Dawn Patrol - GGC Style

This past Saturday saw the GGC fleet operating at 2 different locations in the region.
The “dawn patrol” contingent, consisting of Martin, Andrew and Jess, took off with the Citabria and the Puchacz to a Fly Day event at Gatineau Airport. After expertly landing the Puchacz and rolling onto a taxiway, our crew set up for a full day of explaining to visitors of the wonders of soaring at GGC. Although the morning clouds did not look great, the sun soon poked through and soon everyone was looking for sunblock!

This event was very well attended and aircraft from Michael Potter’s collection flew demonstration flights throughout the day.

There was even a DH Tiger Moth present at the show. This was the type of aircraft flown at Pendleton during the 1940s when our aerodrome was home to #10 Elementary Flight Training School.

At the end of the day our now tired “dawn patrol” ferried the Puchacz and Citabria back to GGC with a brand new member (from the show) keeping Martin company in the Puchacz on the way back to Pendleton! This is likely a GGC first, join and fly in a glider back to Pendleton.

Meanwhile back at the field, the morning clouds did not dampen operations. A visitor showed up lat in the morning looking for an introductory ride. Although cloud base was only 1800ft, we launched and managed to have a 31 minute flight by darting cloud to cloud around Pendleton. At one point a red tailed hawk joined us in the thermal. This was one of the most challenging and enjoyable intro flights I have ever flown and just goes to show what you can do under what looks like "unsoarable" conditions. By noon the sun was out and regular flying and flight training operations where in full swing.

Special thanks go out to everyone who helped around the club this past weekend, specifically Greg who wins the “iron butt” award for mowing all of runway 31/13 and the pee patch.

The day finished up with our June general meeting in the clubhouse.

See you at the aerodrome,
Roger

Photos: Jess Rougeau