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PUFA NEWSLETTER
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February 21, 2001
Ken Buck, President
Walter Klatt, Vice-President
Glenn Ursel, Treasurer
Daryl Hegyi, 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 Ken Buck
Thanks go to Daryl Hegyi and Jeff Rochon, outgoing President and Vice President respectively, for all the time and effort expended to keep our association "flying". Special thanks to Glenn Ursel for "hanging in there" and making all the contacts with the East Coast "bunch" and keeping our letters coming. Thanks also to Mario LeBel for hosting our Website. Congratulations to Jack Menard - our newest "LIFETIME MEMBER" - that looks like a commitment to me!
The January meeting, coupled with the delayed AGM, gave me a bit of a shock. I had no plans for being on the Executive as I've "been there, done that". Anyway, I did a super quick reality check as to my commitment to PUFA.
My past history of flying consisted of flying around the "patch", not going anywhere in particular, but just the pure enjoyment of travelling in the "third dimension". The solo flying was followed with a few interesting years of doing flight instructions and numerous introductory flights for Fred Glasbergen at Airflow. I last flew Ultralights in September, 1996. In 1997 there was a change in my priorities, so my weekends were committed to working on our cabin on an island. So, where am I going with this? Read on.
To me, flying is the ultimate sport, a dream that started when I was a 10 year old in Saskatchewan. I realized that dream with my first introductory flight March 1st., 1986. I lived the dream for 10 years, but I plan on being back into flying in the future. Keep your hand on the throttle, I’m getting to my point. I joined PUFA because it was a medium through which I could learn from other more experienced pilots. I could also enjoy the "hanger flying", the talk of the great flights, the scary ones; "I wished I'd done a 180" thing. PUFA is a collective voice for "airing" our concerns and fighting back to keep our flying restrictions to a minimum. Through you, the ultralight pilot with your own "bird", I can re-live my dream over and over, as you share your love of flying with us all.
I am committed to PUFA, are you? Please come and share your dream with
me and the rest of the gang.
A very eloquent introductory message by our incoming President Ken Buck. We thank Ken for his kind acquiescence in again undertaking the position of President of our illustrious club of fliers and interested parties.
This month I have a story from the Okanagan Ulralight Association about a rather epic adventure concerning two ultralighters’ flight from London, Ontario to Salmon Arm, B.C. in a Rotax 912 powered Zenair 601. Sounds like some of the past trips that Jeff Rochon, Ken Hicks, Julius Szalontai and Bob Christen have been on!
I finally got a profile on Fred Glasbergen based on a submission he made to the B.C. Floatplane Newsletter last fall after he was made a director of that organization at their AGM at Nimpo Lake last July.
With respect to my comments in last month’s newsletter on the passing of Jean McLellan, by a most strange coincidence, there was a column on the front page of the February 9th Vancouver Sun which documented the erroneous views of doctors in the 1920’s that enlarged thymus glands could block the airway and cause crib death. Consequently, they irradiated the thymus and this resulted in various health problems as well as cancer later on.
Arrangements were made and the time drew near. David Skelhon and l were set to finalize the purchase of C-IFMM, a Zenair Zodiac 601 HD from Jeff Karelsen in London, Ontario and fly it home to Salmon Arm, B.C. On Monday April 24th my wife, Pam, drove us to the airport in Kelowna where we caught a West Jet flight to Hamilton airport.
I had arranged with Jeff via email for him to pick us up that night. We’d never met and neither knew what the other looked like. I emailed Jeff a picture of David and me and he told me that he’d be wearing a black ball cap that said "Hawaii" on it. The next day Jeff and I would go over the paper work, change the plugs in the Zenair, then David and l would begin our journey home. We’d planned for about a 3 day trek home, providing we got off to an early start on Tuesday the 25th and barring any problems with weather or with the airplane. The time arrived and we were off to the Kelowna airport to catch our flight to Hamilton. Butterflies? You bet, huge prehistoric ones with large leather wings!
We left Kelowna on time and had an uneventful flight to Hamilton with just one 2 hour stop in Calgary. We arrived in Hamilton 15 minutes ahead of schedule at 8:55 pm local time. Even though we were early, Jeff was there to pick us up. He’d made reservations for us at the Airport Inn and had managed to get us the airline employee rate (about 1/2 price). He also told us he had the plane at the London airport and that he’d be over the next morning to pick us up at about 7:00 am.
David and I were pretty hungry but the hotel restaurant was closed. We decided to walk to Wendy’s which was about a 1/2 mile away. Once there we found we were 10 minutes late (it closed at 10:00). The drive-in window was open so we pretended we were in a car and pantomimed driving up to the window. The girl looked at us like we’d escaped from some nearby loony bin and told us we had to have a car to order from the drive through. I explained our plight, flashed her our most pitiful look of starvation and asked if she could just this once make an exception. She called over her boss who asked how, if we didn’t have a car, did we get from the airport to her window. I explained that we’d got a ride to the Airport Inn and then walked to the restaurant because only a Wendy’s burger could possibly satisfy our hunger. She laughed and said okay, just this once. I promised we wouldn’t come back again without a car. We picked up our order and walked back to the hotel, ate our dinner and called it a night. The next few days loomed large in our future and we needed some sleep.
The next morning, Tuesday, April 25th, Jeff was at the Airport Inn by 7:15 and we sat down for a coffee and prepared a bill of sale for the plane. Once done we checked out and headed for Jeff’s Jeep. Our plan was to have Jeff and me go over the plane, change the plugs and do the paper work while David went to visit his mother-in-law. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the airport, Jeff realized he’d forgotten the spark plugs. While he drove home to get them, David and I went over the plane carefully checking for any potential problems.
Once we were satisfied it was in good shape, we prepared to take it for a one circuit test flight. We did the circuit and the plane checked out well. Right after we landed and taxied back to the tie-down spot, Jeff returned with the plugs. David was ready to take a cab to his mother-in-law’s, but Jeff kindly offered the loan of his car. While David went visiting, Jeff and I changed the plugs, then went into the lounge and completed the paper work.
A little while later, David returned from visiting and from buying four 1 gallon plastic containers of fuel that we could store in the wing compartments for emergency use. He’d also bought a bottle of glycol so we could top up the rad if required. After a final friendly goodbye, Jeff turned C-IFMM over to us along with an extra head set, a GPS, knee board, books and various pieces of paper pertaining to his baby. Was that a small tear in his eye?
David and I climbed in to begin our journey. We closed the canopy, hit the master switch, the aux. fuel pump, yelled "clear prop" and fired up the engine. C-IFMM purred a throaty growl as we ran the engine. I flicked on the radios and the intercom, did a quick instrument check, made sure the canopy was secure and our seat belts were fastened. We contacted "London Ground" requested and received clearance to taxi to ‘Bravo" then take off from "09." It was about 2 hours past our planned departure time of 11:00, but we were ready to go! With winds blowing slightly across the runway, but mostly head on at about 20 mph, gusting to 30 mph, we firewalled the throttle and quickly became airborne. We climbed out at about 75 mph, requested and received a left turn out and headed for 3,500 - 4,000 ft following our GPS setting to Wiarton, Ontario.. It was a very turbulent flight from London to Wiarton. The winds didn’t diminish and were quite gusty. The scenery was pleasant and only became more pleasing as we neared the shores of Lake Huron.
After flying (bouncing?) for about 2 hours, we landed in Wiarton. We re-fuelled, spoke to a couple of guys in a Piper who were very interested in our little airplane and the journey we were just beginning. They wanted to know all about the Zenair, mountain flying, how long we thought it’d take and myriad other things. They finally said goodbye after making the comment that David and I must be very good friends to take on such a long and close challenge together... 1 wonder what they were implying??
After about a 20 minute. break, we re-set our GPS settings to guide us to Elliot Lake and bade a fond farewell to Wiarton Willy (who was now known, we were told, as Wee Willie since the death of the original Wiarton Willy). We took off and were soon heading over the water with multitudes of islands below us. It was very spectacular, even from the safer elevation of 6,500 ft. The turbulence soon died off and our flight became extremely smooth. Soon we caught up with Highway 17 where we turned west (left) and re-set our course for Sault Ste. Marie. A little over 2 hours after leaving Wiarton, we arrived in Sault Ste. Marie. We had only about 3 gal. of gas left, so we re-fuelled.It was around 6 pm and David suggested we stay there for the night rather than punch on to Wawa. We took a cab to the Holiday Inn, checked in, cleaned up and went to the dining room for dinner. Excellent dinner (White Fish for me and David had trout), nice surroundings with a view of the waterfront. Then we were off to our rooms to rest and ready ourselves for day two of our flight.
On Wednesday, April 26th, by the time we got out to the airport, loaded the plane, did a walk around and a check over, it was after 9:00 am. Take off was 9:25. Perfect take off, no wind at ground level or en route to Wawa. We landed in Wawa at about 10:30 with a fairly stiff cross wind (15 gusting to 20). Good landing with no problems.
We taxied to the gas pumps and waited to be re-fuelled. Took pictures of the airport area and of the Wawa Goose, which was conveniently located on the highway just adjacent to the airport. Noticed on the bulletin board a picture of a Challenger amid pictures of all kinds of planes. Upon closer nspection, I saw it was XSL, Bryan Quickmire’s plane. The guy asked if we knew him and I told him that we knew him quite well, and that we too had a Challenger back in B.C. He didn’t know when XSL was there, but I figured it must have been during Bryan’s Trumpeter Swan excursion the year before.
We took off from Wawa at 11:00, climbed out and headed for Marathon. Skies were clear until Marathon where we could see a front looming off in the distance, exactly as Flight Services had predicted. We landed at Marathon at 12:15, gassed up, then took off for Thunder Bay by 1:05. We landed at Thunder Bay at 3:00 pm. We had to ask special permission to land at T.B. as only transponder equipped planes were supposed to be in their air space. There was no problem and the traffic control people were very nice to us. We got updates from Flight Services regarding weather and left at 410. We flew onto Dryden where we landed at 6 15. The winds were getting pretty strong and we had to do an overshoot on David’s first attempt. The second time it wasn’t quite so gusty and we extended our final to give more time to set up for the landing. This time the landing, although bumpy, was okay. We were down. No damage done. The gas attendant said he’d stayed a little late because he’d heard our radio calls and wanted to see what kind of an ultralight we were flying. He also said he thought, after hearing David’s accent, that we must have been blown along way off course - like from England! Funny guy! We took off again at 6:40 and headed for Kenora.
We overflew Ignace and I made sure I got a couple of pictures for posterity - hope I can recognize them when I get them developed! This leg was quite turbulent and we ran into some rain before Kenora. The cross wind at Kenora was about 25 and gusting to over 30 mph. Pretty much the limits for the Zenair. The winds were 90 degrees to the runway so it was extremely challenging. David asked if I wanted to try it and I said I’d give it a go. We had no choice but to land so I took a breath and began the circuit procedures. I extended the final and came in at what I planned to be a bit "hot" to compensate for the cross wind. David mentioned that it was a little too hot, but by that time I was committed. I tried to slow things down a bit, but was still coming at about 85 or 90. Bad move. We touched down hard, bounced, got hit with a strong gust of wind which threw us back into the air. David grabbed control as we banged down again, bounced up once more and just before we stalled we rammed on the power. David climbed us out and went around again. He set us a little higher and slower. The wind was still gusting, but we extended the landing past the shelter of the trees at the threshold of the runway. We approached at about 75-80mph. It was hard, but this time we stuck. I got on the brakes right away to slow our speed enough that we wouldn’t start flying again. A little shaken, we got off the runway and taxied over to the pumps for gas. The gas attendant told us that we fared a lot better than a Cessna 180 a couple of days earlier. He said they took the 180 outon a flatbed just the day before. We unpacked our gear by 7:15 (time change) got a cab, called Pam to give her an update and went to the Kenora Travel Lodge. It’d been a long day with a shaky ending. We were dog tired.
On Thursday, April 27th, we awoke to a fairly nice day in Kenora. There was some cloud; the wind was about 20 mph and it was only about 3 degrees Celsius. Getting the plane ready outside in the wind wasn’t pleasant. David went to Flight Services to get weather updates for our planned route and to file a flight plan. I stayed at the plane and loaded our gear, did an inspection, pulled the cowling and added oil and glycol. I then did a runup in final preparation for day 3 of our trip. So far we were only about a half a day behind our fairly optimistically planned schedule.
By 9:00 am we were leaving the tarmac of Kenora’s runway. There was a stiff cross wind, but not as bad as the night before when we’d landed. We punched in the identifier for Brandon on the GPS and followed the pointer and compass west. The scenery was very rugged, consisting mainly of rocky outcrops dotted with multitudes of what appeared to be stagnant lakes. No wonder there’s a ton of mosquitoes there! The whole area looked like a giant mosquito hatchery. Our winds were primarily out of theNorth/North West, so it didn’t hurt our ground speed much. We easily maintained a 90+ mph ground speed. As the day progressed, we enjoyed mostly sunny skies and it was quite warm when we touched down (again with a strong cross wind) in Brandon at 11:45 am. My landing was much better than yesterday’s at Kenora and did wonders for my bruised ego and sagging self-confidence. It was a good thing too, because David really had to use the facilities. Any harder landing and, well... you can guess the rest.
We took off from Brandon by 12:15 and headed for Moose law. We diverted to the north of Regina to stay clear of Regina’s air space and kept below 3,000 ft. This leg was very bouncy, even more so than earlier, due to rapid heating of the freshly tilled fields below us. The ride was like a non-stop, day long roller coaster with a couple of very violent tosses thrown in to keep us awake. Once, during one of the more severe tosses, the camera strung around my neck flipped up, hit the top of the canopy and my nose. After that I made sure it was secured under the chest strap of my seat belt. The wild ride continued. We tried different altitudes, but unstable air was the rule of the day. We were tossed around at every altitude. The turbulence was simply unavoidable. We had no choice but to push on amid the bubbling air. Often we could smell engine coolant (like a rad had boiled over). This happened whenever we hit severe turbulence so we passed it off to being extra coolant in the collection bottle splashing out, even though that didn’t make a lot of sense. The engine temp. was fine, so we figured there wasn’t a serious problem and decided to check under the cowling when we landed at Moose Jaw.
We arrived at Moose Jaw at about 2:05 pm. The winds were light and the landing was fine. My confidence was growing. Kenora was becoming a distant memory... ya, sure! We took a picture of the Moose Jaw "terminal building." Should be good for a laugh. It wasn’t really the terminal building of course, but it was about the only structure at the field and it was pretty small. Just a small "half pipe" corrugated steel shed. That and the gas station were about all the field had to offer. We pulled the cowling off to "look under the hood." The glycol smell problem became quickly apparent. When I’d topped the coolant up that morning l’d not tightened the rad cap properly. Every time we hit severe turbulence, or when we were in a fairly steep climb, coolant would slosh over and spill on the engine, vaporize and provide us with the acrid smell we’d been "enjoying" in the cockpit. David added more coolant (about a liter), then properly replaced the cap. The gas guy and his biker buddy were very interested in our little plane. We had to tell them all about it and about our trip. After a few sideways glances between them that seemed to say "these guys are seriously nuts!", they gassed us up and sent us on our way. Once our Moose Jaw stop to gas up, add glycol, use the facilities and have an energy bar for lunch was over, we took off for Medicine Hat. It was 3:15.
It was still quite bouncy, but at least now there wasn’t the unnerving glycol smell to go with the turbulence. That was one problem solved! But now we had another. By this time the sun was beating down on our unprotected canopy and was moving to the west - directly in our eyes. Without a hat, it was pretty deadly. Unfortunately, David had forgotten his hat in the back with his luggage. He had to improvise with a sheet of paper stuck under his head set to keep the sun out of his eyes. Definitely worth a picture!
During this leg, which was rife with thermal turbulence, we were at one point tossed up and twisted violently sideways "What was that!?" my map - capped companion asked. Neither of us knew but at least we were sure it wasn’t something structural (like a lost damaged tail section) since the plane righted itself again very quickly. As we looked below us, we noticed numerous "dust devils" swirling around on the fields, some rising at least one to two hundred feet high. There was our culprit. Apparently a fairly strong one had climbed to our l,000 ft AGL altitude and had its nasty little way with us!
We arrived at Medicine Hat at 5:35, tied down and I called Pam to give her an update on our progress. We couldn’t find anyone at the Bar H to pump us gas, so we just unloaded the plane, tied it down, gathered our gear together and called a cab to take us to a hotel. The weather was predicted to deteriorate over night so the next day would be "iffy" at best. Our revised plan was to head for Lethbridge and go through the Crows Nest Pass, carry on to Cranbrook then north to Golden then take the Rogers Pass home. Our cab driver took us to the Best Western. We checked in, cleaned up and went over to the Black Angus restaurant. All in all it was a long, tiring (7.9 hrs in the air), but productive day. From Kenora to Medicine Hat in an ultralight!! Wow, not bad.
Friday, April 28th, holed up in Medicine Hat. Delayed due to weather. As predicted, the weather had deteriorated drastically. It was very windy and the skies were black - especially to the west where we had to go. As we monitored the Weather Channel, they were giving advisories that there was a huge dust storm in Medicine Hat. Hey! That’s where we were. We didn’t see any dust storm, but the makings for one sure were there. The winds were severe and unrelenting. Guess we rnust’ve just missed it.
We went to the airport and waited out the day, hoping for some break in the weather so we could carry on to at least Lethbridge. No luck. By 3:30 we’d decided to go back to the hotel until the next day. Problem was, when I phoned the hotel, there was no vacancy. Huh? Sure, it was Friday, but it wasn’t tourist season. .. and besides this was Medicine Hat! I tried another hotel... same deal. Okay, something is going on. I tried the last hotel on the list by the phone. At least they had a couple of rooms. On our way over to the hotel, I asked the taxi driver what the problem was. Turns out the farm folk come into town Friday night to do their shopping. Rather than drive all the way back home again, they tend to stay in the hotels. Well, at least that explained the lack of vacancy. Well, not much to do, but have dinner, get lots of rest and hope that tomorrow’s weather would be better.
The weather was much improved. Still some pretty strong westerly winds (about 20 - 25 mph), but not enough to ground us for another day. We took off from Medicine Hat at 8:10 and flew to Lethbridge. As we got closer to Lethbndge, the distant Rockies grew ever larger... and more beautiful, but a little intimidating. We stopped at Lethbndge to refuel at 9:15 mountain time. The wind was cold, but the sun was shining and the day was pretty. By 9:40 we were in the air again flying straight for the ever-larger looming barrier of granite, ice and snow. By 10:00 we were at the beginning of the Crow’s Nest Pass.
David, with his considerable gliding experience, quickly positioned us along the ridges where we used the up-flowing waves to gain significant altitude. We very quickly climbed from 6,500 to 12,500. We had rates of climb approaching 1,500 ft/min. At the higher altitude, we were at cloud level. The clouds were broken and posed no danger of losing visibility although we were well aware that we couldn’t maintain 12,500 for any extended length of time. As we began following the highway, we soon found ourselves following the wrong road (easy to do from that height).
Luckily, David had done the same thing the year before while flying a Piper Arrow, so we didn’t stray for long before he recognized our (my?) error. We quickly got back on track and had a very pleasant flight through the Crow’s Nest to the valley on the other side. Once we emerged from the pass we turned north and headed straight for Cranbrook (as per the GPS), except for a slight diversion to avoid a rain squall. We radioed in and landed nicely in Cranbrook by 11.45. We had a quick lunch, re-fuelled and got away again by 1:05. On the way up the valley, we did a couple of turns around Wasa Lake where I snapped pictures of my cousin’s house (at least I think I got the right place).
Heading north to Golden was truly a vista of beauty. The Windermere Lake area, Fairmont Hot Springs and the Columbia Lakes were breathtaking. The first part of the flight though, was pretty rough. We were buffeted about quite a bit. I, in my ignorance, thought we’d be safer flying up the middle of the valley. My logic, flawed though it may have been, was to stay away from the mountains on the east side of thevalley since the wind was blowing at about 25 mph. from the west. I had visions of trying to share space with those unforgiving granite walls. At about the Fairmont Hot Spring area, it was David’s turn to fly. The first thing he did was turn us directly at those immovable, mpenetrable walls of rock and ice. My fears of becoming one with the rock were soon diminished (though, I must admit not completely eliminated) As we neared the mountains, the strong prevailing westerly winds now had nowhere to go but up... and they took us along for the ride! Like a high speed elevator we rode the rising air up at over 1,600 ft./min. to peak level. The ride was quick and turbulence free.
David pulled the throttle back from our 5,300 cruise to about 4,000. We still kept climbing at around 1,000 ft./min. He said he thought we’d likely get good lift even if we throttled back to idle. So he did. Our climb continued, but at a reduced rate of 500 ft./min. We even maintained a decent air speed of around 70 mph at idle while climbing! What an incredible experience. Although, with the view, there really aren’t words to describe it.
We arrived at Golden about 2:45 pm mountain. The airport was about the size of Salmon Arm’s. It was even configured the same with the runway situated at 14 and 32. Even the circuit was the same (right hand for 32) due to terrain. After re-fuelling for the last time on our journey, we headed out at about 3:02 mtn. time. Final destination this time was home - Salmon Arm, CZAM. There was still one more treat in store for us before the final thrill getting home. The beauty and splendour of the Rogers Pass. Clouds were rolling along the tops of the mountains and seemed to be increasing. This limited our altitude to about 9,500. We were literally flying at peak level through the pass with the clouds scudding just overhead. The winds were now mostly head winds and the turbulence was significantly less. We still maintained over 90mph ground speed so our progress wasn’t hampered. To say the view was spectacular just doesn’t quite do it. On both sides of the plane was indescribably beautiful mountain scenery, from huge mountain glaciers to solid rock walls, rugged peaks extending to eternity.. or at least a few miles, whichever came first. Driving through this pass is awesome, but this was a hundred times more breathtaking. Needless to say we took many pictures through the Rogers Pass.
Soon Revelstoke came into view. Home was getting closer. Home was getting closer. Once past Revelstoke, we could see the Shuswap Lake. I felt like a homing pigeon closing in on the coop. Over Sicamous at about 8,500 ft, I radioed our position to Salmon Arm traffic but, as is so often the case, there was no response. Apparently another quiet day at the home patch. Another 10 miles closer I called again. Still no response.
I tried calling Echo Victor Yankee thinking that John must be monitoring the frequency, but he didn’t answer. Then rny wife, Pam’s voice, came over the radio to say she could hear me. What a wonderful moment. It was great hearing her voice and knowing we were within radio range of home. I asked her about the winds and which runway was favoured. She said there was a strong cross wind and that 14 was the favoured runway. I decided to swing out towards Gardom Lake, follow the powerlines, cross mid field and join the left hand down wind for one four. Old habits are hard to shake. When we were just north of Gardom Lake, I noticed a very strange disturbance on its surface. We couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it sure looked like numerous small water spouts. Whatever it was, it seemed ominous and didn’t bode well for the surface of the runway.
Crossing mid field, the wind socks were standing pretty much straight out but were about 45 degrees to the runway. After Kenora and some of the other strong cross wind landings we’d encountered, this didn’t look too bad. John (president of our local Ultralight club) came on the radio during our down wind leg and welcomed us back. It was sure great hearing familiar voices on a radio which until now only crackled with the voices of strangers. I turned base, then final. Pam was at the side of the runway with the video camera. All things considered the landing was okay. We back tracked one four, turned onto the taxi way and taxied to hanger G-6, C-IFMM’s new home. It was great to be home! David closed the flight plan over the phone as soon as we jumped from the plane. We unloaded, tied the plane down and breathed a huge sigh of relief. What a trip! But, as Dorothy said after leaving OZ, "there’s no place Iike home!"
Gary Fridell
Sorrento, B.C.
Originally published by the Okanagan Ultralight Association at
http://venus.sunwave.net/~oula/
Meet PUFA Member Fred Glasbergen
Fred was born on September 10th, 1941 in Leiden Holland. He emigrated to Canada as a teen with hishis parents. His father was in the nursery business but Fred had other ideas and started flying at 15 with a flight training scholarship
Map of Holland showing location of Leiden
through the air cadets. After getting his commercial licence, Fred was hired by Ed Zalesky of Pacific Wings for his first flying position piloting a Piper Tripacer on floats. He says he was nimble enough then to do a back flip over the seat to get to the rear as that was where the door was located on the left hand side. After flying for various charter companies on the B.C. coast such as B.C.Airlines, Powell River Airways, Staron Flight and Power Saw Sales, he was hired by PWA and spent a few years in Edmonton flying the DC6B and Convair 640. After getting back to Vancouver, he went on the B737 and then, shortly after promotion to Captain, Fred had to quit commercial flying for medical reasons. He then spent some time instructing on the B737 simulator both for Canadian and Britannia Airways in the UK.
In May of 1983, Fred took over the Surrey ultralight operation of Vic Clare which at that time consisted of two Lazairs, one powered by a pioneer chain saw engine and the other by a Rotax 185. Fred says that at the time he took over the ultralight operation, part of the Lazair training was done on a training stand. Then, the instructor would run beside the student while he taxied and shout instructions to him. If the student taxied too fast and bounced into the air, the student might be exhorted to "go for it", meaning pour the power on and fly the plane! However, it was not long until the ultralight industry started producing two seat trainers which obviated this risky style of flight training. Fred’s first two seat trainer was an MX, then a Robertson Bird followed by a two seat Lazair and later still a two seat Spectrum Beaver RX 550 which became the standard ultralight trainer during the 1980’s.
During the early startup period of Fred’s flying school, Beverly Lawrence became a part of his life and he and Beverly Lawrence have operated Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd. on the King George Highway in Surrey ever since. Training is now done on a number of advanced ultralights such as the Rans Coyote, Rans Courier and SeaRey as well as two basic ultralights, one a Beaver RX550 on full lotus floats and the other a Beaver RX550 on wheels. Fred has a 30 year old daughter, Alison, who is a graphic artist and a 34 year old son, Stephen, who works for BC Ferries and one sister whose husband is the chief welding instructor at Kwantlen College.
Fred is a member and currently a director of the BC Floatplane Association. He is also a member of UPAC and a past president of the Pacific Ultralight Flying Association and has been a corporate member of PUFA for many years.
Many of the current crop of ultralight pilots on the coast are graduates of Fred’s Airflow flying school. There are also many students that have come from other countries in Europe and elsewhere to learn to become an ultralight pilot. The Airflow office on King George has become a popular focal point for the local ultralight community to meet and discuss flying topics and events.
Fred has been active in preserving the sport of ultralight aviation locally and elsewhere through his participation in the foregoing aviation groups. On behalf of PUFA, I would like to congratulate Fred and thank him for his past and, hopefully, many more years of contribution to the sport of ultralight aviation.
Glenn Ursel