A 3 Dimensional GGC Weekend!

Saturday 20 September was an eventful day at three different locations for GGC. Gatineau Airpark, Pendleton Aerodrome and Lake Placid, NY.



Vintage Wings Canada, Mike Potter's Flying Aviation Museum held its 'Battle of Britain', open house celebration day. The GGC Puchacz, flown by Paul and Doug was aerotowed over to Gatineau Airpark by Andrew in the Citabria. The day started an hour earlier than expected as Doug received a phone call late on Friday afternoon requesting that we arrive at Gatineau an hour earlier than planned due to the large contingent of visiting aircraft and Warbirds expected. This message arrived too late to contact the GGC participants who had already left their places of work or homes. However Doug, with the able help of new GGC member, Michael Friederick (MANY THANKS MIKE), who was having an early morning coffee on the Clubhouse verandah, opened the hangars, DI.ed the Puchacz, and got things setup on the flightline. We rudely awakened Andrew who was still asleep in his trailer, and took off enroute for Gatineau, only about 10 minutes behind schedule. We were told to orbit over the Ottawa river, about five kms short of Gatineau, for another 10 minutes, while a European Alphajet did a flyby and circuit and landing ahead of us. Then, not to be outdone, once cleared to land, we released over the airfield and did a high speed circuit and approach down the runway at about one metre height and turned onto the taxiway, clearing the active runway, so as not to hold operations, and were then pushed to our static display location. There was a lot of interest in the glider throughout the day, by several who were previous glider pilots and were contemplating the possibility of returning to the sport.


The high points of the flying displays were flybys of an assortment of WW II aircraft that included: two Spitfires, two Hurricanes, two Mustangs, a Corsair, and the Lancaster, four-engined bomber. The sounds of all those Rolls-Royce merlins were music to the ears. There were also, excellent aerobatics displays by a Pitts Special, a big 450 HP Stearman, and a three aircraft formation aerobatics team of Harvard trainers. Then the Puchacz was towed out from Gatineau at about 1500 hrs, just before the next NOTAM closed down the airfield, and was flown out by Paul and Daniel while Doug drove Dan's car back to Pendleton.


Meanwhile, south of the border, fall wave flying kicked off with an advance team from MSC, RVSS and GGC starting wave camp operations in Lake Placid. XS, AT and IAK were the first to taste Adirondack wave in 2008. Stay tuned for reports from our wave camp fly week (Oct.4th through 13th)





However, the real highlight of the day back at Pendleton, was the first solo flight in the ASK-13 by Emma Walker. Emma is only 14 and soloed after only 37 flights, a true accomplishment. CONGRATULATIONS EMMA. Emma's mother and father, Alex and Ron watched anxiously as Norm Fortin sent her off, and their pride and joy flew the nest and found that true freedom in the silent world aloft, now free from those pesky instructional comments from the back seat drivers ringing in her ears. After landing, Emma was chased around the airfield and doused with water, as is the custom, by a flock of young damsels from her Pony Club. This is only about the second time in the last decade that we have had a 14-yr. old go solo at our Club.


Doug & Roger

Photos: D. Duclos, S. Hildesheim, Doug L-L

GGC Welcomes Another Romeo!

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?…Look no further than right under your nose in the Lacasse hangar at GGC!
Welcome to the newest member of the GGC fleet. On August 16th, our newest L-33 solo (C-GGHC – contest letters “Tango Romeo”) arrived at Pendleton after a long journey that originated in Pemberton BC.

Rigging was straightforward and I think you will agree that the “TR” is in very nice condition. "TR" well equipped for cross country flying with a Borgelt B50 flight computer coupled with a PDA running Winpilot.

The paint scheme is certainly eye-catching! “TR” is now rigged, airworthy and ready to go along with our other L-33, "Echo Romeo". The first flight at GGC was flown by Martin, the picture says it all…

(photos: Martin Lacasse & Dan Duclos)

Cheers,

Roger

2008 Cadet Advanced Soaring Week

Flight training of young pilots and Pendleton Aerodrome. A tradition since 1942 when it all began as #10 Elementary Flight Training School (EFTS)! (check out the MayFly section of our website for an interesting historical photo).

The week of August 18-22 saw GGC host the 4^th annual Royal Canadian Air Cadet advanced soaring fly week for the top cadet from each of the 5 regional gliding schools across Canada. Two cadet 2-33s where also flown into Pendleton the previous week to allow the cadet to solo fly aircraft that they are familiar with between advanced soaring instructional flights with GGC members in GGC 2-seat aircraft.

On average, 20 to 40 flights where flown daily by the cadets and GGC instructors throughout the very hot and dry week. Cadets where given instructional/familiarization flights in thermalling, cross-country flying and glider aerobatics. Evening lectures covered FAI badge flying/requirements and introductions to effective thermalling techniques, speed to fly and a dose of cross country theory with plenty SeeYou flight file analysis.

The enthusiasm and skill of these young pilots combined with the leadership/professionalism of their DND officers coupled the volunteer efforts of GGC instructors, tow pilots and members help to make this event a marquee event of cadet/civilian gliding cooperation in Canada. GGC is proud to support this training event again in 2008 and extends a proud “Bravo Zulu” to this year’s 5 top cadet glider pilots.

Cheers,

Roger

2008 Eastern SAC Instructor Course

In spite of a very pessimistic weather forecast, GGC hosted the 2008 Soaring Association of Canada (SAC) eastern instructor course Aug. 4-8. Three candidates from three eastern Canadian clubs where put through their paces by course director (or was that “Oberfeldwabel”) Richard Sawyer. Flexibility was the key in timing the flying and classroom lectures and in the end all candidates managed to get the necessary flying exercise completed between the daily mid-afternoon “monsoons”. All candidates agreed that they had learned a lot about the art and technique of instructing and were very appreciative of Richard’s teaching style.

Well done Richard!

Cheers,
Roger

A Different Perspective

I took my 6 yr old for her first glider ride on Sunday. Here's the picture she drew later, showing the relative importance of things to her - the people are quite large and that little towplane thingie barely registers!

Cheers,

Mark E.
(editors note: Mark is an accomplished tow pilot and gliding instructor who is now torn as to what his daughter really thinks he flies best!)

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing Baby!

It was the second day (July 2nd) of the cross-country seminar held by Ian Grant at the GGC. The Freedoms Wings Twin Astir had been flown to the Aviation Museum for Canada Day and the Puchacz was used as a replacement for Freedom Wings operations. To progress toward my bronze badge, Ian suggested I try to complete a two-hour flight in Echo Romeo, one of our L-33 Solos. On the next day, I would carry out the off-field landing exercises with him in the Puchacz.

Around 11 o’clock, the little Cu’s forming above Rockland looked pretty appealing, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, which in itself was a reason to celebrate given all the rain we had in June.

As I was being towed, my mind wandered and I imagined Rosie Vella and Jeff Lynne singing “Mr. Blue Sky”: “It’s stopped rainin’, ev’rybody’s in a play and don’t you know, it’s a beautiful new day hey, hey”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Ncxw1xfck&feature=related

With Rosie’s voice in the back of my mind, I admired the scenery and did not pay attention to the distance covered on the ground and the large expanse of forest separating me from the field. More than seven kilometers away from the threshold of runway 26, as I reached cloud base, I decided to cut the umbilical cord at 2,000 feet, under an irresistible little puffy cloud.

This turned out to be a case of premature release but I was in the same frame of mind as Pepé Le Pew, not realizing that I was about to engage in a game where my ardor would only meet strong resistance. But as Pepé would say, getting there is half the fun and, besides, a true gentleman must be prepared for anything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLrF-IwF2hk

Well, anything but lift. It seemed that my presence in that sector had the effect of repelling every thermal I would try to sniff. My heart was sinking as quickly as Echo Romeo, with no Juliet in sight. As I circled for lift, I quickly glanced at the airfield and realized I was in trouble.

So, I headed south over the long series of farmers’ fields, pleading with Mother Nature for some lift and thinking about another Jeff Lynne’s famous song, used by NASA as the wake-up call song for space shuttle astronauts:

Don’t bring me down, Gruß!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_67S-IRgw

Well, Mother Nature was not receptive either. My trajectory resembled a lawn dart’s and like an astronaut, I was about to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. The only thing left to do was to choose the site of my retrieval. I selected the closest field to runway 08, landing parallel to the road hoping to stop close to a culvert as the ditch was deep and full of water.

The next song that came to my mind was: Hold on tight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLmpL2AzLs

The touch down happened very quickly and felt like Mother Nature had kicked me in the backside. However, as I opened the canopy, a gentle breeze caressed my face. As Pepé would say, stop resisting me! Ian still had me pass the off-field landind test the next day but why fake it when you can experience the real thing?

Once on my feet, I transmitted my position to Norm, my tow pilot, and was soon greeted by a retrieving crew “extraordinaire”, composed of nothing less than the wife and daughter of our President, as well as Wolfgang and Jimmy, the only other student attending the seminar. The most charming half of the crew was immediately sent on a diplomatic mission to the farmer’s house and everything went smoothly from that point on.

As soon as we returned to the Club, I learned that Karl had “discovered” yet another great landing field near Cassleman and I teamed up with Ron Smith for another retrieve.

On that memorable Canada Day, I not only experienced my first landing out but also acquired lots of experience derigging and rigging Club ships. As I left the field, looking at the sunset, I consoled myself thinking that even the sun lands out at the end of each day!

Your Reporterus Maximus,

J. Marc

GGC/Freedoms Wings Canada Fly Week

The week of July 1-7 saw GGC once again hosting the Freedoms Wings Canada (FWC) Twin Astir glider in conjunction with a club fly week. GGC even had a special guest on the first day of the week. Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau was on site to check out the FWC activities and even go for a glider flight himself (with Doug in back) using the hand controls of the FWC twin. (photo: D. Duclos).

Flight activity averaged approximately 28 flights daily. Mike Clarke, Canada's first paraplegic glider pilot, was also up to visit and take a couple flights at our airfield. Mike assists with the running of FWC at York Soaring (near Toronto) and is a very capable glider pilot using the hand controls. Those of us in the GGC that have tried flying with hand controls will attest to the mental skill required, and to the extreme value that is suddenly applied to "flying the yaw string", and hence the glider.

Kyle McKeown and his mother Colleen were also up visiting from York Soaring to help out throughout the week. 16 year old Kyle glides with York and they camped out in our recently cleaned carpenter shop for the duration of the week. THANKS KYLE and COLLEEN.

July 7 marked the end of the GGC/FWC Fly-Week with a hot, humid sunny day. Then in the heat of the afternoon, a stalwart group of GGC members laboured over the dis-assembling of the FWC Twin Astir, and putting it into the trailer for the return trip to York Soaring. GGC will be significantly expanding it’s role in the FWC flying program in 2009. Stay tuned for more news and details later this year.

IT WAS A GREAT FLY-WEEK and THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED.

Doug L-L