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PUFA NEWSLETTER
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September 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
Just as the summer is over, the weather decides to clear up. We've had more sunshine in the first half of September than we had all summer. Go figure.
This summer has been quite exciting, with many flyins and events. We had a Father's Day pancake breakfast and a camp-in at the Glen Valley Airfield. This year's Powell River flyin was again a great time.
Now it's time to start gearing up for the winter. Elections are coming up soon. The Christmas party is right around the corner.
At this month's meeting, Toby Kriesz will show his latest video (he promised that it will be edited by then). We also invite you to bring in some ultralight-related items that the members would be interested in. For instance, I will be showing all the plans, logbooks and other neat stuff that came with my new Pober Pixie.
See you there.
Editorial Note
by Glenn Ursel
I went down to King George Airpark on Labour Day Holiday, Monday, September 6th, to get some info from Fred Glasbergen on the summers flying events since I unfortunately missed most of them due to taking holidays in Alberta and the Lake of the Woods area of western Ontario. It was a windy day (too windy for flying) but great for socializing with the ultralighter gang down at the Airflow office. After Fred filled me in on the summer flying activities, Don Willoughby came by and I immediately latched onto him to give me a sketch of his life story for my series of profiles on our PUFA ultralighters. To the previous list of RCAF explosives expert/film classifier, mechanical engineer, dentist and tool and die maker businessman, we now add a consummate business man in mineral exploration, home development, store operation and waste disposal.
Then Heathe Thompson, Ron Smit and his lady, Debbie, Rob Leimer, Raymond Kats and Ron Nichols showed up in quick succession. The conversation at times touched on personal backgrounds, then switched back to topics like comparing the merits of the more aerodynamic Puddle Jumper to rugged Full Lotus floats. Ron Nichols mentioned that he is being transferred to Ottawa soon in his job with Agriculture Canada. I suggested the idea of getting a Challenger on skis since they are often featured in the COPA Newsletter and Ive always thought that would be great fun for winter flying. Ron wasnt sure he would continue flying down there unless he could find a similar airfield like the King George Airpark where flying expertise and camaraderie is readily available. It was a remark that made me think about what a great catalyst indeed Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. has been over the years for the ultralight community in the Lower Mainland...
October, 1999 Flying Events
Sunday, October 3, 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
Powell River Flyin, August 31, 1999
The Powell River flyin has come and gone. Many of our members made the
annual
pilgrimage, and everyone had a great time.
On Saturday morning, we showed up at King George Airpark, preflighted our planes, and loaded our camping gear into the van (thanks to Stephan, who drove the van up). After a pilots' briefing, we took to the air. The weather was overcast, and the winds were gusty at Powell River, but everyone made it safely and parked their airplanes in our usual spot. The afternoon was sunny and we enjoyed meeting all the people and looking at all the airplanes. Some of the group went on to Cortez Island to spend the night there.
As usual, the Powell River Flying Club put on a great feast of prawns, salmon, halibut, oysters, and all the fixins. There was even chicken for those who don't appreciate seafood.
The van with all our camping gear arrived during dinner, and afterwards, there was a big rush to set up our tents and get back for desert and the awards presentation. Your humble president won the award for the best ultralight and Raymond Katz won the award for the youngest pilot. I had just acquired a Pober Pixie and this flyin was the first adventure with it. I would like to thank all the people who voted for my plane (fix? what fix?).
The dancing went on for most of the evening, and finally everyone reluctantly returned to their tents (and some less hardy souls rented motel rooms or stayed with friends). Of course, the rain started up during the night and we listened to the pitter-patter all night long. The next morning, they served us a great breakfast in the clubhouse. We spent the morning monitoring the weather, waiting for it to clear up in Vancouver. Finally, around 13:00, it looked good enough to take off back to King George Airpark. The flight back was fast, with a 20 knot tailwind all the way. I would like to add a note of appreciation to the controllers at Vancouver Harbour Terminal, who were courteous and VERY patient with us.
So, everyone made it home safely, and we waited around for the van to arrive with the luggage (just like a real airline, the luggage is always late). While we were waiting, Debbie Major showed up with dinner. Yet another feast.
All in all, everyone had a great time, and we all appreciate the excellent event put on by the Powell River Flying Club.
Daryl Hegyi
Review of Summer Flying Events on the Coast
The Yellow Knife gang (Jeff Rochon, Julius Szalontai and Ken Hicks) had to cancel their June 25th planned epic trip due to inclement weather.
Due to inclement weather (a common occurrence this year), the first annual Hope expedition planned for July 3rd and 4th was also cancelled. Instead, a delegation of ultralighters was hosted by Ron Bestward at his Hatzic Lake home with 9 land planes and 5 sea planes (one a neighbours Chinook on floats).
The July 4th Delta Airpark monthly pancake breakfast was well attended as usual.
The EAA Fly-in at Arlington, Washington was also well attended by local fliers.
The Fathers Day July 24th overnight barbecue at Glen Valley was well attended with 6 planes flying in. Many thanks to Gordon Denham, Ray Crottey and Claude LeClair for their work in organizing the barbecue.
The ice on Widgeon Lake finally melted enough to permit seaplane landings on July 31st! This is the latest date the ice has persisted to that anyone can remember.
There was still a 3 foot bank of snow in some areas of the lake shore with one ice flow still floating in the middle of the lake!
On August 14th, a fly-in was held at the Fulford Harbour airstrip on Saltspring Island by the owner, Gordon Cudmore, in an effort to get local residents used to aircraft movements. There were 34 planes in attendance, ranging from warbirds like the Harvard to all usual ultralights represented from the Lower Mainland and Courtenay. Gary Letour provided transportation from the airfield to the site of the barbecue.
On August 28th, there was a great turnout for the Powell River fly-in with yours truly also in attendance. Everyone enjoyed a 20 mph tail wind when flying to the event Saturday morning. I made it in 1 hour and 40 minutes from the Glen Valley Airfield to the Powell River Airport in my RX 550 Beaver on puddle jumper floats. Later that day, I flew back against a 5 to 10 mph head wind and it took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to get back to Glen Valley. Most people stayed overnight of course and enjoyed a 10 mph tail wind on the return flight the next afternoon after the weather cleared.
On Saturday, September 4th, a toilet roll drop contest was held by Airflow at the King George Airpark and Steven Major won with his father, Allen, piloting the victorious aircraft.
Glenn Ursel
No more radio licences and fees
Aircraft ownership costs just took a step in the right direction, thanks to COPAs action. An appeal was made to the government by COPA in 1997 to eliminate the requirement for a licence (and the fee) for aeronautical radio installations in Canada. An additional appeal was made to accept American aircraft without a radio licence (licences are not required there) and to have the United States accept Canadian aircraft without a radio licence. COPA salutes Industry Canada and its staff in the Radio Spectrum office for responding positively on both accounts. The Radiocommunication Regulations have been amended allowing for the exemption of specific aircraft stations from the licensing requirement. Two criteria must be met: the aircraft will not be operated in the sovereign airspace of another foreign country other than the USA and the radio equipment on board the aircraft is only capable of operating on frequencies that are allocated for aeronautical mobile communications or aeronautical radionavigation. Section 15.1 of the Radio Communication Regulations entitled Exemption of Radio Apparatus on Board an Aircraft will come into effect April 1, 1999.
Industry Canada has sent notices to the existing radio station licence holders. Two types of notice have been sent out. For all private aircraft that meet the exemption criteria (according to the information in the Industry Canada database), the notice states that a radio licence renewal notice will not be issued. If the owner does nothing in reply, the existing licence will be cancelled. If the aircraft does not meet either of the criteria then the aircraft will still require a radio licence and the owner must pay a licence renewal fee. Owners who require a licence are asked to contact the local Industry Canada office to arrange for payment or to obtain a copy of the radio licence renewal invoice. If at some time in the future, the status of the aircraft exemption changes, the owner must contact Industry Canada for a licence or for an exemption.
For all commercial aircraft and those private aircraft for which Industry Canada records show that they do not meet the criteria, the notice sent is a renewal notice. However, owners are asked to check each of their aircraft against the criteria. They either pay the fee or contact the nearest Industry Canada office for exemption of any or all of their aircraft, or to discuss their situation.
Originally published on the COPA Website at:
http://www.copanational.org/
Canadian/American governments make cross-border flights in amateurbuilts easier
Effective August 1, 1999, pilots of Canadian-registered home-built may
fly their aircraft over United States Territory based on their Canadian
flight authority and a letter from the Federal Aviation Authority.
A similar streamlined procedure was put in place by the Canadian government
for U.S. amateur-built aircraft operators. These parallel initiatives
by both governments were supported by COPA, the Experimental Aircraft
Association and the Recreational Aircraft Association.
In the past, to fly a homebuilt aircraft in the United States, Canadians were required to submit a copy of the Special Certificate of Airworthiness and the Certificate of Aircraft Registration to certain FAA District Offices in order to receive a Special Flight Authorization for the United States.
The FAA has determined that a simplified method of issuing Special Flight Authorizations would be in the best interest of both the agency and non-U.S. registered amateur-built aircraft owners. From the FAAs standpoint, manpower and budgetary resources required for the process of completing the appropriate forms, issuing authorizations and keeping and maintaining the records exceeded the safety benefits, if any, realized through such an administrative process. The FAA has determined that would be best served through the elimination or reduction of this time consuming effort.
On August 1, 1999, Nick Lacey, director of FAAs Flight Standards Service, announced at the EAA fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin that the new, simplified procedure was in place. To fly into the United States, owner/operators of Canadian registered amateur-built aircraft simply attach a copy of the following letter to the aircraft documents and abide by the requirements stated in the letter.
Copies of the letter are also available on the COPA web site or the
Transport Canada web site:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/aviation/mainten/regs&docs/download.htm
Transport Canada director of Aircraft Maintenance and Manufacturing, Don Sherritt made a parallel announcement for American pilots of homebuilt aircraft. There is a letter on the Transport Canada web site for Americans titled, "Standardization Validation of Special C of A Experimental for the purpose of operating a U.S.-registered amateur-built aircraft in Canadian airspace".
by Garth Wallace as published on the COPA Website at: http://www.copanational.org/
How do I clean the exhaust residue from my sails?
That's a good question and by a process of trial and error we think we have discovered the very best sail cleaner on the market today. What is it? It's a product called "SIMPLE GREEN".....a biodegradable formula that once mixed with water and applied to those ugly oil streaks performs absolute miracles.
Orginally published on Dave Lovemans website:
http://www.ultralightnews.com/indexes/2index.html
Meet PUFA Member Don Willoughby
Don was born in 1944 at North Bay, Ontario but lived most of his youth in Toronto where his father sold National Cash Registers and set up accounting systems for hotels, commercial stores and tourist resorts. After high school, Don attended the University of Toronto where he graduated in 1969 with a degree in Bachelor of Physical & Health Education. He then went to the College of Education for teacher training but shortly quit that when he decided that he wasnt interested in teaching.
After this Don gravitated to Lotus Land (Vancouver, BC) where he met his future wife, Marilyn. Later he decided to go travelling and, on February 7th, 1971, boarded a cruise ship at Vancouver which took him to Auckland, New Zealand. Don hitch hiked around New Zealand and then boarded another ship destined for Sidney, Australia. He stayed in Australia for four years from 1971 to 1974, working first in an insurance brokerage firm for a year and then the last three years in mineral exploration in the Northern Territory about 150 miles east of Darwin. The company he worked for, Ranger Uranium Mines, discovered (at that time) the worlds largest single body of uranium ore. This prompted the Australian Government to step in by expropriating 50% of the Ranger Uranium Mines company and declaring a moratorium on any further international uranium sales by all other sources.
In 1972, Dons wife, Marilyn, joined him in Australia and they flew from Darwin to Dili in Portuguese Timor, now called East Timor, the scene of recent horrific killings after the people voted for independence from Indonesia. Don said they narrowly escaped the Christmas Eve, 1974 hurricane that levelled Darwin when they left only a few hours before the onset of the hurricane.
From Timor, they travelled overland to Europe through Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, France and, finally, London, England where they boarded a plane to fly to Toronto. Don mentioned that he contracted a very bad case of amoebic dysentery in Nepal and Marilyn had to go to the Canadian Embassy in New Delhi to get help in getting medical assistance for Don. Apparently she was lucky in not contracting the ailment.
Don and Marilyn went to Whistler in the fall of 1975 for an entire winter of skiing (115 days of skiing) and stayed for 8 years. During this period, Don worked at home building and development, participating in a 12 home subdivision in Squamish as well as the construction of custom homes in Whistler.
Don and his partner operated the Husky Service station in the Creekside of Whistler before Blackcomb was built. They also operated Whistler Disposal and also built and operated the Grocery Store in the new Whistler town centre.
In 1983, Don and Marilyn left Whistler to move to Vancouver so that their kids could attend school there. Their 21 year old daughter, Jocelyn, is now in her 3rd year in Business Administration at Simon Fraser and their 18 year old son, Ryan, is studying 1st year Engineering at Kwantlen College.
Don then went back into mineral exploration with several gold projects in Ontario, Columbia and Nicaragua. Then, in 1988, due to poorer world market conditions for minerals, Don purchased a Uniglobe Travel Agency in Vancouver. In 1992, he sold the travel agency and traded in a commodity futures fund for a year. Next he bought and operated a budget, brake and muffler francise in Burnaby for 1 1/2 years.
Then, in 1996, Don went back into mineral exploration with projects in Australia (base metals), Greenland (diamonds), northwest BC (gold) and the Yukon (base metals - copper, lead and zinc) and in which he is presently employed.
With respect to his aviation activities, Don obtained a private pilot licence at the Pacific Flying Club at the Boundary Bay Airport in 1986. In 1996, he started flying ultralights at King George Airpark and now has a total of 300 hours flying under his belt with 220 of that in conventional aircraft and 80 in ultralights.
Don Willoughby and Glenn Ursel on Widgeon Lake
We welcome this very busy man into our illustrious ultralight fraternity!
As the prop turns: The continuing saga of King George Airpark
Legal action was initiated in 1995 by the city of Surrey, B.C. to close the King George Airpark, home to an ultralight facility named Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. The action was dropped when a campaign was declared to fight the application for an injunction. Help came from the COPA legal fund, as well as from ultralight pilots and families who raised funds by holding pancake breakfasts.
With election time came the possibility of electing new councillors who might support re-zoning the airfield. The aviation community campaigned strongly, seeking out candidates who were sympathetic to ultralights.
The application went back to the city planners. However, at the first meeting, the head planner stated that he didnt like airplanes, especially ultralights, and no one was going to change his mind. When the report came out, the citys planning department recommended that ultralight re-zoning be turned down because it did not fit with future planning for the city of Surrey. The campaign go keep ultralights in Surrey looked doomed until the head planner had a falling out with the city and headed east.
The planning departments recommendation gave Fred Glasbergen, the owner of the ultralight facility, another opportunity to appear before council to plead his case. The new council considered the points put forward by the aviation delegation, and despite the concerns of the Planning Department, voted to let the process proceed to the Agriculture Land Commission for their approval for variance of use from farming to aviation. No zoning could take place without this step.
About a year went by as the application worked its way from the bottom of the filing tray. Then a call came from the Agriculture Land Commission. The new city planner wanted to meet with Glasbergen because they had some serious concerns. The first concern was soil compacting. With the maximum weight of an ultralight set at 1,200 lbs, Glasbergen wondered if this group was serious. However, they were very concerned that ultralights repeatedly landing in the same spot would compact the earth, rendering it unsuitable for future agricultural use.
Circumstances were on Glasbergens side. About five years earlier, the north-south runway had been moved. Current aerial photos proved that strawberries were thriving where the runway used to be.
Late this May, approval was granted for 20 per cent of the 78 acre farm to be used as an ultralight facility. When this news broke, all who were opposed to the facility geared up for action at the final public hearing. An ad placed in the local paper by a group called CAND (Citizens Against Noisy Disturbers) complained that these ultralights, powered with noisy lawnmower engines, will grow in size and soon there be 100 or more of them. Ever heard of a Rotax 912 powered lawnmower?
The public hearing ran very late, and the facility re-zoning did not come forward until after midnight. Most of the airparks supporters, realizing how important this was, hung in there for over five hours. The environmental group decided it was getting too late and departed.
The anti group was comprised of three of the airparks neighbours. One of them complained that the ultralights were making their free range chickens sterile, and indicated that someone from the airfield had killed their sow with a knife. Wouldnt it be nice if there was some truth to the chicken story, as there would be less birds attempting to nest in airplanes and hangars! Another neighbour complained that the ultralight noise would go on from 5 am until late at night. Are ultralights allowed to fly at night?
The pro group included the secretary of the local ratepayers group, who declared that 75 per cent of the group was in favour of the facility. Many ultralight enthusiasts spoke, and a supporter from the Emergency Planning Committee declared that ultralights would be very useful for dropping supplies if an emergency, such as an earthquake, occurred.
At almost 1 am, it was Glasbergens turn to speak. He was armed with a thick file folder and prepared for a lengthy presentation. The Mayor, who looked exhausted, asked that since they knew his position from the many times he had been in front of council, could he please just answer a couple of questions from one of the councillors? And the meeting was over.
The third reading was approved. The fourth and final reading, which well seal re-zoning approval, will follow in the next couple of weeks.
Seven councillors and the Mayor were convinced that the ultralight facility was an asset to the city of Surrey and one they could be proud of. The single councillor who disagreed stated, I support ultralight facilities 100 per cent, but I think its just absolutely in the wrong location.
Hopefully, the turbulent times for Airflow Ultralight Aviation are over and the organization can concentrate on what Fred Glasbergen started over sixteen years ago - bringing the world of ultralight flying to as many people as possible.
Glasbergens commitment to pursue this vision is inspirational, but he is the first to recognize that he could not have done it without the support of so many other people who share his dream.
by Beverly Lawrence as published in the August, 1999 COPA Flight Ultralight News