28 / COLE’S NOTES Wintertime floating By W.T (Tim) Cole
30 / WORDS ABOUT A BOOK Space, politics and Marc Garneau By René R. Gadacz
32 / EXPERT PILOT Learning to teach By Richard Pittet
50 / BOOKSHELF Top aviation titles
52 / SERVICE CENTRE Deals and offers
54 / FLIGHT BAG
Puzzle and questions
ON THE COVER
Sealand Flight's Pipistrel Vilus Electro in flight over B.C.'s Georgia Strait.
Photo by Tony Puerzer
FEATURES
New Era for Flight Training
40 Air-Taxi Operations — An Outlier in Aviation Safety
The Transportation Safety Board lays out where improvement is needed in aviation safety.
By Yoan Marier
The unstoppable march toward "sustainable" aviation takes a leap forward on Vancouver Island. By Mike Andrews The conclusion of this all-but-forgotten epic aviation event of 1971. By Ed Das
Broadening Our Horizon
I’m pleased to announce two new additions to the editorial team at Canadian Aviator magazine.
First off, I’d like to introduce Michael Bellamy. Mike, of Spruce Grove, Alberta, spent a lifetime in and around aviation, first flying airplanes, then flying helicopters, which he found to be more appealing. Mike is an experienced writer, having written articles for several publications. He is also a successful novelist, having published Crosswinds (see The Aviator’s Bookshelf on p. 50 for details and to order). For a while now we’ve been on the lookout for a regular columnist writing about helicopter themes so are pleased to have Micheal join the team. Look for his regular column in the Whirlybird Writings department.
Second, it was at last fall’s Air Transportation Association of Canada (ATAC) annual conference in Vancouver where I met Yoan Marier, who replaced long-serving and retiring Kathy Fox as the new chairperson of the Transportation Safety Board (TSB). Discussions with Yoan and his team at the conference led to me extending an invitation to make regular contributions to Canadian Aviator as a means to reach a broader audience on important safety themes which all of us in the aviation world should be concerned about. Mr. Marier gladly accepted the invitation, and his first contribution appears as a feature in this issue of the magazine. We’re looking forward to publishing several more key safety-related articles in future issues.
Yoan Marier, Chair, Transportation Safety Board
Michael Bellamy
AIRMAIL
Fact Checking
True Patriot Love
I always read with interest the many articles and columns in Canadian Aviator I am, however, sometimes disappointed that errors creep into the final product. This month [Mar/Apr], the article “Was the Polish PM’s Crash an Assassination Plot?” [A Pilot’s Life, p. 26] states that “several thousand Polish officers (were) killed by the Soviet Army.” No! It was the NKVD (precursor to the KGB and FSB today) who murdered the 21,857. That should be made very clear!
In the same issue, on page 47 [“Remembering A Helping Hand”], it shows a 5-cent stamp, calling it “A Canada post office stamp.” Again, very incorrect. This was most certainly not issued by the Canadian government, but was a private issue by British Columbia Airways Limited promoting their Victoria to Vancouver (and Seattle) runs. Presumably, these were affixed to airmail carried onboard. They seem to be referred to as “semi-official” stamps. I would call them private issues.
Keep up the good work!
Walter Salmaniw, MD CD CAME, Victoria, B.C.
The author, Chris Weicht, responds: He is right, the Polish officers were murdered by the NKVD, not the Soviet Army. Regarding the stamp, it was issued by British Columbia Airways and was affixed to mail carried by the airline and had nothing to do with Canada Post. However, there is no mention of Canada Post in my submitted article.
Canadian Aviator regrets the stamp caption error. —Editor
Canadian Aviator is the best aviation magazine available in North America. I’ve tried them all: Flying, Plane & Pilot, etc. There could be some homegrown Canadian bias at play, but I don’t think so. I trained at the Victoria Flying Club and now share a 1965 Cessna 150 with a fellow pilot. My Canadian roots are definitely showing more after the recent tariff escapade[s] and events unfolding down here!
David Dickins, Monterey, Calif.
A Review of the Review
Just picking up my Nov/Dec 2024 Canadian Aviator magazine (I know, way, way behind schedule, but I read all my aviation magazines cover to cover and there’s a stack). Anyway, I just read your editorial “For Those Who Read Books” and I am definitely in the camp of hardcopy/ paper, but only for periodicals and pleasure reading (I converted my business to paperless in 2019).
I think a book review section is a GREAT idea and I want to thank you and René for getting it going. I look forward to reading it in every issue and I’ll likely add every book reviewed to my library if I don’t already have it.
Thanks, and keep up the great work.
TJ Cieciura, Mississauga, Ont.
Canadian Aviator welcomes reader letters on topics of concern to Canadian pilots and the aviation industry. Please be brief, to the point and polite in your submissions.
Email the editor steve@canadianaviator.com
GEAR & GADGETS
Aviation English
Aviation English is a unique, made-in-Canada publication made for people who work in aviation as well as for those who are passionate about airplanes and flying or want to pursue their career in the aviation industry. This book can be used by pilots and air traffic controllers to enrich their language study for the ICAO English Proficiency exams, but it can also be very useful for those who work in other areas of aviation such as management, dispatch, cabin service and maintenance, to name a few. The small format makes it easy to pack in your flight bag or carry-on suitcase and have it always at your fingertips whenever you feel like studying. About C$28. Learn more at gearupaviationenglish.com. Available from amazon.ca
Cooling Fan
Ever find yourself breaking out in a sweat inside your cockpit, particularly when you’re still on the ground? Wish you had a way of cooling down without expensive and power-robbing built-in air conditioning? Then check out the Cockpit Cooling Fan. Powered by a battery rechargeable via a USB-C cable, this three-speed adjustable blower can keep the front-seat passengers cool, or flipped around to do the same for rear-seat passengers. About U$15.
Learn more at, and available from, sportys.com
Summer Shirt
With summer just around the corner, you might be thinking new clothes for the season. Or maybe you’re wondering what to get the man in your life for Father’s Day. Look no further than here for an item that should be in every man’s wardrobe — an iconic Hawaiian shirt. Especially one with an aviation theme. Made of 55 percent cotton and 45 percent rayon. From C$80, depending on size. Learn more at, and available from, aircraftspruce.ca
Angle of Attack Indicator
This is the in-cockpit device that every pilot should have. Find an instrument hole in your panel, or opt for the glareshield-mountable version and enjoy instant readouts from the Lift Monitor, by Lift Management, LLC of Grant’s Pass, Ore. It senses the aircraft’s ability to sustain lift regardless of G-force acceleration, airspeed, pitch angle, gross weight, temperature or barometric pressure. About C$600. Learn more at lift-mgt.com, and available from, aircraftspruce.ca
WAYPOINTS
Global 7500 Sets Yet More Records
BOMBARDIER’S ULTRA-SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS JET
The Dorval, Quebec-based business jet manufacturer’s Global 7500 continues to lead the way in record-setting performance in its category. Its latest milestone was the aircraft’s 100th speed record, a record in itself. Speed records between city pairs is a standard way of highlighting business aircraft performance, and its latest record-setting jaunt was from San Luis Obispo in California to London’s Biggin Hill airport on February 28, a flight that took nine hours and 17 minutes and averaged close to 540 knots. Other recent speed records were set in more traditional city pairs such as Tokyo to San Francisco, London to Riyadh, Hartford to Dubai, Oakland to Tokyo and Tokyo to Toronto.
Bombardier’s 7500 has also set several distance records, such as Sydney, Australia to Detroit, Michigan, a distance of 8,225 nautical miles, which was the longest flight ever recorded for a business aircraft.
“Bombardier customers need a reliable, fast, efficient business tool that gets them to destination quickly and efficiently, and the Global 7500 aircraft
Above: The crew and support staff gather for a photo after setting the record for the longest mission flown by a purpose-built business jet: the 8,152-nm flight from Singapore to Tucson, Arizona in March 2019.
Below: A Global 7500 cockpit equipped with Head-Up Displays (HUDs) for both the pilot and co-pilot.
sets the standard in the ultra-long-range class for its outstanding technological advancements and impressive performance capabilities,” said JeanChristophe Gallagher, executive V-P of aircraft sales for Bombardier. “As these impressive records attest, the aircraft consistently shows it has the speed to successfully complete any type of mission.”
The Global 7500’s baseline range is 7,700 nautical miles and its top speed is Mach 0.925, while normal cruise speed is Mach 0.85. At maximum takeoff weight, the 7500 needs only 5,760 feet at sea level and at ISA (standard) conditions, considered short for an aircraft in this performance category. Landing distance is only 2,237 feet under the same conditions.
Noteworthy Sabre on Display
THE LAST PRODUCTION CANADAIR F-86 IN WINNIPEG
The last F-86 Sabre fighter jet to leave the Canadair assembly line has been fully restored and is now on display at Winnipeg’s Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada (RAMWC). The Sabre was donated to the museum in 1996 by the Pakistan Air Force, for whom it served as a gate guard and was in a very deteriorated condition when it arrived in Winnipeg.
“The restoration of Sabre #1815 represents not just the revival of an iconic aircraft, but the preservation of a piece of Canada’s aviation legacy,” said RAMWC’s CEO Terry Slobodian.
The first series of production Sabres built by Canadair, the Mk.2s and Mk.4s, of which less than 1,000 were made, were powered with a General Electric J47 turbojet. Subsequent variants, the Mk.5s and Mk.6s, were equipped with Avro Canada TR5 Orenda jet engines. Sixty Mk.2s were supplied to the US Air Force for use in the Korean War (1950-53), where they served alongside the RCAF’s fleet of Sabres, which made over 900 combat sorties. It was a Squadron Leader from Manitoba, John MacKay, who famously shot down the last MiG-15 of the Korean War in June 1953.
Canadair Sabres also saw service with the German Luftwaffe, Britain’s Royal Air Force and the Greek, Turkish, Colombian and South African air forces.
There are currently more than 200 Global 7500s in service, and they have accumulated over 220,000 flight hours. The successor of the Global 7500 is already in development. “With our Global 8000 set to enter into service later this year, we can’t wait to build on this speed record momentum and take it to even higher levels across the fleet,” added Gallagher.
The aircraft, displaying the RCAF’s NATO-era livery with 441 Squadron markings, forms a permanent part of the RAMWC’s Military Skies collection.
“[Our Sabre’s] wonderfully restored state is a testament to the hard work and skills of the volunteers who make our museum what it is,” said Slobodian.
Canadair F-86 Sabre #1815 on display at the Royal Aviation of Western Canada. DAN KARR
UNUSUAL ATTITUDES
AEROBATICS WITH LUKE PENNER
Escaping the Manitoba Winter
AEROBATICS ON THE WAY TO THE CARIBBEAN
There’s something uniquely rewarding about combining the diverse flavours of aviation into one unforgettable journey. My wife and I recently set out in a turbo Cessna 210 Centurion (T210N) from Steinbach, Manitoba, embarking on an adventure that would take us from cold winter mornings in Canada to the sun-drenched, turquoise shores of the Eastern Caribbean.
Our journey began on a frosty winter morning in Steinbach. The air was crisp and clear, and we were eager to trade our frozen prairies for white sand beaches. After a short hop to Fargo, North Dakota, we cleared customs with the efficiency and friendly professionalism that makes every visit to the Fargo jet centre a positive experience. Leaving Fargo behind,
we headed to Algona, Iowa, for a fuel stop. Not only were the fuel prices more affordable there, but it also provided a chance to catch up with my longtime friend and aerobatic mentor, Aaron McCartan. After a short but wonderful visit with him and his family, we were climbing back into the Centurion, ready to put more miles behind us. With our tanks full, we set a course for Tulsa, Oklahoma. Originally, the plan had us going to Memphis, Tennessee, but a massive storm system covering much of that state forced us to reroute. Filing an IFR flight through ForeFlight, we spent a couple of hours navigating around the weather, eventually settling into Tulsa. After a smooth landing and a well-deserved break featuring some delicious
Mexican food and a quick exploration of downtown Tulsa, we were recharged and ready to move on.
The following day, buoyed by a favourable weather update, we departed IFR toward New Orleans — our first main destination on this part of the trip. New Orleans, as well as the state of Louisiana was a first for both of us, and the city lived up to every expectation. We wandered Bourbon Street, took an exhilarating airboat ride through the bayou (on the lookout for alligators, naturally), and even spent New Year’s Eve aboard an old-style paddle steamer. Floating along the Mississippi River beneath a cascade of fireworks in the chilly night air was, without a doubt, one of the most memorable ways to welcome the new year.
Cruising by the Exumas in the Bahamas, enroute to Providenciales, Turks & Caicos.
New Year’s Day brought a special purpose. I had arranged to meet Patty Wagstaff — a long-time mentor and friend, as well as a renowned Aerobatic Competency Evaluator — in St. Augus tine, Florida. Patty runs an aerobatic and UPRT flight school (upset prevention and recovery training), and our meeting was set not only to catch up, but also to renew my Statement of Aerobatic Competency (SAC) card. After a smooth flight at 15,000 feet along the northern edge of the Gulf of Mexico, we landed in the historic city of St. Augustine (the oldest city in the United States). Patty greeted us at the airplane, quickly arranging a courtesy car for my wife while whisking me off to her hangar. Growing up, I had idolized her performances at Oshkosh, and now here I was, flying in her Extra 330SC to get my airshow credentials renewed. A brief stint in the aerobatic box was all it took to complete the evaluation, leaving me both humbled and reinvigorated.
After the evaluation was complete and I said my goodbyes to Patty, my wife and I spent some time exploring the charming, tourist-bustling streets of St. Augustine before departing for Miami the following day. In Miami, I was set to meet a couple of fellow aviators I’d only known online through Instagram. Among them was Chris, a young pilot with aspirations of competition aerobatics who owned an Extra 300L, the same type I operate at Harv’s Air. Over the course of the afternoon we did a couple of training flights in an aerobatic box near Miami Executive Airport; we ran through the IAC Sportsman ‘Known’ program and worked on some of the fundamentals of competition. Chris’s raw talent and drive were unmistakable, and it was a reminder of how the passion for aviation is alive and well in the next generation.
Exumas, offering some of the most spec tacular views I’ve ever witnessed from an airplane. I couldn’t help but reminisce about a similar adventure nine years ago when my wife and I island-hopped through the Bahamas in the very same airplane. This time we enjoyed the archipelago’s beauty from 11,000 feet.
down and taxied to Provo Air Center, where the customs team was extremely friendly and efficient, and the FBO experience ranked among the best I’ve encountered.
Then came the part of the trip that had been building in anticipation: our departure for the Caribbean. The direct flight from Miami Executive to Providenciales in Turks and Caicos was a smooth threehour cruise over the Bahamas. Our route
Prior to this, departing Miami was itself a little tense. We were allocated a tight departure slot, which would give us an ETA just 15 minutes before Providenciales closed its airspace to general aviation arrivals amid the seasonal influx of corporate jets and airlines. Nearing Provo airspace, I could hear the airspace was an absolute zoo with only a single runway with no radar coverage. I cancelled IFR to expedite the arrival process and was instructed to enter a low-level holding pattern over beautiful Grace Bay Beach. As we circled above, the view of breathtaking turquoise waters made the temporary delay a welcome interlude.
Our time in Turks and Caicos was filled with beachside relaxation and a reunion with an old friend, one of my very first aerobatic competition mentors, now a local resident. The next day we departed for the British Virgin Islands, a destination known for its striking beauty and warm hospitality, albeit at a premium with higher GA handling fees. We spent a delightful day in the city of Road Town, savouring a memorable meal and exploring the vibrant capital before moving on.
Saint Martin was our next major stop, a place where French and Dutch influences merge to create an atmosphere that feels familiar and inviting. For a week, my wife and I revelled in fresh morning pastries, pristine white-sand beaches
Grabbing a quick selfie with aerobatic legend, Patty Wagstaff, after flying her Extra 330SC in the aerobatic box at St. Augustine, Florida
UNUSUAL ATTITUDES
(continued)
and the lively rhythm of island life. No Caribbean trip is complete without a visit to Maho Beach, where airliners cross delightfully low before landing at Princess Juliana International Airport — a sight that never fails to thrill.
One of the highlights — and challenges — of the trip was a brief excursion to Saint Barthélemy. Famous for its notoriously short, 2,200-foot runway, St. Barts demands precision and respect for its unique approach: a steep descent over a hill and a traffic circle, all set against swirling mountain winds. Under the guidance of a local French instructor, I undertook a portion of the training required to obtain an endorsement to be able to land there solo. The minimum training involves five landings on each runway direction, which involve unique challenges of their own. Unfortunately, due to an unacceptably strong tailwind component, we were unable to land on Runway 28, which is a no go-around runway. Overall, I’m glad I made the effort to experience the unique challenge that St. Barts offers and, after taking care of the landing fees with the friendly airport manager, we were on our way back to Saint Martin.
Finally, our journey wound down with a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. At Isla Grande downtown airport, we left the airplane in the care of a local flight school until its owner picked up the airplane for an adventure of his own in several weeks’ time. We spent a few days exploring the streets of Old San Juan before catching a commercial flight back home.
This trip seamlessly fused so many aspects of aviation that I love, from IFR operations, hardcore aerobatics, providing aerobatic training and challenging short-field landings. It was a testament to the value of versatility and adaptability. As a pilot and instructor, I believe that exposing yourself to a wide range of challenges not only makes you a safer aviator, but also enriches the overall flying experience. After all, every new challenge is a lesson that makes the skies just a bit more inviting.
Lined up for takeoff on runway 10 at St. Barthélemy, during a training session with a local instructor — a legal requirement to operate at this airport.
Mallards, Coastal Airlines and Ocean Falls
ALL PLAYED STARRING ROLES IN BC AVIATION HISTORY
In a previous issue, I dug up some history associated with one of the four paintings displayed on the Mezzanine level at Vancouver International Airport’s South Terminal. Here is another little history associated with one of those paintings, which brings forward some of British Columbia’s industrial history and the vital part played in that saga by the Vancouver airport and the coastal airlines operating from there.
The painting depicts a Mallard flying boat in West Coast Air colours, landing at an unnamed destination to pick up passengers for Vancouver. The artist did not have personal experience with the various destinations of the Mallard during its 26 years of service on the Coast, but his imagination created what coastal pilots will find reminiscent of the Cousins Inlet approach into one of the prime destinations in its day — Ocean Falls, where a concrete slipway and ramp with a terminal building was built to handle the amphibious aircraft on its regular daily stop. The pulp mill and community of Ocean Falls was a vital stop for those flying boats through the years from 1946 to 1970, when this coastal community descended from what had been the largest pulp mill in the province with a community of 3,500 residents to what is now a near ghost town.
The Ocean Falls townsite was first envisioned back in 1903 when it was determined that a large block of hydroelectric power, required for a pulp mill, could be generated from the waters tumbling
into the inlet from the 700-foot elevation of Link Lake above the proposed mill site. By 1912 the pulp mill was in production and the townsite boasted 250 inhabitants. Transportation was provided by steamship service from Vancouver, which became a tedious experience for most of the workmen and their families, and a painfully slow means of transport for the mill operators. When airplanes started to show up on the scene, the mill owners, Pacific Mills, along with many of their employees and residents of Ocean Falls, helped to finance a little airline of their own called Pioneer Airways, which was run by a quite famous local pilot by the name of Bill McCluskey.
At that time, the Hoffar Boat Company, recently bought by Boeing (and became Boeing Aircraft of Canada), was building a nice little five-place Boeing-designed flying boat called the Boeing C-204 Thunderbird in Vancouver’s Coal Har-
bour. The upstart coastal airline, Pioneer Airways, ordered two of these ‘pusher’ aircraft, and the well-founded little airline was launched. The history of this little airline is a story unto itself, but for the purposes of this account it can be said that the Ocean Falls community became enthusiastic backers of coastal aviation, and the mill owners of the day were great contributors to the growth of B.C.’s aviation industry.
By 1945, when the Second World War was over, BC Airlines initiated the use of the Mallard flying boats and developed a scheduled service ranging from Prince Rupert to Vancouver. That pioneer airline operated six of the Mallards during their heyday and proudly flew Princess Margaret on a tour of some coastal destinations in the Mallard during her tour of the province during the 1958 B.C. Centennial year.
The Grumman boats were passed on to Pacific Western Airlines, then to West Coast Air, and then to AirBC in their history of linking the coastal communities of this province, and though there are none of these fine aircraft in service in B.C. today, the type played an important role in the proud history of British Columbia’s coastal aviation.
HANGAR TALK WITH JACK SCHOFIELD
Grumman Mallard over Ocean Falls, B.C. painted by Glenn Matthews in 1996.
West Coast Air's Mallard tied down on the apron at Vancouver International Airport in 1976.
A Queen, Some Castles and Several Pigs
THE LOVELY FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE
BUSH FLYING WITH ROBERT S. GRANT
Turbulence convulsed the aircraft enough that the copilot filled his third airsickness bag. He could not be blamed. We had been aloft for three hours above the farm fields of France when, suddenly, something caught my eye. Ribbons of engine oil meandered along our wing and fell away in the slipstream. An airport at Morlaix, 20 miles west of our position, seemed like the closest refuge and we soon plopped CF-WZG upon its surface and, moments later, stepped outside. The copilot staggered away and inhaled the fragrant European air.
The Beechcraft Queen Air 65-B80 belonged to Ottawa-based Sander Geophysics and first flew from Wichita, Kansas in 1968 as serial number LD-386. Powered by 380-hp 1G50-450 Lycomings, the nine-place corporate carrier came to Canada that year. After reconfiguration for airborne research for the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Sander became an owner in 1988. Someone had already ferried CF-WZG cross-Atlantic to Rennes, 322 miles west of Paris.
The prototype’s first flight took place on August 28, 1958, and another 1,004 rolled off Wichita’s assembly lines by 1978. When facing the 50-foot, six-inch wingspan before my first trip, CF-WZG didn’t seem intimidating. A factsheet listed 8,800-pound maximum takeoff weight and 6,030 pounds empty. A typical Beechcraft, it appeared solid, although the aluminum and composite tail stinger attached to the 14-foot, three-inch top of the rudder, looked somewhat flimsy.
Recently escaped from servitude as a provincial government pilot, I had been asked by Sander chief pilot Jan P. Kristiansen to participate in a two-month geophysical survey contract. My first overseas assignment began from Thunder Bay to the company headquarters at Ottawa’s MacDonald-Cartier International Airport. With only my brief exposure to the survey world over 20 years before, Kristiansen thought it wise to arrange indepth retraining. Before dispatching me to London, Paris and Rennes, a field crew of 10 pilots, AMEs and geophysicists had
already mobilized to operate CF-WZG and a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander. As new kid on the block, I would not miss explaining to civil servants that not all aircraft lift overloads or push into whiteout. The new fellow workers long ago became “airplane-educated” and respected their pilot’s decisions.
On September 24, 1998, I stood before the aircraft. Type check took place with field chief pilot Siegried Hippolyte but, unfortunately, my return to the highly specialized field occurred in driving rain and crosswinds gusting beyond the aircraft’s 17 KIAS maximum. The landing gear survived and, obviously, CFWZG and I would need time to become friends. With 254 U.S. gallons of fuel and a six-hour endurance, flight controls felt stiff. No autopilot could be used on an airframe modified by replacing ferromagnetic parts with stainless steel or aluminum to reduce their magnetic signature.
Neither Hippolyte or Kristiansen disparaged Queen Airs and logbooks showed no history of corroded cowlings, cracked wheels or wrinkled wings. At one point, an AME offered his confidential opinion. Perhaps ‘bushed’ and kept away from Canada’s Dairy Queens too long, he told me the aircraft was a “… nice airplane to crash in and was the airplane most likely to crash.” He added that six-cylinder Lycomings struck him as “fussy with a reputation for engine fires.”
His conclusive whisper that CF-WZG should never leave Canada struck me as strange since we stood upon solid ground 40 miles south of the English Channel.
All flights required a French national as copilot and so began a lengthy line of young low-time pilots slavering for multi-engine experience. Almost all promptly became incapacitated by what they called mal de mer; understandable since the task entailed maintaining 400 feet above terrain with as few lateral deviations as possible. Chaotic winds blasting across the coast roiled upwards and sometimes rocked our microworld hard enough that we felt like squirrels tossed into a cage of cats.
Data acquisition systems and sensors
with racks, equipment mounts and plastic-encased cables spread from the front end of the 12-foot, 11-inch interior to the other. Besides our seats, only one for an occasional equipment operator or AME remained. After start, we followed a reference checklist to activate switches and insert discs and tapes. Key punch followed key punch. At departure, power at 45 Hg and 3,400 rpm shimmered the sun-scorched grass at the runway end. Airspeed alive, gauges normal, we rotated at 95 KIAS and, in climb, consumed 310 pph.
The citizenry had already been informed that noisy airplanes would be tracking control and traverse lines above their quiet countryside. Local newspaper, Ouest-France, explained that les Canadiens would be surveying a gridded area on contract to France’s Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres (BRGM), which managed the nation’s surface and subsurface resources. Goals included detection of surface breaks where pollutants could research aquifers and the presence of radioactive substances. BRGM’s Catherine Truffert hinted that gold might exist, as well.
“Thanks to satellite positioning, we follow north-south lines 500 metres apart and today, 120 metres in height,” added Hippolyte. “We’re going to be able to detect fractures by which polluted surface waters could penetrate bedrock.”
After a test line near Rennes to confirm equipment accuracy, we targeted the project area. We had been told the company’s SGDrape system would reduce guesswork and improve safety by calculating climb and descent rates. In our case, windmills, powerlines and air traffic posed hazards, but Sander’s two-pilot crew philosophy enhanced situational awareness. For quality data, we avoided radio transmissions and kept cruise power settings constant at a soothing 33.1 Hg and 2,600 rpm above minimum 112 KIAS survey speed. Fuel burn averaged 225 pph.
Maintaining altitude demanded smooth control movements and each pilot alternated 30 minutes. As hours ac-
cumulated, the cockpit needed little more than slight glances and instrument lag accounted for extra caution. Sander did not send me on a tourist junket; I enjoyed watching curious agricultural workers as two Lycomings mounted on a Queen Air thundered over their heads.
Castles and manors contrasted with rust-coloured farmyards and occasional menhirs, i.e., Stonehenge-like vertical stone pillars, flashed white. Roads paralleled by column-like poplars reached toward the horizon while emerald vistas or dark freshly ploughed fields passed by for hours. Strange-shaped objects turned out to be 1,200-pound domestic pigs. White geese threatened us with flapping wings before panicking into high-speed runs toward sheltering coops or barns. Rennes residents later told us France exported a foul-tasting concoction created from goose liver called foie gras.
Hazardous turns into sunlight became necessary and fog banks sometimes forced us back to Rennes. Turbulence destroyed data and bank angles could not exceed 30 degrees. Intercepting lines became an art and heights lost or gained
768 Pages – 1,800 Photographs
Order your copy today at aviatorsbookshelf.ca (see page 51)
in turns needed correction before reaching reciprocal headings. Closing too fast toward parallel tracks and concentrating on a modified ILS instrument head strained eyes. Passing scheduled position reports caused distractions. Despite aromas associated with effluvium seeping from overfilled sick sacks, life aloft in France truly seemed grand.
Snapped back to the working world when sunlight reflected from the obsidian-black streams exiting the left engine, map-reading brought us to Morlaix, a former Luftwaffe Second World War base during the Battle of Britain. The loss appeared suspiciously like a departed oil cap and, no doubt, the new-kid-onthe-block would be suspect. I distinctly remembered tightening it during preflight inspection. When engines stopped, I asked the copilot to act as witness and, sure enough, it had not been overlooked during the rush to fly.
After Sander’s AMEs arrived, they found no cause for what could have caused engine failure. With tank replenished, we focused on returning to Rennes. After intense overnight dismantling and
reassembling, we reestablished on the block the following day and the problem never recurred. Although exonerated, trust in Queen Airs never returned and work continued.
The 22-week expedition ended with my logbook showing another 75 hours flying time. Geophysical survey, I learned, did not suit everyone, especially French copilots. The long duration missions and exacting line tolerances helped develop precision skills and off-duty days passed pleasantly exploring historic lands and caressing ancient structures along stonelined rural roadways.
Sander called again for assignments in arid Mauritania and mountainous Morocco where locusts, sandstorms and heat became threats. Eventually, similar organizations in Canada, Brazil, England, and the United States arranged introductions to bullet ants, monkey meat and mambas. As for CF-WZG, we never crossed paths again. Stories filtering into Ottawa claimed the long serving workhorse had migrated to Colombia on February 28, 2001.
And, yes, airsickness knocked me down, too.
Why aren’t my circuits rectangular?
THE ANSWER IS BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND
Many car drivers seem to have missed the lesson on rate of turn. You’ve seen it: drivers speeding straight ahead, then approaching a curve too fast, only to realize too late that they haven’t adjusted for the turn. This results in either desperate braking, excessive steering or simply letting the forces take over — often leading to an unplanned excursion in another lane or a trip off the road.
The rate of turn describes the number of degrees travelled within a given time and depends on two controllable elements: the forward speed — the force that keeps the object moving in a given direction — and the side force — the troublemaker that tries to change things. The resultant of these two forces is a tangent to the arc that the object will follow.
The two forces play tug of war. The forward force aims to keep the object going straight while the side force tries to bring the object towards the centre of the imaginary circle. To sum it up, the stronger the forward force is in relation to the side force, the shallower the tangent (i.e., mostly going straight) and the smaller the rate of turn, and vice versa.
For cars, turning the wheels creates the side force. For airborne planes, banking generates the side force. In both cars and airplanes, the forward force is directly related to speed. However, cars have only one speed and one type of rate of turn while planes have two speeds, true airspeed and ground speed, and thus two types of rate of turn for a given bank angle: air rate of turn (based on the aircraft’s true airspeed) and ground rate of turn (based on the aircraft’s ground speed). When the wind is calm, both rates of turn are equal. However, wind changes the equation. To adjust for wind, pilots need to control the air rate of turn to match the ground rate of turn. Increasing true airspeed or decreasing the bank angle will widen the area needed to complete a turn, while decreasing airspeed or increasing bank angle will tighten the
turn. This is essential for both safety and manoeuvrability.
All pilots experiment with air rate of turn extensively through their training, from practicing steep turns to witnessing the airplane turn on a dime using a fairly shallow bank angle when flying at minimum speed. Less obvious is that stall characteristics limit the banking range for a given speed, and ultimately the air rate of turn. That can come as a nasty surprise when a pilot finds him or herself having to turn within a tight physical spot like a canyon or a circuit with parallel approaches. When the wind is blowing, which as we all know is most of time, the challenge can become unwinnable.
The ground rate of turn depends on ground speed. When an airplane turns in relationship with the ground, the wind direction and thus the ground speed changes. A constant bank angle yields a changing ground rate of turn in windy conditions.
may cause the pilot to miss the turn. Like the unprepared driver, the first instinct is to slow down because of the visual high speed and to bank more sharply to compensate for missing the turn. That combination of slow speed and high bank angle can prove disastrous.
“All pilots experiment with air rate of turn extensively through their training, from practicing steep turns to witnessing the airplane turn on a dime using a fairly shallow bank angle when flying at minimum speed.”
In general, significant changes in airspeed during an approach to landing are not a good option. The proper way to handle the wind conditions described earlier is to initiate the turn to final earlier using a normal bank angle, continue the turn all the way to the appropriate crabbed position — that’s more than 90° of turn — and reduce the bank angle as needed as the ground speed decreases to maintain a constant ground rate of turn and avoid overshooting the crabbed position.
What’s more, it can be extremely difficult to predict and plan for wind effect in advance, especially in wind shears or gusty wind conditions. So what is a pilot to do? Control the air rate of turn to compensate for the changes in ground rate of turn.
For example, to compensate for a decreasing ground speed and thus a tightening ground rate of turn, the pilot should decrease the air rate of turn by decreasing the bank angle and/or increase the true airspeed to obtain a steady ground rate of turn. The reverse is also true.
One wind condition that has proven precarious over the years is a strong left crosswind at runways using left-hand circuits. The high ground speed on base
A tragic example of this happened in 2006 with the Cirrus SR20 crash involving baseball player Cory Lidle. The airplane was unable to complete a 180° turn within the available space, partly due to a 13-knot wind that reduced the manoeuvring space by 300 feet. To make the turn, the pilot would have needed a 50° bank angle but failed to apply it in time.
While pilot training often focuses on how to turn the airplane through the air, there’s less emphasis on how the ground rate of turn affects manoeuvres.
To improve your flying skills, take the time to think through various wind conditions and their effect on turns.
Driving a curvy mountain road and flying are both a lot fun. Understanding the principles of the ground rate of turn and related factors will ensure your safety in both the air and on the road.
Modern Avionics
DON’T JUST PUSH BUTTONS AND HOPE FOR THE BEST
Ihave been fortunate in my 40year flying career to witness the evolution of instrument flying from “steam gauges” to glass. The round dials started with the Canadair CT-114 Tutor as a student, then instructor, then onto the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and the de Havilland Canada CC-138 Twin Otter in the RCAF regular forces and reserves, and the Boeing 737-200 with Canadian Airlines. The glass experience with Air Canada includes the hybrid Boeing 767, then the pure glass of the Airbus A330/A340 and the Boeing 777 and 787 before I retired. Today, it is the Diamond DA62 with the Garmin G1000 NXi.
In many respects, instrument flying is easier today with the technology, but in others it is more difficult. Situational awareness is vastly improved with moving map displays as an example. But one thing I have noticed in both my glass flying career and now instructing IFR flying in the DA62 is what I call “Mode Management,” otherwise known as “What is it doing now!”
Everyone falls into the trap; pushing the buttons on the avionics without confirming that what you are getting is what you are asking for or what you expect. In the early stages of training, it is a case of just hoping to make the right selection as the wizardry is overwhelming; with experience it becomes a case of complacency where the box has always done things right…until it doesn’t.
A requirement of modern avionics is a means to display the navigation, flight director and autopilot mode and status. There are too many different avionics installations to review them all so I will use the Garmin G1000.
There is a tremendous amount of information shown on this display. All the information from the traditional six-pack is provided plus radio tuning, a moving map, terrain, transponder, etc.
The buttons and knobs along the left and right side are used to input data or commands. The upper level of the display shows the results of the pilot inputs.
Understanding the actions and reactions of making a button or knob selection and the results displayed is critical. For example, if one were to select the AP for the autopilot, what does the pilot expect to be displayed, insuring that the autopilot is indeed engaged? There are hundreds of possibilities, and it is
incumbent on the pilot to know them for a safe flight.
One of the simulator instructors during my Airbus time taught me a saying that I have shamelessly passed onto others: “The button you press is a rumour; what appears on the flight mode annunciator is fact.”
“The button you press is a rumour; what appears on the flight mode annunciator is fact.”
Today’s avionics provide an amazing capability to lighten pilot workload while improving situational awareness and safety. But this can only be achieved by pilots knowing and understanding their avionics and knowing what to expect when selections are made; simply pushing buttons and hoping for the best is not a prescription for safe flight.
FLYING IFR WITH ED M c DONALD
One part of the Garmin G1000 avionics suite.
Beetles and Bottles
AND KEEPING THE CANNONS AT BAY
Considering how big of a deal “stop, drop, and roll” was when I was younger, I really thought being on fire was going to be a more frequent occurrence in my life. I did consider that perhaps I’m just in the wrong industry until a random Tuesday morning when I looked up from my task at work to see my colleague — on fire! Not exactly something I expected at seven o’clock in the morning.
I’ll preface this by stating he was not injured, and no aircraft parts or equipment were damaged. He had been using a butane lighter to heat a metal pick to create screw holes in a seal. He swapped hands briefly and aimed the flame towards a glove that was, unbeknownst to him, covered in lighter fluid and therefore extremely flammable. He calmly removed the glove and then did not stop, drop, or roll; he just stood and stared. We all did, because at no point in my career did I ever expect to see someone holding a ball of fire while standing on the wing of an aircraft inside a hangar.
Finally, someone registered that what we were seeing was real and that, unlike we were all expecting, this guy was not reacting in any way, and so they hurried over to extinguish the flame.
After the excitement passed, I realized our hangar was (thankfully?) not equipped with infrared detectors that automatically set off foam/water cannons when a sudden heat source is detected. Many aircraft hangars are equipped with such a system, and I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing an accidental near-discharge once in my career.
Anyone who has been to British Columbia’s Lower Mainland in the summer is likely familiar with the June beetle, a harmless bug that is attracted, for some reason, to the fuselage of an
aircraft. Throughout the season we would end up with hundreds inside the hangar and they make a gross and oddly satisfying crunch if stepped on.
One night, after all the work had been wrapped up and the hangar was being cleaned, a group of apprentices found increasingly unique (and dare I say morbid) ways of killing the beetles.
It escalated to the point where someone doused one of the beetles in isopropyl alcohol and then lit it on fire. The bug burned up in a quick little flame that lasted only a second or two, but it was enough for the infrared system to detect danger. The fire alarm sounded and, although there wasn’t an actual audible countdown, it’s still something I can
"Fire bombs" embedded within an aircraft's fuselage.
hear in my head. The sight of the crew lead sprinting across the hangar floor to reach the emergency shutoff is something I’ll never forget. Thankfully his effort was a success, so the cannons did not erupt, but the fire department had already been automatically alerted, and the apprentices were given a stern talking-to, learning a valuable lesson about fire safety and detection systems.
“Fire bottles are removed for regular service and inspection, and I have spent my entire career handling those bottles like they are live bombs because they pretty much are.”
My favourite story involving the cannons (although isn’t actually mine for which I am equally thankful and a little sad about because, what a tale) took place on a cold winter night in a hangar very similar to ours. A group of AMEs were celebrating the holidays with a pot-luck dinner which they had been preparing for and looking forward to all week. They set out their spread with all the fixings, including dessert, loaded their plates hungrily, and sat to eat.
On the other side of the hangar a different group of mechanics were busy completing the task at hand before settling down when one small error was made. An auxiliary power unit was accidentally started inside the hangar, causing a sudden and drastic temperature change that the infrared detected immediately. Unfortunately, nobody reached the emergency shutoff in time and the cannons responded dutifully to extinguish the imaginary fire. Planes were damaged, toolboxes were flooded and, worst of all, the food and untouched dessert were destroyed.
However, my most memorable fire-related experience was during an engine ground run following a routine inspection of the plane. Following
the initial startup sequence, I began going through the checklist turning on different systems of the plane when I suddenly and quickly had smoke begin to pour out from behind the instrument panel. I realized that was the exact moment all my simulator training had prepared me for. I shut down the aircraft and, armed with a fire extinguisher I didn’t end up needing, evacuated the cockpit. The culprit turned out to be some shorted wires which the avionics crew fixed in a couple minutes, then I was back behind the controls for round two, this time no smoke involved.
Similar to hangars, commercial airplanes are also equipped with fire extinguishing systems known as fire bottles. These do not activate automatically. Instead, there is a switch or handle in the cockpit that is used in the event of an engine or cargo compartment fire. Fire bottles are removed for regular service and inspection, and I have spent my entire career handling those bottles like they are live bombs because they pretty much are. All AMEs knows someone, if not themselves, who have set off the bottle by accident during removal, install, or on the bench. (In fact, a good friend texted me just the other day saying he’d had that very misfortune.)
So, while an actual fire isn’t typically a day-to-day concern in aviation (aerial firefighting aside), there are different aspects we might not necessarily consider that are still fire related. When I decided to become an aircraft mechanic, I never would’ve guessed I’d have insurance on my toolbox in case of accidental flooding during a drought.
Aviation Miracles
MADE POSSIBLE BY MAINTAINING PILOTING SKILLS
Definitions of airmanship are in abundance, and its breadth can cover many bases. Transport Canada’s Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) has over 50 pages dedicated to the subject and to how it should best be applied to every aspect of flying. Similarly, the ubiquitous aeronautical ground school title, From the Ground Up, delves with great depth into the subject over an immersive 50-page span. But, distilled down to its essence and to the factors that bring out the best examples of it, airmanship comprises these foundational factors: good judgment, appropriate attitude, well-honed skills and proficiency. Combining these attributes into your piloting will leave you with little else to ask of yourself that could bring you anything more.
It so happens that the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which is the Lausanne, France-based international governing body that regulates the sport of flying and advances the science of aeronautics, has an award that recognizes outstanding feats of airmanship. Though not conferred every year, a read through the award’s past recipients and the reasons for which their exploits were acknowledged is to contemplate some breathtaking lifesaving escapes. What follows are some samples of those to whom this unique FAI accolade has been bestowed.
The award in 2010 went to an instructor and student for whom a training flight in a Cessna 172RG turned into every pilot’s worst possible nightmare: a fire in the cockpit. Their otherwise innocuous good flying weather over the U.S. state of Oklahoma turned into a grave life-or-death situation when a conflagration broke out behind the instrument panel of their aircraft. Their cockpit quickly filled with dense smoke, flames began licking their shoes
through the floorboards from behind their rudder pedals, then spread to the rug and seats. So strong were the flames that the instructor’s right foot caught fire, and his shoe began melting to his foot. The student kept control of the aircraft, deftly handling the emergency while also assisting his instructor with the fire that was engulfing his leg. With their cabin consumed by smoke, they guided their aircraft towards an emergency landing, narrowly threading it between powerlines, then ultimately through a fence to a field onto which they put it down. As the instructor and student swiftly egressed, the Cessna became engulfed in flames. It ended up as a pile of molten metal, ultimately leaving the shape of its silhouette as its tombstone in the field that became its final resting place.
The award in 1997 was a commercial flight that suffered a mechanical issue as it reached its destination in the U.K. after a long-haul flight from America. Flight deck indicators showed an incomplete extension of the left main undercarriage of the Airbus A340 being flown by a captain who happened to also be an aerobatic champion in his spare time.
His re-cycling of the malfunctioning unit failed to clear the problem, so a fly-by at the airport was initiated at 250 feet for officials to make a visual assessment of the situation. With confirmation that the problem was real, the captain attempted to release the faulty unit by applying a quick succession of positive and negative flight loads to the left wing. It didn’t solve the problem. Despite diminishing daylight, drizzle and an unhelpful crosswind, the captain skillfully maintained his approach altitude and speed precisely within the required operating parameters of the aircraft. With delicate control, he landed while holding the left undercarriage clear of the ground for as long as momentum made it possible to do so. As the speed bled off, weight on the faulty undercarriage settled, its tires burst, two of its wheels were torn off and a shower of sparks illuminated the aircraft’s track as it slewed to rest along the side of its arrival runway. All 114 occupants of the aircraft deplaned with barely a scratch.
In 2001, a US Navy Lockheed EP-3, flying at 22,000 feet, collided with a Chinese Air Force Shenyang J-8 over the South China Sea. The EP-3’s radome detached,
Air Canada 143, a Boeing 767, on the ground after running out of fuel and gliding to a stop in Gimli, Manitoba on July 23, 1983.
its outer-left propeller was damaged, airspeed and altitude data were lost, the cabin depressurized, and an antenna wrapped itself around the tail. Its left aileron, impacted by the collision, lodged into a fully upright position leaving the aircraft aggressively wanting to roll to the left. Inverted, banked and in a dive, the EP-3 lost 14,000 feet in under a minute before the pilot regained some control by modulating power on the remaining operational engines. At its fringes of controllability, he managed to guide the stricken aircraft towards an emergency landing site. The damage forced him to land at 200 mph, with no flaps, no trim, a broken left elevator, a disabled inner-right engine, an un-feathered outer-left propeller, no airspeed indication and no altimeter. Full right aileron was necessary for the approach
“Inverted, banked and in a dive, the EP-3 lost 14,000 feet in under a minute before the pilot regained some control by modulating power on the remaining operational engines.”
and touchdown. They landed safely, after which the pilot and his 24 crew walked off the aeroplane into the hands of Chinese Army interrogators who were likely astonished that they were alive.
There have been 30 recipients of the award since its inception in 1985. Its first recipients were the pilots of the infamous Air Canada Gimli Glider.
Notably, the crew of Aloha Airlines Flight 243 were honoured with the award in 1988, as was the cockpit crew of the Miracle-on-the-Hudson in 2008. These aviators were recognized for their outstanding qualities of airmanship exhibited under the duress of exceptional circumstances. But the reality is that good airmanship abounds. Practice, experience, proficiency and professionalism make it so with every flight that routinely lands uneventfully every day of the year.
What sets the FAI examples apart are the emergencies that raised the bar on their crew. An embedded lesson from their tales may well be that by keeping your airmanship skills honed and sharp, nerves of steel to handle any emergency will naturally bring forth the remarkable best that you could ever offer.
A PILOT’S LIFE
Soloing Across the Pacific
WITH SOME SECRETIVE STOPS ALONG THE WAY ( Part 1 of 3)
Few Canadians are aware of the political intrigue that played out on the central British Columbia coast in the period between the 1930s and just prior to the coming of the Second World War, when Russia made two supposedly non-stop flights from Moscow to the west coast of United States, landing near Portland, Oregon. In 1983, my employment as a corporate pilot came to an end and I was subsequently offered the position of chief pilot and operations manager for a First Nations airline at Bella Bella, on the central B.C. coast. At first, I questioned my sanity at taking the job with Waglisla Air, but soon I came to love the area and in my spare time enjoyed tracing down its long aviation history that had started in 1920.
Inquiries led me to a meeting with an elderly man who, in his youth, had witnessed the landing of an aircraft at Bella Bella on the very first flight up the B.C. coast in 1922. Archie Miller became a fisherman when he was a teenager and, in 1940, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a Marine Captain on RCAF coastal supply vessels. When I met with Miller in 1992, he advised me that, during the war, he was ordered to take men and equipment to nearby Goose Island, which is 25 miles southwest of Bella Bella, and survey the possibility of constructing a runway on the island’s extensive tidal flats. Where the idea had originated was not divulged to Miller.
commercial pilot and previously had been an RCMP Marine Officer stationed at nearby Ocean Falls. He made inquiries on my behalf to the Heiltsuk Nation Cultural Education Centre, as well as with members of the Hall family whose ancestral lands included the Goose Island group. This inquiry divulged that there was a memory of large aircraft landings at Goose Island during the 1936 and 1937 period. He subsequently took his boat to the island on my behalf and assessed the potential for an
Canada, I made an official inquiry to the U.S. State Department and the Canadian Public Archives. I was advised that the American agency had a considerable file on the matter relating to both the landing of the 1936 aircraft as well as two more Russian aircraft landings in 1937. It also stated that the files had just been declassified after 60 years of secrecy. I immediately ordered the files which contained over 1,000 pages. I also ordered all the relevant information held by the Canadian public archives as well as correspondence between American authorities and the Russian embassy during the period of interest.
Subsequently, I consulted with a good friend and resident of the Indigenous community at Bella Bella who was a
aircraft landing on the Goose Island lagoon during low tide and, in his judgment, this would be possible.
While researching other aviation matters in Seattle, I became aware of the August 8, 1936 flight of a Russian Vultee aircraft flown by the “Hero of the Soviet Union,” Sigismund Levanevsky, and that it had made an unreported landing at Goose Island near Bella Bella, B.C. after making its departure from the U.S. Naval Air Station at Sand Point on Lake Washington near Seattle on a planned flight to Alaska and back to the Soviet Union.
Believing that records of the event could exist in both the United States and
The two aircraft in 1937 were Russian ones on a record-setting flight from Russia to the United States. The first aircraft landed at the United States Army Air Corps Pearson Field at Vancouver, Washington. The newspaper files of the Oregonian in Portland and the Seattle Times in Washington revealed much information and many photographs, as did the Oregon Historical Society and the Pearson Air Museum and its archives.
At the time of these landings, General Marshall was the commanding officer at Pearson Field, and he also had the command of 35 camps of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) which included Oregon, Washington and southern Alaska.
A study of the biographies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), General George C. Marshall, William Lyon Mackenzie King and Clarence Decatur (CD) Howe
The painting Red Star Over Canada, by the late Don Connolly, of the Russian ANT-25 flying over British Columbia, was commissioned by Chris Weicht for his book by the same name.
also revealed much information relevant to the story.
My chance meeting with a retired BC Forest Service patrol boat captain in 2006 confirmed the essence of my story, and the desire of the Canadian government to destroy any evidence of the incident confirmed my research.
Sigismund Levanevsky had joined the Red Guard in his teens and fought during the Russian Civil War, after which he learned to fly and became a flight instructor. At age 31 he received advanced training and was assigned to the Northern Sea Route Administration. The NSR was ordered by Stalin to begin a survey of the North East Passage, and its leader Otto Schmidt soon realized that to successfully accomplish the task he would have to use aircraft.
Andrei Tupolev, the foremost Soviet aircraft designer, was selected by Stalin to develop an aircraft suitable to the NSR requirements, but Tupolev found a much quicker way to get the desired aircraft than by starting from scratch.
The French Dewoitine company produced the D.33 Trait d’Union aircraft and, on July 12, 1931, decided to make a long-distance flight from Paris to Tokyo. However, when near Irkutsk, Siberia its engine failed, but it was able to land with only minor damage. The Soviets kept the aircraft. Two months later another D.33 attempted the same flight, but again crashed, this time in the Ural Mountains, and the aircraft was given to Tupolev who reconstructed and modified both aircraft. However, during the reconstruction, the fuel capacity had been reduced so that the aircraft’s range was now only 1,900 miles. The final product was now known as the Tupolev ANT-25.
The Kremlin felt a strong need to impress the world with its flight capabilities, especially the Germans and Japanese, whose sabre-rattling was becoming an increasing concern. In 1935 a decision was made to attempt a nonstop flight from Moscow to the western U.S. However, the only aircraft available was the ANT-25, whose range was only 1,900 miles, a lot less than required for the proposed 5,674-mile flight.
To be continued.
ATC VIEWPOINT WITH MICHAEL OXNER
ATC Instructions
KNOWING WHEN TO SAY NO
Have you ever been issued an instruction by a controller that you didn’t want to accept?
I’ve seen this topic in forums and had the question asked of me personally through some of the site visits that I’ve done with some flying groups fairly frequently. I can see how it becomes a concern.
In my early days of flying, I was overly timid. It was tough enough for me, learning to fly, just to control the plane and trying to “do things right”. I trained at an airport that had a control tower, but it was often very quiet with little traffic. Most of my interactions with controllers were pretty limited, mostly because of the lack of opportunities to practice such interactions.
Later in my flying, but still early on, I went to other airports that were busier. I lacked some knowledge and this left stress in my mind, as well as a misunderstanding of what was being asked of me. This led to me being a difficult pilot for controllers to handle. Fast forward 30 years and, as a controller, I see pilots like I was all the time. Perhaps they’re as unprepared as I was?
It’s something that controllers know to expect. We hear the tones in the pilots’ voices as they speak, and one of the first things we do is try to evaluate the pilot to decide what we might be able to expect them to do to make our traffic situation work.
A confident pilot tends to know what controllers expect and offers direct information and requests. This comes from experience, something that can only be learned with time in the cockpit. A pilot lacking confidence tends to speak too much or too little, and this gives controllers the idea that we may have to be a little less aggressive with plans and instructions. We don’t always get this assessment right, and that leads us to the point of this article.
Controllers issue instructions and
clearances to pilots, IFR and VFR alike. Sometimes those instructions cannot be acted upon properly by pilots, and this could be due to a variety of circumstances.
Examples include vectors into weather that a pilot doesn’t want to – or can’t – fly into, an immediate takeoff clearance, a land-and-hold-short operation that feels uncomfortable, or whatever. That list goes on. So, what does a pilot do when in receipt of such an instruction? Don’t controllers have authority over pilots?
The answer to the second question is, “Sort of.” I believe that most pilots have been taught early on that they are ultimately responsible for the safe operation of their aircraft. So deep down, they know that controller instructions can be refused. It’s in the AIM, it’s talked about in flight instruction. The information is out there.
So why might a pilot not refuse a clearance or instruction that should be refused? Not wanting to challenge a controller, not wanting to “mess up the sequence,” or who knows?
Controllers are very safety minded. Their whole job is geared toward flight safety. As inconvenient as it may be for a pilot to refuse a clearance or instruction, we understand that it may have to happen. We’re trained to always have Plan B in mind, and Plan C being conceived.
Pilots who are the subject of clearances or instructions they don’t want to follow must have a good reason to refuse a clearance. And that reason should be communicated to controllers. They need to know when pilots can’t follow instructions since that reason might apply to other aircraft, as well. For example, a pilot refusing a vector due to weather often means that others can’t accept a heading into that same area.
So how does a pilot refuse a clearance or instruction? The best answer is, “Quickly.” If a pilot simply acknowledg-
es a clearance or instruction, the controller takes that as acceptance and believes the pilot will comply with it. If complying with an instruction is dangerous, or if the pilot is simply not ready to accept it, such as a clearance for an immediate takeoff, the pilot should refuse and advise the controller of the reason as soon as possible. This gives the controller a chance to make another plan. The question becomes, “What do I say when I want to refuse a clearance or instruction?” The answer can be as simple as the word, “Unable.” Obviously, radiotelephony demands just a little more than that. If a controller says, “Line up and wait, be ready for an immediate takeoff,” and the pilot isn’t ready for that immediate takeoff clearance, it can be refused simply by saying, “Tower, Alpha Bravo Charlie unable immediate.”
Having a pre-takeoff checklist to complete, finding an issue with the aircraft that the pilot must resolve prior to taking position, or just feeling mentally unready to make such a prompt manoeuvre are all valid reasons to refuse an immediate takeoff clearance. Similarly, if a controller instructs a VFR pilot to fly a specific heading but that heading will put the aircraft into cloud, the pilot can refuse the instruction, stating, “Alpha Bravo Charlie unable that heading. It will take us into cloud.” Once advised, the controller will move on to a new plan. Instructing the pilot to hold short (to which a readback is expected), or issue alternative instructions that the pilot will be able to follow.
It’s important for a pilot to follow instructions issued by ATC, but only insofar as the instructions don’t go against flight safety. If they do contradict flight safety as the pilot sees it, those instructions can, and must, be refused. The earlier the better, so that ATC may formulate and enact a new plan for the traffic flow. The reason for the refusal must be valid. Refusing a clearance simply because it’s inconvenient is not an acceptable reason. Flight safety is paramount, both from the pilot’s perspective and the perspective of the controllers involved. Speak up, if necessary, so that everyone gets to where they’re going safely.
WHIRLYBIRD WRITINGS
NORTHERN ADVENTURES WITH MICHAEL BELLAMY
From Fixed Wing to Rotary
THAT’S WHEN THE ADVENTURES
There was a time not so long ago when Neil Hart of the Transwest helicopter school in Delta, British Columbia scanned curiously through my fixed wing logbook with ratings and endorsements tallying almost 3,500 hours. “Well,” he said, “I’m going to have fun with you. Why on Earth would you want to learn to fly rotary?”
“My most cherished memories and satisfaction came from flying the bush,” I began, “But now with bigger aircraft adhering to schedules and mandatory procedures, the intimacy is disappearing. After watching how helicopter pilots and their machines work together, I think that’s where I belong.”
After 4.2 hours I’m solo on a Bell 47G2 ‘ISE’ commencing a way of life that for the next 34 years gave me the career I had dreamt of as a child. Back home in Whitehorse I was met by René Leduc and his chief pilot Brian Robertson of Yukon Airways. They had just been awarded a contract with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). A quick checkout in a Hiller UH-12E to gain a little mountain time and I was on my way to Edmonton to pick up a
REALLY BEGAN
Hughes 500C (C-FDNE). The briefing, which was conducted by the salesman, consisted mainly of start procedures and limits for the turbine engine. An hour later, with René on board for the first leg, we were on our way back to Whitehorse.
Two days later, with 65 hours on rotary and nine hours on type, I flew to the GSC camp, starting the contract on June 9, 1979.
The contract was to fly university geology students under the guidance of Dr. Dirk Tempelman-Kluit to isolated areas, which they would traverse collecting geologic samples. It was on such a mission, on July 3, that I experienced my first actual engine failure. I had just picked up two passengers and was flying a few miles to pick up two more. Midway, there was a tremendous bang and the engine was gone. Collective down, stick forward, I made for an old burn where the trees were still immature. A flare brought DNE to a hover and we settled onto the ground, surrounded by twometre-high brush. As the blades coasted to a stop, one of my passengers raised his voice and asked why I had landed
Author Michael Bellamy with his Hughes 500.
there, and what was that banging noise.
A call on 126.7 MHz to an overflying fixed-wing airplane and soon a helicopter was dispatched to return us to our camp. A teardown inspection by the engineer (Ralph Buck) revealed that a stator blade in the compressor let go due to corrosion which in turn caused heavy damage to the power turbine. The bang was an explosion of flame reversing out the mouth of the compressor.
Five days later, with a rented engine, we were back on the job flying surveys in the Kluane National Park mapping granite outcrops. Using aerial survey photographs from the 50s, we surveyed countless exposed ridges. The little Hughes, which had no supplemental oxygen, was tasked with climbing at times to 16,500 feet, where our top speed due to retreating blade stall topped at 40 knots. Landings for lunch and fuel stops at 11,000 feet required a run-on. It was exhausting flying; long days with the machine teetering on the edge of control. One morning I woke up to discover that I was still wearing my flight suit.
Three weeks later, on July 25, while working out of Dezadeash Lodge in the Kluane, my second engine failure occurred, shortly after takeoff. Staggering towards a shallow hollow in the poplar canopy, I pulled collective and, amid a shower of leaves, discovered I had landed in a small horse corral hidden by the trees. I had no passengers this time, but there was a horse as witness. Upon inspection, I found that the micron filter in the fuel control unit (FCU) was completely plugged. Instead of being fresh fuel, the supplier had pulled the seals from old fuel and replaced them with a current date, re-sealing the barrels. The WIX filters on my pump didn’t stop the contaminates, but the micron filter in the FCU did. A few days later, with fresh fuel and clean filters, I was back on the job.
Later that month, returning to the lowlands north of Whitehorse, I had a
particularly heavy load of passengers and fuel. Using the shoreline of a small lake to gain translational lift, I was about to turn on course when the engine surged and quit. I managed to put it down on sloping ground near water’s edge. Another machine brought out my engineer and took my passengers back to camp.
Not able to determine why the turbine had quit, I decided to try a restart. Neither the engineer nor I was able to determine why it had failed; all appeared normal. After conducting a power assurance check, we decided to fly it to Whitehorse, the home base being only 40 miles away. Once over the airport and at low airspeed, I demonstrated to the engineer the scenario I had used when loaded. Pulling in maximum torque, the EGT, temperatures and pressures were all normal. I was about to lower the collective when the engine again surged and quit. I immediately reduced power and, this time, the auto-relight started the engine again. I cautiously descended towards our hangar and landed.
The engineer was suspicious of the FCU, so he concentrated on that while I stayed out of his way by removing the flooring in the back seat, exposing the fuel tank. Luckily there was our problem. The arm on the fuel valve was only at half open. The fuel selector on the instrument panel indicated ON however a kink in the Bowden cable didn’t allow the valve to open fully. The FCU couldn’t get the amount of fuel it needed. Adding another anchor to the cable solved the problem and a call to Hughes was made to advise them of the issue, who then issued an alert to other operators. The contract finished on the August 29, 1979, with 224.7 hours flown.
The summer in 1979 was memorable, not because of the challenges, but rather all of those memorable people who I continued to work with over the years, and the many adventures that were to follow. But that’s another story.
Float Flying in Winter
ROUTINE ON THE WEST COAST, NOT SO IN QUEBEC
It may seem a little strange to be writing about float flying in the snow as we are heading into the summer flying season. But as I write this, it is February on the West Coast and we have just had a taste of winter; some of the aviation social media pages are filled with photos of seaplanes, at the dock, covered in snow. It brings back old memories. Unlike the rest of Canada, British Columbia’s coastal waters, from Victoria to the Alaskan Panhandle, provide conditions that are suitable for year-round seaplane operations. However, even in these temperate ocean conditions there are those mornings that require hours of removing frost, or sometimes even snow, before the day’s activities can start. Slippery wings, docks and float decks provide for hazardous slip-and-fall conditions while preparing aircraft for flight.
full load of passengers and freight. It seemed like only a short distance to go as I entered a snowstorm and, as an indestructible young mid-twenties pilot, I foolishly decided to press on home. The airframe quickly iced up and, what was worse, so did the unheated propeller. When the ice started to shed unevenly from the propeller, the engine started to shake violently. I thought it was going to pull out of its engine
A DOT Beaver showed up at a most inauspicious time!
tailfeathers of the airplanes. It was cold, wet, hard work in the dark, and not for the fainthearted.
Flying floatplanes, in even lightly falling snow, not only provides a challenge to remain in VFR visual conditions, but also adds the possibility of picking up ice, not only on the airframe and propeller, but also the added appendages of pontoons and their struts. I remember a particular flight in a single Otter back in the early 1970s in the interior of the Northern Quebec/Labrador region. I was returning to our seaplane base with a
mounts. I landed safely at our base as a much wiser young lad knowing that “Well, I won’t do that again!”
In that same Ungava region, I remember a heavy snowfall in the late 1960s that grounded us for several days. In this high wind area, we would keep our airplanes tethered to buoys overnight for safekeeping. However, when we were struck by heavy wet falling snow, there was a danger of the aircraft sinking at the buoys. I remember a couple of nights being out in a large freighter canoe, sweeping off the
Another trip I remember was in the fall of 1968, just before freeze-up. I was tasked with picking up a couple of prospectors who had a camp located about 200 miles (320 kilometres) north of Ottawa in western Quebec. I departed the Ottawa River from our Rockcliffe seaplane base in a float-equipped de Havilland Beaver. The weather at the surface was just above freezing so I made sure that just after takeoff I kept moving the rudder to kick off the water on the exposed water rudder cables so they wouldn’t freeze to their pulleys. All went well until I was about 120 miles (190 kilometres) north, and I started to run into low visibility in wet snow. I decided to divert to Le Domaine, a nearby Quebec government resort. This was a good site to spend the night as it had a sandy beach, a good restaurant and warm motel room. I healed the Beaver up on the beach and tied her down for the night. The heavy wet snow continued all night until the cold front went through. The next morning brought clear skies and belowfreezing temperatures. My Beaver looked dreadful; it was coated with ice and frozen wet snow that was crusted onto the airframe. After a hot breakfast I went down to the beach with a
COLE COLLECTION
borrowed broom, a bucket and a rope. For the next several hours I stood on the wings and sloshed lake water that was still just above freezing on to the airplane to remove the mess that prevented me from taking off. When I was finished, I was cold, wet, tired and more than just a little frustrated. I had to get this show on the road. If I didn’t get those prospectors out that day, I ran the risk of having their small lake freeze and then it would be much later, when the lake had enough ice to permit a ski landing, before we could get them out.
I was just about ready to go. The wings and tailfeathers were all cleared off. However, there were a few icicles hanging from beneath the fuselage and float struts. I was satisfied the aircraft was sufficiently cleared off to fly and I wanted to get on with my pickup and return my passengers to Ottawa.
Just as I was about to depart, I heard the sound of another Beaver making an approach to land. Oh no! It was the red and white DOT
(now Transport Canada) amphibious Beaver. This airplane was based in their nice warm hangar in Ottawa and, from time to time, the DOT pilots would fly up to this resort to get a nice meal and obtain their monthly flying time for their flight pay. I had been based here earlier this summer, and their visits resulted in me being on the receiving end of more ramp checks than almost any other pilot in existence. I guess it gave them a purpose for the great meals.
“Obtaining a paperclip from the aircraft’s flight bag, I proceeded to clear the static vent of ice.”
This was not the time for this, boys! Well, they didn’t do a ramp check but did make the comment: “Hmm, you seem to be carrying quite a bit of ice there, son.” After having spent several hours of hard work and being cold and wet, I can’t remember exactly what I said but I think the expletives rather shocked these icons of officialdom with my irreverence for their exalted positions.
After leaving the DOT pilots behind and proceeding with my takeoff, I was up on the step and going at a great clip when I discovered the airspeed indicator wasn’t working, so I throttled back, settled back into the water, and shut the engine off. Obtaining a paperclip from the aircraft’s flight bag, I proceeded to clear the static vent of ice. Now with a serviceable airspeed indicator, I carried on with my takeoff. I could almost hear the comments and laughter from those DOT guys standing on the shore.
The prospectors were sure glad to see me as they had visions of being trapped at their camp over freeze-up. So, to all my float-flying compatriots, I wish you a great summer of flying adventures. But as next fall brings on early morning frost and even a little snow, please remember that I wish you “Tight floats and tailwinds.”
WORDS ABOUT A BOOK
A REVIEW BY RENÉ R. GADACZ
A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics, and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream
BY MARC GARNEAU
This is Marc Garneau’s unabashed, personal, candid and often humorous account of his life and career. Garneau chronicles his journey from his earliest days as a mischievous teenager getting into trouble with the law, to being a rule-bucking naval midshipman (he joined the Royal Canadian Navy [RCN] at age 16) that almost got him kicked out of the service, to his historic space missions and subsequent political career. Readers with an interest in Canadian history, Canada’s space program and even politics will enjoy his honest, fair and nuanced critique of events and people. His memoir has been praised by Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) Roméo Dallaire, Peter Mansbridge and others as inspirational and gracious in its telling.
Applying on a whim after seeing a newspaper ad in 1983, 34-year-old Garneau was selected – to his disbelief – to be one of Canada’s first six astronauts (out of 4,000 applicants) by the newly stablished Canadian Astronaut Program (CAP). While still an officer in the RCN, he trained at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in robotics and space operations. Then, in the nine days between October 5 and October 13, 1984, Garneau made history. Blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-41-G) and reaching a speed of 28,000 km/ hour, he became the first Canadian to fly to outer space. His job was that of payload specialist, where he operated the Shuttle Imaging Radar-B and did experiments for a Canadian technology
demonstration program (CANEX-1). His achievement inspired a nation and ushered in a new era of space exploration for Canada. He left the Navy in 1989 to become deputy director of the CAP, the same organization that recruited him only six years earlier.
Garneau’s hard work and expertise drew attention. In 1994 he was selected to be NASA’s Mission Control’s ‘Capcom’ (capsule communicator), again, a Canadian ‘first’ and the first non-American in that role. Capcoms were the ‘voice’ of Mission Control when communicating with those piloting and flying the Space Shuttles. Garneau
was Capcom for 17 missions, including the 1994 Columbia (STS-65) flight. Only astronauts can become Capcoms.
In the years that followed his historic first voyage to space, Garneau returned to space two more times, becoming the first Canadian to log three trips into orbit. As with his first flight, he shares all the details of his 1996 Endeavour (STS-77) and 2000 Endeavour (STS-97) missions where again, as mission specialist, he performed advanced material science and biotechnology studies on board, helped install the first set of solar panels in the International Space Station (ISS), used the Canadarm to install parts of the ISS power system and even supported space walks (extravehicular activities) for assembling the ISS. All in all, Garneau logged over 677 hours in space. One year after his last Shuttle mission, he became vice-president, then later president, of the Canadian Space Agency, leading it through some of its most dynamic years with him at the helm from 2001 to 2006. His contributions to space exploration, which he describes, helped bolster Canada’s role in international space missions. His expertise in science and technology likewise shaped space policy and public service in Canada.
Perhaps not surprisingly given his administrative experience, Garneau made history again by becoming the first astronaut to be elected as a Member of Parliament in 2008. Seemingly a natural transition, Garneau describes how agonizing his initial decision actually was in terms of the impact on his family and his influence in Canada’s role in
space exploration. Surviving a series of federal elections, by-elections and cabinet shuffles, Garneau served two cabinet posts as Minister of Transport (2015-2021) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2021-2023) during some of the major events of the past decade: the COVID-19 pandemic, the arbitrary detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by China, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the death of 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents aboard Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752, shot down by Iran. It was in the capacity of Minister of Transport, however, that Garneau had a hand in shaping airline policy and aircraft safety. He introduced a passenger bill of rights, initiated legislation dealing with air safety, air regulations and working with Nav Canada in how investigations into air disasters should be conducted (e.g., the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 after the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302). Readers should not be deterred from delving into the nine chapters of Garneau’s political career; they are just as engaging as his account of his military and astronaut years. After 14 years in government Garneau decided to retire from politics in 2023. His memoir describes the highs and lows of his life and career, including the awe he experienced first seeing the earth from space, the tragic loss of his first wife to mental illness and suicide and witnessing the 1986 tragedy of the shuttle STS-51L Challenger. Distinguished in three fields (naval officer, astronaut and parliamentarian), Marc Garneau is described as “a role model for our time” by Sean O’Keefe, NASA Administrator, “one of our best” by the former cabinet minister John Manley and as a national hero by Peter Mansbridge. Garneau lives in Montreal with his wife and four children.
A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics, and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream
By Mark Garneau
Signal/McClelland & Stewart, 2024, 319 pp. Available from The Aviator’s Bookshelf (aviatorsbookshelf.ca)
Obtaining My Flight Instructor Rating
AFTER 24,000 HOURS, RELEARNING TO TEACH THE BASICS
To one side of me stood a most amicable young man in his early 20s. Tall, handsome, sincere… a genuinely nice kid. On the other was a 40-something mother of three (who, to me at least, looked closer to 30). This absolutely delightful woman seemed to be powered by weapons-grade plutonium, earning her Commercial Pilot Licence while somehow keeping all the balls in the air at home. Add to that, the two seemed to know more than newly minted commercial pilots should really be expected to know.
In direct contrast, I came to the party with a markedly different background. My six logbooks chronicled a lifetime spent in the air, nearly 24,000 hours when I last checked (compared to their just over 200 hours each). Not to forget a career of checking and instructing assignments in the RCAF and at Air Canada. It was all looking good for this
former Boeing 787 captain to take a decisive lead where flight training was concerned.
But despite all this going in my favour, what my two fellow students ultimately had going for them is best described as freshness. They’d just come off commercial pilot courses flying the Diamond DA20, the very airplane we were now taking our Flight Instructor ratings in. And that made all the difference.
Their ease of transitioning into the instructor role reminded me of how I’d once felt after graduating from the RCAF Wings course on the Canadair CT-114 Tutor, then being sent down the road to Portage la Prairie to become an instructor on the very type of jet I’d just flown for 200 hours. In the end, it was their unbeatable combination of recency and proficiency, combined with youthful talent, that made their 200 hours
trump my 24,000. A triple threat like that is hard to beat, and it ultimately gave them what every former military pilot craves, that being the unfair advantage!
Truth be told, what I’d really hoped to bring to the Flight Instructor course was simply experience. The DA20 was, in a practical sense at least, the only airplane they’d ever flown. For me, it was type number 54 (58 if you count time logged in military Bell Jet Ranger helicopters, plus three different types of hot air balloons). That sort of background counts for something. The downside of all that experience is that it takes you a long way downwind from where it all began, namely the private pilot syllabus we were now all attempting to re-learn and hopefully teach.
Some of you might be thinking, “Why in the world is a retired airline captain training for what is ostensibly
DIAMOND CANADA
A Diamond DA20-C1, similar to what the author trained in.
an entry level job in the industry?” Truth is, I was never so proficient a stick and rudder guy as when I was an instructor at CFB Moose Jaw, and I secretly hoped the FI course would refresh some of those basic flying skills. Second, and most importantly, it had been decades since I’d learned something completely new in an airplane, and the skills to be gained from flying and instructing in the mighty DA20 seemed like a good path to my objective.
For those of you a few years out of the Private Pilot syllabus, please know there is a lot more content in the current program than many of us recall there being in the 1970s version. For example, the ground briefings, known as PGIs, now contain a wealth of information that is truly meaningful. In direct contrast were the briefings I do remember from my own PPL course, often no more than truncated chats delivered in the Edmonton Flying Club cafeteria, over a cup of coffee with accompanying illustrations on a paper napkin! Times have indeed changed, and it’s apparent why the private licence has grown from the 45-hour average in my time to 60, and sometimes as much as 70 hours not uncommon today.
Becoming proficient in upper air work also required serious work on my part. As a Tutor instructor in the RCAF, I’d developed good skills at juggling chainsaws, dispensing “Good points, bad points and ways to improve,” while wearing an oxygen mask and strapped to an ejection seat, while often inverted. Now, almost 40 years later, it was back to Aviation 101. Once again, I was teaching basic attitude flying, stalls and spins, plus forced approaches in an airplane boasting a 11:1 glide ratio, but regrettably lacking the bang seat I’d so come to love in the CT-114.
Some of the new-to-me required manoeuvres struck me as puzzling, like the so-called Power-off 180. This bizarre exercise is a requirement for all wannabe commercial pilots, and claims not to be an engine failure manoeuvre, but is flown very much like one. Practicing this senseless exercise in the
circuit must drive controllers nuts, and I question the wisdom of doing the manoeuvre at uncontrolled airports, where many pilots simply have no idea just what a “Power-off 180” entails.
Besides being a flight down memory lane for me, I enjoyed a reboot of certain skills, some being taught with an interesting twist. My teacher for the rating, himself the required Class 1 Instructor, was also a graduate of the Mount Royal University Aviation program. During one hop “K”, as I’ll call him, insisted we hold the airplane in a full stall for literally a thousand feet. The hundred-storey drop of doom in the DA20 was itself a lesson of the importance of rudders to maintain level wings, with a hidden benefit of letting the picture of the attitude and recovery burn into my synapses.
Less than a week later I was the candidate for one of the many checkrides required of Air Canada instructors on the Boeing 787. After training was completed, I asked if I could replicate the manoeuvre I’d experienced a few days earlier in a DA20. Holding the 787 sim in a deep stall, the jet bucked and shook like a saddle bronc at the Calgary Stampede. That is, until I released the reins and decreased the angle of attack. Know that the skills necessary to recover a Boeing 787 from a deep stall differ very little from those required if you happen to be flying a DA20.
On the day of my flight test I’ll admit to being uncertain as to how it would go. A very talented young person before me had been required to do it again, and for me at least an undesired effect of those 24,000 hours is really knowing just how much you don’t know. In the end, my examiner was very gracious, asking me questions I somehow muddled through acceptably, with her playing a newbie student far more effectively than I was at pretending to be a knowledgeable instructor. As a result of my previous time as a military flight instructor, I was granted a Class 3 rating, skipping the usual entry level of Class 4. The circle is now complete, taking me right back to where it all began.
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New Era for Flight Training THE LATEST INNOVATION IN
SUSTAINABLE AVIATION
BY MIKE ANDREWS
Slovenia-based Pipistrel Aircraft has sparked a movement in the use of battery-electric aircraft for flight training with their Velis Electro, the world’s first type-certified (EASA) fully electric airplane that, for the last four and a half years, has been taking to the skies in more than 30 countries.
The first Velis Electro in Canada took its maiden flight on June 3, 2023, at the Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre (WWFC) in Southern Ontario. Together with their partners at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA), they have been focussed on conducting extensive research, sharing their studies on WISA’s website. Since this milestone, Canada has welcomed two additional Velis Electros — another to the partnership in Waterloo, and one to Sealand Flight of Campbell River, British Columbia.
In collaboration with Transport Canada (TC), these two Flight Training Units (FTUs) are pioneering Canadian implementation of commercial electric aircraft. Although both organizations are approved to fly the Electro under their respective operating certificates, Sealand Flight has emerged as Canada’s first commercial operator of an electric aircraft for primary flight training and sightseeing.
In November 2022, TC issued a groundbreaking nationwide call for participation in a flight training trial program assessing the use of Light Sport Aircraft that met European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) CS-LSA standards.
“Transport Canada is working with a limited number of flight schools as the department moves towards the goal of a green and innovative transportation system,” said Ryan Johnson, TC’s Chief of Pilot Training and Licensing at the time. “The project is currently evaluating electrically powered aircraft and how they compare to more conventional training aircraft in terms of noise, emissions and effectiveness. Johnson continued, “The long-term vision is to facilitate the operation of zero-emission electric or hybrid aircraft with sufficient endurance to enable teaching all the training exercises including navigation. [TC] is pleased with the progress to date and is looking forward to seeing the trials continue.”
TC selected six FTUs to participate, assessing applicants based on their safety culture, ability to plan and manage trials, data collection, reporting capabilities, research partnerships, and potential to operationalize EASA CS-LSA aircraft. As mentioned, two FTUs have purchased and are operating the aircraft so far.
Given the initiative’s novelty, Sealand Flight’s Velis Electro (C-FPIP) arrived in February 2024, well ahead of the necessary approvals for commercial operations. In March, Sealand hosted a Pipistrel factory-sponsored maintenance course, led by the manufacturer’s engineers. The event brought together regional TC representatives, Canadian Pipistrel distributor Apex Aircraft and maintenance personnel from across Canada. This was a critical opportunity for all involved to understand the airplane inside and out, and progress towards the issuance of FPIP’s flight authority. By the end of April, Sealand received a Special Certificate of
“THE LONG-TERM VISION IS TO FACILITATE THE OPERATION OF ZEROEMISSION ELECTRIC OR HYBRID AIRCRAFT WITH SUFFICIENT ENDURANCE TO ENABLE TEACHING ALL THE TRAINING EXERCISES INCLUDING NAVIGATION.”
Airworthiness - Limited, permitting the company to fly the airplane for non-commercial use.
At this point, one regulatory hurdle remained: CAR 406.32(a), which requires FTU aircraft to hold a standard Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A). Although the Velis Electro holds an EASA type certificate, TC has yet to certify it for a Canadian standard C of A. Since this was the intended purpose of the trial program, TC granted Sealand an exemption to this regulation, allowing commercial FTU operations.
On June 14, 2024, with all approvals in place, Sealand Flight conducted Canada’s first commercial electric flight. With a local flight student on board, this milestone marked the beginning of a new era for Canadian flight training.
Transport Canada oversees the trial program, mandating how Sealand integrates and operates the airplane. At the current stage, Sealand is training ab initio students up to and including their first solo flight. Students are then transitioned into traditional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) airplanes. Sealand also offers “Electric Aircraft Differences Training” for licensed pilots. The company also provides public sightseeing experiences for hire. With every flight, Sealand is collecting data and feedback to help compare this sustainable alternative to traditional flight training.
Flying the Velis Electro is almost exactly what a pilot would expect. It handles much like any airplane does but has unique EV elements: it is very quiet, it is simple to operate, boasts instant and abundant torque and sports modern cockpit technology.
To maximize efficiency, the airplane is highly streamlined and built primarily out of carbon fibre, fibreglass and Kevlar composites. The result is a high power-to-weight ratio and impressive performance. The high aspect ratio wings resemble those of a glider and produce a glide ratio of 15:1. Together, these can create the potential for “floatier” landing flares.
Inside the cockpit, the Electro offers a standard flight control column, adjustable rudder pedals, electric elevator trim and
Sealand's ground crews actuate the Pipistrel's portable charging station.
mechanical flaperons. Alongside the traditional flight instruments, the panel includes a digital attitude indicator, a variometer and a Crew Alerting System (CAS) with annunciators. The primary uniqueness in this cockpit, however, comes in the powerplant controls. Four main on/off switches govern the operation: Master, Avionics Master, Battery Enable and Power Enable. A power lever digitally controls the power output, while an Electric Power Plant System Interface (EPSI) display provides key performance data including:
• Battery State of Charge (SOC)
• RPM
• Kilowattage
• Remaining Flight Time (RFT) [based on current power consumption]
• Temperatures of the batteries, inverter and motor
• Battery State of Health (SOH)
The ease of operation while training new students is remarkable. To the transitioning licensed pilot, there are three cognitive differences to learn: systems, emergencies and energy management. The importance of understanding the aircraft’s systems is fairly straightforward.
The mental map of emergency procedures changes significantly in electric aircraft. With the simplicity of electric propulsion, actual component failure is even less common than in its ICE counterpart. However, like any digital product, devices can be susceptible to software glitches and system communication failures. A pilot must determine if abnormalities could be resolved with a simple restart (the classic IT fix), look for signs of communication error (without functional error), or decide if immediate action is necessary. For instance, among other procedures, instructors train by simulating power lever communication failures in which the powerplant is functioning normally, but the ability to control it is lost.
For fellow aviators, the concept of managing electrical energy should seem familiar, as it’s not unlike fuel management. Nevertheless, there are significant differences:
• The rate at which energy is consumed varies more significantly, depending on power setting.
• Normal descending and approach to landing consume little to no energy. (There’s no regenerative braking/windmilling like EVs, though this was previously attempted*).
• While taxiing, with the power lever idled, the propeller stops spinning.
• Margins are smaller with current energy density. Considering this, rather than requiring a 30-minute reserve, our approval stipulates a reserve of 30 percent battery SOC.
• Below 20 percent SOC, the power plant will begin derating available power to prevent potential overheating.
• The SOH of batteries gradually declines over time, decreasing energy storage ability.
• When flying from airport to airport, wind significantly affects the ability to turn around and return. Point-of-no-return calculations are common practice.
What lies ahead? With several organizations pioneering exciting innovations, the foundation of Canadian sustainable aviation
THE “BAT”
Founded by aeronautical engineer Ivo Boscarol in 1989 in what was then Yugoslavia, the company’s first production aircraft was an ultralight trike, which he named “Basic.” However, Boscarol had been experimenting with ultralight years before, at a time when Yugoslavia did not allow for this type of flight. So Boscarol, together with friends, would flight test his hang glider-shaped designs during the hours of darkness. This resulted in his aircraft being nicknamed the “Bat.” Boscarol embraced this name for his company by slightly modifying and adopting the Italian word for bat — pipistrello.
Pipistrel, based in Ajdovščina, Slovenia, about 20 kilometres east of the Italian city of Gorizia, went on to develop several models of powered hang gliders over the years and was an early adopter of composite materials in light aircraft. Its first all-composite production ultralight was the Sinus. In the mid-2000s Pipistrel branched into electric-powered aircraft, initially motor gliders and then basic trainers. The May/June, 2018 issue of Canadian Aviator published a flight review of a Pipistrel Alpha Trainer, the first electric airplane to be registered in Canada.
In 2022, the Slovenian company was acquired by Textron eAviation, a division of Textron Inc., underscoring its significance in the foundation of sustainable aviation.
“THE EASE OF OPERATION WHILE TRAINING NEW STUDENTS IS REMARKABLE. TO THE TRANSITIONING LICENSED PILOT, THERE ARE THREE COGNITIVE DIFFERENCES TO LEARN: SYSTEMS, EMERGENCIES AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT.”
PIPISTREL VELIS ELECTRO FAST FACTS
Gross
Batteries Two liquid-cooled, lithium-ion
is underway. From the increasing Velis Electro adoption and Harbour Air’s eBeaver, to Helijet’s BETA Technologies ALIA eVTOLs and Air Canada’s Heart Aerospace ES-30s, the momentum — and significant global investments — are undeniable. Collaboration through Canadian Advanced Air Mobility (CAAM) has unified this niche industry, fostering synergy at every level. Together, these companies are initiating the implementation of next-generation aircraft. Areas that are being collectively addressed include:
• Current regulations — they do not permit alternative power plants. Laws requiring aircraft to have fuel/oil gauges, minimum fuel reserves, etc. need updating. Aircraft certification is determining safety threshold standards for new technology to meet, while training and/or licensing standards between propulsion systems are forming.
• Charging infrastructure. Electric aircraft require this for commercial feasibility. Most regional aerodromes don’t yet have this capacity and producing energy in sustainable methods need to be prioritized. Standardization of charger software and delivery specifications are also necessary for universal compatibility.
• Battery technology. This is advancing rapidly, more rapidly than the rate of certification. The Velis Electro exhibits technology from the start of development in 2017, and it’s just now being commercialized. Greater energy density will lead to greater utility, provided it can be efficiently brought to utilization.
As this unique aviation sector continues to achieve major milestones and technological innovations advance, it is inevitable that more of aviation will grow around and adopt these increasingly practical and sustainable alternatives.
AIR-TAXI OPERATIONS
An Outlier in Aviation Safety
BY YOAN MARIER, Chair, Transportation Safety Board
Over the past two decades, Canada’s aviation industry has seen significant strides in safety. Commercial aviation, in particular, has steadily improved, driven by rigorous regulations, technological advancements and a growing safety culture. However, despite this overall progress, one sector remains an outlier: air-taxi operations.
A de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter floatplane flying over Coal Harbour in Vancouver, British Columbia.
From 2000 to 2024, 53 percent of commercial aviation accidents in Canada involved the air-taxi sector. Accidents in this section accounted for 61 percent of the fatalities during this period. This is a troubling statistic, especially considering that air-taxi operations are vital to communities across the country. Air-taxi operations in Canada involve aircraft (excluding jets) and helicopters that, by regulation, carry fewer than 10 passengers. Whether it’s a floatplane delivering workers to remote sites, a helicopter transporting patients to hospitals, or an aircraft ferrying residents between coastal communities, air-taxi operations play an indispensable role in Canada’s vast landscape. But the question must be asked: why does this sector experience such a disproportionate share of accidents and fatalities?
The answer lies in the very nature of air-taxi operations. Unlike large airlines that offer scheduled services, aircraft in the air-taxi sector are often operated in challenging environments — flying into uncontrolled airspace, navigating limited infrastructure and making frequent short-haul flights. They often fly into remote areas with changing weather and few aerodromes or navigation aids. Many of these aircraft are decades old, some of them with limited access to modern avionics technology and weather information, relying instead on traditional instruments and basic systems. Moreover, pilots in the air-taxi sector often face pressures that airline pilots do not, such as the constant balancing act of ensuring safety while meeting passenger expectations and staying economically viable.
and 300 hours of interviews with operators, identified 19 critical safety themes and uncovered two key factors contributing to the high number of accidents: a gradual drift toward unsafe practices and the inadequate management of operational hazards.
First, the gradual drift toward accepting unsafe practices does not refer to blatant rule-breaking, but rather a slow, incremental shift that occurs over time. It happens with every flight that takes off successfully, but not necessarily safely. This can include instances of flying overweight, flying into marginal weather or predicted icing, or departing with minimal fuel reserves. These practices, while not immediately seen as unsafe by operators, become normalized as part of the job.
The gradual acceptance of risk is compounded by the second factor: inadequate management of operational hazards. It may involve sub-optimal crew pairing, dispatching a flight with a less experienced substitute pilot after the original pilot has refused, or not having scales available, leading to overweight flights.
“As in any business, air-taxi operators face competing pressures. They need to deliver a service, stay safe and remain economically viable.”
As in any business, air-taxi operators face competing pressures. They need to deliver a service, stay safe and remain economically viable. As long as these pressures are in balance, the flight should be safe. However, the reality is that these pressures are constantly shifting, pushing these operations toward certain boundaries, and crossing them are not without consequences.
The true risk arises as operators approach these boundaries. As such, competing pressures can push airtaxi operators into a situation where safety is compromised. While this may not always result in an accident, it almost always results in a reduced margin of safety.
Despite these challenges, air-taxi flight crews and their passengers should not have to accept a reduced level of safety.
INVESTIGATING THE SAFETY RISKS
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) recognized these unique challenges and launched a comprehensive safety issue investigation into the air-taxi sector (A15H0001) to better understand the pressures faced by the industry, as well as the safety issues encountered in daily operations. The investigation was launched in response to a trend identified in our reports which highlighted safety issues contributing to accidents in air-taxi operations. Completed in 2019, the investigation, which examined over 700 accidents
For example, an air-taxi pilot responsible for transporting passengers from a fishing lodge to catch their airline flight home may face pressure to carry out the flight, even if the weather conditions are marginal. This pressure may be heightened if similar flights have been carried out by other pilots earlier in the day. Similarly, an unexpected mechanical issue with the aircraft can lead to significant unplanned expenses, forcing the operator to cut costs in other areas.
To mitigate the risks, the solution lies in better balancing these pressures, with a particular focus on prioritizing safety. It’s essential to find ways to ensure that safety consistently takes precedence, even when other competing pressures threaten to disrupt the equilibrium.
ADDRESSING THE SAFETY GAPS
This safety issue investigation resulted in the TSB issuing a set of four recommendations aimed at raising the safety bar for air-taxi operations. The recommendations focused on fostering a culture of safety, encouraging proactive risk management, closing gaps in current regulations, and improving safety data collection.
Through the investigation, we found that unsafe practices, such as flying overweight, operating in marginal weather conditions, and cutting corners on maintenance are often accepted as part of “getting the job done.” These practices become ingrained over time, even though they increase risk. Compounding this issue is the lack of a robust safety management framework, with many operators failing to proactively address risks or to maintain consistent safety standards across the sector.
The TSB recommended that operators, their clients and Transport Canada (TC) work together to eliminate the acceptance of unsafe practices (A19-02) and to promote both proactive safety management and a positive safety culture (A19-03). The TSB also recommended that TC close known safety gaps in the regulations (A19-04) and require all commercial operators to collect data on hours flown and aircraft movements by type of operation (A19-05) in order to measure whether risk mitigation measures are effective.
UNRESOLVED ISSUES
Over five years have passed since the release of this safety issue investigation report and, while one might expect significant progress, the reality is more complex and occurrences in the air-taxi sector continue to take place. In 2024 alone, 113 occurrences involving air-taxi
“Risks affecting the air-taxi sector have persisted for decades and are proving resistant to more traditional safety mitigations.”
operations were reported to the TSB. Notably, three reports released in the last year showcase how safety in this sector of the industry has not advanced as far as we had hoped.
The first of these occurrences took place in February 2023, when a Cessna 208B Caravan departed Nakina Airport, Ontario for a visual flight rules (VFR) flight with two pilots on board. The occurrence (A23O0028) pilot-in-command, initially scheduled to fly unaccompanied, was joined by an off duty, more experienced pilot after concerns about gusty winds. The aircraft did not arrive at its destination and was subsequently reported missing. It was found days later, with both pilots fatally injured. The investigation determined that a loss of control had occurred, but there was insufficient information available to determine its cause. Through our investigation, we identified several risk factors that could have contributed to the occurrence, including operating under VFR in areas of poor weather, management oversight, group dynamics, flight crew training, cargo restraint and operating without an emergency locator transmitter.
motivated by internal operational pressures and an underlying aspiration to reach the planned destination and decided that the visibility and cloud height were sufficient to proceed on a second flight. When flying through a valley on the occurrence flight, the pilot encountered increasing low clouds and reduced visibility. She initiated a course reversal, which resulted in the aircraft operating closer to terrain at a slower airspeed. The aircraft collided with terrain during the turn, injuring the pilot and the five passengers, and substantially damaging the aircraft.
These investigations reflect a troubling pattern in air-taxi operations, where the combination of operational pressures, inadequate risk assessments, and weather-related challenges continues to contribute to safety concerns.
THE PATH FORWARD
Similarly, the persistent challenge of continuing flights in unsuitable weather conditions is exemplified by a 2023 controlled flight into terrain (A23P0003). That January, a Bell Helicopters Textron Inc. 407, carrying a pilot and four passengers, departed Terrace Airport, British Columbia on a VFR flight. After learning of low-level fog surrounding the destination, the pilot descended to follow a route he had previously successfully flown in poor visibility. Despite the low-level fog, the pilot assessed the flight’s risk as low and, influenced by commercial pressure, chose to depart. While crossing a snow-covered lake, he momentarily lost visual reference due to conditions of flat light, whiteout and fog, resulting in spatial disorientation that caused the aircraft to strike the ice and damage its landing skids. Even in these challenging conditions, the pilot was able to recover and complete the flight without further issues, although the visibility at the destination was below the required minima.
Another example that illustrates the dangers that persist in air-taxi operations is the 2022 collision with terrain (A22P0057) of a float-equipped de Havilland DHC-2 MK I that departed Tyaughton Lake, B.C. to Lorna Lake, B.C. The pilot had flown earlier that day toward the same destination but had to divert due to reduced visibility. However, the pilot was likely
The need for air-taxi operations is undeniable and unwavering. From essential transportation in remote communities to providing key services such as medical airlifts, the demand for these operations is indispensable to many Canadians. But with this critical role comes an equally critical responsibility: ensuring that these services are delivered with the highest standards of safety.
The varied and complex nature of the air-taxi sector and the extent of the pressures these operators face introduce challenging hazards and risk factors. Risks affecting the air-taxi sector have persisted for decades and are proving resistant to more traditional safety mitigations. Raising the bar on safety isn’t just about preventing accidents — it’s about ensuring that air-taxi operators, passengers and communities can depend on these flights for safe and reliable transportation.
Of the four recommendations issued as part of the safety issue investigation, none have been closed, leaving important safety issues still unresolved. If TC and the aviation industry take action, the safety challenges in the air-taxi sector can be addressed. It’s clear that the air-taxi industry has reached a crucial juncture. The need for change is evident, and the actions taken today will shape the safety of Canada’s skies for years to come
Editor’s Note: References such as “A15H0001” are to TSB investigation reports. References such as “A19-02” are to TSB formal recommendations. Both are easily found on the internet by entering the reference number followed by a space and TSB in your search engine.
Top: Rain on windscreen during occurrence flight (A22P0057) | Bottom: View from the front of the occurrence helicopter (A23P0003), showing the impact of the fog on visibility.
Your Foremost Source in Aeronautics from FROM
THE GROUND UP, 30th
For over 80 years, the content of From the Ground Up as a literary benchmark that defines the multitude of theories associated to aeronautics. It describes the practices necessary to achieve the highest levels of distinction as safe, competent and skilled life-long aviators.
Through its evolving editions, many generations of readers have used this award-winning title as the foundation of their introduction to the concepts that require thorough understanding in advance of the sought-after hours of flying enjoyment that are the ultimate goal of all who seek to earn their wings and expand their knowledge of flight theory and practice.
The content of From the Ground Up may, at times, seem complex, but the pathway to learning the fundamentals of aeronautics is one that reaps much in the way of personal reward for all who pursue the goal of thoroughly understanding the subject. Indeed, it was by design that its original author, “Sandy” A. F. MacDonald — a man recognized as a “father” of what still stands today as the standard curriculum for ground school instruction — devised this aeronautical textbook to be comprehensive and current while conveying its material in such a way as to enhance the reader’s understanding of every written word.
Not one to permit his vast experience to allow for foregone conclusions, “Sandy” MacDonald’s meticulous care in the creation of From the Ground Up has become the hallmark for its widespread use and respect as the reference textbook of choice in hundreds of flying schools throughout Canada and around the world.
Its latest edition is the 30th Edition. A French-language version is also available under the title Entre Ciel et Terre Totalling over 400 pages of in-depth content formatted in a sequential, logical and easy-to-read fashion, the publication boasts over 360 graphics, charts, diagrams, illustrations and photos. An additional full-colour navigation chart and a sample weather chart are included.
All chapters are current in the latest technological and legislative aeronautical matters and cover such topics as The Airplane, Theory of Flight, Aero Engines, Aeronautical Rules & Procedures, Aviation Weather, Navigation, Radio & Radio Navigation, Airmanship, Human Factors, and Air Safety. From the Ground Up also includes an extensive index, glossary and a 200-question practice examination.
Since the 1940’s, virtually every student — civilian, military, commercial, recreational — who has ever learned to fly in Canada has used From the Ground Up as the primary ground school textbook from which they’ve learned everything one can learn about aeronautics, and about flying. Referred to as “the Bible” of ground school instruction, and updated with every frequent re-print, From the Ground Up has long been considered an essential resource for all with any interest whatsoever in the theory of flight, and in the practice of aviating.
Also available from Aviation Publishers
• From the Ground Up Workbook
• Canadian Private Pilot Answer Guide
• Canadian Commercial Pilot Answer Guide
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• Instrument Procedures Manual
• Flying Beyond: for Commercial Pilots
• Unmanned: for RPAS Studies
• Flight Test Notes: for Flight Test Prep
For more information about all of our titles, visit us on the web or contact your local pilot supply
THE GREAT LONDONVICTORIA AIR RACE
PART 2 of 2
An Amazing Canadian Aviator, his Harvard, and a “Helluva Flight”
By Ed Das
Air Race competitor Rick Cockburn's Harvard during a stopover.
Rick Cockburn recalls that it was a tragic car accident that abruptly changed his life’s direction in 1969. Shortly after marrying his high school sweetheart that year and starting work in construction, his new wife was killed by a drunk driver who’d run a stop sign. For Cockburn, it was a life-altering event, forcing him to reevaluate his pursuit of financial wellbeing and, instead, focusing on his passion of flight.
Cockburn had always had a passion for aviation; he had earned his pilot’s licence at age 16 on a scholarship from the air cadets, and a commercial licence upon graduation from high school. (As for air cadets, he recalls he had no interest in parading or shining shoes, but “worked his ass off” to ensure he got the highest marks to win the scholarship for pilot training in Chilliwack.) By the age of 25, he was a full-time flying instructor for the Victoria Flying Club.
The announcement in 1971 for the Great London to Victoria Air Race in celebration of the 100th anniversary of British Columbia’s entering into Confederation sounded like a great challenge for a young man, and his initial plan was to enter the race with some friends by renting a Cessna 310 twin, or similar, and taking a crack at the prize money.
Unfortunately, there were no sponsors willing to risk paying for a high-performance aircraft flown by some college-age boys who were simply looking for an adventure, and their plan fell apart. Not to be denied, Cockburn decided to enter his vintage Harvard trainer instead (he’d sold his car to purchase it a few years earlier for $2,600). The only problem was that a Harvard had nowhere near the fuel capacity to fly such a long flight but, enlisting the help of his friends, the crafty team built an extra
55-gallon fuel tank and installed it in the back seat. The old trainer, designed to fly in close proximity to the nearest airport, with the enhanced fuel capacity was suddenly capable of taking a run at the trans-oceanic flight. Of course, with the backseat occupied by a fuel tank, Cockburn would be making the trip solo.
With his new plan came more interest in his solo effort, and soon local companies with which he had an acquaintance stepped forward to help sponsor his effort, the largest of which was Butchart Gardens with $1,000, and the rest combining for about $2,500 in total.
Years later, Cockburn chuckles as he recounts that, while sponsorship helped defray some of the costs after the race, by the end of the year he was still working by day as a flying instructor and slinging beers at the Sydney Hotel by night to pay off his trans-oceanic gas bills.
Part of the application fee for each flyer would go to a hotel room that the Canadian government had reserved in London prior to the start of the race for arriving pilots. In Cockburn’s case, officials were so sure that he’d never get his Harvard to the starting line in Abingdon, England, that they’d neglected to reserve a room for him in London.
Fortuitously, another entrant, a young Indigenous man who the Canadian government had indirectly sponsored (presumably as a cultural promotion) by providing him with a Cessna 310 twin and some air force navigators, had only made it as far as two hours out of Goose Bay on the way to the United Kingdom, where he got cold feet and turned around and flew home — much to the chagrin of government officials.
Cockburn gleefully recounts the fortuitous happenstance,
Twenty-something Rick Cockburn astride his Harvard.
as he was soon directed to the missing airman’s suite by surprised race officials who were most certainly not expecting his arrival.
Despite being handed an unfair handicap for his aging Harvard (Cockburn was given an aircraft handicap of 192 knots while an actual Harvard, he observes, will only cruise around 130 knots), he laments the race organizers made up the rules in the back rooms, quietly, without communicating the rules. Cockburn nonetheless had a plan that might still have kept him in contention for a monetary prize (only first and second place in each category received cash prizes), despite his competitors operating aircraft much faster, such as a de Havilland Canada Turbo Beaver and a Swearingen Merlin 3.
The race was to be timed out of London and again upon arriving at Quebec City, but each aircrew had the freedom to go any way they wanted in between and do crew rests if needed. However, anywhere a technical stop was made, one half hour was deducted from that aircraft’s time. Cockburn quickly realized that, by reducing his time on the ground for pitstops to 10 minutes or so, he could pick up an extra 20 minutes of race-time advantage at each stop. In addition, Cockburn chose to run the old Pratt & Whitney engine at maximum throttle, whereby he would climb to an altitude where the plane was at full throttle at that
power setting and altitude. He would go on to run at full climb power setting from London all the way to Goose Bay, such was his faith in the old PW R-1340 Wasp engine.
Between leaving the U.K. and Quebec City, Cockburn opted out of any crew rests, stopping only five times enroute for a total of 22.5 hours the first day. He was way up in the standings at that point, since in his words, few did it that way. And, while other pilots enjoyed the comfort of flying at 30,000 feet with autopilot drinking coffee and tea, Cockburn observes that the Harvard is a plane you can’t take your eyes off of — you have to be flying it all the time as it has no autopilot. His flight across the Atlantic was spent flying down below “in the crud.”
If you look up the town of Narsarsuaq, you’ll find a picture of a tiny runway at the top of a glacial fjord in Greenland with a smattering of buildings that house the 123 residents there, a former Atlantic Ferry Route airstrip that many of the race aviators would stop at before heading on to Goose Bay. Cockburn remembers, “And so you land, you know, towards the glacier and then you take off towards the bay. If you screw it up or miss, you know, you’ve gotta be pretty careful because you’re gonna end up [in the drink].”
Departing from Abingdon, Cockburn flew first to a Scottish airbase and from there to
“Cockburn quickly realized that, by reducing his time on the ground for pitstops to 10 minutes or so, he could pick up an extra 20 minutes of race-time advantage at each stop.”
Prestwick Scotland, to Reykjavik, Iceland, to Narsarsuaq, to Goose Bay and then on to Quebec City, flying IFR between 8,000 and 9,000 feet the entire way.
Pilots were required to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) to compete in the race, but Cockburn recalls one funny incident upon arriving at Narsarsuaq. It seems one of the other contestants had ditched in the ocean at the entrance to the fjord, close to where the approach beacon was (they went in without getting wet above the knees, as Cockburn tells it). The beacon leads to the airport there and, upon requesting his IFR approach clearance, was denied due to the downed craft, so he asked if he could approach VFR (Visual Flight Rules) which was surprisingly approved in the rather foggy weather.
The same thing happened while departing since, by that time, SAR aircraft were operating around the beacon (the ditched aviators were recovered). Ten minutes after landing, a VFR departure through the treacherous fjord only a couple of hundred feet off the water was approved, allowing Cockburn to continue his race efforts, clearing the ongoing search efforts by flying underneath and subsequently picking up a new IFR clearance, back up to 8,000 feet once clear of the circling Danish Navy Douglas C-54.
A Beechcraft 18 (a significantly larger,
twin-engine aircraft) was Cockburn’s chief competitor, whom he led all the way across the Atlantic and into Calgary where they tied, but from there to the finish line, the Beech pulled ahead to grab second place in the category behind the Turbo Beaver, effectively cutting Cockburn out of the prize money, despite flying an admirable third in his category. In hindsight, Cockburn acknowledges that the race was already decided from the outset, based on the obvious advantages of a turboprop plane versus an old piston-powered Pratt & Whitney. But in the true spirit of the race, Cockburn observes it didn’t really matter, “Because it was a helluva flight.”
Ultimately, despite numerous Canadian entrants, it would be West German pilot Joachim Hans Blumschein and copilot Fritz Kohlgruber flying a Swearingen Merlin III who would snag both the Prime Minister of Canada trophy and the Premier’s Trophy, along with the first overall prize money of $50,000 (the rest being split amongst second and third place as well as various Class prizes for single engine, turboprop and jet entrants). The Canadian Press would later note that Blumschein, who was participating in his first air race, subsequently donated 10 percent of his prize money (which was matched by provincial and federal governments) to be used in the combat of drug use by youth in British Columbia.
Rick Cockburn also emerged a winner of sorts from the event; he won the respect and admiration of his co-competitors for his grit and determination to be the first person (and to his best knowledge, the only person) to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean solo in a North American Harvard. He would be given the keys to the city and made Man of the Year. Soon, airline executives also heard about his amazing feat, and, in short order, he was called to interview for Pacific Western Airlines, which led to a long and satisfying career flying the C-130 Hercules and various commercial jets along the same route he first flew in an old radial-engine trainer. Cockburn chuckles when he recalls his job interview, expecting to be quizzed for his knowledge of air traffic procedures but instead having to regale former Second World War pilots (now airline executives) who were more interested in hearing about his remarkable flight of the Great London-Victoria Air Race and details of his historic Harvard. For the former pilots, the interview was merely a formality; Cockburn would tell them the Harvard was a sweetheart.
“ [Cockburn] won the respect and admiration of his cocompetitors for his grit and determination to be the first person (and to his best knowledge, the only person) to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean solo in a North American Harvard.”
EPILOGUE
Cockburn still resides in British Columbia where he now enjoys sailing his 45-foot power trawler (he crossed the Pacific in it before flying across the first time). His Harvard passed hands several times over the years, ending up in Florida where it was recently completely overhauled to flightworthy condition once again. It has been listed unofficially for sale by its current owner.
‘WHISPERING’ DUKE SCHILLER
This book is a compelling tribute to Clarence Alvin “Duke” Schiller, an under-celebrated pioneer in the field of aviation. It spans Schiller’s early life in Canada, detailing his journey from his birth in Iowa to his family’s resettlement in Cooksville, Ontario, and outlines his significant contributions to early aviation, including his time as a bush pilot and his service in multiple air forces.
AUTHOR: Tom Douglas
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NEW HIS MAJESTY’S AIRSHIP
The tragic fate of the British airship R101 — which went down in a spectacular fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later — has been largely forgotten. In His Majesty’s Airship, S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of great ambition gone terribly wrong. She was the lynchpin of an imperial British scheme to link by air the far-flung areas of its empire, from Australia to India, South Africa, Canada, Egypt and Singapore.
AUTHOR: S.C. Gwynne
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CLEARANCE
BUSH HAWK
The Found family’s name is famous among bush pilots worldwide for having built a tough little freight-hauling aircraft designed for hard service in Canada’s wilderness.
The author’s father, Sherman, along with his uncle Nathan (Bud) Found, and with financial backing from department store magnate John David Eaton, took on the Herculean task of gaining FAA certification for their dream aircraft.
AUTHOR: S.R. (Rick) Found
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NEW
CROSSWINDS — A NOVEL
Bush pilot Scott Brandon forms a volatile alliance with Catherine McGregor, an executive jet pilot from California. Together they search in the Yukon for an old Lufthansa airliner that vanished in 1937. Their path of discovery takes them from the genesis of the Third Reich to the boardrooms of an American empire. Like mariners of old, a bond occurs understood only by those who share a passion for flight.
AUTHOR: Michael Bellamy
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SOVEREIGNTY AND COMMAND
The 1940 Ogdensburg Agreement entrenched a formal defence relationship between Canada and the United States. But was Canadian sovereignty upheld? Drawing on untapped archival material, Sovereignty and Command in Canada–US Continental Air Defence, 1940–57 documents the close and sometimes fractious relationship between the two countries. Richard Goette challenges prevailing perceptions that Canada’s defence relationship with the United States eroded Canadian sovereignty.
AUTHOR: Richard Goette
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LOST: UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF CANADIAN AVIATION
One of the themes that runs through this book is the enigma of aircraft that disappear, sometimes within miles of busy airports and crowded cities. Sometimes wreckage is discovered decades later. On other occasions the aircraft simply vanishes, seemingly forever. How can such disappearances be possible? The answer is that a downed aircraft, especially in rugged countryside, can be incredibly difficult to spot from the air.
AUTHOR: Shirlee Smith Matheson
PRICE: $30.50 (includes shipping in Canada)
NEW PRICE
AVIATION IN CANADA: FIGHTER PILOTS AND OBSERVERS, 1915-1939
This is a beautifully produced coffee table-size book. Solid Canadian history from start to finish, this authoritative book revives a key theme in Canada’s aviation heritage in a landmark year — the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
AUTHORS:
Larry Milberry and Hugh A. Halliday
PRICE: $59.50 (includes shipping in Canada)
AFRICAN SKIES
Readers of Robert Grant’s regular columns and occasional features in Canadian Aviator magazine know that his prose brings alive the environments he finds himself in. His 400-page book African Skies is no exception, as Grant recounts his experiences in Africa, from Algeria’s Sahara Desert in the north to the jungles of the Congo, from Sudan’s Darfur region in the east to Liberia on Africa’s west coast.
AUTHOR: Robert S. Grant
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THE MIGHTY MARTIN MARS
One of only five Martin Mars originally built, the giant flying boat Hawaii Mars is destined to join the B.C. Aviation Museum after its final flight. Join us on a historical journey through 65 years of operations, from 1945 U.S. Navy transport to 21st century initial attack firefighting.
AUTHORS: Wayne Coulson & Steve Ginter
PRICE: $32.00 (includes shipping in Canada)
CANADA’S AIR FORCE
THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE AT 100
In Canada’s Air Force (hardcover), historian David Bercuson shares the history of the first one hundred years of the Royal Canadian Air Force, from its inception in 1924 to its centennial in 2024. Drawing on memoirs, diaries, unpublished histories, archival sources, interview transcripts and standard reference works such as The Bomber Command War Diaries, Bercuson traces the history of the RCAF as not only a fighting force but also a human institution.
AUTHOR: David J. Bercuson
PRICE: $66.50 (includes shipping in Canada)
LOACH PILOT
The Contras, the Sandinistas – and the Canadians? A gripping story of how a kid from Richmond, B.C. became a Canadian Forces pilot and deployed to Central America to fly helicopter missions at the end of the Contra War. ‘Loach pilots’ were born in the Vietnam War and were a rare breed by the early 1990s. Carnegie’s first tour was flying the LOH (Loach) CH-136 Kiowa helicopter when he was sent to Honduras and Nicaragua in support of the Contra demobilization.
AUTHOR: Bruce L. Carnegie
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RED STAR OVER CANADA
Why did an uninhabited island midway along B.C.’s coast play a mysterious part in a long-range 1937 flight by Russian aviators? Was it a non-stop flight or did they secretly refuel on Goose Island? What happened to the famous Russian flyer, Sigizmund Levanesky, once touted as the Russian Lindbergh? Why did our governments seem to go along with the deceit?
NEW
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
CANADIAN AIRMEN IN THEIR FINEST HOUR
Bestselling military historian Ted Barris tells the riveting story of the crucial role 100 Canadians served in the Royal Air Force in do-or-die-battles: how they accounted for 130 German aircraft destroyed, another 30 probably destroyed and more than 70 damaged, with 20 pilots dying in action and 12 awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses. Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in their Finest Hour (hardcover) is a must for enthusiasts of Canadian military and aviation history.
AUTHOR: Ted Barris
PRICE: $59.00 (includes shipping in Canada)
FLYING TO EXTREMES
Recalling some of most memorable escapades ever conducted in the Arctic with bush planes, Flying to Extremes takes place in the late ’60s and early ’70s from a base at Yellowknife. Readers familiar with the region and those who can only dream of visiting it will both find this title a nostalgic and captivating read.
AUTHOR: Dominique Prinet
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A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE
The extraordinary history of Canada’s airshow teams is recorded in its entirety. Meticulously researched by a former Snowbird team leader, this 768-page hardcover book documents the scores of Canadian military air demonstration teams that have thrilled millions of airshow spectators for over 85 years. From the Siskins to the Golden Hawks to the Golden Centennaires and Snowbirds, every Canadian demonstration team is represented in the book.
A MOST EXTRAORDINARY RIDE
In A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics, and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream, Garneau chronicles his ascent from a mischievous teenager and rebellious naval midshipman to a decorated astronaut and statesman who represented Canada on the world stage – both on and off the planet. With candour and humour, Garneau describes the highs and lows of his life and career, including the awe he experienced first seeing the Earth from space, in this hardcover edition.
AUTHOR: Marc Garneau
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FLIGHT
Record-breaking flights, falling aircraft parts, balloon and helicopter trips and northern rescues are among the captivating true stories in this book. Early flight schools, animal obstacles, hijackings, and unique landing surfaces are also chronicled. Canadian pilots and aviation enthusiasts share stories of first flights, aerial skills, adventures, joys, perils, assistance, humour, tragedy and success in this salute to the Canadian aviation industry and its people.
AUTHOR: Deana Driver
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LADY ON A PEDESTAL
Gordon Bartsch recounts from a pilot’s perspective how he created an airline serving the Big Dipper Route in the Yukon Territory. The story’s heroes are a converted DC-3 (CF-CPY) and a young woman who earned the right to fly the Big Dipper Route from the left seat. Dawn and Gordon Bartsch shared a great adventure with a great airplane. Today, CF-CPY sits atop her pedestal in Whitehorse, turning into the wind, a testament to the Yukoners who did, and continue to do, what others said couldn’t be done.
AUTHOR: Christopher Weicht
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AUTHOR: LtCol (Ret’d) Dan Dempsey
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AUTHOR: Gordon Bartsch
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Aircraft in the Korean War
Aviation Crossword Puzzle — Allied Aircraft in the Korean War — Refresh Your Memory
Within this puzzle are the names of 12 allied aircraft that flew in the Korean War against the North (clues marked with an *). All other answers are aviation related.
BY GRAEME PEPPLER
1) During which of the strokes of a four-stroke engine are both valves on a cylinder closed?
a) During the compression stroke.
b) During the compression and power strokes.
c) During the compression and exhaust strokes.
d) During the induction and exhaust strokes.
2) If you notice that your attitude indicator is not levelling while flying, where would you record this defect?
a) In the Aircraft Journey Log.
b) In the Aircraft Technical Log.
c) In your Pilot Logbook.
d) n the Aeroplane Flight Manual.
3) When an aeroplane is parked, particularly for a long time, why should its fuel tanks be kept full?
a) If not full, water from the atmosphere may condense in the tank.
b) The weight of the fuel helps keep a parked aeroplane from moving, especially in high winds.
c) The fuel helps keep the fuel tank’s seals from drying out and deteriorating.
d) A less than full tank is conducive to the separation of the fuel’s blend of constituent elements.
4) According to Transport Canada policy, for how long must a pilot not fly after taking cannabis?
a) 7 days.
b) 12 hours.
c) 28 days.
d) 48 hours.
Related to a jaguar.*
Bram Stoker wrote about one.*
See 2 Down.
Popular LSA amphibians.
15 Often used in the construction of model airplanes.
17 Centre-left British newspaper.*
18 Int’l organization for experimental aircraft builders.
23 Emma Peel was one.*
24 One who helps another in distress.*
25 Might be used for trim.
26 George W. Bush was one.*
27 A method used in non-destructive testing of aircraft materials.
Quebec-based charter operator.
Mates of bolts. 3 Nickname for an Iroquois.
7 Might be used to describe 5 Down.
11 Twister.*
12 A procedure used to reduce noise near airports.
13 Steve McQueen drove one, quickly.
16 Intense rage.*
19 A brightly lit beetle.*
20 A metal piece used to strengthen a joint in an airplane.
21 Often located in front of a terminal.
22 A Snowbird.
5) If your ELT has been removed and your aeroplane is placarded to indicate this, can you fly without it?
a) You may fly the aeroplane, but you must re-equip it with a serviceable ELT within 48 hours.
b) You may fly it for 14 days for private use, but only 7 days if conducting commercial operations.
c) You may fly the aeroplane, but you must re-equip it with a serviceable ELT within 30 days.
d) You may fly the aeroplane but only so as to pick up a serviceable ELT at a maintenance facility.
6) What is the minimum forward visibility you need to have when flying VFR in Class E airspace?
a) 2,000 feet.
b) 1 mile.
c) 3 miles.
d) 2 miles.
7) What does this NOTAM line and time format, “C) 2512131600EST”, mean?
a) The NOTAM’s estimated end time is December 13, 2025 at 1600hrs.
b) t is indicating estimated winds from 250 degrees between 1200hrs and 1300hrs at 16,000 feet.
c) The NOTAM’s estimated start time is 1600hrs on December 25, 2013.
d) The NOTAM is advising of 25 knots winds from 120 to 130 degrees at an estimated 1,600 feet.
5 years old from Kelowna, BC
• Battling nervous system disorder, myasthenia gravis
• Started travelling with Hope Air in 2022 • 11 trips
