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PUFA NEWSLETTER
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May 19, 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
The Mother's Day Pancake Breakfast Fly-in was a big success, despite the weather.
The rain and hail couldn't put a damper on the fun, although only Glenn Ursel and Jeff Rochon managed to actually fly in.
Larry and Marie White and Marilyn Parsons did an excellent job of organizing and preparing the food. For that, they deserve our utmost appreciation! Thanks also to Fred Baron for letting us use the Intergalactic Aerodrome.
Glenn Ursel has designed some new membership cards, and you should be getting yours with this newsletter.
At this month's meeting Dave Dixon of Transport Canada will be giving a safety seminar. This should be applicable toward your recurrent training requirements, so (just in case) bring your licence and logbook.
Editorial Note
by Glenn Ursel
If you can get to this months meeting, you should do so as it is a fairly painless way to meet your currency requirements as may be noted by comparison with the other relatively onerous alternatives itemized in the accompanying notice of this months meeting.
Shortly after I flew into the Mothers Day flyin breakfast at Fred Barons Intergalactic Aerodrome, Fred thrust a piece a paper into my hand and said heres a story for you! So, happily, I present it in this issue of the PUFA Newsletter. It would be great if more of you were similarly inspired 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
In my continuing efforts to profile our members in the interests of PUFA members getting to know each other a little better and perhaps attracting new members, I include a writeup on Josef Kietaibl in this months newsletter. Our profiles to date have included a former RCAF explosives expert, later Deputy Director of the BC Film Classification Division of the Ministry of Attorney General, a Mechanical Engineer specializing in wire rope lifts and suspension bridges, a dentist and now a successful business man in tool and die designed plastic articles.
Marilyn Parsons faxed me a BC Aviation Council of flying events. The fax isnt the best so hope you can read it.
Have a good summer! Dont forget to come to our Glen Valley flyin breakfast on Fathers Day, Sunday, June 20th, 1999.
June, 1999 Flying Events
Sunday, June 6, 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
Old Timers Memories
Imagine, said the young man, he just comes down here and shines up his plane once in a while but rarely flies it! But, alas, he used to fly a lot in days gone by. Time waits for no man!
We all age gracefully and must have a flyers respect for the wisdom of those aged faces and learn from their many years of experience; of their many flights in a by-gone era. I sit and listen to those stories of senior pilots with great admiration for their many years in the aviation field.
We all have a story: some are long and some are shor. But all are to be stored in our memories for future reference.
If our darned flying machines never had a mechanical failure and we checked everything before taking to the air, that rare accident could still strike us down!
And that darned weather? That would make for many a story over a cup of coffee. The wind should always be straight down the runway and yet always a tailwind on cross country flights. Going and coming! All these things provide experience and inspiration for good stories on a winter night.
One of my favourite places to be is the coffee shop at the Delta Airpark. Now thats where aviation began! I could swear that I have seen the ghosts of Orville and Wilbur on an evening when the light was low and, off in the distance near Tony Swains hangar, a ghostly figure skipping into the swadows behind that big yellow Harvard. When I went to look, there was no one to be seen. I didnt mention this event to anyone; my sanity would have been questioned.
Listen to everyones stories because we all have a story to tell. It seems that it takes a little bit of grey hair and a few wrinkles on the forehead to be able to tell the best stories!
A novice pilot...
The Bloody Red Baron
April, 1999
Meet PUFA Member Josef Kietaibl
Josef Kietaibl was born in 1946 at a small village in Austria, called Lang which he says is about 20 km from Weiz. He went to school in another small village nearby called Gamlitz until Grade 8 after which he was enrolled in an apprenticship course at the age of 14 as was the European custom. He apprenticed in tool and die making with a firm called Fink which makes aluminum parts for small engines like Rotax.
Josef completed his apprenticeship at the age of 18 years and became a journeyman tool and die maker. He then was called up for compulsory army recruitment and spent 9 months in the Austrian Army as a radio operator. After the army stint, Josef went to Switzerland where, at 19 years, he got his first job as a tool and die maker in a very large firm with over 6000 employees. Josef didnt like the feeling of anonymity and lack of control over his life in the company - perhaps a first twinge of the future entrepreneur in him.
After a year in Switzerland, Josef called it quits and travelled first to London, England, then Tehran, Iran, Bombay, India, Singapore and, finally, Australia. Josef got a job in tool and die making with a firm called Arthur Murray and Sons in Melbourne. He says he thought he was in a museum due to the pre-second world war antiquity of the machinery in the firm. He stayed only 6 months and went travelling about Australia in a Volkswagen Beetle. The Aussies call this peripatetic travelling a walkabout.
Josef stopped initially in Sydney where he stayed at Kings Cross, an area of the city that was dominated by American soldiers from Vietnam at the time. Apparently the night life was quite lively with the GIs continually lining up to visit the ladies of the evening that frequented the area.
Josef next spent some time at a small ranch north of Sydney where the locals indulged in a pastime of rustling each others unbranded cows. This consisted of driving about until one spotted an unbranded cow and then grabbing it to apply ones own brand on it. Josef also tried his hand at mining Sapphires in the area.
Continuing his walkabout, Josef visited Brisbane where he worked at a tool and die shop and spent his recreational time surfing off the beach and babe watching the rest of the time.
Anyway, Josef carried on to Darwin in his walkabout where he spent most of his time inside sheltered by air conditioning from the hostile elements outside where the temperature hovered around 110 oF with a relative humidity of 85%+. From Darwin, Josef travelled to Perth which he calls the cleanest city in Australia and from there he went to sample the wineries and sight see in Adelaide.
Next Josef visited Alice Springs where he saw Ayers Rock which apparently is the largest single piece of rock in the world. Just south of Alice Springs, he did some opal mining in Coober Pedy which became famous in 1915 when 3 men, who were prospecting for gold, found opals instead. The town was named Coober Pedy in 1920 and is an anglicized version of the Aboriginal words kupa piti, commonly assumed to mean white man in a hole. While in Coober Pedy, Josef went hunting for wild boar and shot one after which he says he put it on the grill for a delicious feast of roast pork.
After this, Josef was sought out by Arthur Murray and Sons to go back to work for them. They wanted Josef to stay in Australia and asked him what would it take to keep him there. Princess Anne was visiting Australia at the time and he half jokingly suggested a date with Princess Anne might persuade him. Of course, they failed to come through and it was time for Josef to leave Australia.
He flew to Auckland, New Zealand, then onto Fiji and Hawaii to Vancouver, B.C. Within 1 day, he had 3 job offers and worked for a year with a firm called Stewart Diecasting. After a year, he went to work for a couple of weeks as a cook in a jade mine in Lillooet.
Soon he was back in Vancouver working for another tool and die company and he quickly became engulfed in the North American chase for the almighty dollar. In 1972, he married and a son and daughter, now 25 years and 20 years old respectively, were borne. His son is now completing his training as a lawyer and his daughter is enrolled in a BA program in psychology at Simon Fraser University.
In 1980, Josef started his own tool and die business in his garage. He immediately experienced problems with employees due to expanding too quickly. His marriage failed about this time. He then scaled back the business and went into the manufacturing of plastics, making things like 2 litre containers for Coca Cola, etc.
In 1982 Josef met and later married Pat and they have been together ever since. Josefs business firm, called Merfin Plastics, has prospered over the years and now employs 50 people with the main product being a toilet dispenser that has a capacity to hold up to 1 mile of toilet paper. Some toilet paper dispenser this is! He calls it the Terminator naturally since no other dispenser can compete with it he says. He markets more than 30,000 of the Terminators each month with most going to the USA, Mexico and Japan but, soon, he anticipates sales to South America, France and England. He says the secret to managing employees is to be fair and treat each equally. His employees run the gamut of many ethnic backgrounds including Vietnamese, Taiwanese, East Indian, Swiss, English and Czechoslovakian persons.
In 1986 Josef took his flying lessons at the old Sun Fun Ultralight school at 72 Avenue and 152 Street in Surrey. After soloing for 2 hours, he quit flying due to business pressures. In 1994, Josef resumed his flying activities and purchased a heavily damaged Rans Airaile from Bob Christen and Hal Wilkie. Josef repaired the plane and flew it for about a year.
In 1995, Josef purchased another damaged plane, this time a Rans Coyote from Air Flow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. This was the plane that had crashed in someones backyard in Coquitlam when a renter of the plane misjudged his fuel supply and ran out of gas over the city. Josef flew the coyote for about a year and half when he became interested in float flying. He installed full lotus floats on the Rans Coyote but didnt like the performance characteristics. Shortly after this, he became the, at first, ambivalent owner of a Searey
Josef flying over Princess Louisa Inlet
Josef taxing his Searey in Princess Louisa Inlet
when he made an offer on the plane and was surprised to see it accepted. He now loves the plane and has flown it everywhere on the South Coast.
Josef now has 550 flying hours to his credit and qualified last year for his private pilot licence. He says his ambition is to build a Air Coop 6 with a 320 hp Lycoming and fly to Europe which requires a special permit and instrument rating to fly over the Atlantic via Greenland.
Josef is a credit indeed to our illustrious fraternity of ultralighters and we wish him well in his future endeavours be they business ventures or flying activities.
Glenn Ursel
May 14, 1999