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September 19, 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

Editorial Note
by  Glenn  Ursel

I trust that most PUFA members had a nice summer and that the pilots amongst usenjoyed the abundant good flying weather.

I myself had a very eventful summer as I flew my Beaver ultralight to Lacombe, Alberta and back in early July, the story of which I humbly present in this issue of the PUFA Newsletter.   In late August I accompanied Gordon Brogan to the Powell River Fly-in which I also have included some detail and pictures in this issue.

The latter part of the summer has not been so pleasant.  First there was the unfortunatecrash of Heathe Thompson’s SeaRey on Tuesday, August 28th as he attempted a water landing on the Fraser River at Fort Langley.  Heathe escaped unhurt but there wasextensive damage to his floatplane and engine.  Best of luck to Heathe in getting his plane back flying in the future!

Then, on the morning (strangely, also a Tuesday) of September 11th, we awoke to the horrific news of the terriorist attack on the New York World Trade Towers and Washington Pentagon building.  To most of us it is inconceivable how people can be motivated enough to gain control of and pilot a jumbo jet airliner for the completely irrational purpose of destroying themselves, the airliner’s passengers and thousands of other innocent people on the ground.

In the midst of the calamity, there was one incident that brought the issue home to us ultralighters.  In conjunction with the closure of American airspace to all private flight, Transport Canada also announced a similar closure to private pilot flight except for emergency, humanitarian or special authorization.  Unaware of the closure, Stephan Marois of Airflow Ultralights Ltd. was flying towards the Pitt Meadows Tower to request clearance through the zone late that morning.  He was informed by Pitt Tower that Canadian airspace was closed to private flight.

A copy of the Transport Canada notice is enclosed herewith for posterity:

Ottawa, Ont., Sept. 12, 2001, 14:00Z: The following Notice to Airmen is in effect until further notice. For the latest information, contact your nearest Nav Canada Flight Service Station, Tel.: 1-800-INFO FSS, or the telephone number listed for your airport in the Canada Flight Supplement.

010008 CYHQ OPS CYHQ EMERGENCY SECURITY CONTROL OF AIR TRAFFIC (ESCAT)
(PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS SCATANA) LEVEL 2 HAS BEEN INVOKED BY MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENCE (MND). ESCAT LEVEL 2 REQUIRES THAT ALL AUTHORIZED FLIGHTS INTO OR OUT OF CANADA FILE AN IFR OR DVFR FLIGHT PLAN IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 5.1 OF THE AERONAUTICS ACT, THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT RESTRICTS ALL TAKE-OFFS AND LANDINGS BY ANY AIRCRAFT IN CANADIAN AIRSPACE OR ENTRY INTO CANADIAN AIRSPACE, WITH THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS:
— HUMANITARIAN FLIGHTS (TO INCLUDE MEDIVAC/ORGAN FLIGHTS, NORTHERN RESUPPLY FLIGHTS, AIRCRAFT PROCEEDING TO PICK UP PERSONS STRANDED IN THE BUSH WITHOUT THE NECESSARY MEANS OF SURVIVAL, ALL AIRCRAFT INVOLVED IN FOREST FIGHTING OPS)
— SEARCH AND RESCUE FLIGHTS
— OPERATIONAL POLICE FLIGHTS
— MILITARY FLIGHTS
— FEDERAL/PROVINCIAL/TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT AIRCRAFT ON
OFFICIAL BUSINESS
— AIRCRAFT OPERATING IN ACCORDANCE WITH AN AUTHORIZATION
ISSUED BY THE MINISTER NAV CANADA ACC SHIFT MANAGERS AUTHORIZED TO PERMIT FLIGHTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ABOVE CONDITIONS, IF ESCAT LEVEL 3 IS INVOKED BY MND.  ALL AIRCRAFT MUST OPERATE IN ACCORDANCE WITH A WARTIME AIR TRAFFIC PRIORITY LIST (WATPL) NUMBER ASSIGNED BY CANADIAN NORAD REGION HQ.

Transport Minister David Collenette’s announcement on Thursday, September 13th removed the restrictions placed on air travel in Canada on Tuesday, September 11th following the terrorist attacks in the United States.

Ultralighting to Alberta

Faithful readers of this newsletter might remember my story in the May 24th, 2000 issue of the PUFA Newsletter in which I recounted the tale of my flight through the Howse Pass from Golden to Lacombe, Alberta in a friend’s Beaver ultralight.  I was so pleased with the success of that trip that I vowed to fly my own Beaver all the way from the Coast to Lacombe.  So,  last year I prevailed on one of our Glen Valley ‘experts’ to help me remove the Puddle Jumper floats from my Spectrum Beaver Ultralight aeroplane in anticipation of flying to Alberta.  Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate that year and I didn’t make the flight then.

However, a high pressure ridge formed this year in early July and, after checking for favourable weather on the Internet and FSS, I decided to set off on my epic journey on the morning of Wednesday, July 4th, 2001.  The previous day I took out a sleeping bag, tent and inflatable mattress and loaded them into the plane.  I also took out fuel and filled my two 15 litre auxiliary tanks as well as the 32 litre rear seat tank in the plane.  I placed a 15 litre auxiliary tank on the floor on each side of the rear seat and hooked the fuel lines up to them.  Then I placed a full 25 litre fuel container on top of the rear seat.  So, altogether I was carrying 87 litres or 19.1 imperial gallons of fuel weighing about 68 kilograms or 149 lbs.  Each auxiliary tank is good for about 50 minutes of flight, leaving about 4 litres in the bottom before switching to the next tank.  The main tank will last about 2 hours so I can stay in the air for about 3 1/2 hours if I need to.  However, I never needed to test this limit as you will see.

I planned to leave Glen Valley about 5:30 am on July  4th but, as things happen, I forgot my helmet at home and only

remembered it halfway to Glen Valley.  So I had to return to get it and consequently didn’t take off until 6:50 am.  Of course, with the unplanned delay, I hurried my final preparations and forgot my tiedowns for the plane and my funnel for filling the gas tanks.  I thus took off and put the plane into a gradual climb to 8,000 feet above sea level for the flight over the Coquihalla.  It was a beautiful morning and I found the flight very enjoyable.  As I flew over the toll gates on the Coquihalla Highway, I noticed that I was keeping up with the cars below that must have been going the 110 km/hr speed limit.

My first landing after 2 1/2 hours was at the gravel landing strip at Quilchena Ranch.  There is a service station there that is very handy for topping up the fuel tanks.  After doing so, I took off again and flew north following the Nicola Valley Highway 5A which branches southeast of Kamloops with 5A going on to Kamloops and another road going northeast to link up with the TransCanada Highway just east of Kamloops.  I followed this road and turned east to fly to Chase.  At Chase, I banked to the southeast and followed a road through a side valley that is a shortcut to Salmon Arm.  I arrived at Salmon Arm after a 2 hour flight from Quilchena and landed for refuelling.  A fellow ultralighter, John McDermott who is president of the Okanagan Ultralight Association and who owns Lakeland Ultralights Ltd., was manning the fuel pumps.  He was very friendly and helpful.  He advised me that the Revelstoke Airport was closed due to repaving of the runway.  He phoned the airport on my behalf to enquire about my flight there but we could not contact anyone.  I decided to take off anyway.

When I arrived at Revelstoke after a phenomenally quick 1 hour flight, I cruised over the runway and noted that there was a dirt road beside the runway that was being paved.  As I approached the south end of the runway, a voice came over the radio enquiring as to my intentions.  I replied that I wished to land to refuel.  He advised me that the airport was closed.  I then noticed a couple of small islands in the Columbia River nearby.  I replied that I would attempt a landing on one of them.  However, when I flew over and inspected them, I discovered that the islands were covered with large rocks  about 8 inches in diameter.  I radioed to the Revelstoke radio operator that I would have to land on the dirt road by the runway.  He replied to land if I must which didn’t sound too friendly I thought.  However, after I landed and met the fellow, Homer, he turned out to be quite friendly and accommodating.  He offered to get me fuel but I said I had fuel and just needed to transfer it from the 25 litre fuel container on the rear seat.  He was very interested in my plans to fly to Alberta and wished me well as I prepared to take off once again.

By this time, it was about 1:00 pm and I was wondering about the afternoon wind conditions in Rogers Pass.  It was relatively calm for the first part of the flight to Three Valley Gap and the west end of Rogers Pass but, as I flew out of the east end of Rogers Pass and turned north to the Columbia River and east to Golden, I encountered some turbulence due to the heat of the day convection.  I got to Golden about 3:00 pm BC time or 4:00 pm Alberta time.  I was preparing to stay the night at the Golden Airport but a young female pilot at the airport advised me that it would be fine to fly through Howse Pass later in the evening.  Accordingly, after checking with FSS, I took off at 7:30 pm Mountain Daylight Saving Time and headed west of Golden a few miles to the Blaeberry River drainage that takes you to Howse Pass.  As I entered the Blaeberry, I steadily climbed to 7,000 feet ASL and kept to the sunny (east) side of the pass to avoid downdrafts.  There is a logging road along the west side of the Blaeberry which might provide an emergency landing if needed.  As I approached the north end of the Blaeberry River, there is a glacier off to the west side that I was concerned about receiving gusty winds from but, fortunately, it was relatively calm as I banked to the right and entered Howse Pass.  For the next 10 miles, there were no roads and one would have to ditch the plane into trees if there were an engine failure.  As I left the Howse Pass to the north, I entered the Howse River valley and shortly banked around a large mountain ridge and flew east to Saskatchewan River Crossing where the Howse River joins with the North Saskatchewan coming off the Columbia Icefields to the north.  Unlike my flight last year, there were no strong gusts of wind coming off the glacier this time.

As I flew over Saskatchewan River Crossing, the David Thompson Highway appeared below and I followed it east to Abraham Lake, a dammed lake of the North Saskatchewan.  As I expected, it was gusty there at the west end of the lake where two drainages enter the lake from the north and south, bringing cold air down from higher elevations.  However, after a few miles of bouncing around, I flew over land to the east of Abraham Lake and it was calm flying the rest of the way to Rocky Mountain House.  I landed there and refuelled.  At 10 pm I took off with the intentions of flying the 1 1/4 hour remaining flight to Lacombe but, a short while after taking off, I saw my friend Ted flying towards me from Lacombe.  He was low on fuel so I turned to fly back with him to Rocky Mountain House.  It’s just as well Ted came to meet me since it would have been quite dark by the time I would have arrived at Lacombe!  We left the planes there overnight and returned the next day to complete the flight to Lacombe.

I finally arrived at Lacombe about 11:00 am on Thursday, July 5th.  I stayed at Lacombe visiting with Ted for the rest of that week and part of the next.

Unfortunately, Ted was having problems with the hydraulic brakes on his plane and chose that moment to fix them.  We disassembled the brakes and came to the conclusion that theparts were too worn to repair and that a new set of brakes would be required.

Consequently, we didn’t get to fly together while I was in Alberta.  All the time I was there, I was worried about the weather and getting the plane back to BC.  There was some lightning and thunder storms the day before I decided to leave.  However, on the morning of Tuesday, July 10th, the Edmonton FSS advised me the weather was acceptable and Ted drove me out to his hangar at the Lacombe Airport where my plane was stored.  I took off at 5:00 am and flew west back to Rocky Mountain House.  When I landed there, I attempted to top up my fuel tanks with the 100 LL aviation fuel

there but couldn’t figure out how to turn on the electric fuel pump so gave up after a few minutes of fruitless effort.  So, about 7:00 am I took off for the Howse Pass and Golden.  This time I encountered no turbulence over Abraham Lake and, just west of the lake, landed on the highway near the Indian Kootenay Plains Campground where Ted and I had camped

last year.  I quickly topped up my auxiliary tanks from the 25 litre fuel container on the rear seat and hastily took off to head for the Howse Pass.

I was again pleased to encounter only calm wind conditions as I flew over Saskatchewan River Crossing to follow the Howse River to Howse Pass.  I was even more pleased to find it relatively calm in both the Howse Pass and Blaeberry River drainage although there was a bit of a headwind.  As I exited the Blaeberry, I flew over Roger Schulz’ house which is high on a ridge to the northwest of Golden.  I did a couple of donuts over his place in case he was home, then continued on to the Golden Airport.  Shortly after I landed about 10:00 am, Roger rode up to me on a motorcycle.  Roger is the fellow

that sold Ted his Beaver ultralight last year.  Roger was glad to see that I had got to Lacombe and back unscathed and helped me to get automotive fuel from a gas station in Golden.  Again I was prepared to stay overnight until the next morning to avoid gusty wind conditions but, after breakfast with Roger in Golden, I noticed when we returned to the airport

that the wind was blowing west to the Rogers Pass.  In other words a tail wind to assist me in flying to Revelstoke! This was too good to pass up despite leaving Golden in the heat of the day.  Roger agreed that this would be a good thing to take advantage of so at approximately 12:00 noon I took off for Rogers Pass.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bumpy as I flew west of Golden over the Columbia.  However, as I turned south to follow the highway to the east entrance of Rogers Pass, I started to encounter some turbulence due to a valley dropping down from the south that must have been funnelling cold air at me.  As I turned west into Rogers Pass, I encountered heated air that made it difficult to maintain my 1,000 feet over the highway  below.  I steered the plane close to the north side of Rogers Pass that had the full brunt of the afternoon sun on it to try to find lifting air currents.  As I got further west, it became easier to maintain altitude and I started to relax a bit.  Soon I arrived at Revelstoke about 2:30 pm and called up Homer to advise him of my need to land for refuelling.  This time he readily agreed.

After I took off I remembered that I had forgot to check the oil injector tank but decided that I had enough to make it to Salmon Arm.  However, as I neared Sicamous, I noticed a hay field that had recently been mowed.  I decided to land and check the oil level in the injector tank.  Sure enough it was fairly low so I topped it up.  Then I took off and climbed up over Sicamous to fly west over Shuswap Lake to Salmon Arm.  I encountered a fairly strong headwind here with gusty conditions but gamely flew on to arrive at Salmon Arm about 4:00 pm.  John McDermott was there again to help me refuel with mogas and shortly after I took off for Quilchena Ranch.  It was slow going west to Chase and Kamloops due to a headwind but, once I turned south at Kamloops to follow Highway 5A, I encountered cooler air and I was able to climb to about 8,000 feet.  My progress to Quilchena Ranch was relatively quick the rest of the way and I arrived there at 7:00 pm with quite a breeze blowing from the direction of the Coast at ground level.  Unfortunately, the Quilchena gas station closes

at 6:30 pm so I was stuck there overnight.  I could have set up my tent and camped beside the plane but I elected to stay

 in the relatively luxurious comfort of the old Quilchena Ranch Hotel.

The next morning I checked over the plane and found  that my radiator was leaking a bit.  I topped it up with a little water and took off at 9:00 am for Glen Valley.  I later found that I had to replace the radiator.  Anyway, it was a grand flight over the Coquihalla and I flew over the highway at 9,000 feet ASL.

As I flew past Chilliwack, I noticed a small puffy cloud just west of Rowena so I headed for it just for the fun of it.  I later  found out that at that moment Jeff Rochon and the Red Baron were flying by below on their way to Rowena and had tried to get my attention.   However, I didn’t notice them and carried on to Glen Valley, landing at 11:30 am on July 11th to complete a highly successful flight to Alberta.  Not bad for an ultralight, eh?

Glenn Ursel

Powell River Fly-in

The Westview Flying Club put on another fine dinner on the evening of Saturday, August 25th, 2001 as part of what used to be an annual flyin event but was cancelled last year due to shortage of volunteers.

Gordon Brogan had invited me to fly with him to the event as we had done three years ago previously.  I agreed even though I was still on wheels due to my recent flight to Alberta.

Gordon flew his Subaru equipped, recently completed Stits wing Beaver over to Glen Valley on the morning of August 25th arriving about 9:30 am.  I had my Rotax 582 warmed up in readiness and took off as he cruised by overhead.

We flew towards the Pit Meadows Airport and requested clearance through their zone just north of the Lougheed Highway.  After obtaining clearance, we flew towards Port Moody and onto the Second Narrows Bridge at which we contacted Harbour Towers for clearance through Burrard Inlet to Point Atkinson.

The weather was cooperating very well as it had been raining much of the time the previous week.  Once we cleared Harbour Towers at Point Atkinson, Gordon and I switched to another frequency so that we could converse as we flew across Bowen Island on our way to the Sechelt Penninsula.

It was an uneventful but very enjoyable flight the rest of the way past Sechelt and north to Powell River past Pender Harbour.  We arrived about 11:20 am or less than two hours from our departure at Glen Valley.After landing, we immediately setup camp and greeted several of our ultralighter fraternity as they came in including: Josef and Pat Kietaibl, Daryl Hegyi, Jason Sjostrom, James Sheppard and Fred and Beverly Glasbergen as well as some of their Airflow staff.

Then we wandered about looking at the many planes.  Gordon and I talked with a fellow who flew in a plane called a

Quickie that was powered by a 65 hp Continental I believe and advised us that it cruised at something like 160 mph and had a landing speed of 100 mph with two and 80 mph solo!  Too fast for me!

Then it was time for the dinner and we all lined up beside the main office and hangar for the Westview Flying Club.  It was a delicious blend of chicken and roast pork with vegetables and gravy.  At the dinner, the president of the Westview Flying Club welcomed us to their fly-in and announced several prizes.  Gordon Brogan won one for his nicely finished Subaru powered Stits covered Beaver.  I won a door prize for merely being there much to my surprise.

After dinner we chatted a bit and then headed for our respective tents about 11 pm.  Some younger ultralighters stayed up later though I understand...

The next morning we enjoyed a breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages and pancakes with orange juice and coffee for the nominal sum of $4 and afterwards took down our tents and prepared our planes for the return flight to Vancouver.

Gordon and I took off at about 11:15 am and flew south towards the Stillwater Tower.  Just as we were crossing Pender Harbour, Gordon suggested that we fly past Egmont and down the Sechelt Inlet rather than our usual route down the shore of the Coast.  I readily agreed and it was a very scenic alternative to the usual route.  Just prior to leaving Powell River, we were warned about a possible fog condition at Howe Sound but, when we arrived there, we were relieved to find only scattered low clouds.  At my suggestion, Gordon and I flew to  Delta Airpark and then the King George Airpark to visit with friends.  Later we each flew home arriving about 4:00 pm.  It was a most enjoyable weekend of flying and meeting people!

Glenn Ursel