rules" you can use to prevent it happening to you.

- make a plan and stick to it
- get an experienced person to examine your plane
- get sufficient training
- make sure your weight and balance is correct
- know the flight characteristics of your aircraft
  (especially the stall speed)
- get an experienced test pilot to test fly your plane
- if you find a problem, stop; dont fly the plane

This tragic accident reminds us that the sport we have chosen has risks.  By managing these risks, we can reduce the chance of serious accidents.

Editorial Note
by Glenn Ursel

I am dedicating this issue of the PUFA Newsletter to the memory of Dr. Terry Parsons who passed away on February 4th, 1999.  With Marilyn Parsons help, I have written a posthumous sketch of his long and eventful life as part of my ongoing series of profiles on PUFA members designed partly for PUFA members benefit but also to hopefully attract new members.  The three profiles written to date on Ray Crottey,  Bob McLellan and now, Terry Parsons, illustrate the great variety of our PUFA memberships background and experience which I feel makes the club both interesting and vital.

At this time I wish to also note Bill Wongs tragic death about 12:45 pm on Sunday, April 11th when his Rans Coyote plunged into the Fraser River near the Fort Langley Airport from a height of approximately 120 metres.  Bill had just recently installed Full Lotus floats on his plane and was in the process of testing them at the time of his death.  I am sure that all of us share the deepest empathy for his wife and children.  On a happier note, I was pleased to receive an email of Bob Christens account of his trip to Vargas Island on the west coast of Vancouver Island, near Tofino.  Bobs story is interesting and illustrates the kind of typical flying adventure that we ultralighters on the coast of British Columbia have the very good fortune to be able to enjoy at any time the weather and our personal circumstances permit.

I hope that Bobs effort inspires more of you to send me your stories and/or anecdotes on your past flying experiences.  Just mail them along with a picture or two, if possible, to the PUFA address noted above or email them to: gursel@direct.ca

May, 1999 Flying Events
Sunday,  May 2, 1999, 9:00 am to 11:15 am
Delta Airpark, RAA Chapter 85 monthly pancake breakfast
$3, 9:00 am to 11:15 am
Listen to the pre-recorded arrival procedures for Delta Heritage Airpark
phone 878-9050

In Memory of Dr. Terrence George Parsons

Terry Parsons was born in New Westminster on April 29th, 1918 and lived in Queensborough for the first 19 years of his life, attending UBC after graduating from local schools.

In his younger days Terry had developed osteomyelitis in his left leg after banging it on something.  He endured about a dozen operations by a surgeon, Dr. Frank Patterson, who saved his leg and became his friend for life.

During his UBC years, he organized a couple of Co-op houses where his living expenses for the first year were $19 per month.  He also rowed for the UBC Rowing Team, courtesy of his friend, Dr. Patterson, who also paid for Terrys fees to belong to the Vancouver Rowing Club.  After UBC, he worked until 1945 for CP Airlines, Boeing Aircraft and the Columbian Newspaper where he worked the banquet beat.  He later studied dentistry at the University of Oregon where he worked in a mortuary to pay for his schooling.

Terry graduated in dentistry in 1949.  In 1953 Terry suffered a massive haemorrhage while working at his dental office and was rushed to the Royal Columbian Hospital for treatment.  There, he met Marilyn who was a recent graduate in nursing at the time.  At one point during Terrys hospitalization, Marilyn saved his life with a judicious application of a tourniquet on his leg.  Life was never a dull moment after that for both of them.

Married in 1956, Terry and Marilyn settled into a smaller house on the same lot as the Parsons house now currently sits.  Terry and Marilyn built their present home with the indoor swimming pool in 1962.  They did all the wiring themselves with Marilyn doing the painting as well.

One of Terrys innovations in the design of the house is a flat tar and gravel roof which can be flooded with water in summer to act as additional insulation for cooling.  Another was a roll out plastic cover for the swimming pool to stop condensation on the two story plate glass walls that surround the pool on the west side and rear of the house.

There were many other innovations that Terry carried out such as their bathroom, complete with bidet and cabinets he designed and built throughout their home.  After a burglary of his workshop during which he lost many tools, he designed and built a complete security alarm system.  At the time of his passing, he was improving and simplifying the system but hadnt completed the job.  Gordon Brogan and Larry White recently completed this for Marilyn.

The pool was the centre of activity for the family, not to mention the PUFA Christmas parties of later years.  Terry also had a penchant for fine automobiles as he owned not only a Jaguar but also a Rolls Royce automobile.

During the sixties, Terry managed a busy professional life with an equally busy private life.  He had obtained his private pilot licence on March 13th, 1959, paying  the princely sum of $5.00 for the licence fee.  After obtaining his pilot licence, Terry launched himself into the construction of a French designed homebuilt plane called a Jodell D-ll.  It was a project that Terry was not to complete, partly for health reasons since he suffered from high blood pressure and was concerned that he might not pass future medicals.

He traded his 3/4 built Jodell for an MX he obtained off Harvey Mace who he had met at the EAA Chapter 85 at Delta Airpark of which he had been a founding member.  Harvey was both a pilot and A&E was living in Sacramento, building airplanes and crop dusting for a living when Terry and Marilyn met him in the early sixties.  During World War II, Harvey had been a fighter pilot and later flew B 52s in the Korean War.

Besides his activities with EAA, Terry was also heavily involved with the Abbotsford Airshow where he managed the parking, directing traffic with silk screen signs he made himself and collecting $2 per car for parking.  Marilyn says they went to the airshow so many times it seemed that the Jaguar he drove at the time almost drove itself to the Abbotsford Airport once it was on the Port Mann Bridge.

During this period, Terry also did his part for the community by standing for election to the New Westminster School Board as a School Trustee.  He was re-elected 6 times over the following 12 years for which his efforts later earned him a Certificate of Honour in December of 1974.  Prior to this Terry had received similar certificates for his  lectures and contributions to Professional Dentistry Seminars in Bangkok, Thailand and at Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan.

Throughout the sixties and seventies, Terry and Marilyn did extensive travelling in Canada, USA, Europe and the far east.  They visited Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia and Greece in Europe and Bermuda, Mexico and Guatemala in Central America.  They also visited Japan, Hong Kong and Bangkok in the far east.

In all these travels, though, Marilyn said they never went camping.  Apparently he didnt like camping in his earlier years.  It was not until 1990 that they went on a camping trip with their van.

During the summer of 1979, Terry suffered a massive heart attack and was forced into retirement from his Profession of Dentistry.  Due to his heart problem, Terry decided he couldnt maintain his medical for his private pilot licence and he decided to try ultralighting. In 1985, he took lessons with Steve Cowan at the old Sun Fun flying school on 152 Street and 72 Avenue.  Soon after obtaining his ultralight pilot licence, Terry had an accident with his MX when he crash landed on the banks of the Serpentine Canal, landing upside down and hanging from his harness.  After extricating himself, he heard a helicopter flying nearby and went to seek help.

Jeff Rochon had a story about this incident which he related to me recently.  Apparently, Terrys crash was preceded a short time before by the crash of another ultralight nearby, piloted by one Ed McKitka junior (the son of the Surrey Mayor of the day).  According to Jeff, it was McKitka who hired the helicopter that Terry attempted to retrieve his MX with from the swamps of the Serpentine.  Unfortunately, it was not a successful undertaking and the MX was badly damaged in the rescue operation due partly to the limited power of the helicopter and partly to the sucking action of the infamous Serpentine swamps.

Terry then sent away for a Kolb plane in kit form and obtained the parts in February of 1990.  He had the plane assembled by that summer and commenced flying it in the fall of 1990.  Later he put floats on his Kolb but the engine was not powerful enough for the float configuration and Terry removed the floats.  Due partly to his advancing years and the frailty of the Kolb undercarriage, Terry was to fly his plane only a few more times before he disassembled his plane and took it home to his backyard in New Westminster where it sits forlornly today waiting for a buyer.

Terry passed away on Thursday, February 4th, 1999 after succumbing to a sudden pneumonia infection.  He (and Marilyn) will long be fondly remembered for their many contributions to the Pacific Ultralight Flying Association activities and their hosting of many well attended PUFA Christmas parties at their home on Dublin Street in New Westminster.

Glenn Ursel
April 6, 1999

My Trip to Vargas Island, British Columbia

Sunday, April 11th, 1999 was a super day, weather wise when I attended the Delta Airpark monthly pancake breakfast.  One after another, the Delta boys showed up, some with their families and some without.

Ken Hicks and I had decided the evening before that we would fly to Vargas Island on the west coast of Vancouver Island, just across from Tofino.  Old Dan McGowan and his dog, Jasper (the navigator), were in on it too because he had been there and knew what beach to land on.  So word spread fast at breakfast and, in no time flat, we had a whole pile of people and airplanes ready for takeoff - Ken in his Rans S-10, Guy Shaddock in his 50 year old Cessna 120, Julius Szalontai in his Murphy Rebel, Old Dan in his Champ, Terry Petersen and Dr. John Heilmann in Terrys Rans S-7, Phil Bill and Manon Bill in their Piper Colt, Bruce Underwood in his Taylor craft, Horst Dofeck and his brother in another Piper Colt, a father and son team in another Piper Colt from Delta and me in my GY 20 Minicab - ten planes in all.

We had all planned to follow Dan who departed first.  Well that didnt work out very well because there was some concern before departure of how to keep up with him when he was NORDO.  I told everyone not to rely on Old Dan since we had charts for navigation.   And so off we went.  Some of the group spotted Old Dans Champ in the sky and caught up to him.  I was the second last in front of Phil in his Colt and behind Julius in his Rebel.  I could hear everyone on the radio but couldnt see any other planes until I reached Vargas Island.  For navigation, I had my map on my knee, my sectioned off (in 10 mile increments) shoe string and the trusty old protractor.  I had previously sold my   GPS 90 to Al Trautman.  Boy, I hit that island right on the nose - straight as the crow flies the old navigation way by rivers, lakes and other landmarks!

I held the Minicab high over Vargas Island so I could see Dans arrival and watch which beach he picked.  Doing that I spotted Julius about 1000 feet below me orbiting the island.  The crew that caught up to Dan reported still a few miles out.  Then, one by one, the airplanes showed up in contrast to the dark green forest below them and hopped onto the beach like a bunch of ducks.  First Dan, then Ken, Bruce and, oh, there pops up Guy!  So I started to drop the GY 20 down a couple of notches and filed into line as Number 5 with Julius and Terry as six and seven.

As we all landed and taxied out of the way, the rest of the group arrived.  When we arrived, there were 3 planes from Langley with wives and kids.  In total, we had 13 planes on the beach.

We spent a couple of hours walking and exploring, taking lots of photos and trying hard not to slip on all the good BS that was dropped on the beach.

Shortly after 3 oclock, we all departed with some of the planes heading directly for home Ken, Guy, Julius and I stopped at Qualicum for fuel and a burger.  By 5 pm, we arrived back at the barn in Delta Airpark with a lot of excellent memories stored away.

Bob Christen
April 14, 1999