Profile: Allan Rempel

PROFILE: ALLAN REMPEL

Allan's interest in aviation began when he was 10 (about the same age his son is now), reading up on airplanes and helicopters and how to fly them in the World Book Encyclopedia. But he didn't have any aviation influences in his life at that time, and didn't begin flight training until he finished his computer science degree, when he responded to a local TV ad from Mitchinson Flying Service in Saskatoon and took his first discovery flight. Work took him to Pittsburgh (where he tried skydiving) and Vancouver, and he finished his PPL in Chilliwack after finishing his masters degree at UBC.

A week later he moved to California to begin working on software for animated movies at Disney in Burbank, and his office happened to be in the actual building that was previously owned by Lockheed, in which the SR71 and Stealth aircraft were designed. He joined the Caltech/JPL Flying Club based at KEMT (El Monte, now called San Gabriel Valley) and became its Treasurer. While there, he got to fly with actual rocket scientists working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, and got to represent the Club at the annual

ALLAN REMPEL JPL Open House. The Club had a wide range of aircraft from 152s to a 182RG and Piper Turbo Lance (and later a Cirrus SR-20) and Allan enjoyed flying them all, eventually getting instrument, commercial, and instructor certificates. He also took a 12-lesson aerobatics course with Rich Stowell (who has trained some professional airshow pilots) at Santa Paula, flying a Citabria, Decathlon, and Pitts Special. One of his most memorable flights was as part of a 9-plane convoy flying along the San Andreas Fault with scientists and civic officials while a Caltech geologist narrated the features they were flying over on an air-to-air frequency. Work brought Allan back to Canada, and he moved to Richmond and began flying at Langley, getting his Canadian CPL, but with the airport further away and flying more expensive, he logged far fewer flight hours than in California. He flew with a friend from ZBB to Oskhosh in 2004 in his friend's 182,

which has since been bought by a group of local pilots and is now based here at YYJ! One great way to motivate flying is training for something new, so he got his float rating at Fort Langley. While working on his PhD in computer science at UBC, he met Stephanie from Victoria and began making trips across the water. Then Stephanie and Allan got married, Grayson was born, and Allan moved to Victoria and joined the VFC. He became a Life Member of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association and also the Co-captain of the local chapter COPA Flight 6, joined the BC General Aviation online community, and is a regular attender at the IFR Roundtable held monthly at the Club. He applied to the 2016

astronaut recruitment for the Canadian Space Agency, and from over 7000 initial applicants, he made the cut to the final 300, but not the final 160. Of the final 72 whose names were published, 2 of them were members of the Caltech/JPL Flying Club.

After flying many Pipers and Cessnas, Allan's favourite plane was the 182RG that he flew extensively in California. But when he was finally able to afford one, he found and bought a 1964 Cessna 210D, which is extremely similar except for an additional 50 hp and extra rear child seats, perfect for Grayson! It's not fancy but it's a great utilitarian vehicle that gets the job done. After he bought it he looked up and contacted the plane's previous owners to get more insight into best practices for owning and operating the aircraft, and became friends with a previous owner who was a serious instrument pilot and flight instructor and had put about 2000 hours on the plane over the 20 years that he owned it, and was also an accomplished academic and former President of Brandon University. One summer, Allan flew with the family to Winnipeg, and managed a side trip to Brandon to fly with him and his wife in their former aircraft a few years before he passed away.

Allan is a volunteer pilot with both CASARA/ PEPAir for search and rescue, and Angel Flight for flying patients from remote locations around coastal BC to their medical appointments in larger cities, both of which have provided

opportunities for memorable flights. Angel Flight provides both the privilege of connecting with and helping cancer survivors and also rare opportunities to fly to exclusive destinations like YVR and Comox. CASARA meanwhile trains to serve as a force multiplier for military SAR assets and has done joint training with 442 Squadron and Royal Canadian Marine SAR as well as disaster preparedness exercises with Emergency Management BC.

Allan enjoys the freedom of having another way to cross the water and visit family, normalizing GA for future generations, writing to political leaders to advocate for GA as a critical component of our national and global transportation infrastructure, and showing Grayson and his friends that ordinary people can fly. He plans to use the free flight time for his first (nonsimulator) multi flight in the Seminole and begin a new count in one more column of his logbook.