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January 23, 2002

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

Jeff Rochon telephoned me on Saturday, December 15th with the advice that Bill Finlayson had died on Thursday, December 13th, 2001.  Bill had been in hospital continuously since October of 1998 after being stricken with a severe heart attack and subsequent stroke.  It is sad to hear of Bill’s passing but perhaps a blessing considering the very poor state of his health these past 3 years.

Those of us who knew Bill will remember his keen interest in aviation and faithful readers of the PUFA Newsletter will recall Jeff Rochon’s December 3rd, 1998 story whimsically titled “ Frigid Digits” which now seems a rather poignant tale of just one of the many flights Jeff had with his old friend, Bill.

A funeral service was held for Bill on Thursday, December 20th.  Five of us ultralighters showed up to give our due respects to a fellow aviator:  Jeff Rochon, Fred Glasbergen, Beverly Lawrence, Marilyn Parsons and myself.  The rest were either relatives or friends from the other aspects of Bill's life, relatives, soul mate, work, etc. who we mostly didn't recognize.  The only people we recognized were Bill's brother (never met him before but he strongly resembles Bill), Bill's son, Malcolm and Bill's lady friend, Sheila Caters.  The family was piped into the church by Malcolm and a small pipe band all dressed in Scottish kilts, playing Scottish bagpipes.  Bill’s brother gave a talk which highlighted Bill’s enthusiasm for flying.  Reverend Ian Goligher conducted a somewhat hell fire and brimstone service which included assurances that seemed to imply there was hope for even us sinners to make it to the pearly gates.  That was a comforting thought for me...

This month I have a story by Fred Baron detailing the demise of another of our local ultralight airfields - this time, Apex, where Jeff Rochon was forced to move from recently.

I also have a story by Fred Glasbergen of some of his experiences with ultralights in the filming business.  Unfortunately, Fred doesn’t relate the whole story of his involvement with Arctic Jungle Films which will have to wait for another day I guess.

Finally, I have an article copied off CBC News Online which summarizes the epic tale of how Canada’s national and regional air carriers evolved from its beginnings with Canadian Pacific Airlines and Trans Canada Airlines.

Apex

The Lone Eagle Roost is ‘kaput’!  Well it ain’t YVR closing but a long time small emergency field closing in the Surrey portion of the Lower Mainland, BC.  Now you would hardly know it was there but it has been there for close to 20 years.  It has coexisted with its neighbours and once held a thriving ultralight pilot training centre called Apex.  It was also a local ultralight aircraft manufacturer’s outlet but, alas, it has now closed.

The owner of the property has opted to turn it into a blueberry farm.  The trucks and bull dozers are churning up the long time manicured runways at the present time.  The tracks from many years of airplanes taking off down the runways are now becoming ruts made by the front end loaders carving up the land.  But that’s progress, or is it?  It makes me sad.  The Lone Eagle, the last remaining pilot left there, had hand scythed the encroaching black berry bushes at the side of the runways for all those years.  The old riding lawn mower was getting tired.  It had to be jump started with a 24 volt battery to get it going to mow the runways but now it will become a relic of bygone days.

The last remaining plane that was left there was an old red and battered Continental powered biplane aircraft, the last of the Mohicans!  The pilot is a lively grey haired gentleman.  He is so lively and quick you would know in a minute he is not Saint Nick but, when he streaks across the sky in that red biplane, you would swear it is Saint Nick!  Except in July it would be doubtful; no, it is just our retired friend, Jeff Rochon!

It’s so sad and it’s not the end of the world that another airfield is closing but it’s another nail in the coffin.  I guess, if we have an engine problem, there is always the highway to land on.  I just hope it’s not rush hour which lasts from 2 pm to 8 pm here with bumper to bumper traffic as far as the eye can see.  I will miss flying high above Apex Airfield on 152nd Street near 72nd Avenue and seeing that old red biplane streaking down the runway and lifting off into the air.  I guess our distinguished, debonair pilot can go find some pavement to land on but a grass strip, set in a wide open space for those early morning flights over the dew on the grass with the birds chirping in the trees and the scent of newly mowed hay in the air, can’t be replaced by black top.

There is something nostalgic about a red biplane landing in the grass that reminds one of scenes from World War I with Allied Sopwith Camels chasing German Fokkers back across the battle lines at the River Somme in France...  Oh well, I have rambled on with this monologue but, in my short 20 years of flying, I have seen many airfields close - permanently!  We are always under the scrutiny and thumb of big brother.  I believe that big brother would like to have us in a controlled environment.  No loose cannon flying from grass strips!

Just to remind you, but I’m sure you remember...  Lorna’s airfield at Tsawwassen was closed.  Vic Claire’s airfield at 32 Avenue and 152 Street was closed.  The Extraordinaire ultralight airfield near Pitt Lake was closed and replaced by the Swaneset Bay golf course.  Some of the pilots there, Gordon Denham, Claude Leclair, Ray Crottey and Jeff Woodruff, later moved their hangars three times before settling in at Fred Glasbergen’s Glen Valley airfield.  The Butler airfield in the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria is in chronic danger of closure due to an encroaching gravel pit operation.

The most devastating closure, though, was Ed Vangool’s 2,500 foot strip in the Hazelmere Valley on 8th Avenue and 184th Street.  Ed was running a flight training school in the early 1980s and had a few tie downs when big brother came along and shut him down.  It went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada but Ed lost and it set a legal precedent for municipal control of land use.  The battle raged on over at the biggest ultralight airfield in the west, Airflow Ultralight Aviation Ltd., run by Fred Glasbergen and Beverly Lawrence which was for years under siege by the city of Surrey.  Fred finally won, thank goodness, but you can’t say airfields come and go - they mostly go and the few fields that hay farmers with planes have won’t allow anyone else to land.  So, be ever vigilant about your airspace landing fields.  Delta Airpark is still there thanks to the work of the flyers there who are keeping it operational but it is an ongoing struggle.

It was a gallant effort to rescue the Murphy Renegade from the clutches of the Surrey quick sands; it could have been lost forever but for the efforts of Julius Szalontai, Jeff Rochon and myself.  Another longtime airfield in British Columbia is lost.  Over the past 20 years, it has served as an emergency airfield, a short time as a base for a flying school and many years as the home field of Jeff’s Murphy Renegade.  But progress, or regress, has come and the acreage will be turned into a blue berry farm.  I ain’t going to eat blue berries!  I liked the airfield better.  There ought to be a law.  No more loss of airfields!  If I were American, I would write the President!

Well, all permits were taken out and the Renegade was dragged, lifted and tugged from its long time home and

pushed down 152nd Street to its new home at Sun Fun a half mile south.  It must have made a curious sight for motorists going by to see the airplane moving down the centre lane of this wide thoroughfare to another long time flying

field, Sun Fun, which has had planes taking off from it for much of the past half century.  We will keep our fingers crossed that this airfield will stay open for another 50 years.

Don’t be silent about any airfield closing.  Civil aviators are an endangered species!  Have you got your cheap transponder yet?  Let me know when you find a cheap one.  The hand writing is on the wall with the September 11th incident and local tower controllers subsequently asking, on contact with them, if your plane is transponder equipped.  If you don’t write, email and/or fax your concerns, your voice won’t be counted.  We should all be thankful for the efforts of such organizations as the RAA, EAC, COPA, UPAC, PUFA and Aviator’s Magazine on our behalf.  The worst thing we all do is leave it up to the other guy because a combined effort is much better than one person’s efforts to preserve aviation.

When the cloning process if perfected, I want them to obtain DNA from the very personable airplane activist,  Mary Swain, at the Delta Heritage Airpark.  I defy you to walk, ride your bicycle or fly your plane into the Delta airfield as a stranger and not be greeted by this lovely, grey haired lady who will welcome you with a big cheery hello and with a genuine interest in who you are, where you come from, and an offer of a hot cup of coffee on a cold winter day.  When I come back in my reincarnation from our supreme being, whoever she may be, I want to be just like Tony’s Mary!  Did my story wander off?  You see I just get carried away and upset; if we all could get every thing down on paper that goes through our mind, it would be great.  My mind races too far ahead of my pen but I hope you take this old man’s rambling as my contribution to the worthy cause of writing an epitaph for the Apex Airfield that is no more.

Fred Baron

Ultralights in the Movies

In early August of 1998, I received a phone call from Arctic Jungle Films of Toronto who were interested  in filming a documentary using ultralight aircraft.  After a few more calls they decided to use the Beaver RX 550 that I was using to test a new design of amphibious float gear made by Full Lotus.  Departure was planned to the first location, Fort Simpson, in the North West Territories.  With the aircraft tied down on a trailer and two passenger vans for the crew, we headed north, arriving three days later at the Simpson Airport where we camped.  We had the use of the hangar at Simpson to setup the Beaver which turned out to be a real blessing since the winds were blowing up to 40 miles an hour on one of the days we were there.  With cameras mounted on the struts, it was time to film the Mackenzie River and Fort Simpson.  The Nahanni Park was filmed from a Cessna 206 and a Twin Otter on floats as it was too far to fly an ultralight.  We did fly to the edge of the park at Little Doctor Lake about 100 miles north of Fort Simpson, staying overnight at the Nahanni Mountain Lodge.

The next day the rest of the film crew arrived and, after some filming , went on to Cle Lake to visit the owners of a newly constructed lodge.  As the wind was starting to pick up at Little Doctor Lake, I left first, planning to meet the others at the lodge on Cle Lake.  While taxing to the beach, I was surprised to see what looked like a hungry wolf pacing back and forth.  Well, there was no way I was going ashore so I waited for the Twin Otter to arrive.  As soon as I heard them on the air, I announced my predicament.  I was assured that the ‘wolf’ was the lodge owners’ part wolf doe which they were unable to find when they left 10 days before.  So, onto the beach I taxied and this so-called dog jumped up onto the floats and right onto my lap he was so happy to see someone.  But he still looked real hungry which worried me a little.  For the trip back to Fort Simpson along the Mackenzie River, the ultralight was again rigged with cameras to film some low flying and landing manoeuvres.

It was suggested that I should fly the Beaver ultralight to Fort Nelson so it would not have to travel on the trailer along the dusty, bumpy gravel road for 10 to 12 hours.  This sounded preferable to me as long as I had ground support from Fort Liard down.  So, with lots of fuel, I started down the Liard River to Fort Liard which I expected to reach in about three and a half hours, flying at 65 miles an hour.  At about 800 feet I was enjoying the beautiful area I was flying over when I realized that maybe my head wind was a little stronger than I realized.  A flock of birds were passing below me over the river.  I soon followed their example and got down below the trees where there was less head wind.

I decided that I would stop in Nahanni Butte to get some more fuel.  After reading the note in the Canada Flight Supplement about flying over the runway to look for buffalo, I soon realized they weren’t kidding when I landed over buffalo hoof prints in the soft ground.  I was soon told that this was the first time they had ever seen an ultralight at Nahanni Butteand that I could just taxi down the road to get gas.  The village only has road access in the winter.

On my trip further south, I did see some buffalo on the banks of the Liard River.  Landing at Fort Liard, a tire blew so that was far as I could go that day.  I waited for the film crew to arrive and take the plane apart to drive onto the next location, Dawson City in the Yukon.

Fred Glasbergen

Airlines

Canadian Airlines can trace its ancestry back to the very beginning of commercial aviation in Canada.  The story of Canadian aviation begins in 1919 when former First World War pilots returned to Canada with every intention of continuing to fly.  The very first airlines were tiny operations that served mining communities in Northern Canada.  Also in 1919 CP Rail's charter was extended to allow it to operate an airline.  For the next eleven years CPR didn't do much with its extended charter, but others were busy creating the aviation industry.

James Richardson is the acknowledged father of Canadian commercial aviation.  He started his first airline, Western Canadian Airways (WCA), in 1926 with $200,000 of his own money.  WCA flew miners and freight into remote northern mining communities that had previously only been accessible in the summer.  Richardson expanded his empire throughout the twenties, buying a number of eastern airlines, eventually merging them into Canadian Airways in 1930.  Canadian Airways had a number of north-south routes scattered across the country, but didn't fly east to west.

CP Rail came back into the picture when it took a stake in Canadian Airways in 1930.  When the Federal government decided to start its own airline, Richardson and CPR were asked to take part.  Canadian Airways was to be a cornerstone of Canada's national airline.  The government and CPR couldn't come to an  agreement though, some say because Ottawa never intended to share control, and CPR decided not to take part in the venture.  Richardson was bitterly disappointed in the government and died a couple years after Trans-Canada Air Lines took flight.  For its part, CPR was determined to be in the aviation business and bought ten bush airlines in a short span of time, culminating in 1942 when it bought out James Richardson's widow, creating Canadian Pacific Airlines which would later be known as CP Air.

Canadian Pacific Airlines was run by flamboyant bush pilot Grant McConachie for 20 years starting in the forties.  Under his control the airline grew quickly despite a more or less constant battle with the government-owned TCA.  The airline industry was heavily regulated and while CP was encouraged to operate bush routes, when it came to international or  transcontinental routes, it always played second fiddle to TCA.  Despite that, McConachie was able to make CP Air a global airline, with flights to Australia, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam.  Revenues at CP Air grew from $3 million in 1942 to $61 million in 1964.  Profit was sporadic though. Ian Sinclair, a CP executive commented that the airline ran on 'gasoline and glamour' instead of earnings

While CP was establishing a national airline, Canadian's other ancestor, Pacific Western Airlines was getting on its feet.  PWA was started in 1945 by another western Canadian bush pilot, Russ Baker. Baker's airline was originally called Central British Columbia Airways and it started out with one plane that it flew primarily for the B.C. Forest Service.  The airline's big break came in 1949 when Alcan started constructing an aluminum smelter in Kitimat, B.C. CBCA was responsible for 95 per cent of the airlift required to build the site and that business allowed Baker to rapidly expand the airline.  Over the next half dozen years, Baker bought eight smaller B.C. based airlines and, in 1953, the group of companies took on the name Pacific Western Airlines.

PWA and CP Air came together in the late fifties in an attempt to crack TCA's monopoly on transcontinental flights.  After a long fight, CP Air was moderately successful; it was awarded one flight per day from Vancouver to Montreal.  PWA's Baker didn't live to see the victory though; he died of a heart attack before the decision was handed down.  The two airlines actively competed against one another for the next twenty years, with CP Air agitating for increased competition with Air Canada, while protecting the effective duopoly for transcontinental air travel.  PWA continued its domination of regional travel in Western Canada and spent nine years being owned by the Alberta  government.

In 1979 Ottawa announced that it was eliminating fixed transcontinental market share for Air Canada. Although CP Air had been lobbying for this very thing since its creation, it now had to spend a billion dollars to expand its fleet and prepare for full-scale competition.  Over the next eight years, Canada's aviation industry was completely overhauled.  The Canadian and Alberta governments privatized Air Canada and PWA respectively.  The two national airlines went on acquisition sprees to establish regional feeder networks.  Regulation effectively ended in 1985; airlines were now allowed complete and free access into all domestic markets.  CP Air's profits continued to be sporadic though.  CP loved the idea of owning an airline but, in 1986, financial considerations overshadowed emotional ones and CP decided to sell CP Air.

At the same time PWA was looking to expand.  It was flush with profits and looked to Air Canada for a possible merger.  Air Canada turned down PWA's offer to be its regional feeder in exchange for 33 per cent of Air Canada's shares.  Instead, PWA bought CP Air for $300 million, and agreed to take on its $600 million debt.  In April of 1987, two months after the deal was completed, PWA announced the name of the merged airline would be Canadian Airlines International.

Two years later Canadian made a final acquisition that some say signed the airline's death warrant.  In 1989 Wardair, a feisty charter airline turned national carrier, was in a similar situation to what Canadian is in now.  It was deeply in debt and quickly running out of cash. Analysts say that Canadian should have waited for Wardair to go out of business.  Instead it paid $250 million dollars for the airline, eliminating Canada's third national airline but adding a further $300 million in debt to its balance sheet.  In three short years PWA had gone from a powerful regional carrier to a debt ridden national airline with revenues of nearly $3 billion.  Still, PWA thought the 1990's would be its opportunity to beat Air Canada at its own game.

Tracy Johnson
CBC NEWS ONLINE